The law library will open from 8AM-11PM Monday, 11/23 and Tuesday, 11/24. It will be closed on Wednesday, 11/25 and Thursday, 11/26 for the Thanksgiving holiday. It will be open 9AM-5PM on Friday, 11/27, 9AM-6PM Saturday, 11/28 and 1PM-11PM Sunday, 11/29.

• Library Hours

If you submitted an Exam4 practice test under one of these names (below), you must submit a NEW ONE using your UofL user name (e.g. ldbran01), if you have not already done so, by 6:00 PM EST, Friday, November 20th.  The user name allows us to send a confirmation e-mail.  Anything else makes doing so somewhat impossible.

• ABELL
• ANDREAVETTER
• JENNYWHITE

Exam4 for Fall 2009 final exams is now available to all students.  Hardware and operating system requirements, and download and installation instructions, are posted at www.law.louisville.edu/it/exam-software-download.  Rather than downloading Exam4 directly from our Web site, you must now download it from Extegrity.  Exam4 is available for Mac OS 10.4 (Tiger), 10.5 (Leopard) and 10.6 (Snow Leopard), and Windows XP and Vista.  A Windows 7 version is not yet available, and Windows 7 will not be supported for exams until a certified version of Exam4 becomes available for it.

Any student who wishes to use his/her computer for final exams this semester (including 1Ls who used the previous version for Legal Research and/or Prof. Leibson's Torts I mid-term) must download and install the finals version of Exam4 AND properly take and submit a practice test by 6:00 PM EST, Friday, November 20.  A properly taken and submitted practice test identifies the student by his/her UofL user name (e.g., ldbran01) -- not by one's student ID number, or any other combination of letters or numerals.  To submit a practice test electronically, one must be on campus and connected to the University's wireless network.  The University's firewall prevents off-campus submission.

Any student who wishes to use his/her computer for final exams this semester and cannot comply with the practice test requirement by the deadline must contact the Associate Dean for Student Life before the deadline if he/she wishes to petition for an extension of the practice test deadline or exemption from the practice test requirement.

VERY IMPORTANT:  Any student who takes any exam on computer who: 1. has not properly taken and submitted a practice test, or 2. has not brought a USB flash drive to any exam, will be refused technical assistance by the IT staff, including, but not limited to, submitting a completed exam.

After the practice test deadline has passed, the IT staff will send an e-mail confirmation to each student who has properly and timely submitted a practice test.  In the meantime, you may check whether your practice test was received at www.law.louisville.edu/it/exam-tracker.  Any practice test listed on the Exam Tracker is presumptively o.k.

The Moot Court Board wishes luck to our National Moot Court team this weekend as they travel to Richmond, Virginia, to argue at the 4th Circuit.  Ben Basil and Barry Dunn will face Duke and Wake Forest in the preliminary rounds.  Michael Gray and Marty Pohl will face West Virginia and Elon.  The team is coached by Professor Sam Marcosson.

This year's issues are 1) whether imposing a life without parole sentence on a juvenile convicted of a non-homicide crime constitutes cruel and unusual punishment, and 2) what is the proper standard to apply for a motion for change of venuedue to pre-trial publicity.

Exam4 for Fall 2009 final exams is now available to all students.  Hardware and operating system requirements, and download and installation instructions, are posted at www.law.louisville.edu/it/exam-software-download.  Rather than downloading Exam4 directly from our Web site, you must now download it from Extegrity.  Exam4 is available for Mac OS 10.4 (Tiger), 10.5 (Leopard) and 10.6 (Snow Leopard), and Windows XP and Vista.  A Windows 7 version is not yet available, and Windows 7 will not be supported for exams until a certified version of Exam4 becomes available for it.

Any student who wishes to use his/her computer for final exams this semester (including 1Ls who used the previous version for Legal Research and/or Prof. Leibson's Torts I mid-term) must download and install the finals version of Exam4 AND properly take and submit a practice test by 6:00 PM EST, Friday, November 20.  A properly taken and submitted practice test identifies the student by his/her UofL user name (e.g., ldbran01) -- not by one's student ID number, or any other combination of letters or numerals.  To submit a practice test electronically, one must be on campus and connected to the University's wireless network.  The University's firewall prevents off-campus submission.

Any student who wishes to use his/her computer for final exams this semester and cannot comply with the practice test requirement by the deadline must contact the Associate Dean for Student Life before the deadline if he/she wishes to petition for an extension of the practice test deadline or exemption from the practice test requirement.

VERY IMPORTANT:  Any student who takes any exam on computer who: 1. has not properly taken and submitted a practice test, or 2. has not brought a USB flash drive to any exam, will be refused technical assistance by the IT staff, including, but not limited to, submitting a completed exam.

After the practice test deadline has passed, the IT staff will send an e-mail confirmation to each student who has properly and timely submitted a practice test.  In the meantime, you may check whether your practice test was received at www.law.louisville.edu/it/exam-tracker.  Any practice test listed on the Exam Tracker is presumptively o.k.

