On Friday, October 2, 2009 the Sports and Entertainment Law Society will hold its Second Annual Tailgate and Cornhole Tournament before the U of L v. Pittsburgh Football game. Tailgating will start around 3 pm  at the Kentucky Fair and Exposition Center. Cost for all you can eat and drink is $2 for members and $6 for non-members. We will have burgers, hot dogs, chips, side items, desserts, and various beverages. The cornhole tournament will start around 5 pm and is $10 per team to participate or $5 per person if you sign up as an individual. Prizes go to the top two teams. Look for the opportunity to sign up for the cornhole tournament in the law school lobby starting Wednesday, September 23, 2009 or contact an SELS officer or Sports Committee member. The cutoff time to sign up for the cornhole tournament is Thursday, October 1 at 4:00 pm. Please contact Jennifer Ward at jsward01@louisville.edu with any questions. The event is a great opportunity to network among your fellow law students, cheer on the Louisville Cardinals as they face a big conference rival, and just have a lot of fun. We look forward to seeing everyone there!!!

It is amazing that we are beginning the sixth week of the semester!  Some of your professors may have started to speed up in class and cover more pages.  You may be working on your first graded writing assignment for BLS, preparing for a practice exam, studying for a mid-term, or all of the above.  What can you do to re-group after these first five weeks if you are feeling pressured by the workload or are worrying that you are already behind in your studying?  This week's tips will provide suggestions on how to handle pressure.   

• Do not stop reading for classes because you have other projects or assignments due soon.  Carve out time for the projects around your reading for classes.  If you focus on papers or projects and ignore class reading, you will then be confused in class and behind in your reading.  If you do not know how to find time for both reading and other tasks, make an appointment with the Director of Academic Success for help with time management.
  

The Student Bar Association maintains mailboxes for each student organization at the law school as a service to our student body.  They are located on the bottom right hand corner of the general student mailboxes in the basement.  Unfortunately, they are very out of date.  I would like to update the student organization mailboxes, but I need to know which organizations are currently in existence.  Once we create a current mailbox list, we will distribute mail accordingly.  We expect each organization to designate a person to check it regularly.

So far, I have heard from each of the following organizations.  If you are a leader of a student organization not mentioned on this list, please email me ASAP so we can take care of you.  We want to make your law school experience the best that it possibly can be!

If your organization is not on this list, please email me ASAP.  We want to make this year run as smoothly as possible for everyone!

Thanks,

Jenna Glasscock

SBA Secretary

The United States Constitution is not only the basic law of the United States. It has also inspired politicians, philosophers, and ordinary people around the world. Scholars have devoted intense attention to the Constitution, its interpretation by the Supreme Court of the United States, and its impact on the American people.

Constitutional law forms an important part of the Law School's curriculum and research agenda. University of Louisville faculty members have devoted considerable attention to the Constitution, its interpretation, and its social meaning. Lawyers with diverse practices and specializations share a background in constitutional law, which in turn unites the practicing bar in a common civil culture based on the Constitution and its role in American history and politics.

The Law School therefore takes great pride in presenting an annual commemoration of Constitution Day on behalf of the entire University of Louisville. This year's program consists of two video presentations. In the first video, Law School faculty discuss the appointment of Justice Sonia Sotomayor. Professors Laura Rothstein, Judith Fischer, Luke Milligan, Samuel Marcosson, and Cedric Merlin Powell and Dean Jim Chen, joined by Professor John McGinnis of the Northwestern University School of Law, ponder the significance of Justice Sotomayor's arrival on the nation's highest court. In the second video, Professor Joseph Tomain presents Fleeting Expletives and the Shadow of the First Amendment.

We invite other institutions, throughout the Commonwealth of Kentucky and elsewhere, to link to this page and to use its resources in their efforts to commemorate Constitution Day. In addition, we invite students, graduates, and friends of the Law School and of the University of Louisville at large to treat this page as a standing guide to constitutional law. The resources section of this page includes a 21-question constitutional scavenger hunt and a photo gallery depicting constitutional controversies throughout American history.

Finally, we are pleased to provide archives of the Law School's Constitution Day programs from 2008 and 2007.

Interested 2Ls, 3Ls, and 4Ls are encouraged to apply for the fourth
annual Immigration Law Moot Court Competition coached by Professor
Trucios-Haynes.  You will not only gain valuable experience in
brief-writing and oral advocacy, but you will also increase your
knowledge on current key issues in immigration law.  The competition
will be held at NYU School of Law in Greenwich Village, New York on
February 19-21, 2010.  Students must be available during the holiday
break.

Applications to participate must be received no later than Friday,
October 16th by 5p.m.  Please slide the following materials under the
Moot Court Board (MCB) office door in a sealed envelope:

1. One Page Statement of
      Interest in Immigration
2. Writing Sample
3. Résumé
4. Unofficial Transcript

Interviews will be conducted on Monday, October 26th between 11a.m. and
4p.m.  Please sign up for a slot posted on the MCB office door.  If the
times do not work for you or if you would like more information, please
contact Jamie L. Izlar, Team Facilitator, at jlizla01@louisville.edu.

