Miss Joyce

Dean Tom sends word of sad news regarding a dear member of the Boalt family:

Our colleague and friend Joyce Hall recently lost all of her belongings in an apartment fire. Thankfully she is physically okay. The Dean's Office would like to support her by taking up a voluntary collection. If you would like to contribute, you may bring a donation to the office.

In the comments, I have posted contact information for those who want to reach out to Miss Joyce and the mailing address for those who are not in close proximity to the law school any more (though this kind of news has a way of reaching very far and touching many of us).

You Want Rankings? We'll Give You Rankings

 Hey everyone! Rankings!  We know you love them and here at N&B we are all about the things that you love.

Top Party Place: Kip's
Top Trial Team Organization: BOA (They are knocking everyone's sox off)
Top Party Dean: Dean Edley - He knows you were nervous when Boalt slipped last year.  He took care of business.
Top Whiners:  The Big H.  Number 3?  That's not why your father paid for prep school.
Top Way to Complain: Barrister's was sweet, shut up already.
Top Law School: Boalt Hall, 2012.  Screw the official numbers.  We know we fucking rock.

So, that's the wrap up.

Bar Review Review

Howdy folks,

Despite being "extreme" (which I take to mean extremely awesome), I think there's a need to address last week's Bar Review at Jupiter.

Here are the general problems with Jupiter:

1. No hard alcohol

2. Poor service

3. Relatively high prices for the area

And the major one:

Not enough space for everyone who comes out to Bar Review. They were turning people away at around 10pm. I continue to have no idea who makes these decisions, but I'd hate to see the Kips revolution happen so early in the year. How about we save Jupiter for the crappy end of semester bar reviews that mostly no one goes to and the awesome bars for now? Good thing we moved things to the Downlow.

Looking forward to seeing good clean fun dissected in the comments.

Love,

James

Arrivaderci Academia

It occurred to me that there are no longer any current Boalties who were around when Dean Ortiz (she'll always be Dean O to me) was our Dean of Student Services.  I don't know the current Dean of Student Services, but I just simply cannot imagine anyone filling the big shoes that Dean O left behind when she became the inaugural Dean of Admissions at UCI.  I can write a very lengthy, gushing letter about all the greatness of Dean O (not to mention the institutional memory she brought to the law school), but this is not the place. 

This post is simply to congratulate her on her new venture, a law school application consultancy.  So three cheers to Dean O's new gig, and if there are any law school applicants out there, I can't think of any one better equipped to advise on the admissions process. 

Please, Sir, May I View the Course Evalutations?

Some of you may have noticed that the rules have changed for course evaluations. If you don't do all of your evaluations, you no longer get to see any of the evaluations for any classes. Apparently the carrot of $50 Amazon gift cards wasn't working well enough and the administration had to get out the stick.

Now, usually this is the sort of thing that I don't even realize has occurred because I don't read emails from the administration unless they're from M*nd*, but so many of my peers have complained that I felt like it was at least worth discussing.

I understand, powers that be, that you want as much data available as possible. That makes sense, this information is helpful to us, we use it to choose classes and professors and I guess it helps make professors better teachers. I understand that you want us all to evaluate everyone. But, there are often reasons why people don't evaluate: maybe they forget to, maybe they don't care, maybe they feel like they'd be offensive to the prof if they were forced to. I cannot imagine that forcing individuals to fill out those forms is going to improve the quality of the teaching evaluations. Instead, you'll get lackluster or random responses from individuals who don't want to take the time, but feel forced to write something.

Also, let's be honest, it's a shitty way to treat a bunch of people who pay $42,000+ a year to take those classes. It's not a positive way to treat your students (and come on, let's be honest, we're paying customers and that's how the school, at the end of the day, views us).

How to Make Boalt Suck

Howdy folks,

Today in our installment of "How to Make Boalt Suck" we're going to discuss how to leave passive aggressive notes in the study shacks in the library (or whatever they're called).

First, the text of our example note:

These carrels are meant to be available to all students. 'Reserving' them by leaving your computer for hours is inappropriate and unfair to others wishing to study. Please do not do this again.

As you can see, the note achieves admirable levels of passive aggressive gunning. Let me break it down for you so that you, too, can master the technique of library note gunning:

1. False authority. Make demands that you have no right to make and no way to enforce. End the note with a command that sounds serious but you know you cannot back up.