In his/her mailbox, every student has received a copy of the complete, new Policy Governing Exams on Computer.  The policy is also posted online at www.law.louisville.edu/it/computer-exam-policy.  The practice test deadline to use Exam4 for Fall 2009 finals is 6:00 PM EST, Friday, November 20th.

The complete Docket announcement about downloading and installing Exam4 and submitting a practice test is posted at www.law.louisville.edu/node/4051.

The class schedule packet distributed yesterday (11/18/2009) correctly states on page 18 (the list of prerequisites) that when the Drafting seminar is taught by Professor Nicholson "Business Organizations is not a prerequisite, but is recommended."

The Course Notes, however, incorrectly state on page 10 that "Business Organizations is a prerequisite."  The Course Notes should be corrected to read:

Michael Sandel, renowned Harvard professor and author of Justice: What's the Right Thing to Do?, will speak on campus at 10 AM on December 1. Professor Sandel is also the featured guest of the Kentucky Author Forum later that evening at The Kentucky Center.

At the Kentucky Center, Professor Sandel will be interviewed by John S. Carroll, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and former editor of the Los Angeles Times, the Baltimore Sun, and the Lexington Herald-Leader.

Justice, or Moral Reasoning 22, a course in moral and political philosophy taught by Harvard Professor of Government, Michael Sandel, draws more than 1,200 students each year. Sandel speaks to a rapt audience, relating the big questions of political philosophy to the most current and vexing issues of the day. Visit www.justiceharvard.org for a taste of his exhilarating class.
 
His new book, Justice, offers readers the same exhilarating journey that captivates his students- the challenge of thinking our way through the hard moral challenges we confront as citizens, inviting readers of all political persuasions to consider familiar controversies in fresh and illuminating ways.

Click here for more details about the Kentucky Author Forum event.

On November 19, the University of Louisville will institute a policy that prohibits smoking on all campuses.

Our Health Sciences Center campus has been smoke-free since January 2008 when downtown hospitals made that move. Since then, no smoking has been allowed in any indoor or outdoor space within the boundaries of the HSC campus or within 50 feet of any building entrance.

That same policy will be implemented at Belknap Campus and university-owned or -controlled buildings at the Shelby Campus beginning November 19.

There are many reasons why we are instituting this policy:

- Public health: Smoking harms both the smoker and people around the smoker.
- Employee satisfaction: More and more UofL employees are complaining about walking through smoke to enter buildings and about cigarette butt litter.
- Inequity: Many employees also have pointed out the inequity in having a smoking ban only on one campus.

Enforcement will begin November 19 on HSC as employees there have received considerable notice about the policy. Sanctions that could accompany refusal to comply with any university policy could be applied to the no-smoking policy.

From November 19 to June 1, designated smoking areas will be established on Belknap and affected Shelby Campus buildings to allow faculty, staff and students time to adjust to the policy.  [Note: The designated smoking area closest to the Law School will be near Ekstrom Library.]  Starting June 1, however, the designated smoking areas will cease to exist and the policy will be fully enforced on all campuses.

Smoking is an individual choice. This, however, may be an opportunity for many of you who want to stop smoking. Both our Get Healthy Now employee health management initiative and our Campus Health Center can connect you with classes and products that can help you quit. Humana has made a generous offer to partially cover the costs of smoking cessation support, so we will offer an array of products, including pills, patches and gum, as well as behavioral support to people who want to quit. We will communicate more about these opportunities in the coming weeks.

Shirley Willihnganz
University Provost

• Effectiveness in achieving purpose and goal of the video
• Overall quality of presentation
• Overall appeal to diverse audience
• Overall production quality (including lighting, focus, sound, graphics)
• Originality, Creativity and Adherence to Contest Rules.

The University of Louisville Law Library experienced damage to facilities in its lower levels in the August floods.  On October 12, contractors began removing floor tiles under strict safety protocols to prepare surfaces for re-flooring.  While this work is being done, basement areas will be sealed off and no one will be able to enter.  During this period, we will be unable to retrieve materials from the following collections: classified treatises, microfiche, non-Kentucky retrospective state sources, foreign and international materials. The restrictions will not affect collections of current federal and state primary materials, current and retrospective Kentucky materials, and bound periodicals.

Based on progress to date and the work that still remains, it appears that the law library's basement will remain closed until the beginning of the spring semester on January 4, 2010.

Alex Davis and Nancy Vinsel recently took the initiative to do something beneficial for the student body that also demonstrated the skills they've learned here in their first semester of law school. With the help of their classmates in Professor Leibson’s Section 1 Torts class, they embarked upon a clever campaign that raised $1040 for student scholarships.

In exchange for about $10 each and 24 12-ounce cans of Dr. Brown’s Diet Cream Soda, the students acquired David Leibson's golf hat signed by PGA Champion, Byron Nelson, and a presentation of stories from their professor's career.

Alex Davis said that, "This started out as a really small idea, and it was amazing to watch it grow as other students and faculty came up with ideas to make the offer better. We're hoping to challenge future classes to buy the hat from us and raise even more money."

It's not too late to contribute.

Photo credit: Michael Ben-Avraham