As a student of the University of Louisville Brandeis School of Law, you may take advantage of the many services offered through the Belknap Campus Health Center.  Campus Health provides confidential, affordable, effective and student-focused medical, mental and health education services to all students in the university community.  For example, Campus Health Services provides confidential psychiatric services at no-charge to any student for a variety of mental health issues including:

• New or existing depression or other mood problems
• Panic attacks or other forms of anxiety
• Eating disorders
• Sleep problems
• Difficulty concentrating
• Feeling totally "stressed out" or overwhelmed
• Problems with alcohol or drugs

Other campus health services include counseling, primary care, personal nutrition counseling and self-management support, prescription assistance, and Yoga and Pilates classes.  To learn more about the services you can take advantage of this semester and throughout the school year, visit the Campus Health website at https://louisville.edu/campushealth/.  The Student Health Center is a 5-minute walk from the law school and is located between the Student Activities Center and the Houchens Building and behind the Floyd Street Parking Garage.

Thanks to everyone who attended and contributed to the 5th Annual Battle of the Bands! Nearly $4500 was raised for the Judge Ellen B. Ewing Fund.

Congratulations to third-year students Andrew Henson and Forrest Kuhn! Assault with a Deadly Weapon is the first student band ever to win first place in the Lawlapalooza Battle of the Bands. They were followed by 100% Legal in second place and Keltricity in third.

Many thanks to our silent auction bidders! Bekah Soule won a night's accommodation at the Louisville Marriott Downtown. Will Nefzger won a night's accommodation at the Seelbach Hilton. Becky Wenning won the original Guitar Player painting by Schuyler Olt and Vicki Senior won his Trumpet Player painting.  

• Lawlapalooza Program
• Photo Gallery - credits: Leslie Tencer, Jim Becker, and Virginia Smith

Any interested 2L, 3L, or 4L may sign up now for the Client Counseling Competition.  The Regional Competition will be held on February 19-20 in Lansing, MI and the National Competition will be held on March 19-20 in Waco, TX.  The team’s coaches are Professor Leslie Abramson and Attorney Paul Schurman. 

There is a signup sheet available outside the Moot Court Board door.  The deadline for signups is October 13th.  Tryouts will be limited to the first 12 teams that sign up.  Tryouts will take place on Friday October 16th in room 270 from 1:00pm – 4:00pm.  Professor Abramson will be showing a video of a past competition on Tuesday October 13th from 1:00 pm - 2:00 pm in room 270.

Once you have signed up please email Aaron Dyke and he will email you a client scenario that you will be expected to act out during your tryouts.

You must sign up in teams and will be judged as a team.  The person who you sign up with will be the person you compete with if you are selected.

Practices will take place on Saturdays at Paul Schurman’s office, which is located in Middletown.  You must be able to practice on Saturday mornings in January and February as well as once during the week.  This event is an American Bar Association event and team members must be a student member of the ABA (student membership is $25). 

Only one team of two members is allowed in the competition.

Direct any questions to Aaron Dyke (aaron.dyke@gmail.com).

I’m stressed!  What can I do?  (Attend the Academic Success Workshop TODAY at 1:00 p.m.)

• Structure your time carefully so that you know what you are going to accomplish each day and each week.  You are less likely to waste time or overwork on tasks if you stick to structured time blocks labeled by task. 
• Focus on each small task instead of becoming distracted by a multitude of other tasks.  When you study 2-207 for Contracts, do not think about your Torts class.  When you study “piercing the corporate veil” for Business Organizations, do not distract yourself with thinking about depreciation for Basic Income Tax.
• Condense the volume of information to the important information you will use on the exam.  Keep condensing your outlines to focus on the “big picture” if you tend to bog down in details.
• Use positive self-talk so that you do not get discouraged.  You have the potential of being your own enemy if you make negative comments to yourself during the remaining 7 weeks.  Congratulate yourself for completing tasks. 
• Minimize your non-law school commitments.  If you work, cut back your hours.  Avoid taking on additional responsibilities with organizations, community activities, or volunteer services.
  

As of an arbitrary moment in time this morning (Wednesday, Sept. 30, 2009), the following four Exam4 practice tests were facially wrong:

• 1594601
• 3105
• 3287
• mafar01

Do you enjoy using the Examples & Explanations series to supplement your learning for a particular course?  If so, be sure to stop by the Academic Success Office (Room 212) to review the most recent editions for many core courses, including Federal Income Tax, Property, Contracts, Civil Procedure, Secured Transactions, Domestic Relations, Decedents' Estates, Business Organizations, Torts, Professional Responsibility, and Criminal Law.  You can check these books out during the semester. 

