The Goodson Blogson

Since at least the beginning of October, readership of the annual Rocky Mountain Mineral Law Foundation Special Institute (RMMLF-INST) has likely skyrocketed. Is the sudden spike due to increased public concern about fracking, or a boom in the oil & gas law employment sector? Actually, it's a little more technical than that. An undetermined coding issue in Westlaw Classic 's Journals & Law Reviews database (a.k.a. JLR) has given a strange prominence to Terms & Connectors search results from the Mineral Law Foundation publication. For almost the last two months, the top results for JLR searches in Westlaw Classic are dominated by all available matches in reverse-chronological order from RMMLF-INST, even if more recent articles which match the search parameters are available within other publications. (Other titles which now seem to float all of their matching articles randomly to the top of Westlaw Classic search results, regardless of the user's selected ...

[In this guest post, Reference Intern Janeen Williams explores the legal history of the Thanksgiving holiday. Post title courtesy of Lee Cloninger .]  Currently, Thanksgiving falls on the fourth Thursday in November, but that has not always been the case. The tradition of the " Day of Thanks" began soon after the establishment of the United States. In 1789, in accordance with George Washington's proclamation , Thanksgiving was on Thursday, November 26; however, at this time the holiday was not annual. The holiday was not annually recognized until after Abraham Lincoln’s proclamation in 1863. In the mid-1900s, when states began to recognize Thanksgiving on different Thursdays, Congress decided to enact legislation that would create a fixed national date for the holiday. In 1941, President Roosevelt signed legislation establishing Thanksgiving as a national holiday that would occur on the fourth Thursday in November. Visit the National Archives website to see fede...

Last week, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor visited Sesame Street to explain the concept of a "career" to Abby Cadabby. Justice Sotomayor is no stranger to the educational program's young viewers, having previously appeared earlier in 2012 to decide the case of Baby Bear v. Goldilocks. But her latest appearance coincided perfectly with the beginning of interview season for first-year law students, who can undoubtedly relate to Abby's excitement – and confusion – about the many possible career paths that she might choose. While our 1Ls probably don't have a SCOTUS justice on speed-dial, they do have a lot of resources at their disposal to help make their job searches easier. First and foremost is the Duke Law Career Center , whose Career Paths website outlines and describes common professional areas like private practice, public interest, academia, and even international opportunities. The 1L Career Toolkit provides invaluable guidance for each of t...