The Goodson Blogson

Tomorrow morning, the New York Times begins its “digital subscription” plan. As the paper first announced to readers on March 18 , online readers who do not already receive home delivery of the paper will be restricted to viewing 20 free articles per month . Readers who exceed that limit will be prompted to sign up for a paid “ digital subscription ,” whose regular prices range from $15-$35 per month (an unspecified special introductory rate will be offered starting March 28). Here at Goodson Blogson HQ, we expect an increase in questions related to accessing this formerly-free Times content by users who have hit their monthly limits. Please note that we do not have a library-wide password to NYTimes.com, although the site’s FAQ indicates that “Libraries will eventually be covered under group accounts, which we are working to make available in the coming months.” Until that option is available, though, the Duke University Libraries do have e-journal access to the Time s through a n...

Making a checklist for summer vacation? Whether your plans include bathing-suit shopping or BarBri classes, be sure to extend your Law School LexisNexis and Westlaw passwords if you’ll require access over the summer. After June 1, educational passwords which are not extended will be restricted to a limited list of career and employment databases until the beginning of August. Extending passwords is as simple as clicking a link, but you must meet one of the exceptions for academic use. Here’s your guide to summer access extensions. LexisNexis Lexis passwords can be extended for academic purposes over the summer at the Law School welcome screen . “ Academic purposes ” are defined as: Summer course preparation and assignments Research associated with Moot Court, Law Review, or Law Journal Research associated with pursuing a grant or scholarship Service as a paid or unpaid research assistant to a professor An internship, externship or clinic position for school credit or graduation requ...

Legal research, it must be said, is a lot like kung fu. While everyday law practice offers sadly few opportunities to administer a roundhouse kick, both martial arts and legal research are complex subjects which require a lifetime of study and discipline before you can call yourself a master. Unfortunately, your average legal employer isn’t willing to wait that long -- a 2007 Thomson West white paper on Research Skills for Lawyers and Law Students described the perceived gap between what is learned in law school and what is needed for law practice, saying that “partners agree that associates are almost completely incapable of book research, unfamiliar with print resources, over-reliant on electronic resources, and arrive on the law firm scene with uneven skills and research capabilities.” But don’t despair that your skills might not yet measure up to your future boss’s expectations. Instead, mark your calendars for the week of March 21-25 , because like the ancient Shaolin monks of yo...

Late last night, U.S. News & World Report released its annual law school rankings for 2012 online. The popular rankings weigh accredited US law schools by such factors as GPA and LSAT scores, employment and bar passage rates, and “reputation scores” from surveys of judges, lawyers, and law school deans (see methodology ). (Should you feel validated by such arbitrary computations, let’s get this part out of the way now: Duke Law landed at #11 in the overall scores , and #8 on a supplemental new list of law schools ranked by law firms .) The site offers numerical rankings for the first three “tiers” of accredited law schools, and an unranked alphabetical list of the remaining 53. (In previous years, only the top 100 schools were given a numerical rank.) U.S. News & World Report also offers interesting breakdowns by specialty, including ranks for legal writing, clinical practice, trial advocacy, and other specialized area of practice. U.S. News & World Report began these gr...

Last week, President Obama signed Public Law 112-4 , a temporary spending measure which will keep the federal government fully operational until Friday, March 18 . And then…what? Politicians are buzzing about an impending federal government shutdown, which could indefinitely shutter national parks and monuments, suspend the processing of passport applications, and furlough countless federal workers in “non-essential” positions. If you were too young to recall the last large-scale federal shutdown in late 1995 and early 1996, brush up on the procedure in this recently-updated Congressional Research Service report, Shutdown of the Federal Government: Causes, Processes, and Effects (Feb. 2011) (available with Duke NetID via LexisNexis Congressional , or free at http://www.govexec.com/pdfs/022511rb1.pdf ). Yesterday, the U.S. Senate rejected two spending proposals which would have extended federal operations to the end of this fiscal year, September 30, 2011. The clock is now ticking for...

An early episode of the Comedy Central mockumentary series Reno 911! depicted its inept law enforcement crew competing in a twisted scavenger hunt, where points were awarded for arresting unusual criminals: e.g., 10 points would be awarded for a perp who measured more than 6’5” in height; another 5 points for an arrestee with an animal tattoo; and 15 points to the officer who nabbed the most attractive prostitute by night’s end. But what seemed like a far-fetched and morbidly funny hypothetical scenario in 2003 became sadly real yesterday, when the L.A. Times published an internal police memo which outlined a "baseball game" for traffic violations . The Bell (CA) Police Department Baseball Game ( annotated memo ) created a progressive scoring system for parking and moving violations, from "singles" (recovering a stolen vehicle, writing 6 parking tickets), to "doubles" (misdemeanor arrests, citations for illegal parking in a handicapped spot), to "t...

Whether you’re formally pursuing Duke’s LL.M in Law & Entrepreneurship or just casually kicking around a business idea with friends, you might already be incubating the next Facebook, the latest local hot-spot restaurant, or a community-enriching nonprofit (such as Durham’s Coalition to Unchain Dogs ). But turning a business idea into reality is a complex process, and few people possess both the business and legal acumen to go it alone. While the Goodson Law Library staff cannot provide legal advice on starting a business, the Goodson Blogson can point you to some helpful resources to get your idea beyond the brainstorming phase. Unsurprisingly, the Ford Library at the Fuqua School of Business houses the majority of Duke's print resources on starting a business (like the recent Technology Ventures: From Idea to Enterprise ), but the Duke University community also has access to a number of relevant e-books, such as The Small Business Start-Up Kit (2004) and Legal Guide for St...