Events

Celebrate National Punctuation Day!

Take a break from the tedium of law study and enjoy the pleasures of punctuation! 

September 24 is National Punctuation Day:  “A celebration of the lowly comma, correctly used quotation marks, and other proper uses of periods, semicolons, and the ever-mysterious ellipsis.” 

How do you celebrate such an event?  Enter the Presidential Punctuation Challenge; entries must be one paragraph, a maximum of three sentences – this post isn’t – and use the thirteen punctuation marks (you may use a mark more than once) in this post [apostrophe, brackets, colon, comma, dash, exclamation point, hyphen, parentheses, period, question mark, quotation mark, semicolon . . . and don’t forget the ellipsis] to argue which punctuation mark should be the official punctuation mark of the President of the United States.

Celebrate Constitution Day!

Constitution Day (September 17) commemorates the day the members of the Philadelphia Convention signed the United States Constitution.  Of the three delegates from New York, only one participated through to the end and affixed his name:  Alexander Hamilton.  Revolutionary War veteran and lawyer, Hamilton was also a co-author of The Federalist Papers and the first Secretary of the Treasury.  Aligned with the Federalists, the rival party to Thomas Jefferson and James Madison’s Democratic-Republicans, Hamilton founded the New York Post in 1801 with other Federalist Party members. In 1804, he successfully opposed Aaron Burr’s bid to become governor of New York, a bitter dispute that led to the fatal duel, and Hamilton’s death, in July of that year.  (An interesting historical footnote:  Aaron Burr was a cousin of Theodore Dwight, whose grandson Theodore W. Dwight, a major figure in the history of American legal scholarship, played the central role in the creation of New York Law School in 1891.)

Further reading:

R. B. Bernstein, The Founding Fathers Reconsidered (2009).

R. B. Bernstein, The Constitution as an Exploding Cigar, 55 N.Y.L. Sch. L. Rev. 1073 (2010/11).

Ron Chernow, Alexander Hamilton (2004).

Alexander Hamilton, Writings (2001).

Celebrate Earth Day!

Sunday April 22, 2012 is Earth Day.

Repeating last year’s theme of A Billion Acts of Green®, a “people-powered campaign to generate a billion acts of environmental service and advocacy . . .” the folks at the Earth Day Network have almost reached their goal:  the total Acts of Green reported as of the morning of April 18, 2012 was 977,876,186 (and counting).

One easy Act of Green you could pledge, helping send that number over the one billion mark, would be to turn off the library study table lamps and carrel lights whenever you leave.  Or, you could use the stairs instead of the elevators between floors.  We will thank you and so will the Earth.

Another suggestion:  By drinking your coffee, tea, or other beverage from a spill-proof, reusable mug, you can transform a single Act of Green into an ongoing one, helping continually to reduce the volume of plastic, Styrofoam, and paper cups piling up in landfills or requiring energy for recycling.  At the same time, you’ll be complying with the Library’s food and drink policy and earning our thanks! 

If you don’t have a spill-proof mug, pick one up at the Circulation Desk for $3.00.  Although we already sell these mugs at a loss, for every one purchased through the end of this semester’s exam period librarians will contribute $.50 to Earth Day Network (www.earthday.org/), which works with over 22,000 partners in 192 countries to broaden, diversify and mobilize the environmental movement.

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

Celebrate National Punctuation Day!

Take a break from the tedium of law study and enjoy the pleasures of punctuation!  September 24 is National Punctuation Day:  “A celebration of the lowly comma, correctly used quotation marks, and other proper uses of periods, semicolons, and the ever-mysterious ellipsis.”  How do you celebrate such an event?  Enter the Punctuation Paragraph Contest; entries must be one paragraph, a maximum of three sentences – this post isn’t – and use the thirteen punctuation marks (you may use a mark more than once) you see used in this post [apostrophe, brackets, colon, comma, dash, exclamation point, hyphen, parentheses, period, question mark, quotation mark, semicolon . . . and don’t forget the ellipsis].

 

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.

