Author: library

Exam Prep Help!

Three important Library resources to keep in mind as you prepare for upcoming exams.

First:  The Library’s Exam Preparation Resources web page offers a host of materials containing practical advice and strategies designed to help you navigate the exam process.

Second:  The Library maintains an archive of previous years’ exams for most courses.  You can access these exams by course or professor name.  From the Library’s home page, click Find Sample Exams under How Do I . . . ?

Third:  CALI offers a variety of lessons and podcasts with helpful tips and advice from faculty on preparing for and taking exams. To access these materials, log in to CALI; under CALI Topics, click Legal Concepts and Skills and scroll down to one or more of these lessons:

Exam Taking Skills, Outlines, and Advice for Law Students (Panel 1 PodCast)

Exam Taking Skills, Outlines, and Advice for Law Students (Panel 2 PodCast)

Exam Taking Skills, Outlines, and Advice for Law Students (Panel 3 PodCast)

Tips for Multiple Choice Exams in Law School (Podcast)

Top 10 Tips for Successfully Writing a Law School Essay

Writing Better Law School Exams: The Importance of Structure

Celebrate Earth Day!

Friday April 22, 2011 is Earth Day.

This year’s theme is A Billion Acts of Green®, a “people-powered campaign to generate a billion acts of environmental service and advocacy . . .” in advance of the global Earth Summit in Rio in 2012.  One easy Act of Green you could pledge, adding to the 100,504,172-and-counting Acts already submitted, would be to turn off the library study table lamps and carrel lights whenever you leave.  We will thank you and so will the Earth.

For complete information about Earth Day, visit Earth Day Network.

24-hour Library Study Hall

Effective Monday April 11, study areas and computer labs in the Mendik Library at 185 West Broadway will remain open to NYLS students 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.  This Study Hall schedule will remain in effect through the end of the exams period, except for the holiday week of April 18 – 24.

During the Study Hall period all areas behind the Circulation Desk, including the Reserve Collection and the Reserve Reading Room, will close at 11 p.m. on Monday through Thursday, and 10 p.m. on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.  The Library opens for business at 8 a.m. on weekdays, and 9 a.m. on weekends.

During overnight Study Hall hours there are no librarians on duty; security guards patrol Library rooms and study areas.  All Circulation transactions, including borrowing and return of books, as well as charge-out and charge-in of Reserve materials must be complete by regular closing time.  Policies regarding food, drink and quiet study remain in effect.

Overnight Study Hall is for NYLS students only; you’ll need your NYLS OneCard ID to stay at closing time, and to enter the Library after closing. Please have your ID ready to show the guard.

Extended Study Hall hours are suspended for the holiday week, Monday April 18 through Sunday April 24.  24-hour Study Hall resumes at 8 a.m. on Monday morning, April 25.

Please Help Us Serve You Better

Earlier this week, NYLS students received an email message from Camille Broussard asking for your participation in a short nation-wide survey on how law students research and why they choose the research methodologies they do.  If you have not done so already, the Library would appreciate your taking the few minutes to complete the 12-question survey.  The results are all anonymous but the researchers will be able to send us a summary of the NYLS responses.  This information will be very helpful in how we plan our services, courses and workshops.

You can take the survey here.

Preparing for Your Summer Employment

Just a reminder that this coming Friday April 8, you can take your research skills up a notch (or two) by attending the annual Bridge the Gap Program, which this year is being held right here at NYLS.  Registration has been extended until Friday and you can register at the door for no extra cost.  All the details, including registration information and the schedule of sessions, are available here.

The program will enhance your research skills in a number of specific practice areas and it concludes with a panel discussion among a variety of law practitioners.  Panel members will describe the typical expectations for summer law student employees, and offer advice on how to be successful in a summer law job.

Bridge the Gap between Law School and Practice

Want to develop practical skills and strategies for success in your summer job?  Register to attend the Bridge the Gap, an educational program sponsored every year by the Law Library Association of Greater New York.  This year’s Bridge the Gap will be held here at New York Law School on Friday, April 8.  Click here for a PDF version of the detailed program announcement and registration form.

The full-day program will enhance your research skills in a number of specific practice areas (including Bankruptcy Litigation, Business/Company Research, Business Related Tax Issues, Consumer Credit/Bankruptcy/Mortgages, Domestic Violence, Immigration, Legal Process of Litigation, Securities & Corporate Law, and Transnational Aspects of Litigation.)  The program concludes with a panel discussion among practitioners from different legal venues. Panel members will describe the typical expectations for summer law student employees, and offer advice on how to be successful in a summer law job.

