Bush Pardons Himself for Torture

By: Law is Cool · January 31, 2008 · Filed Under Civil Rights, International Law · 5 Comments

The House just passed a bill that pardons all members of the U.S. administration for any torture for detainees.

Elizabeth Holtzman, former NY congresswoman, explains,

Avoiding prosecution under the War Crimes Act has been an obsession of this administration since shortly after 9/11. In a January 2002 memorandum to the president, then-White House Counsel Alberto Gonzales pointed out the problem of prosecution for detainee mistreatment under the War Crimes Act. He notes that given the vague language of the statute, no one could predict what future ”prosecutors and independent counsels” might do if they decided to bring charges under the act. As an author of the 1978 special prosecutor statute, I know that independent counsels (who used to be called ‘’special prosecutors” prior to the statute’s reauthorization in 1994) aren’t for low-level government officials such as CIA interrogators, but for the president and his Cabinet. It is clear that Gonzales was concerned about top administration officials.

CNN reports,

Under the War Crimes Act, violations of the Geneva Conventions are felonies, in some cases punishable by death. When the Supreme Court ruled that the Geneva Conventions applied to Al-Qa’ida and Taliban detainees, President Bush and his boys were suddenly in big trouble. They’ve been working these prisoners pretty good.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jHQ7Prwh7Gc[/youtube]

The U.S. is holding at least one Canadian citizen at Guantanamo Bay.

A previous move to prevent similar charges at the ICC failed in 2004.

In response to this Bill, Michael Morris has said, I Am Ashamed to Call Myself Republican,

I have been a Republican since I was 18. I am now 48…
In case anyone has not noticed, this Government is in shambles and the election this November will not change that…

Hey, let’s beat and torture POW’s – woops – detainees (want to be politically correct here). Hell while we are at it, why not start hanging Blacks and gassing Jews. Why don’t we make the prisoners at our bases overseas march back across the oceans to prisons here in America. Just because people hanged at Nuremburg for doing the same thing, it must be ok for us to do it because we are America and we would never do anything wrong. That is why the Bush administration attached a line item to a bill absolving anyone who, in this administration, may have violated the Geneva Convention Articles for the Conduct of War. If they were doing what was right, then why do they need protection? (emphasis added)

Updates

Chet Scoville points out that despite the recent coverage and video availability, this story is probably dated from over a year ago. If anyone has an update about what followed in the Senate, please do let us know.

Gov. 2.0: Can. & U.S. are Blogging

By: Law is Cool · January 29, 2008 · Filed Under Law Career, Marketing/PR in Law, Politics · Comment

Bob LeDrew of FlackLife reports on an emerging trend, where governments themselves are getting involved in blogging.

He cites 2 sources:

an article in Canadian Government Executive by Anthony Williams, author of Wikinomics, …about “Government 2.0” in Canada
blogger Geoff Livingston provides a comprehensive overview of what’s happening in the United States federal government

See the full piece here.

No More Articling?

By: Law is Cool · January 29, 2008 · Filed Under Law Career, Law School, Legal Reform · 3 Comments

It’s possible.

This report is considering three options for the future in Ontario:

The Status Quo – Continue with articling, but make it clear that the Law Society makes no guarantees that students will find employment.

The Alternative – Keep articles but offer another stream for students who don’t find placements.

The End – Abolish articles altogether.

See Melissa Kluger’s commentary here.

Updates

Jordan Furlong picks up on this hot-button issue too.

He provides commentary here and here.

No More Articling – Get more free documents

New Law Commission of Ontario to Hire Students

By: Law is Cool · January 29, 2008 · Filed Under Environmental Law, Health Law, Law School, Legal Reform · Comment

Background

On Nov. 30, 2007, former Attorney-General Michael Bryant announced the creation of the new Law Commission of Ontario (LCO). The Commission is created to reconcieve the law and evaluate issues of reform.

Bryant said,

The goal is to create a modern, relevant and responsive commission that will bring forward recommendations to improve the administration of Ontario’s justice system and enhance access to justice. For many years, the previous law reform commission was an important instrument of change in our province’s legal system. It was known to forward progressive ideas, ask tough questions and engage in creative, innovative, critical thinking. Our justice system needs the same capacity today.

The purpose of the Law Commission include:

Enhance the legal system’s relevance, effectiveness and accessibility;
Improve the administration of justice through the clarification and simplification of the law;
Consider the effectiveness and use of technology as a means to enhance access to justice;
Stimulate critical debate about law and promote scholarly legal research; and
Develop priority areas for study which are underserved by other research, determine ways to disseminate the information to those who need it and foster links with communities, groups and agencies.