When you supplement your course outlines this week, consider what graphics may work for you to help with the bigger picture, the analysis, and the synthesis of the material; some examples of graphics are:

• Tables with material in rows and columns
• Decision trees – flow charts with questions and yes/no choices to work through the analysis
• Tree diagrams – the main concept is the trunk and the sub-topics (and beyond) branch off
• Legal diagrams – the main concept starts in the center of the page and lines connect outwards to the sub-topics and beyond
• Balloon diagrams – similar to the legal diagram using balloons to hold concepts and sub-topics instead of lines alone
• Mind mapping – use pictures and shapes to brainstorm about the interconnections
• Venn diagrams to show the overlap between several concepts
• Time lines for chronological events
• Columns of material to show connections and progression

The Moot Court Board is sponsoring two teams to participate in the ABA Law Student Division Negotiation Competition.  The Regional Competition will take place November 7-8 at Thomas Cooley Law School in Auburn Hills, MI.  The National Finals will be held February 5-6 in Orlando, FL.  U of L won the national competition in 2007-2008.  This competition does not involve writing a brief. 

Interested 2L, 3L, and 4L students should sign up on the Moot Court Board door by September 18, 2009.  Depending on the level of interest, Coach Dave Scott of the Commonweath Attorney's Office may request additional information and hold tryouts for those who sign up. 

Participants must join the ABA Law Student Division and pay a $25 membership fee.  Note that the Regional date conflicts with the November MPRE.  You may take the MPRE in the spring to avoid this conflict.  See flyers around the law school for more information, or visit the competition's website at:

http://www.abanet.org/lsd/competitions/negotiation/

Please contact Mark Fendley at mafend01@louisville.edu with any questions.

September 29, 2009, 12:00pm – 1:30pm
Room 275

Sponsored by the Diversity Committee and the Lambda Law Caucus, with the following co-sponsors: ACLU of KY, ACS, BLSA, Fairness Campaign, Kentucky Commission on Human Rights, SBA, UofL LGBT Services Office.

A  three-person panel will discuss ENDA generally, the case for inclusion of transgender people in ENDA, and the politics of ENDA.  

This event is part of the UofL Pride Week celebration and will include a light lunch from Expressions of You (available at 11:30 AM).

Do you have a writing assignment to complete but can't seem to find the focus to get the project started?  Consider these tips for more focused writing:

• Make sure you understand the parameters of the assignment before you begin – ask the professor if you are unsure
• Brief cases that you will use; make notes on general reference volumes that you have found; consider how you will use each source for the paper or project
• Outline your thoughts and the supporting materials before you start writing so that you will be more focused and clear
• Divide the paper or project into smaller sections and focus on one piece at a time while you write
• Review what you wrote previously for a section before you continue writing that section at a later time
• Review other sections that inter-relate before you start to write a new section
• Keep a pad handy to write down reminders about thoughts you have on other sections (or other tasks entirely) so that you can re-focus quickly on your task at hand
• Edit in stages rather than looking for everything at once: grammar and punctuation; depth of analysis; logic; clarity; writing style

Westlaw will sponsor Lawlapalooza 2009, Thursday, Oct. 1, at the Phoenix Hill Tavern.  The first 100 students through the door will receive a ticket good for one domestic bottled beer.

For more information about Lawlapalooza, including a listing of bands performing this year, visit the Lawlapalooza Web site.

The law school is prominently featured in the September 2009 issue of Louisville Bar Briefs, a publication of the Louisville Bar Association. It contains an update about the law clinic, a summary of the library's prized collections, a lovely piece by Jim Chen, "Rhapsody in Red and Black", and an outstanding article by Joshua A. Spiers (3L), "Police-Referred Mediation: Filling the Void Between Police Authority and the Court Room". 

Drop by the law library to view a copy of the publication.

To improve your understanding and recall of the cases you read, consider these tips:  

• Read your cases at the times of day when you are most alert and productive and save “lighter” study tasks for other times
• Read the subject that is most difficult (or that you find least interesting) first each day so that you are your most alert and finish it early in the day
• Create a context for reading the case through a quick survey before you read: what is the topic; what is the sub-topic; what court are you in (federal or state; level of appeal); what are the party categories (buyer and seller of land; buyer and seller of widgets); what is in dispute; what is the holding (now you know the issue and its answer); what questions has the casebook editor included at the end
• Divide what you are reading into small “chunks” – paragraphs on facts; paragraphs on procedural history; paragraphs on precedent; paragraphs about policy
• Ask yourself questions about the chunk as you read to keep yourself interested and to draw out the most important points
• Write margin notes to distill the chunk to the most important points
• Re-read only the chunk you are on if you lose focus
• Prepare a brief after you read the entire case to see if you understand the case AND the bigger picture of this case in relationship to other cases and the topic