The LACBA Student Lounge Blog

UCLA Undergrad Mock Trials: Gavels and Robes Available

Aspirations for the bench? The UCLA Undergraduate Mock Trial Program is seeking volunteer trial judges for its upcoming 2009 Mock Trial Invitational Tournament. Law student are encouraged to participate. The tournament will take place on January 17-19.

The UCLA Mock Trial Teams participate in the American Collegiate Mock Trial Association program.  Over 550 teams from universities around the nation compete against each other by presenting either the Plaintiff (Prosecution) or Defense side of a mock civil or criminal case.

To volunteer or for more information, contact Gonzalo Freixes by sending an email.

Conditional Law School Admission: 1L Rockstars

If you're like most law students, you applied to at least one law school that you didn't get into. Enter an all new hybrid letter response to your application. It goes something like this:

Congratulations! You have been conditionally admitted to A Better Law School. Although we are not able to offer admission to A Better Law School at this time, so long as your academic performance at the law school you decide to attend meets a certain criteria throughout your first year of law school there, you are guaranteed a spot at A Better Law School for the remainder of your J.D. program....

Since virtually everything related to admissions has a ranking consideration, the naysayers believe this is just another creative way to circumvent the rankings, this time by scooping up some good talent in advance without having to live with lower LSAT or GPA stats. Of course, there's nothing new about transferring after 1L, so maybe it's just a more convenient way to go about it. Or maybe, someone thought that there just wasn't enough stress in going to law school in the first place, so putting a carrot on a stick would push some to excel even further.

According to the WSJ Law Blog, Northwestern Law sends out 15-25 of these deferred conditional acceptances each year.

CA Cyber-Bullying Law as of January 1, 2009

In addition to losing the right to text while driving, on January 1, 2009, cyber-bullying will now be illegal in California. Reported in the Sacramento Bee and according to the new law, school authorities will be able to suspend or expel students who bully other students online, with text messaging or by other electronic means. Here, cyber-bullying will be added to school codes which have, up to this point, only focused on direct physical or verbal harassment.

The Megan Meier case: a 13-year-old Missouri girl hanged herself after being rejected by someone she thought was a love interest. Lori Drew, the mother of one of Megan's friends created the fictional MySpace page under the name of "Josh Evans". After Megan's death, Drew was convicted of misdemeanor counts of accessing computers to inflict emotional distress.

Bullying goes hi-tech:

In September, the Vallejo City Unified School District passed a sweeping policy banning students from using computers or cell phones to send harassing or threatening messages, or to cheat on exams. District spokesman Jason Hodge said officials became alarmed by students sending text or instant messages to incite campus fights. In some cases, he said, altercations were incited by students wanting to make cell phone videos to post on YouTube.

Question of the Week: How Are You Going to Meet Your Pro Bono Graudation Requirements

How are planning to meet your pro bono graduation requirements? Use the comment link below.

Click here for information about LACBA pro bono related opportunities for law students.

International Trademark Association: Ladas Memorial Award 2009

The International Trademark Association announced the 2009 Ladas Memorial award. The writing competition is open to all students, practitioners, and academics interested in trademarks and trademark law. For eligibility in the student category, writers must be enrolled as full- or part-time law or graduate students. The submission deadline is Friday, January 16, 2009.

For details on this opportunity, click here.

American Association of University Women: Fellowship

The American Association of University Women has a fellowship available and one of the fields included is law.

Application Deadline: January 10, 2009*. Applications must be submitted online by 5:00 p.m., central time, January 10, 2009. All supporting documents must be received by January 10, 2009, at the Iowa City, Iowa, office.

The forms for this fellowship opportunity can be found here.

Arent Fox LLP: 1L Diversity Scholarship

Arent Fox is now accepting applications for its fourth-annual Diversity Scholarship Program. Through the program Arent Fox will award three first-year law students with $15,000. Scholarship recipients will also be a part of the Arent Fox 2009 summer associate program. Each of the firm’s three offices (Washington, New York, Los Angeles) will host one of the recipients for the summer.

Arent Fox will began accepting applications on December 1, 2008 and will continue to do so through January 15, 2009.

The scholarship is part of the firm's efforts to increase diversity within the firm and to attract top lawyers from diverse backgrounds.

Contact:

Los Angeles
Kimberly Harrell
HR/Benefits Manager
213.443.7530

Washington
Jessica L. Salvaterra
Recruitment and Career Development Manager
202.857.6224

New York
Lisa J. Visconti
Attorney Recruitment Manager
212.484.3913

Torti's Change to Tort: The Good Samaritin

As any law student knows, being a "good Samaritin" may not necessarily be a good thing. That  has become even more true in California. In the case of Van Horn v. Watson the California Supreme Court held that "good Samaritin" exemptions from civil liability only apply to trained professionals providing emergency medical care, not to a non-professional providing help in an emergency situation.

The case the court was dealt with involved a car crash. Van Horn was riding in a car driven by Watson, with another passenger, Freed. Torti was riding in another car driven by Ofoegbu. Watson lost control of his car and crashed into a light pole. Ofoegbu pulled over and both he and Torti got out of the car to help Watson, Freed and Van Horn. Watson was able to exit on his own, and Ofoegbu merely opened the door for Freed. Torti, however, physically removed Van Horn from the car by lifting her out. Torti claimed this was necessary because she believed the car was about to set on fire. That is disputed by the other parties. It turns out that the assistance rendered may have worsened Van Horn's injuries. Van Horn is now a parapalegic as a result of the accident.

Ultimately, the decision by the Court narrows the scope of California's existing "good Samaritin" law and prevents it from being available to a non-professional in an emergency situation. This means that someone could be found liable for causing damage to another, even if they're doing it for the other's benefit. To read more commentary on this case, read an article on the case by the L.A. Times.

23 CA Bar Examinees File Motion to Support Data Privacy

Recently, 23 people who have taken the California bar exam filed a motion to join a law suit. This in an effort to support the California State Bar's decision to not release data that will be used to evaluate law school admissions policies (see the original post on this BLOG).

Reported by the Metropolitan News-Enterprise, most of these 23 intervenors are Latino and African American, who between 1972 and 2007 took the CA bar exam and provided information about themselves to the State Bar.

[Professor Richard] Sander has claimed that placing unqualified minority students in elite law schools results in lower bar pass rates than if they attended schools where their admissions credentials match those of their classmates, in what he calls a “mismatch effect.”

Although Sander is requesting that any data provided by the State Bar for the research effort be redacted to protect the identity of bar exam takers, the intervenors argue that any release of their personal information would violate the California Constitution and the Family Educational Right and Privacy Act.

The Los Angeles Lawyers Philharmonic

Conducted by attorney Gary S. Greene, the Los Angeles Lawyers Philharmonic Orchestra of California will hold its premier performance on January 30 at the Metropolitan News-Enterprise’s “Person of the Year” dinner. Made up of judges and lawyers, the non-profit orchestra, led by Greene plans to develop into a group of about 20-30 musicians within one year.

Now, the Orchestra is now seeking attorneys who are advanced musicians with orchestral experience. The Orchestra is accepting applications by email to gary@lalawyersphil.org.

The Metropolitan News-Enterprise’s “Persons of the Year” are the 2009, 2010 presiding judge of the Los Angeles Superior Court, Charles McCoy and assistant presiding judge, Lee Edmon.