2. Be anonymous. The use of false authority along with anonymity bring the note up to truly magnificent levels passive aggressiveness. They'll think you could be anyone or everyone and it spares you having to actually be accountable for your behavior towards another law student. This step is crucial.

3. Liberal use of smear quotes. Don't like a "word," use a fucking smear quote! It makes you seem way more sarcastic and your criticism will be that much more pointed.

4. Cite a value most people will agree with and then pervert it to your gain. It's "unfair" for individuals to take up study spaces, but it's not unfair for you to use these tactics to make them feel bad about it.

5. Be inaccurate in your complaint. Use terms like "hours" instead of the real amount of time, which was more like 50 minutes.

6. Finally, and most importantly, complain at the least logical time to do so. Don't wait until exams or when the library's packed, make your complaint when you're not even inconvenienced! The fact that there are multiple other seating options directly next to the study cubby in question makes this note even more powerful and effective.

Follow these simple steps, kids, and we, too, can have a law school that sucks. Just ask the kids at UC...oh sorry, out of time!

(Thanks to DS for showing us this amazing example!)

Moran to UCLA?

Moving this post up in light of UCLA announcement regarding Moran's appointment.  For Professor Moran's quotes from Torts in Fall 2004, see here and here.

***

The Daily Journal is reporting (subs required) that our very own Rachel Moran has been offered the deanship of UCLA's Law School:

Rachel F. Moran, a longtime professor at UC Berkeley School of Law, who took a leave of absence to help found the new law school at UC Irvine, has been offered the position of dean at UCLA School of Law, according to sources close to the selection process.

Moran, 53, a Yale Law School graduate, is known by colleagues as a dedicated scholar with high expectations for herself and others.

A Latina from Yuma, Ariz., Moran has taught torts and education and law at both UC Irvine and Berkeley, where she's been on the faculty since 1983. 

Obviously this is both terrible and fantastic news.  I realize the current crop of rising 2Ls have not experienced the pure terror of a Moran review session and so the announcement may ring hollow.  But trust me, this would be Berkeley's loss.  I suppose it's payback for Sklansky, Lester, and a few others we poached from Westwood.

On Asking Professors to Move Up Exam Dates

So, you're in a class where the last few weeks of class are canceled. You've had your outline prepared since week five and boy oh boy, wouldn't it be great if you could just take the exam a few weeks early? Gee, it would be swell, wouldn't it. Why don't I just raise my hand and ask my professor to move the date up?

If this is you, please don't do it.

Moving up an exam, a few weeks before said exam would take place, is not fair to your classmates. Every class should have a syllabus. The syllabus should be distributed at the beginning of the semester and it should set the expectations for when exams will take place. If the syllabus does not list any exam times, it has to be assumed, 10 weeks into the semester, that the exam will take place at the scheduled time, not a few weeks ahead of time.

Setting aside the fact that it isn't fair to anyone who has scheduled (or not scheduled, as the case may be) their studying to coincide with the exam taking place on the actual scheduled exam date, you look like a huge fucking gunner.

It's Complicated

I don't want to bump L'Alex's great post, but the fine folks at the Samuelson Clinic are putting on a conference on "Social Networks: Friends or Foes? Confronting Online Legal and Ethical Issues in the Age of Social Networking." Looks like David Lat will be a panelist. And you can find more info at the website.

Just for my $0.02, I think there are ups and downs. For the time being, I think we're simply experiencing the downs, e.g., yapping about clients, providing way, way too much information for public consumption*, ruining relationships, ruining the English language**, etc. But as technology evolves (see, e.g., Google Wave), I think we'll see some notable changes in the profession, namely long-distance collaboration. Though the speed with which this takes hold will probably depend on breaking the Microsoft Word stranglehold on e-filing and redlining.

*I really don't understand how people post SO MUCH about themselves on facebook. It's nuts. I can find someone's birthday, phone numbers, address, how many of their friends are single, how drunk they got during spring break, and which [Insert TV Show Character] they are according to a horribly designed quiz. Just weird.

** For a contrary view, see this story about research by a Stanford lit professor concluding that Stanford undergrads do not use "LoLz" and "u r a h8er" in online communication.

