Black History Month Begins – Employment Statistics

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Minority Hiring at Law Firms

Associate Director for Public and Research Services Susan Boland has included information on the representation of African Americans in law firms in this week’s library display. The statistics show the percentage of lawyers at the associate and partner label nationwide and in Ohio’s three major legal markets. You can view the information in the Marx Law Library’s digital display or view a PDF of it here.

Research Training Sessions

    • Tuesday, February 6th
      • Freedom Center Journal training with Susan Boland
      • 12:15 – 1:15 P.M. in Room 302
    • Tuesday, February 13th
      • Professor Oliver’s Section 1
        • Federal Law with Ron Jones
        • 10:40 A.M. – 12:05 P.M. in Room 100A
      • Professor Oliver’s Section 3
        • Federal Law with Ron Jones
        • 1:30 – 2:55 P.M. in Room 100A
    • Thursday, February 15th
      • Professor Smith’s Section 5
        • Federal Law with Susan Boland
        • 9:00 – 10:40 A.M. in Room 100A
      • Professor Bradley’s Section 4
        • Federal Law with Shannon Kemen
        • 10:40 A.M. – 12:05 P.M. in Room 302
      • Professor Bradley’s Section 2
        • Federal Law with Shannon Kemen
        • 1:30 – 2:55 P.M. in Room 302

 

Featured Resources

There Oughta Be A Law!

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And there may be one…

The sentiment expressed in the post’s title, which has been used as the title of a newspaper comic strip created by Al Fagaly and Harry Shorten, commonly comes to mind when one complains about a situation that seems unfair or patently stupid. “The law” in the United States is made up of two distinctive sources: court decisions of first impression and later ones modifying them, together making the “common law,” and statutes, which are enacted by legislative bodies. The phrase typically refers to this latter source.

Statutory law affects each of us in some way every day. Obeying speed limits, paying taxes, avoiding littering — these are all responses to statutes and ordinances that establish requirements for participating in society. Law students and lawyers do well by learning how to research the history of a given set of laws, i.e., how the sausage got made. To that end, please check out this week’s library display on statutory interpretation, and consider the following resources:

 

Upcoming Research Training Sessions

  • Library & Lexis Lunch & Learn
    • Researching Paper Topics with Susan Boland and Ashley Russell
    • Thursday, February 1st, 12:15 – 1:15 P.M. in Room 302
    • Lunch & Lexis points, please R.S.V.P. by January 30th!
  • Legislative & Statutory Interpretation with Susan Boland
    • Thursday, February 1st, 3:00 – 4:00 P.M. in Room 306

 

Research Training and Using Technology: Opportunities Abound This Week in the Law Library

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Distinguish Yourself: Know Your Productivity Applications

Learning to use productivity applications commonly used in law offices is a valuable skill. The Marx Law Library has subscribed to the Procertas Legal Tech Assessment, a tool that offers tutorials for Microsoft Word and Excel, and for Adobe Acrobat. We are making the LTA available to all law students this semester. Please join us for a kickoff session on Wednesday, January 24th, at 12:15 P.M. in Room 118. We’ll hear from Procertas founder D. Casey Flaherty, best known for his writings on the need for attorneys to incorporate technology into their practice, and to offer more value to their clients. Pizza will be provided, but advance registration is required.

Upcoming Research Sessions

  • Tuesday, January 23rd
    • Professor Oliver’s Section 3
      • Advanced Searching with Ronald Jones
      • 1:30 – 2:55 P.M. in Room 100A
  • Thursday, January 25th
    • Professor Smith’s Section 5
      • Advanced Searching with Susan Boland
      • 9:00 – 10:40 A.M. in Room 100A
    • Professor Bradley’s Section 4
      • Advanced Searching with Shannon Kemen
      • 10:40 A.M. – 12:05 P.M. in Room 302
    • Professor Bradley’s Section 2
      • Advance Searching with Shannon Kemen
      • 1:30 – 2:55 P.M. in Room 302
    • Law Library & Lexis Lunch & Learn
      • Business Filings with Shannon Kemen and Ashley Russell
      • 12:15 – 1:15 P.M. in Room 302
      • Lunch &Lexis points! Please register in advance
  • Thursday, February 1st
    • Law Library & Lexis Lunch & Learn
      • Researching Paper Topics with Susan Boland and Ashley Russell
      • 12:15 – 1:15 P.M. in Room 302
      • Lunch &Lexis points! Please register in advance.
    • Legislative & Statutory Interpretation with Susan Boland
      • 3:00 – 4:00 P.M. in Room 306

 

Featured Resources

 

Warm Wishes to You as We Get Off to a Shivering Start

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Welcome to Spring Semester

We in the library can’t do anything about the frigid weather, other than to suggest that you dress in layers, but we do give you our warm wishes for a successful spring semester, and for our 3L students, a successful final one. In addition to our wishes, the library stands at the ready with resources and services to help you accomplish the goals you’ve set. Among these are the following:

  • Research Guides on a host of topics
  • More than 1,000 CALI lessons to reinforce your studies and let you test your knowledge.
  • Online study aids available 24/7 from West Academic and Lexis OverDrive, including top study aids series.
  • Legal research training sessions led by our reference librarians nearly every week, along with Law Library Lunch & Learning Sessions, where we partner with our information service vendors to bring you the latest updates.
  • PowerNotes, an online service that lets you annotate your research and easily generate outlines of your research findings.
  • Beginning this semester, the Procertas Legal Technology Assessment, an online tutorial and testing platform to help you become more proficient with Microsoft Word and Excel, and Adobe Acrobat. They are important tools universally used by lawyers.

