Here are some things I’ve found useful, thought I’d share:
One day, she held up her casebook to point out there was almost no underlining or highlighting. However, in the margins of the book were handwritten notes. She explained that doing full briefs for cases was a waste of time. (Via Law Ingenue)
I finally uploaded the rest of the Bemidji trip photos.
Ms. Montana-Cyrus is inspiring litigation:
A dude claims he’s the inspiration and more for “Hannah Montana” and wants Disney to give him due credit — as in a lot of money.
Richard Fronduto filed a lawsuit today in L.A. County Superior Court, claiming he wrote a script in 1990 called “The Secret Life of Sindi” which eventually became “The Family Business.”
Fronduto claims his agent pitched his work to Disney and that Disney liked it so much they asked him to turn his script into a two-hour pilot. In short, he claims he’s the brainchild for what became “Hannah Montana.” (Via TMZ)
Turns out that this isn’t the only Hannah Montana law suit…
Whenever a show or movie experiences high success rates, the inevitable happens. Someone shows up to claim that this lucrative idea was theirs all along. Such is the case with Disney’s Hannah Montana. This weekend, a comedy writer has filed a lawsuit against the Walt Disney Company that, in 2001, he came up with the idea for a show but used a different show title.
Taylor “Buddy” Sheffield, a veteran comedy writer, is suing for alleged breach of contract, breach of confidence, unfair competition and unjust enrichment. Six years ago, he pitched a show called Rock and Roland to the Walt Disney Company, about a middle school girl who has a secret alter-ego as a rock star. Sound familiar? (Via TV Buddy)
I couldn’t find anything on the Sheffield case except for a more recent lawsuit for Disney canning him. Hm.
Now, I know this may be outrageous, but maybe the problem is that the premise of Hannah Montana isn’t that original? Just a thought… I prefer Trace Cyrus anyway…
A University of Minnesota law school classic – Commonwealth v. Pestinikas, a case about a breach of contract that resulted in a murder conviction.
The gist: A couple agreed to care for an elderly man. They took his money, stuck him on an enclosed porch, and let him starve to death.
A various collection of thoughts
As I mentioned in my last post, two of my professors pick around two students for a class period and call on them the entire time. I thought this would be great at first, but it turns out not to be.(Via Non Minority Student)
John Grisham: The Associate
An ATL Exclusive Interview With John Grisham About His Latest Book
John Grisham sat down with us this morning for an exclusive blog interview to discuss his new book, The Associate. The book’s main character, Kyle McAvoy, is a Biglaw associate with a mysterious past and intriguing future.
In his previous books, Grisham has explored emotional and ethical costs of practicing the law in various forms. But his latest book takes dead aim at the life, and lifestyle, of junior associates at top Manhattan law firms. (Via Above the Law)
Outrage halts launch of ‘Caylee Sunshine’ doll
A Florida company is suspending launch of its “Caylee Sunshine” doll following a public outcry that included members of slain toddler Caylee Anthony’s family. (Via CNN)
Several of my housemates have started busing home because of the cold.
I walked home for lunch, but decided to try the bus-thing after school..
After 5 minutes on the bus I had an epiphany: The University of Minnesota has campuses in St. Paul and Minneapolis. The campus connector bus probably connects the campuses…
I looked out the window and realized the bus was on the expressway to St. Paul. Doh.
Next time I take the campus shuttle...
I eventually get back to Minneapolis and buy a McFlurry from McDonald’s. The nice thing about -8 is that McFlurrys don’t melt on the way home…
30 minutes later I’m in the living room watching TV with some housemates. The doorbell rings.
It’s a woman smoking a cigarette, holding a 12-pack of beer and a pitbull-lab mix on a leash.
Woman: “I got in a fight with my boyfriend. I’m going to stay at a hotel tonight or something…Can I wait in your foyer while I wait for the cab? I gave them your address…”
So we had a pitbull running around the living room while three of us were looking up dog-friendly hotels…
***update… my housemate just walked out with a bat in a box… I guess another bat got in the house…
Housemate #1: “Aww! The bat looked so cute! It was so small!”
Housemate #2: “What? No! I was gonna go bat-shit on that bat!”
Housemate #1: “Oh look, my humidifier just came! I’m gonna go humidify myself!
Things are too weird right now. I’m going to bed.
Don’t ask me:
Professor P: “Okay, you suggested a case and shot it down, so let me rephrase my question: Does the Plaintiff win under Ohio v. Shaw?”
Jack: “Uh…” (flips through book) “…obviously I don’t know the answer because I’m looking for it.
It was downhill from there…
Jill: “I think there’s a difference between marking and capturing. Dogs mark things all the time and don’t capture them!”
Professor P: “Uh, let’s assume for a moment that dogs can’t obtain property rights…. so that’s not the best example…”
Lawyer fail (re: this case):
Professor P: “And Ganter presented the maxim: “Finder’s keepers losers weepers.” That was his legal argument!” If you had to guess, would say that he was represented?
Jack: “No, I guess he was representing himself.”
Professor P: “Well, actually he WAS represented by a lawyer!”
It’s poop suit day* in Property class.
Jack speaks plainly:
Jack: “Apparently in 1869 the roads were covered with manure.”
Poop ensnarement?
Professor P: “Do we have something close to possession of the manure? Like ensnarement?”
Professor P: “Did the manure become wild or unowned?”