Islamic Finance Symposium

Passing along an announcement
****************************

2nd Annual UC Berkeley Islamic Finance Symposium
Saturday, February 28th, 2009
8:30 am - 6:00 pm
UC Berkeley School of Law

See flyer for details.

New Space Deathmatch: Flat Screen TVs v. Financial Restraint

The fifth in my series examining winners and losers of the Boalt Hall space reconfiguration.

Winners: Flat Screen TVs
Has anyone noticed that Boalt is now filled with flat screen TVs? They’re everywhere. Even the seminar room that nobody ever uses has a gigantic one. Our old locker space has two flat screen TVs—and four ceiling projectors. There’s so much video technology in there that the projector screens overlap one another.

I’m not exactly sure what all this technology is for. Is there a massive demand for teleconferencing I don’t know about? Mary Robinson (former Irish President and UN High Commissioner for Human RIghts) is teaching a shared course with Columbia Law School, but that's taking place in Room 116. I’m trying to guess some reason why anyone would need to fire up six TVs in a classroom. Are future law lectures going to be in 3-D?

(The two flat screens in the old locker room are in the back of the class. Maybe Boalt has decided to give professors the same opportunity as students to surf the web during boring lectures.)

Loser: Financial Restraint
Let's face it: just a few years ago, Boalt was a dump. But look at it now! High tech classrooms. Recessed lighting. Power window shades. And shiny glass walls everywhere—even when it’s just in front of sheetrock. (Seriously, what’s the deal with that?) This new “no expense spared” renovation is great—until you realize who’s footing the bill.

I like the old 1950 photo of Boalt that’s been taped around the new basement space. Maybe it’s just the stylish, mid-century aesthetic: everyone looks great with their cigarettes and tailored grey suits. The basement space looks basically the same, although less lavishly furnished. Still, I’d be happy to take the sheetrock and manual window shades in exchange for a $29,000 reduction on my tuition bill.

New Space Deathmatch: Clubs v. Journals

The fourth in my series examining winners and losers of the Boalt Hall space reconfiguration. Today, we're back in the trenches--er, basement, with a comparison between club and journal office space.

Winners: Clubs
Ha! You all thought that journals would win in a landslide. After all, club offices are half the size. And they're shared. By the time you account for the lockers, there's not much space left.

Here's the thing. The "heavy lifting" of club participation takes place in classrooms, not offices. Journal offices are stuffed with computers and printers. They also need to store source collections, article submissions, author correspondences, and the other detritus of academic publishing. Clubs, on the other hand, store the nachos left over from karaoke night. Granted, there are large clubs--but who hangs out in their offices, apart from the five most active members?

The result is a cozy, nicely furnished room for the enjoyment of a few select people. No dusty, non-functioning Dell computers. No piles of photocopies. No obsolete 12 year-old torts casebook. Just a stylish sofa and a few comfortable seats. Maybe even a window. I’m going to hang out there all the time.

Losers: Um...can’t we all just get along?
Jeez, you can’t write a few paragraphs about office space without being called the worst person in the world. I will only say that some responses rely on a massive "straw man" argument--and don't distinguish a tease from a tirade. But I can’t fight such righteous indignation. I give up! Nobody loses. Everyone’s a winner at UC Berk-e-ley!

Anyway, if any Boalt group wants to bulk up their membership, they should do it the BTLJ way: free vodka and a superbly stocked snack cupboard.

Note to all Boalties: we're not alone.

New Space Deathmatch: Kato v. Zeb

The third in my series examining winners and losers of the Boalt Hall space reconfiguration. Lest anyone think that I'm just going to trash journals every day, here are two non-basement entities.

Winner: Nancy Kato
Blessed, blessed isolation! Well, the Registrar Office's soon-to-be new location in the MoFo Room isn't that far off the beaten path. But unlike its old space, MoFo isn't stifling. And MoFo's rectangular layout, with an entrance solely at the narrow end, is perfect for channeling/limiting law student interaction. As in a giant hive, Queen Ant M. K-J can be housed deep in the interior, preserved from interruption by an army of drones.

Also, it's location near the building exit ensures that our union-supporting comrades can slip out at exactly 4:30 p.m., regardless of student crisis. One thing's for sure: the MoFo Room has finally reached its zenith for irony potential.