And be sure to bring your questions, simple and complicated, to any of our librarians. We’re happy to give you a hand!

Upcoming Research Sessions

  • Thursday, January 25th
    • Professor Smith’s Section 5
      • Advanced Searching with Susan Boland
      • 9:00 – 10:40 A.M. in Room 100A
    • Professor Bradley’s Section 4
      • Advanced Searching with Shannon Kemen
      • 10:40 A.M. – 12:05 P.M. in Room 302
    • Professor Bradley’s Section 2
      • Advance Searching with Shannon Kemen
      • 1:30 – 2:55 P.M. in Room 302
    • Law Library & Lexis Lunch & Learn
      • Business Filings with Shannon Kemen and Ashley Russell
      • 12:15 – 1:15 P.M. in Room 302
      • Lunch &Lexis points! Please register in advance.

 

The Law Library’s “Cuban Connection”

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As a youngster growing up in Hialeah, Florida in the 1960’s and early 70’s, I had many friends who either were born in Cuba and emigrated to South Florida, or who were born shortly after their parents made the trip. Some of them remain my closest friends still. Cuba, its politics, and refugees from the island who lived in what was then Dade County were a big part of everyday life. When I arrived at UC nearly nine years ago to lead the law library staff, I was told a little about Jorge Luis Carro, who served as one of my predecessors from 1976 to 1986, and as acting dean of the College of Law from 1978 to 1979. Chelsea Jordan and Edwin W. Patterson III have authored a fascinating article about Professor Carro in the December issue of CBA Report, the monthly magazine of the Cincinnati Bar Association. The article recounts Carro’s life in Cuba, his role during and after Castro’s revolution, and the life he led in the U.S. after he joined his family here in 1967. The article is a must-read for those who are interested in U.S.-Cuba relations, and for friends of the law school and the law library.

-Ken Hirsh

Let the Exams Begin!

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Let Us Help You Do Your Best!

Final exams begin this week, and while this can be an anxious time for any law student, it is especially so for many 1L students, who have yet to face their first law school exam. We in the Marx Law Library are standing by to help you conquer the challenge. We offer you

  • Online study aids, available 24/7, from West Academic and Lexis Digital Library, and print ones in the Reference 2 collection.
  • Online research guides to help point you to the resources that answer your study needs.
  • 24/7 access to the library itself for access to our print collection, lab computers, and study areas where you can softly converse or isolate yourself, as you wish.
  • More than a thousand CALI lessons that will help you bone up on your knowledge or learn something new. Need the registration code? Stop by the library or send a message to request the code.
  • Librarians staffing our reference desk who are ready to answer your research questions.

So please take advantage of all we have to offer, and good luck!

Bagels, snacks, coffee will help.

We’re happy to partner with your Student Bar Association to provide morning bagel and coffee, water, and snacks throughout the day during exams. Stop in for a nosh!
 

Giving Thanks, and Working Toward the Semester’s End

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A Short Week Before the Big Push

With the Thanksgiving Holiday on many of our minds, the work week and class days last only through Wednesday. Following that, there is one more week of classes and exams won’t be far behind. We hope that each of you has something for which to be thankful, and we will do out best to helpmake your academic semester a success.

Legal Research Sessions Abide

Even in this shorter week, our librarians make the effort to help our students learn the principles of good legal research.

  • Tuesday, November 21st
    • Professor Smith’s Section 1
      • Researching a Problem from Start to Finish with Susan Boland
      • 1:30 – 2:55 P.M. in Room 100A
    • Professor Oliver’s Section 2
      • Researching a Problem from Start to Finish with Ronald Jones
      • 1:30 – 2:55 P.M. in Room 100B
  • Wednesday, November 22nd
    • Professor Smith’s Section 4
      • Researching a Problem from Start to Finish with Susan Boland
      • 10:40 A.M. – 12:05 P.M. in Room 100A

 

Resources for Exam Preparation and Writing Papers

Law Library Print and Online resources are available to students 24×7. Be sure to consider these in your preparation routine.

  • Law Library Exam Guide
  • West Academic Study Aids, including Nutshell, Legalines, High Court Case Summaries, Gilbert Law Summaries, and Black Letter Outlines.
  • Lexis OverDrive Study Aids, including Skills & Values, Understanding, Mastering, and Questions & Answers.
  • Print study aids in the Reference 2 collection area, near the Ohio area.
  • PowerNotes will let you annotate online and save both text and citation information to an outline, using Google Chrome.
  • A panoply of mechanical devices to put together your end-of-term papers, including staplers, hole punches, cellophane tape, paper clips, and a pencil sharpener.
  • And although we’re not here 24/7, skilled reference librarians are here during business hours to personally help you figure out how to find out what you need to know.

 

Native American Heritage Month

November is National Native American Heritage Month; please stop by the library and view our display materials.