How to Succeed as a Summer Associate

The Practicing Law Institute, a premier continuing legal education organization, is offering this free program on Monday, June 7.  You can register to either attend the live event or view the Webcast. The relevant information is set out below.

PLI’s 4th Annual How to Succeed as a Summer Associate (Monday, June 7th, 5:30 p.m.–7:00 p.m. ET) program will provide law students with a unique opportunity to get practical advice from law firm partners on making the most of your summer associate experience. Students who can come to New York City for this event will have the added advantage of a networking reception with the faculty and other attendees after the program.

To register by phone, please call PLI’s Customer Relations Department at (800) 260-4754. Be sure to mention your Priority Code: YAK0-8LSN1 and Customer ID Number when registering:

I look forward to seeing you at the program.

Mark Dighton, Esq.
Director of Law School Relations
PLI (Practising Law Institute)
(888) 296-5973
www.patentbarreview.com
www.pli.edu

Celebrate Law Day

May 1 marks Law Day, a celebration of the rule of law and its contributions to Americans’ many freedoms.  Celebrated this year on May 3, Law Day was first established by President Eisenhower in February, 1958. Congress later passed a joint resolution (now codified at 36 U.S.C. § 113) designating May 1 as Law Day and requesting the sitting president to issue a proclamation each year.  Presidents have done so in each succeeding year.

The theme of Law Day 2010 is “Law in the 21st Century:  Enduring Traditions, Emerging Challenges.” The American Bar Association held a public program on that topic on April 27, and offers an online map of Law Day programs across all fifty states. The New York City Bar Association will observe the day with free legal information fairs in Queens and Brooklyn on May 3 and 4.  Click here for the New York State Bar Association programs.

Bridge the Gap Deadline Extended

If you would like the opportunity to develop practical skills to help you master your summer employment, you are in luck!  The registration deadline for the Bridge the Gap program has been extended, so even walk-in registration is possible.  Click here to read the official announcement extending the registration.  Click here for the registration form.

The full-day program will enhance your research skills in practice areas including criminal law, securities and corporate law, bankruptcy, New York Internet legal research, employment/labor law, international law, and patents.  The program concludes with a panel discussion about life as a summer associate, with perspectives from a law firm partner, a practitioner for a non-profit, a judge, an Assistant District Attorney, and a New York Law School student.

Freedom of Information Day

March 16 marks not only James Madison’s birthday but the celebration of Freedom of Information Day as well.  Madison, the nation’s fourth President and a major architect of the U.S. Constitution, believed strongly in citizen access to government information.  He once wrote “A popular government without popular information, or the means to acquiring it, is but a prologue to a farce or a tragedy . . . .” (Letter to W.T. Barry, 1822, The Writings of James Madison.)  Freedom of Information Day honors the importance of the public’s right to know and of freedom of the press, speech, and information.

The day will be marked in Washington, D.C. by a conference hosted by the First Amendment Center and co-sponsored by, among others, the American Library Association.  Access advocates, government officials, judges, lawyers, librarians, journalists and educators will come together to discuss issues related to transparency in government.

Locally, Freedom of Information Day will be observed by the NYPL’s Science, Industry and Business Library (SIBL) with a presentation by Heather Joseph, Executive Director of the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition (SPARC).  SPARC is an international alliance of academic and research libraries working to create a more open system of scholarly communication.  A discussion will follow.  The program runs from 10:30 AM to 12 PM in Conference Room 18 on the lower level of the library, which is located at 188 Madison Ave in Manhattan.

Watch Professor Harris’s Confirmation Hearing Live

Thursday May 7 at 10:00 a.m. the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee will hold a hearing on President Obama’s nomination of Patricia Smith to serve as Solicitor of Labor and NYLS Professor Seth Harris to serve as Deputy Secretary of Labor.  You can watch the live proceedings on the Senate HELP Committee’s web site.

Another source for streaming televised coverage of some committee hearings, as well as action on the congressional floor, is C-SPAN. C-SPAN is a private, non-profit company, created in 1979 by the cable television industry to provide public access to the political process.  C-SPAN’s website offers extensive coverage of congress and current legislation.