Loser: Cafe Zeb
Hey, is this table taken? Probably not anymore, now that all the cool kids are hanging out on the new basement sofas. Between the 2007 office and courtyard closures, Cafe Zeb was once the only place to relax at Boalt. Not only are there now more places, but those places are about as far away from Zeb as possible. It's easier to walk to Cafe Strada than Zeb now from a club/journal office. (Granted, Strada and Zeb are owned by the same company.)

And let's not forget the other thing: a brand new kitchen in the basement. Refrigerators, a full sink, presumably a microwave--combined with food storage in your journal or club office. Who's really going to go all the way up to Zeb for green tea and a yogurt?

New Space Deathmatch: AALJ v. BTLJ

Please note: this thread is not intended as an attack on AALJ, identity journals, Asian American jurisprudence, or anyone else. Nor does it mean to question any students’ work or dedication. As it points out, fewer citations are a consequence of focusing on an under-served topic. AALJ was chosen solely because it has fewer members than BTLJ and because it publishes annually—which arguably requires less working space (though not necessarily less work) for source collecting and article editing.

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The second in my series examining winners and losers of the Boalt Hall space reconfiguration.

Winner: Asian American Law Journal
The new basement has an egalitarian design, with each journal allocated a nearly identical space. (Four journal offices are slightly larger.) Having all journals together promotes collaboration and fosters an esprit de corps among journals. It also allows efficient common areas, such as the kitchen and conference room. For smaller journals like AALJ, the new offices place them centrally within the heart of student organizations; proximity to larger journals also lets them borrow or share resources--whether in terms of editing tips or paper clips.

Loser: Berkeley Technology Law Journal
Intellectual property may be Berkeley's specialty, but BTLJ--like Rodney Dangerfield--don't get no respect. A quick look at the numbers shows why.

	Asian American Law Journal	Berkeley Technology Law Journal
Issues Per Year	1	4
Pages Per Year	282	1696

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Editors	18	30
Asst./Assoc. Editors	2	18
Members	17*	45
Total Students	37	93

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Citations: Academic**	326	2145
Citations: Case	2	45
Rank: Specialized	137th	1st
Rank: All	289th	26th

* Including 5 "semester members"
** Citations and rankings for student-edited journals here. "Specialized" includes all disciplines.

Now, one can argue that the last section (academic impact) should be disregarded. After all, IP is an established area of law, and journals like AALJ were founded to promote scholarship in an under-served discipline. (Actually, so was BTLJ, originally.) And a parent should love all her children equally--not just the ones who get top grades.

But still. Roughly speaking, BTLJ has four times the output of AALJ, and three times the membership. (Actual student participation may be higher, since BTLJ has strict rules regarding the hours required for masthead credit.) Academic reputation aside, it deserves at least twice the amount of office. Or to put it another way: if AALJ is 1/4th the size of BTLJ, why does it get 80% of BTLJ's space?

This is the demerit of the basement's egalitarian design: large successful journals are punished, and small, struggling journals are rewarded. Taken together, BTLJ, ELQ, and BJIL probably account for the majority of journal work at Boalt (in terms of membership and output), but receive very little space. Instead, most journal space is allocated to small, infrequently publishing groups. Ultimately, the basement space's egalitarian design has deeply disproportionate effects.

New Space Deathmatch: CLR v. Board of Advocates

There are a lot of changes for Boalt student groups recently, with the exodus from Simon Hall, the new affinity group oasis/ghetto on the third floor, and the new basement space. I'm creating a series of posts to identify the big winners of this change--as well as those getting the shaft. The first battle royale: CLR versus Board of Advocates.

Winner: California Law Review
Law review has fallen upon some hard times. I'm not talking about academic integrity. I'm talking about respect. CLR used to be the preeminent student activity at Boalt; membership was mandatory for top students. Not so much these days. Not only is there little correlation between grades and membership, but law review is lost among the thicket of "other" journals--of which Berkeley publishes an obscene amount. (On the website's alphabetical list of journals, CLR is eleventh). More so than at any other law school, specialized journals compete with law review for student talent. Why be a primary-editing grunt when you can be EIC of BJ*L instead?

The point of all this is that CLR's new space is important. It's not that CLR needs a separate suite (with its own entrance!). It's a sign that Berkeley really sees CLR as its flagship publication, and is willing to treat it accordingly.

