The Cardinal Lawyer

In its July 6, 2009, edition, the Louisville Courier-Journal published letters to the editor that responded to a June 28, 2009, opinion column by J. Bruce Miller, "Louisville's two educational myths." I understand that further responses from the University of Louisville are forthcoming.

In the meanwhile, I wish to address a highly misleading statement in Mr. Miller's column. He mentions the University of Louisville's Brandeis School of Law in one sentence: "It's [sic] law school stands at 98th out of 100 American law schools, . . . ." This statement is misleading. U.S. News and World Report's current survey of American law schools ranks the University of Louisville 98th — out of 184 programs, not out of 100. As that magazine reports in the online version of its survey, "U.S. News surveyed 184 accredited programs to get the information used in the ranking of top law schools."

In support of his assertions, Mr. Miller wrote, "You can't make this stuff up. It's true." With respect to his statement about the Law School, he did make stuff up. And it's misleading.

Update: This response was published as a letter to the editor by the Courier-Journal on July 9, 2009.

The Louisville Zoo's train derailed on June 1, 2009. Ten days later, Larry Franklin, a 1967 UofL law graduate (and the subject of this extensive profile in the Louisville Courier-Journal) filed the first lawsuit on behalf of one of the families injured in the derailment.

Another graduate of the Law School, Shawn Cantley of Bahe Cook Cantley & Jones, was among the first attorneys to comment on the zoo train derailment. His blog post on the incident took note of a judicial order preserving evidence regarding the train and its history.

The spotlight in this unfolding story has now come to shine upon another graduate of UofL Law. Hans Poppe, through an entry in his Twitter account, informed me of his blog post, Leveling the playing field. Hans responded to "the sarcastic and baseless attacks that were launched . . . in the comment section" accompanying the Courier-Journal story covering the lawsuit filed by Larry Franklin.

"What people don't understand," Hans wrote, "is that most personal injury lawyers don't file baseless lawsuits." His explanation shed light on the business model and practices of lawyers who work primarily on the basis of contingency fees. "Contingency fee lawyers are just like any other business owner," he wrote. "[T]hey must turn a profit to pay the salaries of their employees, the rent, and other overhead and expenses. If they fail to do so, they are not in business long."

One positive byproduct of my Twitter account (where I write as J.C. Redbird), my Facebook account, and my other adventures in social networking is the record of my URL-shortening activities on Bit.ly.

Bit.ly is quite arguably the best and most sophisticated tool for compressing URLs. It tracks the history of individual users' activities. That history gives a snapshot into the way each Bit.ly user approaches online information. Bit.ly bookmarks open a door into the mind of a person with extensive online activities. In order to give readers of The Cardinal Reader deeper insight into my interests and how I bring them to bear as dean of the Law School, I happily share my Bit.ly bookmarks.

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Senator Christopher J. Dodd, a 1972 law graduate of the University of Louisville, was profiled this weekend in a New York Times column by Gail Collins:

Mr. Dodd's Best/Worst Year

Big week in Washington, what with final action on the tobacco regulation bill, under the leadership of Senator Christopher Dodd.

Congress has really been on a roll. Remember how they passed that consumer credit card bill under the leadership of Senator Christopher Dodd and the Helping Families Save Their Homes Act sponsored by Senator Christopher Dodd? There is, of course, still so much to do. We’re hoping for a strong health care bill like the one co-written by Ted Kennedy and Senator Christopher Dodd. And the Obama plan to create a new agency to protect consumers of financial products. It got a big boost Friday when it received the strong support of the banking committee chairman, Senator Christopher Dodd.

What is it with this guy? Are they running out of senators or something?

Here at the Senator's alma mater, we'd like to think that Senator Dodd's recent flurry of legislative activity demonstrates how well he has put his legal education to use. Like all of his fellow graduates, in all walks of professional life, Christopher Dodd is a source of pride for UofL Law. We congratulate him. And yes, in case you're wondering, we're following his Twitter account.

Euler's identity: e^iπ + 1 = 0

	So long ago when we were taught That for whatever kind of puzzle you got You just stick the right formula in A solution for every fool — Indigo Girls, Least Complicated, Swamp Ophelia (1994)

»  Reprinted from the June 2009 issue of Louisville Bar Briefs   «

Before the 2008 campaign season changed history and realigned the American political landscape, I had always regarded Amy Ray and Emily Saliers as the most famous people with whom I shared a college campus in my youth. I will confess my bias in this regard. Few sources of beauty exceed that of the human voice at just the right pitch and timbre, rich in acoustic resonance, and most of all delivered at a frequency in the neighborhood of 220 hertz. Careful readers of this column have long known how much I like the Indigo Girls.