Mandate and Submissions

Dr. Patricia Hughes, Executive Director of the Law Commission of Ontario, said at the launch of the Commission on Sept. 7, 2007,

Ontario needs a body with the mandate to be both innovative and practical in identifying areas of law that require reform and in recommending appropriate reforms,I am anxious to begin working with the partners who have had the insight to establish the LCO to make it a major and integral part of Ontario’s legal landscape.

Hughes visited the University of Western Ontario on Jan. 29, 2008, to share more about the Commission,

We’re trying to be visionaries… but at the same time be practical about what needs to be done. We’re prepared to look at all areas of law, from business to social areas…

We don’t want to do too much in one area.

Applications have already been made for projects on international obligations, and Hughes said that this scope might very well be in their mandate in the future.

Although the Commission cannot give recommendations to the Federal government, there is nothing preventing them from working on issues that falls between jurisdictions and talking about how they are related.

Ontario is a leader, it ought to be a leader, and one way to do that is bring people together.

One such topic of interest raised has been environmental law.

Currently projects identified for review include fees for cashing government cheques, pension structure during marital breakdown, laws related to elderly people, and law relating to disability.

Proposals to the LCO are made in a 2-page submission detailing the mischief it will address and why it is important for the LCO mandate to:

Law Commission of Ontario

Computer Methods Building, Suite 201, 4850 Keele St.,

Toronto ON, Canaa, M3J 1P3

Partnerships, and with Students
Dr. Hughes also elaborated on the partnerships the commission was creating, which included up to two faculty members from Osgoode Hall, and a lawyer from the Ministry of the Attorney General. Hughes also shared that opposition groups are also consulted with to obtain perspectives from a broad spectrum.

Dr. Hughes also shared that the Commission will be hiring students to participate in their process. This could include jobs during the term and the summer, as well as internship programs.

This would be open to students in law school across Ontario. They would not necessarily have to be in Toronto to participate, and the Commission would evaluate teleconferencing capabilities.

Docstoc for Online Collaboration

By: Law is Cool · January 29, 2008 · Filed Under Administrative, Law School, Legal Research, Marketing/PR in Law · Comment

Although law school is highly competitive (mostly for marks), those that collaborate usually do get ahead.

Online and Internet technologies are greatly facilitating collaborative learning in law. This site, which draws from first-year students at several different universities across Canada, is also an example of online learning.

Some lawyers are drawing on their experiences to help future students get ahead too.

We spoke to Jason Nazar about his company, Docstoc, and what it can do for law students:

I’m a recent law school grad and one of the reasons we created docstoc was to help law school students exchange outlines, briefs, papers, and study aids more easily. We have a category set aside for law school – and we have hundreds of documents in there already.

We’re also coming out with a new feature soon that will allow law school students to create their own groups.

LawIsCool has tried to provide some centralized summary resources, but Docstoc has the capability to host the actual documents.

Blawgers might find Docstoc useful as well, because they allow embedding documents directly on your site.

We’ll try this feature out in the future, and you can let us know what you think.

Do Marks Really Matter?

By: Law is Cool · January 28, 2008 · Filed Under Law Career, Law School · 3 Comments

We previously suggested that since half of all lawyers in Canada are self-employed, marks have a limited impact on the creative and ambitious lawyers’ career.

We asked some of our contacts in the field what they thought about the subject.

Eugene Rembor, Senior Partner of Rembor & Partners Ltd. in the U.K.:

If marks would matter in life, a great many man and myself would be on benefits…

Forget about marks, forget about them, what counts are your real life skills, not school wisdom.

joseph gioconda Joseph C. Gioconda, Partner at DLA Piper:

The general consensus I have heard is that it’s a sliding scale between experience/success and grades:

Simply put, the more experienced and successful you are in practicing law, the less your grades (and even what law school you went to) matters in the long run.

Let’s be candid, I am sure we have all heard of some incredibly good lawyers who weren’t very good students, and some brilliant students who didn’t become very good lawyers.

But when you are only a few years out of law school, there isn’t as much to go by, so sometimes employers look at your academics as a proxy.

Paul Hunt, Managing Director in the Hunts’ Lawyer and Principal of the Hunt’s Group in Australia:

The best lawyers have a feel for the law which university marks are only one indicator for. But by the time you are in your thirties, lawyers need to be finders minders and grinders – find the work, manage the client and do the work. If you are doing this who cares what you got for some subject in your 20s.

Some of our friends also weighed in with an American perspective.

