Looking for desirable employment, whether it be a permanent position or summer clerkship, is hard work. It is important to learn successful techniques and strategies for marketing your skills. Below you will find a list of recent articles which give advice for the job hunt.

Donna Gerson, Jobs: Disorganized? If So, Heed These Tips for Getting a Grip on Things, Student Lawyer, Sept. 2002, at 5. Former law school career counselor gives advice to students who want to get organized for finding a summer clerkship.

Donna Gerson, Jobs: A Nonlegal Career with a Law Degree Takes Imagination but Can Make Sense, Student Lawyer, Dec. 2002, at 5. Author recommends steps for exploring non-traditional legal careers.

David C. James, Jobs: How to Reply to an Offer or a Rejection Can Help or Hurt You, Student Lawyer, May 2002, at 4. How to react constructively to rejection, being wait-listed or accepted by an employer.

Donna Gerson, Jobs: Want a Job with the Government? Here Are Resources to Get You Started, Student Lawyer, April 2002, at 4. Discusses the positives and negatives of government employment and provides names of print and online resources which can be instrumental in obtaining summer employment with the government.

Donna Gerson, Jobs: Keep Things Simple When You Conduct a Job Search, Student Lawyer, Jan. 2003, at 5. Author suggests ways of focusing time and goals in the career hunt.

Donna Gerson, Jobs: Although Moses Won’t Interview You, Be Sure to Follow This List, Student Lawyer, Feb. 2003, at 5. Ten cardinal rules to keep in mind for the interviewing process.

Donna Gerson, Jobs: To Find the Job That’s Right for You, Develop Your Network, Student Lawyer, Oct. 2002, at 4. Writer highlights steps to follow to create network for finding legal employment.

Wayne Scheiss, Dear Employer..., Student Lawyer, Oct. 2002, at 27. Author gives advice on creating a cover letter.

Jim Dunlap, Which Legal Jobs Will Pay the Most?, The National Jurist, Oct. 2002, at 23. A discussion of the profession’s current pay environment for attorneys starting their careers.

Jim Dunlap, Where the Jobs Are, The National Jurist, Sept. 2002, at 27. Author discusses the hot areas of the legal market for finding employment.

Jim Dunlap, Uncle Sam May Want You, The National Jurist, Jan. 2002, at 20. Article discusses the advantages and opportunities of government employment.

Hope Viner Samborn, Government Agents: Some Find Perks of Public Sector Work Beat the Potential of Private Practice, A.B.A.J., Dec. 2002, at 64. Attorneys find that government careers offer them more satisfaction than in those in the private sector.

In 1825, only four lawyers practiced in Jefferson County. The first courthouse was a log hut about a mile from present downtown Birmingham. How times have changed! Instead of practicing in log huts, today the BBA’s three thousand members log on for CLE courses, a calendar of events, and other services. Learn more about the history of the BBA and their bar activities and seminars at http://www.birminghambar.org. The links for legal research are a particularly noteworthy feature of the website. Working with several Birmingham law firms, the BBA provides recent slip opinions from the Alabama Supreme Court, the Court of Civil Appeals, and the U.S. 11th Circuit Court. The research collection includes full text journal articles, procedural guides, seminar materials and much more. Some aspects of the site are still under construction, so visit often.

For help in finding the right book for legal research, try IndexMaster. This online database compiles subject indexes and tables of content for roughly eight thousand legal titles. More than seventy-five publishers participate in the service, including West Group, Aspen Law and Business, and Kluwer Law International, among others.

Access the database at http://www.indexmaster.com from any computer on campus. Alternatively, go to the Law Library’s home page at http://lawlib.samford.edu and follow the link for “Research Aids.”

Of course, the primary tool for finding a book is the Law Library’s online catalog. Searchable fields in the catalog include author, title, and subject. IndexMaster, however, expands the search to cover the full back-of-the-book index, and table of contents. Thus, IndexMaster may pinpoint books with a chapter or section on a specific, focused topic.