Haslem v. Lockwood, 37 Conn. 500 (Conn. 1871) — (Or Westlaw: 1871 WL 1608 )
I’m not sure if facebook chat is sucking, or if it’s the school internet…
Because grades come out at 4pm, the law school is forcing us to attend a “please don’t drop out” lecture. This is how it started:
Student council president: “There are some research studies on the effect of grades on depression, and turns out the lower you are on the bell curve, the more depressed you are!”
Dean: “Don’t worry. I’ll be talking after him.”
Starting Statutory Interpretation on a high note:
Professor S: “You all have finished a semester of law school so you should be able to answer this question: Where can we find law? Who makes it, and where is it found?”
Jack: “Cities!”
Professor S: “Uh…cities? I guess you can find a book of statutes in a city…”
It looks like facebook has just become a news service. There’s a public photo album* of a UN school bombed by Israelis.
Here is a video via Al Jazeera.
* Warning there are some pictures of dead school children.
The Gamma house president has been looking for his wallet for four days. He’s ripped both couches in the living room apart, checked with local stores…
Someone saw a wallet in the couch, but we quickly determined that I had left (and found) my wallet in the couch that day.
I was at Jamie’s this weekend. I came back today and started cleaning my room.
As I’m folding laundry I feel something in the back of a pair of shorts. I wore these shorts around the house Thursday night…I shake the shorts…and out falls the president’s wallet.
Oops. I guess I found two wallets that day.
Jamie stole my camera and…
“The precise legal difference between real and personal property is very confusing; and in an Irish case (where the question was whether a dung-heap was real property) a lawyer made an admirable argument to show that it was.
Then the farmer was called upon to reply and said:
“I’m puzzled indeed by all these strange words. But the lawyer says – fair play to him – that cows is personal property and that the hay they eat is personal property, and I ask your Honour as one man to another, how, baiting miracles, personal property can go on eating personal property and evacuating (he used a homelier word) real property. Well, your Honour, it’s beyond my understanding.
This was to prepare us for Haslem v. Lockwood
And this a video of us on a frozen lake:
As I say in the video, I though driving on a lake was absolutely crazy…so when I saw this on the fail blog last night I felt vindicated.
Me (to Jamie): “SEE? SEE? That could have been us!”
Jamie: “Eh, that only happens at the beginning or end of the season…”
Ermp. Okay.
I finished uploading some videos from last weekend’s Bemidji trip. The rest are on the youtube channel.
The first week of 2nd semester is over. Vöt! Here’s a rundown of the courses:
Criminal law: Theory, theory, theory. It feels like a criminal justice class at a community college. No cases yet. Just half-page snippets of punishment theory…rehabilitation, retribution, yada-ya.
There’s way too much class discussion. I had the same issue with Constitutional Law last semester… I prefer the Socratic method because it focuses the discussion. When professors ask for volunteers in law school you get the same 5 people speaking all the time, and a fair amount of irrelevant and unproductive comments. I’ll give this class a few more weeks before it becomes my official blog-reading time.
Corporations: The reading is remarkably quick and interesting. Class is okay, but the professor tends to stick with a single student for 20 minute blocks. It’s not exactly grilling because our professor is really nice, although he does stutter when he makes a joke.
The professor made us buy this 3-inch-thick book of statutes and restatements. I’m returning it. There’s no way I’m carrying that brick of a book around and I look up everything on Westlaw anyway…
Property: The first day of Property I sit down and my classmates on either side of me start talking about how awesome the case was.
Me: “What case?”
Oh, apparently there was a reading assignment. Hah. Silly me. I’m starting off with a bang…
The supposedly awesome-case was about whaling with exploding bullets. Basically, back in the day they shot the whales with these bullet-bombs, watched them sink, and recovered them whenever the whale floated back up. This could take days. So, when someone else found the whale and sold it…well, that’s when we got a case for our casebook.
The only carry-over class from last semester is Civil Procedure, which is still my favorite. I like the predictability and efficiency of Civil Procedure. There’s a schedule, there are no irrelevant discussions or tangents.
No fluff means that I don’t have to wonder what’s important for the exam. I had some classes last year where only a handful of the classes were useful for the final…whereas in Civil Procedure everything is important. Professor V doesn’t waste our time.
Grades come out on Monday at 4pm. There’s a mandatory lecture that afternoon so people don’t drop out. This was the message from the dean:
Welcome Back 1L Students!
As you get back into the swing of things for Spring semester, this is a quick reminder that our 1L Lecture Series kicks off Monday. I’ll be joined by 2L and 3L students and the Career and Professional Development Center for a brief presentation on “Putting Your Grades in Context.” Our goal is to offer concrete ways to learn from and improve upon your Fall semester performance, and to help you understand what your grades mean – and don’t mean – for your professional development.
Best wishes, and have a great weekend.
– The dean
I think the grade delay is a retention ploy. Most of the 1L blawgers seem to have their grades…I really want to know where I stand so I can figure out who to ask for recommendations and what scholarships and jobs are realistic for me.
Anyhoot, I’m ending the week by seeing a somewhat-gory, but totally awesome movie with Jamie. Vöt.
That was before the bailout…
Prof M: “Many large public corporations are incorporated in Delaware, like GM…erm, well, GM is not that big anymore but you get the idea…”
Another source of amusement is the girl sitting in front of me*:
* yes, I’m on wordpress, but no one is sitting behind me.
Prepare for the muddle…
Prof R: “There’s no restatement for Criminal Law. Someone once said that criminal hasn’t been stated well enough to be restated. I recommend a horn book…”
Jack the thief:
Prof R: “So you think if society didn’t punish burglary, we would all go out and commit burglaries?”
Jack: “I dunno... I would!”