On This Day . . . Gideon v. Wainwright

On March 18, 1963, the Supreme Court handed down the decision in Gideon v. Wainwright, a case that made significant changes to the face of criminal law in the United States.

Charged with breaking and entering into a Florida pool hall, Clarence Earl Gideon could not afford an attorney. After being convicted and sentenced to five years imprisonment, he appealed and asserted that his conviction was unconstitutional because the trial court refused to appoint counsel. The Supreme Court’s unanimous decision, written by Justice Hugo Black, found that the Sixth Amendment gives criminal defendants the right to counsel when charged with a serious offense, even if they cannot afford it. Gideon was subsequently retried and acquitted.

In ruling that states are required to provide attorneys to indigent criminal defendants, the Supreme Court effectively created the public defender system that  today is  accepted as an integral part of the legal community.

Further reading:

Gideon’s Trumpet (Book)

Gideon’s Trumpet (Movie)

Kyung M. Lee, Reinventing Gideon v. Wainwright: Holistic Defenders, Indigent Defendants, and the Right to Counsel, 31 Am. J. Crim. L. 367 (2004). (Article mentions  The Bronx Defenders.)

Bruce R. Jacob, Memories and Reflections about Gideon v. Wainwright, 33 Stetson L. Rev. 181 (2003). (The author is the former Florida Assistant Attorney General who argued the case before the United States Supreme Court.)

The Right to Counsel and Privilege Against Self-Incrimination: Rights and Liberties Under the Law

Bloomberg Law Training

Representatives from Bloomberg are now offering a variety of introductory, advanced, and specialized training sessions for “Bloomberg Law,” an online legal search tool now available to law firms and law schools.  Details of the training, including the schedule for March and April, are set out below:

Bloomberg Law is pleased to present ongoing training sessions to New York Law School students.  We are offering a mix of Introductory as well as Advanced sessions that will help prepare either summer associates or outgoing graduates for a variety of opportunities. Each session runs approximately 40-50 minutes.

To sign up please email oribe@bloomberg.net with the sessions & times.

Introductory Sessions:  Learn the basic navigation and data coverage of Bloomberg Law which is used by AmLaw firms for current case law, legal commentary, news, and business intelligence.

Advanced Sessions:

~ Corporate and Securities Transactions:  Legal and Business research at an advanced level for students heading to financial institutions and the law firms that support them.

~ Legal Research:  Advanced training for litigators:  Bloomberg Law has

every published state and federal case & commentary to teach you everything from Banking Law to White Collar Crime.

~ Due Diligence: Learn how to perform the due diligence research necessary for transactional and bankruptcy work in corporate law firms.

~ Dodd-Frank Demystified: Learn how to research Dodd-Frank, the biggest statutory and regulatory overhaul of the securities industry since Sarbanes-Oxley.

~ Bloomberg for Summers: Get a head start with the newest legal research tool and let us help prepare you with free access for the entire summer.

March 2011

INTRO TO BLOOMBERG LAW:
March 7th:  1pm, 5pm
March 15th: 1pm, 4pm
March 24th: 1pm, 5pm, 6pm

ADVANCED BLOOMBERG LAW: CORPORATE & SECURITIES LAW
March 8th: 12pm, 5pm
March 16th: 1pm, 6pm

ADVANCED BLOOMBERG LAW: LITIGATION
March 17th: 5pm, 6pm

ADVANCED BLOOMBERG LAW: PERFORMING DUE DILIGENCE WITH BLOOMBERG LAW
March 9th: 1pm, 5pm
March 15th: 5pm, 6pm

DODD-FRANK DEMYSTIFIED
March 14th: 5pm 6pm

April 2011
INTRO TO BLOOMBERG LAW:
April 5th: 12pm, 5pm

USING BLOOMBERG LAW FOR THE SUMMER: CORPORATE & SECURITIES LAW
April 6th: 1pm, 5pm
April 12th: 1pm, 5pm

 

USING BLOOMBERG LAW FOR THE SUMMER: LITIGATION & DOCKETS!
April 5th: 1pm, 6pm
April 13th: 1pm, 6pm

 

USING BLOOMBERG LAW FOR THE SUMMER:  PERFORMING DUE DILIGENCE WITH BLOOMBERG LAW
April 6th: 12pm, 6pm
April 14th: 12pm, 5pm