You won't want to miss this year's Battle of the Bands. Assualt with a Deadly Weapon, featuring 3Ls Andrew Henson on guitar and Forrest Kuhn on the drums, will be back to deliver another rockin' performance.

Students may purchase tickets for just $5 at the door (with a student ID) or at the Law Resource Center in room 272. Remember to bring both your student ID and your official ID if you wish to drink. Correction: This is NOT an all-ages event, but UofL Law students under 21 are welcome to attend. Children and teens, however are not.

Thanks to the generous sponsorship of Westlaw, the first 100 students will receive a ticket worth $3.25 (the price of a domestic bottled beer), which may also be used toward the purchase of a more expensive drink. Food and an assortment of potables and nonalcoholic beverages will also be available for purchase.

Lawlapalooza takes place at Phoenix Hill Tavern on Thursday, October 1. Doors open at 6 PM.

What if I am on top of my reading, but feel clueless about some of the material?

• Go through your class notes and try to determine what specific questions you have about the course.
• Write down your questions and where the reference is in your notes/casebook so that you can find the spot quickly if you need to refer back to it.
• Read a study aid to gain more understanding about the specific topic.
• Some learners clear up their confusion by outlining the material.  By “pulling it together” for inclusion in an outline, the material is no longer abstract or confusing.
• If you still have questions, ask for help from your classmates or your professor. 
• The more specific you can be about your questions, the easier it will be for someone to help you.
• Have your class notes/casebook with you when you ask for help so that you can show the person the material that is confusing you.
  

The deadline to sign up for the team is Wednesday, September 30 at 4:00.  The sign up sheet is on the Moot Court Board door.

For additional information, you are encouraged to visit http://www.inta.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1753&Itemid=264&getcontent=4. Please contact Jennifer Monarch with any questions at Jennifer.Monarch@gmail.com.

Diversity Forum Series: Keys to the Door: ENDA, Transgender Indentity, and Community - September 29, 2009

Dean Chen opens the program. Moderator, Lucas Vance introduces the panel. Brian Buford, Director of LGBT Services       Gil Reyes Dawn Wilson Morgan Ransdell

The following 20 first-year students successfully submitted an Exam4 practice test by 5:00 PM EDT, Monday, September 28, and their names were drawn at random to receive a free ticket, compliments of Professor Kurt "Wolfman" Metzmeier, to Lawlapalooza, Thursday, October 1, at the Phoenix Hill Tavern:

1. Batey, Nathan
2. Climer, Jeremy
3. Donahue, Natalie
4. Englert, Whitney
5. Esser, Brian
6. Fort, Nathan
7. Garland, Todd
8. Humphrey, Natalie
9. Kahn, Melanie
10. Leeper, Natalie
11. Lewis, Mookie
12. Murray, George
13. Pickett, Melinda
14. Potter, Sarah
15. Simonson, Julie
16. Smith, Natalie
17. Spalding, John
18. Theiss, James
19. Turner, Chad
20. Vinsel, Nancy

The tickets will be placed in your mailboxes this afternoon (Tuesday, September 29).  Congratulations to all, and many thanks to Professor Metzmeier!

What if I am behind on my course outlines?

• For each course, calculate how many weeks behind you are in the outline. 
• Start with the course that is most caught up and finish that outline first.  Then work on the next outline that has the fewest weeks to catch up and so forth.
• If you are equally behind in several outlines, start with the course that you think you can do most quickly. 
• If you have not started any outlines, decide which outline will be the easiest to do and complete it first.  Next easiest and so forth.
• Block off time in your schedule to work on each outline over several days rather than expect to find 8 or 10 hours straight for outlining.
• Set goals for when each outline will be current.  Try to have all outlines completed within 10 days – the earlier the better.
• You will need to sacrifice weekend “fun” time to get on top of your outlining so that you only have to add new material each week.

Join us at the Ekstrom Library east entrance for the annual Banned Books Week Read-in which will be held Monday to Wednesday, September 28-30, from 11 AM - 1 PM  Faculty, staff, and students will read aloud from their favorite challenged books. An informational exhibit will also be on display. Join us in celebrating the freedom to read!

• Top 10 Most Frequently Challenged Books of 2008
• Banned and Challenged Classics Among the Top 100 Novels of the 20th Century

Exam4 for 2L, 3L and 4L students for Fall 2009 is not yet available.  The version now available for download is only for the Legal Research final and Professor Leibson's Torts I mid-term.  If you are not in Legal Research or Torts I, Professor Leibson, you do not have to do anything right now with respect to using Exam4.

We hope and expect to have the Fall 2009 finals version of Exam4, including Professional Responsiblity, available by October 19, with a tentative practice test deadline of October 31 for the finals version.