For instance, to find information on recusal of judges in Alabama, enter these keywords: alabama recusal. The search engine is not case sensitive. Boolean connectors (AND, OR) are unnecessary. The search query returns five matches, but the two most relevant are: (1) TRIAL HANDBOOK FOR ALABAMA LAWYERS by Allen Windsor Howell and William Keith Abel (KFA538/A75/H69/1998/Reference); and (2) JUDICIAL DISQUALIFICATION; RECUSAL AND DISQUALIFICATION OF JUDGES by Richard E. Flamm (KF8861/F62/Treatises). Scan the table of contents and index to find a section in each book on judicial recusal in Alabama (§2.8 and §27.2, respectively).

Relevance rankings are based on how close keywords are to one another within the index or table of contents. To narrow results, add keywords or put quotation marks around an exact phrase. IndexMaster automatically finds all plural and possessive forms of a keyword. For other derivatives, truncate the keyword using an asterisk (*). For example, litigat* includes litigating, litigation, and litigator.

Remember that the Law Library has many books not included in Indexmaster. Conversely, Indexmaster covers some books not in the library’s collection. Nonetheless, IndexMaster is a useful supplementary tool for legal research. If needed, ask a reference librarian for help using the database.

Frequently, law students leave personal items such as laptops, cell phones, and purses unattended for extended periods of time in the Beeson Law Library. Although the library is closed to the general public, these items still need to be protected.

Laptops are expensive pieces of equipment, and should be treated as such. Today, laptops cost between $1,000-$3,000, and sometimes more. If you must leave the Law Library, please take your laptop. If this is not possible, ask a friend to keep an eye on it for protection.

Software is available which will help trace a stolen laptop. Each time the laptop with such software connects to the Internet, the laptop also connects to the software company. Some examples are:

Computrace http://www.computrace.com/public/products/computraceplus/default.asp

zTrace http://www.ztrace.com, and

LapTrak http://www.secure-it.com/laptrak/index.htm.

Other options such as locks and cables are available at PC Guardian http://www.pcguardian.com.

Stolen Laptop is a good website offering different protection options http://www.stolenlaptop.com. This site states that 591,000 laptops were stolen in the United States last year and 95% of them have never been found. Adding protection to a laptop greatly increases the odds of it being recovered.

Students should also consider insurance for the laptop. Check with your renter's or homeowner's insurance company for information pertaining to use of personal possessions outside the home. Yahoo! has a helpful article regarding computer insurance: http://insurance.yahoo.com/hr/pc.in.html. Extra computer coverage is also available through companies such as Safeware: http://www.safeware.com.

Man Busted for Watching TV, at http://www.cnn.com (Feb. 26, 2003).

How might you drag a good writer's work down to the level of a lesser scribe? Try the spell-check button.

A study at the University of Pittsburgh indicates spell-check software may level the playing field between people with differing levels of language skills, hampering the work of writers and editors who place too much trust in the software.

In the study, 33 undergraduate students were asked to proofread a one-page business letter -- half of them using Microsoft Word with its squiggly red and green lines underlining potential errors.

The other half did it the old-fashioned way, using only their heads.

Without grammar or spelling software, students with higher SAT verbal scores made, on average, five errors, compared with 12.3 errors for students with lower scores.

Using the software, students with higher verbal scores reading the same page made, on average, 16 errors, compared with 17 errors for students with lower scores.

Dennis Galletta, a professor of information systems at the Katz Business School, said spell-checking software is so sophisticated that some have come to trust it too thoroughly.

"It's not a software problem, it's a behavior problem," he said.

Microsoft technical specialist Tim Pash said grammar and spelling technology is meant to help writers and editors, not solve all their problems.

The study found the software helped students find and correct errors in the letter, but in some cases they also changed phrases or sentences flagged by the software as grammatically suspicious, even though they were correct.

For instance, the letter included a passage that said, "Michael Bales would be the best candidate. Bales has proven himself in similar rolls."

The software -- picking up on the last "s" in "Bales" -- suggested changing the verb from "has" to "have," as if it were a plural. Meanwhile, the spell-check ignored "rolls," which should have been "roles."

