Novalawcity

Mac law students: a resource for you

If you're a law student who uses a Mac, the Mac Law Students blog, written by 11 Mac-using law students from around the world, is a resource you may find useful. 

The most recent post there reviews eight Mac web browsers, paying particular attention to how they affect certain features in Lexis-Nexis and Westlaw.

Other recent posts include the iPhone's future for law students and lawyers; news about the California bar allowing use of Macs; advice on fixing a wi-fi connectivity glitch in a recent Leopard update;and reviews of applications for creating clippings files and visual timelines.

New Supreme Court wiki

From the authors of SCOTUS Blog comes another tool for keeping up with the Supreme Court, SCOTUS Wiki.

To learn more about the goals of the project and why the creators of the site chose the wiki format, read the About SCOTUS Wiki page.

Thanks to the University of Baltimore Law Library Blog for the tip.

YouTube gangster arrested

Miami police have arrested a local gang leader who taunted police in a YouTube video.  According to the Miami Herald:

In the clip -- filmed by Villanueva's girlfriend at Logan's apartment in December -- the two point rifles and handguns at the camera in a message apparently directed at the Miami-Dade police street gang unit.
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Agents found weapons and more than 800 rounds of ammunition at Logan's apartment, according to a criminal complaint filed Wednesday.
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Villanueva told investigators the video was meant to 'instill fear in people who will `roll up on me,' '' according to the criminal complaint. But the law enforcement community, which has seen four officers killed in the past six months, didn't take the video lightly.

View the video at the link.

Thanks to the Southern District of Florida Blog for the tip.

Charitable giving in Florida

State Agency Database Highlights features a website useful for Floridians making charitable donations: Gift Givers' Guide: A Guide to Charitable Giving in Florida, from the Florida Division of Consumer Services.  It provides data including the charity's license number, revenue, and what portion of funds goes toward program services, and what portion goes toward administrative and fundraising costs. In addition to many local results, sample searches turned up some national organizations.

Digital Federalist Papers

The Federalist Papers have been put online in a thoughtful and beautiful digital edition.  Read them here.

Edward O'Connor, the web developer who created this edition, has some interesting stats about which of the papers have received the most hits.  Read his thoughts here.

Thanks to the University of Baltimore Law Library Blog for the tip.

Need info on a future employer?

The NALP Directory of Legal Employers is a great resource for researching law firms.  It provides a vast array of useful data for job seekers.  Employer demographics and diversity, recruiting contacts, partnership track info, whether pro bono work is encouraged, whether and when part-time employment is allowed, billable hours required, where the employers interview, firm histories...and much more.  Bookmark it, and be prepared for your next interview!

Codes of Ethics Online

Need to view the code of ethics for a professional society, corporation, government, or academic institution?  Chances are it might be available on Codes of Ethics Online, a project of the Center for the Study of Ethics in the Professions at the Illinois Institute of Technology.  The codes include previous versions in some cases, and there are over 850 documents altogether.

Thanks for the tip to the Virtual Library Cat's Eye View.

Lawyers with depression

Lawyers are nearly three times more likely than the general population to experience depression, according to this ABA Journal article.  However, they are coming out of the closet and developing ways to deal with it, including career counseling, assistance programs, and support websites.

Lawyerswithdepression.com was created by attorney Daniel T. Lukasik, who writes:

I also hope that it will make a difference for readers to know that I am a practicing litigator and suffer from depression.  I am not a psychiatrist or psychologist, but I am a person who knows intimately what it is to suffer from depression and simultaneously be a practicing lawyer.

Last year, Lukasik was interviewed about his the support group he created for depressed lawyers by Jim Milles for his podcast Check This Out.  Access the episode here.

Article tip: Lawsagna

Florida Practitioner Profiling

Florida Practitioner Profiling is a database provided by the Florida Department of Health.  It includes required practitioner profiles "for all Medical Doctors (M.D.s), Osteopathic, Chiropractic and Podiatric Physicians, and Advanced Registered Nurse Practitioners licensed in Florida." The database can be search by name, profession, or license number, and there is also an advanced search option.  Results include information such as practitioners' education, hospital privileges, financial responsibility, and disciplinary actions within the last ten years.

Tip: State Agency Database Highlights

Managing your reputation

Eweek Careers reports that 83% of recruiters now use Google to research prospective employees, up 9 points from two years ago.  Even more striking is that the number who report having eliminated a candidate based on web search results has risen from 25% to 43%. 

The article goes on to explain ways you can use the rules of Google's page rank system to improve the quality of results that your name generates.  One that can be implemented in a number of ways is to be proactive, creating positive pages and links that will show up high, pushing less desirable results lower.  If you use Facebook and MySpace for personal contacts and keep your profiles private, sign up and configure a public profile at professional networking site LinkedIn.com, which has a high page rank.  Get out there and comment intelligently on websites and blogs in your field using your name with a link to your own website, blog, or your LinkedIn profile. 

For more about the pitfalls of social networking with links to additional tips for cleaning up and managing your web reputation, see this Novalawcity post.

Hat tip: FSU College of Law Research Center Blog