Monthly Archives: April 2013

Celebrate National Library Week with Chocolate

National Lib. Wk.

National Library Week is celebrated every year in April and sponsored by the American Library Association to highlight the contributions made by libraries and librarians everywhere to academic institutions and the general public and to promote library use and support.

In honor of National Library Week, stop by the BLS Circulation Desk at 12Noon on Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday, April 16-18, for a piece of chocolate.

Bar Study Passes on Sale May 20, 2013

Bar exam study passes will go on sale on Monday, May 20, 2013 at 9:00am at the first floor reference desk.  Passes are $50.00 each for non-BLS graduates unless the school the person graduated from charges more than $50.00 to BLS graduates.  In that case, the fee will be equal to the amount their school charges.  Bar study fees may be paid by cash, check or money order.  Wireless access is available for guests; however, computer lab access and printing are not available to guests.

For BLS graduates wanting to study at other law school libraries, as soon as we have information about their bar study fees and policies, we will post it here.

Flexible Low-Yield (FLY) Paper: Capitalism and Idealism

Brooklyn Law Professors Steven Dean and Dana Brakman Reiser have co-authored and posted a new article on SSRN. Titled Hunting Stag with FLY Paper: A Hybrid Financial Instrument forSocial Enterprise, the article is due for publication later this year in volume 55 of the Boston College Law Review. The abstract for the article reads:


Social entrepreneurs and socially motivated investors share a belief in the power of social enterprise, ventures that pursue a “double bottom line” of profit and social good. Unfortunately, they also share a deep mutual suspicion. Recognizing that social ventures — just like traditional for- and nonprofit enterprises — need capital to flourish, this Article offers a financing tool to transform that skepticism into commitment. Unlike the array of new entities that have emerged in recent years — including L3Cs, benefit corporations and flexible purpose corporations — the hybrid financial instrument it describes provides a robust and transparent solution to the puzzle that lies at the heart of every social enterprise: how to blend a profit motive with a social mission. Recognizing their shared dilemma as an example of what economists call a stag hunt, FLY Paper strikes that elusive balance by allowing investors and entrepreneurs to credibly signal a reciprocal commitment to the pursuit of a dual bottom line.

Symposium on Trade Secrets

Brooklyn Law School’s Trade Secrets Institute is sponsoring a Symposium: Keeping Your Secrets Secret on Thursday, April 11, 2:30 pm to 5:30 pm at the Subotnick Center, on the 11th Floor of 250 Joralemon Street, Brooklyn NY. To attend the event, RSVP online. The field of trade secret protection has become increasingly complex, in both legal practice and enforcement. The symposium will focus on trade secrets in cloud-based data sharing platforms and the federalization of trade secret misappropriation lawsuits. To view the Agenda, click here.

As more trade secret owners-share information with their employees via “secure” cloud-based data sharing platforms, a number of trade secret misappropriation claims have been arising between employers and departing employees. The result is a need for clarity on the technological and contractual obligations of trade secret owners if they seek protection under the UTSA and state common law. This symposium will also evaluate best practices for companies’ protection of trade secrets while employees are accessing information via numerous outlets, including mobile devices.

The BLS Library has an extensive collection of material on the subject of trade secrets including the second edition of Trade Secrets: Law and Practice (Call # KF3197 .Q56 2012) by David W. Quinto and Stuart H. Singer. The two highly experienced trial lawyers have assembled case law analysis and strategic advice on prosecuting and defending trade secret misappropriation actions, maintaining legally sufficient trade secret protection measures, and supervising outside attorneys in the course of litigation. The book contains an overview of litigation burdens, presumptions and inferences; a comprehensive analysis of the applicability of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA) to trade secret misappropriation claims; the latest developments in the evolving approaches to the Uniform Trade Secrets Act (UTSA) preemption of common law and state statutory claims; and an expanded state-by-state analysis of trade secret litigation.

Summer Access to Bloomberg Law, Lexis & Westlaw

sun-wearing-sunglassesThe three legal research databases, Bloomberg Law, Lexis and Westlaw, are available to Brooklyn Law School students this summer.   See the details for each database below.

Bloomberg Law

Bloomberg Law provides unlimited and unrestricted access over the summer.  Student accounts will remain active and available all summer.  Students may use Bloomberg Law without restrictions.  Graduating students have unlimited and unrestricted access to Bloomberg Law for six months after graduation.

Access to Bloomberg Law is through the Bloomberg Law website:   http://www.bloomberglaw.com with a username and password issued by Bloomberg.

Lexis

All students with a registered Lexis Advance ID will automatically have access to Lexis Advance over the summer. No registration is required.  Lexis Advance will remain accessible to students and Lexis Advance may be used for both educational and commercial purposes.  Students who do not have a LexisAdvance ID should contact our Lexis representative, Beth Hoffman, at beth.hoffman@lexis.nexis.com.

