John Yoo Defends His Legal Counsel

Los Angeles Times, April 22, 2009 by Carol J. Williams
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-bybee22-2009apr22,0,2274085.story

“Three thousand of our fellow citizens had been killed in a deliberate attack by a foreign enemyֽ” Yooֽ unruffled by shouts that he is a war criminal and should be in jailֽ told a packed auditorium on the Orange County campus. “That forced us in the government to have to consider measures to gain information using presidential constitutional provisions to protect the country from further attack.”

Mary Ann Mason Calls for Tenure Reform

The Chronicle of Higher Education, April 22, 2009 by Mary Ann Mason
http://chronicle.com/jobs/news/2009/04/2009042201c.htm

Certainly the timing of tenure is terrible for women. Today, the average age at which women can expect to receive a Ph.D. is 34. That puts the five to seven years of racing the tenure clock squarely at the end of the normal reproductive cycle. Those are the “make or break” years for female academicsֽ in terms of both career and childbearingֽ not to mention the demands of raising young children. Difficult choices must be made.

Edward Tom Says Brown University’s ″New Curriculum″ Doesn’t Hurt Law School Applicants

The Brown Daily Herald, April 20, 2009 by Nicole Friedman
http://www.browndailyherald.com/your-brown-transcript-off-college-hill-1.1722969

Brown students have “never been hurt” by the curriculum in applying to the University of California at Berkeley’s Boalt Hall School of Lawֽ said Edward Tomֽ its dean of admissions. He added that Brown has a strong reputation as one of the law school’s top feeder colleges

David Caron Explains the Complexities of Piracy Law

The National, April 18, 2009 by Steven Stanek
http://www.thenational.ae/article/20090419/FOREIGN/752708574/1014

“There is plenty of authority all around to go after piratesֽ” said David Caronֽ a law professor at the University of California at Berkeley and the incoming president of the American Society of International Law. “The problem has been really what to do when you catch them.”… The story has generated such a reaction in the US media that Prof Caron said the prospect of leaving the case in Kenyan courts would be viewed as “politically unacceptable”.

Pamela Samuelson Raises Antitrust Concerns over Google Book Search Settlement

-O’Reilly “Radar” blog, April 17, 2009 by Pamela Samuelson
http://radar.oreilly.com/2009/04/legally-speaking-the-dead-soul.html

The Book Search agreement is not really a settlement of a dispute over whether scanning books to index them is fair use. It is a major restructuring of the book industry’s future without meaningful government oversight. The market for digitized orphan books could be competitiveֽ but will not be if this settlement is approved as is.

-The New York Times “Bits” blog, April 17, 2009 by Miguel Helft
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/04/17/opposition-to-google-books-settlement/?scp=6&sq=university%20california&st=cse

Ms. Samuelson also points out that many authors of orphan works may want to grant far greater access to their own books that would be allowed by the settlement. “If asked, the authors of orphan books in major research libraries might well prefer for their books to be available under Creative Commons licenses or put in the public domain so that fellow researchers could have greater access to themֽ” Ms. Samuelson wrote.

-The Recorder, April 20, 2009 by Zusha Elinson
http://www.law.com (requires registration; go to G:\Law School in the News\News Clips for article)

Pamela Samuelson said the issue of orphaned works should be handled by legislators, not a settlement in a class action. “Usually if you want a compulsory license you have to go to Congress,” she said. Samuelson said she favors a scenario in which the Internet Archive and other digital librariesֽ not just Google, would get a license to scan the books and make them available online.

-San Jose Mercury News, April 28, 2009 by Elise Ackerman
http://www.mercurynews.com/breakingnews/ci_12248048?source=rss
“It is clear to us that the settlementֽ if approvedֽ will shape the future of readingֽ researchֽ writing and publication practices for decades to comeֽ” Professor Pamela Samuelson of the University of California-Berkeley School of Law wrote in an April 27 letter to the judge.

Berkeley Law Plans to Address Needs of Deferred Law Graduates

The Daily Journal, April 17, 2009 by Amanda Becker
http://www.dailyjournal.com/law/index.cfm (requires registration; go to G:\Law School in the News\News Clips for article)

The efforts address concerns – health insuranceֽ student loan debt and dwindling professional opportunities – that weigh heavily on students’ minds as they figure out what to do during the year before they join their firm. Law schoolsֽ including UCLA and Northwesternֽ have responded by developing specialized master’s degrees in professional development, extending health insurance coverage or postponing the onset of student loan repayment. Representatives at USC Gould School of Law and UC Berkeley School of Law say less formalized efforts are also under way at their institutions.

Stephen Sugarman Proposes a Way to End Steroid Abuse in Professional Baseball

San Francisco Chronicle, April 17, 2009 by Jasper Rine and Stephen D. Sugarman
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/04/17/ED4K173OSA.DTL&hw=Berkeley+University+UC&sn=005&sc=168

Here’s how: Require that a substantial share of baseball salaries—say two-thirds of earnings above the league minimum guaranteed by the collective bargaining agreement—go into a trust for the duration of the player’s career…. If a player’s stored samples are clean, he would get everything in his trust and remove any suspicion about his honesty. If the samples prove he cheatedֽ after appropriate retesting and inevitable challengesֽ his share would be forfeited.

Elisabeth Semel Interprets Supreme Court Ruling on Lethal Injection

Los Angeles Times, April 17, 2009 by James Oliphant
http://articles.latimes.com/2008/apr/17/nation/na-stevens17

Elisabeth Semelֽ a law professor and director of the Death Penalty Clinic at UC Berkeley who helped bring the challenge to Kentucky’s lethal-injection proceduresֽ said the court’s opinion made it clear that states can be forced to institute alternative lethal-injection procedures if they can be proven to alleviate a substantial risk of severe pain to the inmate.

Ann O’Leary Advises Maria Shriver on the Status of Women

Los Angeles Times, April 16, 2009 by Tina Daunt
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/la-et-cause16-2009apr16,0,5879875.story

This new project aims to produce a “Shriver Report” that also will assess the status of women in government, business, faith institutions and healthcare…. Shriver plans to take a hands-on role in the effortֽ but has enlisted a couple of pretty high-powered co-editorsֽ Center for American Progress senior economist Heather Boushey and Ann O’Learyֽ executive director of the Center on Healthֽ Economic & Family Security at the UC Berkeley School of Law.