Sam Glover, a Consumer rights attorney and blawgger at Caveat Emptor and the SoloSmallTech blog:

My impression (in the US) is that grades and academic achievement generally matter a great deal if you want to work for a large law firm. Large firms need and want to pad the firm resume with lawyers that look good on paper.

The importance of grades as compared with actual skill matters less as you look at smaller firms. I expect this is partly because personal relationships start to matter more than the prestige of the firm as a whole when it comes to securing business, but also because a smaller room has less room for lawyers who look good on paper but are mediocre in practice.

Likewise, I expect that if you are up for partner, your experience, reputation, and (perhaps most) your client list matter more than your grades seven years back. I have never been asked for a transcript when applying for a lateral position, but maybe others have had a different experience.

Richard Cassidy, a Lawyer, Arbitrator, & Mediator at Hoff, Curtis, Pacht, Cassidy, Frame, Somers & Katims, P. C.:

Here in the U.S., grades are critical in getting that first job, and that job in turn is very important in terms of what happens afterwards.
With the exception of being “on law review,” most applicants for most first time law jobs have not much else to point to, and grades are often critical to getting on law review.
That said, once you are past the first job, few employers seem to ask about or care about grades. The further you are from school, the less it seems to matter.

Law review does not feature as prominently in Canada as it does in the U.S., which begs the question of whether marks are even more prominent here.

Duane Kidman of Kidman Law Office, Christian Entrepreneurial Mindset Mentoring and Pre-Paid Legal Services Inc.:

When I was a recent Law School graduate, I interviewed with a variety of law firms. The most common questions and discussions depended on the law firm.

Law firms that attract clients with profiled resumes focus on grades.

Many large firms follow the profiled resume stature, but are also interested in professional involvement: Public Speaking Events, Published Articles, High Profile Cases, Organizational Leadership and Committee Positions, … etc.

Then there were those firms whose focus was “What Law School you attended”. I was told at one large law firm that I would never become a Partner with them. When I asked why, the response was, “You graduated from the wrong school.” Further into the interview I mentioned that he must be due for retirement. His response was rather pompous, “They made an exception for me. Mandatory retirement is 65 and I am 72 years old.” I quickly responded, “If the firm is willing to make exceptions with established policy, then there is hope for someone like myself making Partner here after-all.” I had already decided I didn’t want to work with or for this guy.

I was rather ill during a Law School exam and did not do well on that test. During one interview with a large, international firm, the interview focused on that single grade and seemed to disregard the remainder of my transcript.

Several firms did not want graduates with exceedingly high grades. Apparently they assumed that if you graduated from an ABA Accredited Law School and passed the State Bar Exam, you qualified academically. Their search was for a personality that complimented the firm, community and professional involvement, and work ethic.

The majority of law firms considered grades as one of many factors. As your legal career matures, many law firms tend to place less weight on grades and more emphasis on what you have accomplished during your career.

My recommendation if you don’t have high marks: interview with intermediate-to-small law firms, or better yet, open your own office, remain heavily involved in professional organizations in your area of practice, write and submit articles to journals, and remain vigilant and competent while serving your clients. These are the best marks I notice.

Canada does not have the three-tier system that the U.S. does, making the school a person goes to less important here.

Madan Ahluwalia, a San Francisco lawyer that primarily handles immigration matters, estate planning (wills, living trusts) and small business matters (incorporation, partnership agreements, vendor contracts, buy-sell agreements, etc).:

In first year after graduation, a lot.

Afte that, they don’t, and your work ethics and intelligence does.

Theory in law school and practical application of law (by being a lawyer) are two different things.

So in conclusion, marks only seem to matter early on in a law career, and even then, only if someone wants to work in a highly-competitive large firm.An emphasis on marks assumes that law students do not have previous work experience that distinguishes them from other candidates, and that all law students aspire to work in large firms.

Given the numerous other alternative legal careers, this is obviously in no way definitive of the industry itself, or an indicator of a succesful lawyer.

Things You Should Know…

By: Law is Cool · January 25, 2008 · Filed Under Humour, Law School · 2 Comments

Things You Should Know About Law School

1. No, a ‘tort’ is not a muffin. Surprise, surprise.

2. If your highlighting marker still has ink after the first week or so, you might as well drop out

3. Forget about a personal life … law students will gossip about something in your life even before you knew it happened there in the first place

4. Your new life mantra will soon become: F**k the Socratic teaching method [we don't use that much in Canada]

5. If you are a law student, there is a 50% chance you are an alcoholic …

6. … and if not, you probably are a pot (and/or crack)-head

7. For our “inspirational” speech during law school orientation, a judge told us, “Law school can be very difficult. During my first year at law school, three of my classmates jumped off a three story building to their deaths.” True story.