Richard Stern, a computer and electrical engineer at Carnegie Mellon University specializing in speech-recognition technology, said grammar and spelling software will never approach the complexity of the human mind.

"Computers can decide the likelihood of correct speech, but it's a percentage game," he said.

Study: Spell-check Can Worsen Writing, at http://www.cnn.com (Mar. 14, 2003).

A judge signed the wrong paperwork and sent a burglary suspect to jail three months ago, but the man was never tried and never convicted.

While rules bar lawyers from publicly discussing the case, court documents reported Sunday by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch provided some details.

Circuit Judge Julian Bush said the suspect's lawyer evidently prepared a judgment document in anticipation of a guilty plea, but Michael Cook instead pleaded innocent.

"I carelessly did not look at the papers carefully enough and signed the sentence and judgment," Bush said Wednesday in a hearing transcript. "And off went Mr. Cook. It's my fault."

Bush rescinded his five-year sentence for Cook, 46, of Belleville, Illinois, who has been in custody since he was charged nearly a year ago with second-degree burglary in two break-ins in 2001. He is unable to raise his $5,000 bail.

His trial, originally set for December 16th, will be rescheduled.

If Cook is found guilty, he will simply get credit on his sentence for time spent waiting for a trial. However, if he's found innocent, the error could have cost him extra months behind bars.

Circuit Attorney Jennifer Joyce has called Bush a "meticulous" judge known for "great attention to detail." .

Judge's Mistake Leads to Prison Time, at http://www.cnn.com (Mar. 17, 2003).

"Thou shalt not use a stolen credit card" isn't one of the Ten Commandments. But it seems like wise advice, especially after a man accused of stealing from several churches was tracked down through a purchase at a Christian bookstore.

Cecil T. Turner, 50, of Louisville, is accused of rummaging through at least three churches and stealing money and a credit card, police spokesman Terry Cox said.

Turner, who is being held on $5,000 bond, pleaded innocent Monday to charges stemming from the allegations. He is scheduled for a hearing next week.

On Friday, an employee at one of the churches - Grace Heartland Church - reported a credit card missing from her purse. The credit card company was notified, and they told police the card had just been used at the Lifeway Christian Bookstore in Elizabethtown.

A manager at the Alpha Omega Bookstore called police. Turner was arrested about 15 minutes later for fraudulent use of a credit card and three counts of third-degree burglary.

"He bought 10 copies of a Bible study called 'Making Peace With Your Past' and a follow-up study called 'Moving Beyond Your Past,"' bookstore manager Jonathan Gallegly said.

Wrong Way to Heaven, at http://www.cbsnews.com (Feb. 26, 2003).

FirstGov at http://www.firstgov.gov is the U.S. government's official web portal to all federal, state and local government web resources and services. Gateways for citizens, business, and government employees provide handy links for electronic transactions with the government.

For legal researchers, a prime feature of the site is the ability to search more than thirty-five million federal web pages and sixteen million state pages all at once. Simply check the button or use the drop-down menu to select the type of search – federal, state, or both. Then enter keywords or phrases in the search box and click “go.” Quotation marks or Boolean operators (AND, OR) are unnecessary. If needed, use the advanced search function to narrow, broaden, or refine results.

A handy A-Z Index offers a complete alphabetical list of agencies, boards, commissions and other governmental entities. Organizational directories of the executive, legislative and judicial branches complement the index. The site also links to state, local, tribal, and foreign governments. Moreover, find information to contact government officials by email, telephone, fax, or regular mail.

The reference section has a wealth of information on laws, bills, regulations, statistics, forms, and more. For instance, look for quick links to the Code of Federal Regulations, Statistical Abstract of the United States, Federal Register, United States Government Manual, and other resources. In short, FirstGov is an excellent starting point for finding government information on the web.

This is the last issue of CHECK IT OUT for this semester. Three issues will be published during the Fall Semester beginning in August 2003. If you have any ideas or suggestions as to ways we can improve, contact Becky Hutto via e-mail at rmhutto@samford.edu.We look forward to the Fall Semester and new issues of the newsletter.