Loser: Board of Advocates
Who? Just kidding. These days, moot court is just as respected by judges, lawyers, and academics as law review--and maybe more so. In terms of prestigious student activities, Board of Advocates is right up there with CLR. And I don't see anyone else bringing SCOTUS justices to Berkeley any time soon. Congrats, Board overseers!

Which makes it a little regrettable that Board of Advocates drew such a losing hand from the space deck. Where are they, exactly? I think they're still in some crummy office on the 3rd floor maze, but I'm not really sure. They're isolated from other student groups both spacially and symbolically. Certainly they deserve more. It's true that they're getting a new moot courtroom in Room 140. But this is less a reward than a consolation prize for the insult of having to use Booth Auditorium in the past. And besides, Room 140 is really just a glorified classroom.

Did Boalt Pass the Buck on Yoo?

The Daily Californian ran an article in yesterday's sports section entitled, Bear Naked: Getting to Known John Yoo.

The author of the piece, which surveys a two-hour International House chat with Yoo about his experience as a sports fan in Washington, begins by noting, "[I]t's entirely beyond my scope to discuss the moral and technical merits of the unitary executive theory. What I did learn, through a two-hour conversation at the I-House, is that Yoo is an interesting man and that, well, he's a man."

Both of those sentences make much-needed points: Con law is hard, and people are human. Those points are much-needed in the light of the fact that the most vigorous commentators on Yoo are also the people who know the least about the issues, and who neglect that Yoo is, after all, a human-decision maker. Just like the rest of us.

Having spent last spring in Yoo's class, having taken a personal interest in the issue, and having gained a few months of perspective, I would like to share one thought about Yoo, and our law school.

My thought is that Boalt dropped the ball. Think about it:  John Yoo, a tenured professor at Berkeley Law, took a political bullet for the President because he was the President's lawyer.  Talk about  a teachable moment in legal professionalism! Academic freedom; service to country; legal ethics; politics; war; tenure -- all these issues were floating around our hallowed halls last spring, yet if you asked most of our professors whether Yoo made the correct ethical or moral decision, you would have had better luck listening for a pin drop than an answer. In substance, it matters little to me what Boalt professors and faculty think about Yoo or Bush or torture.  But the fact that they bit their lips and held their tongues in front of 800 soon-to-be lawyers seems disappointing. What could have motivated that silence? Political nonchalance? Adademic courtesy?  Decorum?  What kind of message did Boalt send to a rising generation of America's attorneys? That niceties are more important in the law than frankness or moral compass?

Maybe I've been party to the wrong conversations; maybe I missed the big meeting. But I doubt it. This issue involved a Boalt professor's central role in international politics, made national headlines and kept pundits wringing their hands for weeks. Yet, as my learned brother Earl Warren once remarked in passing, all we got was a letter on a website and a few comment-threads on this blog.

In BERKELEY.

Moran Leaves the Village

Leiter is reporting that our very own Prof. Moran is leaving for the new law school at UCI. She's a great scholar and a ummm quirky teacher. Clearly, she has an above average sense of humor and a quick-wit. At the same time, she still has the old-school, completely Socratic, closed-book finals mind-set. Shug better pick up the slack for the incoming 1Ls.

Ready, Set, Teach

I don't want to detract from the OCIP or grades discussions below, so I wanted to pass along some information for those interested in teaching below the fold.

Thou Shalt Count to Three, and Three Only

I guess current students got an e-mail about this, but alumni should know that there is an official memo on the name of our school. First, to all the law firms out there, please, please, update your associates' profiles. An example of the more egregious violations include:

"University of Berkeley School of Law" (for undergrad and law).
"Boalt Hall School of Law"

Second, at the risk of being petty, I'd like to point to commenter MikeM (scroll down), "Our official name is the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law." *Cough.*

Goodbye grants, you will be missed...

The financial aid office has released offer letters on Telebears. It's official: if you plan to work at a firm, you will (most likely) lose any chance at a grant.

I don't feel this is getting enough attention. The $4k DE grant for summer public interest work is well-known among current and future students. But, given the financial aid grants were in the neighborhood of $9k, this new grant policy makes that $4k seem trivial.

Effectively, a job in public interest will now result in grants upwards of $13k [or more] from the school. I only say "or more" because the extra money that isn't going to the students working for firms will most likely be redistributed to the public interest kids as well.

Any thoughts?