8. If you put a sandwich in the cafeteria communal fridge, IT WILL be stolen

9. Get ready to hear “jokes” only a law student would understand (‘Was that an offer?’, ‘How was your mens rea today?’, ‘An intervening cause ate my homework’, etc.)

10. Trying to avoid your professor’s eyes is like waving a red flag

11. You will learn that there are three types of professors:

One who will answer every question, no matter how dumb, bring in cookies for the class, act like she cares about your feelings. Do not be fooled: the minute you take that first cookie, you just fucked yourself (the ‘I bought the ones with sprinkles’ Professor)
One who will just completely ignore you (the ‘Put your hand down idiot; that was rhetorical’ Professor)
One who will make you s**t yourself each time he calls on your name (the ‘I thought I told them not to admit you’ Professor). This is the one you continuously chant your mantra to (see above)

12. Remember how, for that one undergrad final project your senior year, you stayed up until 4 in the morning finishing it? Cherish it because it probably was your best night of sleep for a long time to come

13. There is a good chance they had to tear down an entire rain forest just to publish your book’s table of content

14. The only extracurricular activity in law school is walking from your class to the library

15. You know how in jail, you are only known by a number? Well, welcome to law school, row 3, column 2 (à la your professor’s seating chart)

(Thanks to Dawud Shakir of New Mexico)

More Things You Should Know About Law School

1. Unless you want to clerk, a 3.3 GPA is good enough, and you can get that without doing much at all.

2. You don’t want to clerk.

3. If you don’t make Law Review, skip the other journals and write on to Law Review.

4. Don’t apply for the editorial board of Law Review–you want Law Review in one line on your resume, not running your entire freaking life.

5. Do moot court. And win.

6. 95% of the books they want you to buy for law school are useless and not necessary for the class. To be safe, just skip all of them. I stopped buying books in my 1L year and never missed out on anything from them.

7. Use that money instead to buy Examples & Explanations and commercial outlines. Use these thoroughly and you’ll be fine.

8. Don’t stress about law school. If all you want out of it is a JD [or LLB] and a good job, 68% of the work is just showing up. And even that part is optional.

9. Don’t even think about the Bar Exam until after graduation (other than registering for it!).

10. Make 12 great friends and make sure to keep them for life. They are the best take-away in all of law school! (Right, Section 4 + Brookes?)

(Thanks to A. J. Sharp, Northwestern Law ‘07)

How to Case a Brief (non-traditionally)

By: Law is Cool · January 24, 2008 · Filed Under Law Foundations, Law School · Comment

The Non Traditional Law Student blog, from the Thomas M. Cooley law school in Michigan, has a series on how to case a brief, an essential skill for any new law student.

Here are the direct links:

Brief Case Special

By: Law is Cool · January 24, 2008 · Filed Under Humour · Comment

Partners Without Borders

By: Law is Cool · January 23, 2008 · Filed Under Pro Bono · 1 Comment

McCarthy Tétrault announced recently that they are the first firm to join Partners Without Borders with Avocats Sans Frontieres in Quebec.

The organization was founded in 1992 in Belgium, and founded the Quebec chapter in 2002.

The news release states,

By becoming the first major Canadian law firm to be granted the status of “Partner without Borders,” McCarthy Tétrault continues its long tradition of providing pro bono legal services and community outreach.

LawIsCool has previously mentioned McCarthy Tétrault as the 2006 winners of the Canadian Pro Bono Awards, and is pleased to see them continue their support of such initiatives.

Jordan Furlong says on Law21,

Any law firm worth its charter has always been active in its community, of course, but in this age of megafirms with global reach, we’re starting to see super-national firms display a truly remarkable degree of involvement in issues and organizations that transcend the usual local undertakings. Check out DLA Piper, whose New Perimeter project is an incredible piece of work: a worldwide pro bono initiative that has seen 13,000 lawyer hours contributed to, inter alia, drafting new judicial laws in Kosovo, restructuring a micro-lending project, developing a worldwide food bank system and creating a human rights center in southern Africa. This is work on the scale of the CBA’s sterling International Development Committee, but supported by a for-profit firm rather than a non-profit association.

LawIsCool interviewed Jordan previously on the CBA and its benefits to students.

Post tags: Avocats Sans Frontieres, Canadian Pro Bono Awards, DLA Piper, International Development Committee, Jordan Furlong, Kosovo, McCarthy Tétrault, New Perimeter