Westlaw

Students have the option of extending full access to Westlaw over the summer if they meet one of the following education purposes:

  • Enrolled in summer law school
  • On a law journal or moot court
  • Working as a research assistant for a faculty member
  • Working at an unpaid, non-profit, public interest internship/externship or pro bono work required for graduation, provided you are not being paid for your research and your employer is not being paid for Westlaw research you conduct for your employer.

In order to take advantage of this extension, students must update their registration at:

http://lawschool.westlaw.com/registration/summerextension.asp

Beginning June 1, 2013, student passwords will be limited to 40 hours of access per month during the months of June and July, 2013, unless the password is extended for summer use.   On August 1, 2013, returning students’ passwords will be reactivated to full academic use.  Graduating students who need Westlaw access to prepare for the bar examination can extend their passwords as well for five hours of access in June and five hours in July through 07/31/2013 by completing the summer extension form and indicating that they are a graduating student.

The summer extension form is posted on the Westlaw law school homepage:  www.lawschool.westlaw.com  Students can sign on to the site and select the “need Westlaw this summer” icon.

Recess Appointments

An article in the National Law Journal, New Congressional Research Report Looks at Recess Appointments, examines the D.C. Circuit’s recent ruling in Canning v. National Labor Relations Board in which then-Chief Judge David Sentelle restricted the power of the president to make recess appointments. The appellate court said the president can only make an appointment under “the recess” of the Senate. The case is headed to the U.S. Supreme Court which could uphold the decision, marking a shift toward increased Senate control over the appointment of government officials. The article cites a recent Congressional Research Service report entitled The Recess Appointment Power AfterNoel Canning v. NLRB: Constitutional Implications by legislative attorneys Todd Garvey and David Carpenter.
 
The report states that the case could also decrease the frequency of presidential recess appointments. Since 1981, more than half of all recess appointments have been made in Senate recesses that were during a session, something the president would no longer be able to do. “Thus, by limiting both the periods in which a President may make recess appointments, and the vacancies that may be filled by such appointments, the decision likely would strengthen the Senate’s ‘Advice and Consent’ role, while restricting the President’s authority to make unilateral appointments.”

The Brooklyn Law School Library has in its collection Justice Takes a Recess: Judicial Recess Appointments from George Washington to George W. Bush (Call #KF8776 .G666 2009) by Scott E. Graves and Robert M. Howard. The book explains how the Constitution allows the president to “fill up all Vacancies that may happen during the Recess of the Senate, by granting Commissions which shall expire at the End of their next Session.” Examining every judicial recess appointment from 1789 to 2005, the book addresses how presidents have used recess appointments over time and whether the independence of judicial recess appointees is compromised. They argue that these appointments can upset the separation of powers envisioned by the Framers, shifting power away from one branch of government and toward another.

Older Versions of State Statutes

HeinOnline’s State Statutes: A Historical Archive is a newly added library in Hein with PDF versions of historic codes from all 50 states and the District of Columbia. Some materials date back to the early 18th century. This new collection includes more than 1,600 volumes and nearly 2,000,000 pages of historical superseded state statutes (but not current state statutes). It is a useful resource for legal researchers and scholars to understand historical statutes. The collection provides online access to superseded state code sections, which researchers previously had to access in microfiche at the Brooklyn Law School Library. Superseded codes give access to the text of the law in force, as amended, on a particular date in time, as opposed to session laws, which provide the text of the law as originally enacted by the legislature. A single code section usually contains small pieces from many different session laws. Determining the text of a code section on a particular date from only the session laws is a difficult and time-consuming process which State Statutes: A Historical Archive makes easier.

Current and some superseded state codes can also be found online in LexisNexis and Westlaw which have older versions of state codes that go back to the early 1990s. To find current state codes or more recent superseded codes which are not a part of Hein’s State Statutes: A Historical Archive library, or to get help using the new HeinOnline database, see a reference librarina at the reference desk.

Prepare to Practice: 5 Databases in 50 Minutes

The Reference Librarians will give a presentation geared to graduating students on “5 Databases in 50 Minutes” on Wednesday, April 10th and we will repeat the presentation on Thursday, April 11th.  Both presentations will be held from 4:00pm to 4:50pm in Library Rom 113M.  You may attend either presentation, but you must register in advance as seating is limited.  Light refreshments will be served.

We will describe and demonstrate the following databases:  Fastcase, HeinOnline, Law360, LexisNexis Academic, and ProQuest Legislative Insight.  These databases are available in the BLS Library to graduating students and alumni, but all students are welcome to attend either presentation.

Registration information for both dates is below.

For April 10th – Register here.

For April 11th – Register here

Hope to see you there!

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