UHLC Nota Bene

By the numbers, solo and small firms are the places to be. According to statistics from the National Association for Law Placement (NALP, for short), employment patterns for recent law school graduates entering private practice have trended toward small and solo firms in recent years. ABA demographics suggest that regardless of where they get their start, half of all private practice attorneys in the U.S. become solo practitioners. Still, the prospect of practicing with few or no in-house mentors can be daunting. Thankfully, there are plenty of resources in the law library and on the Web to help. Here are a few to get you started: Solo by Choice: How to Be the Lawyer You Always Wanted to Be by Carolyn Elefant (Call No. KF300.E42 2011): This book contains insights into the decision to become a solo practitioner as well as strategies for successfully managing a one-attorney firm. Small Firms, Big Opportunity: How To Get Hired by Linda Calvert Ha...

March is Women’s History Month. Originally designated as Women’s History Week in 1981 ( Public Law 97-28 ), in 1987 Congress passed a joint resolution extending this celebration of Women’s History through the entire month of March Public Law ( Public Law 100-9 ). Since 1995, the President has issued annual proclamations reconfirming March as Women’s History Month. Just in time for 2014’s Women’s History Month, HeinOnline has introduced a new library of historical works, “Women & the Law.” The archive contains over 800 fully searchable titles including books, government publications and reports, biographies, and scholarly articles relating to women’s relationship with the law over the centuries. Many of the works focus on the United States, but the collection also includes works regarding women from numerous other countries, including the united Kingdom, Germany, Russia, and Japan.  The collection includes documents from as early as the 17 th century, like William ...

The Congressional Research Service (CRS) is an arm of the Library of Congress. Joined today by two other congressional support agencies, the Congressional Budget Office and the Government Accountability Office, the Congressional Research Service offers research and analysis to Congress on all current and emerging issues of national policy. CRS is unique because its time and efforts are devoted to working exclusively for Congress, providing reports that make no legislative or policy recommendations, but seek to accurately inform members of the House and Senate in its lawmaking from bill drafting to oversight of enacted laws.   CRS Reports are a wonderful resource for research a huge variety of topics- over 700 new   reports are released annually within the broad   subjects of   American Law, Domestic Social Policy,   Foreign Affairs, Defense and Trade, Government and Finance,   and   Resources, Science and Industry. Only members of Congress an...

Bloomberg Law recently released a new app that is available for both Apple and Android devices. This app will allows users to access Bloomberg Law reports including Bloomberg BNA publications such as the Environment Reporter and Daily Tax Report . Users first need to log on to the Bloomberg Law database and take the following steps: Click the "BNA Law Reports" link from the main search page Click "Manage E-mail Notifications" from the right side of the page Choose from the list of publications by subject and click the "set notification" link for the publication(s) selected Access the app to read the articles from the publication(s) selected Law students and faculty can access the Bloomberg Law database by clicking "Register a Law School Account" from the Bloomberg Law website (make sure to use your UH Cougarnet e-mail address when registering).

This month, the National Center for Access to Justice unveiled the Justice Index , an online tool providing information about the quality of access to justice in every state.   The tool offers composites scores for each state, which take into account the number of civil legal aid attorneys,   the amount of support for self-represented litigants, the support for people with limited English proficiency, and support for people with disabilities.   You can also access detailed information specific to each individual category.    This tool, intended for a variety of audiences such as courts, lawmakers, attorneys, legal academics, social services organizations, and the public, allows you to compare and rank the states, highlight best practices, and identify gaps in services.   For more information about the Justice Index, visit the website’s FAQ page.  

The U.S. Government Printing Office (GPO) recently announced that they are expanding their eBook program to provide free public access to federal government eBooks through their online Catalog of U.S. Government Publications .   Currently, the free eBook collection includes over 125 titles, but GPO plans to add more titles every month.   Many of the books such as The Effectiveness of Drone Strikes in Counterinsurgency and Counterterrorism Campaigns , Making Sense of DNA Backlogs 2012: Myths vs. Reality , and NASA at 50: Interviews with NASA’s Senior Leadership may be of interest to scholars.   Other titles such as In the Loop: A Reference Guide to American English Idioms and Baseball: The National Pastime in the National Archives are of more general interest.    To find eBooks, you can search the Catalog of U.S. Government Publications or use the eBook Search box on the Federal Depository Library website.   You can also browse all of the avai...

Today, on March 4, 2014, the Mardi Gras festival is occurring across the state border in Louisiana.  For any of our neighbors interested in the laws applicable to their celebration, for any Houston residents planning to travel to New Orleans to join in, or far anyone simply interested in the law as it relates to Mardi Gras, the following legal resources may be of interest: Mardi Gras is a state holiday in parts of Louisiana as per La. Rev. Stat. § 1:55(A)(3) . To celebrate Mardi Gras, the normal rule against wearing festival masks in public is waived by La. Rev. Stat. § 14:313(C)(2) (except for sex offenders).  Setting up ladders to get a better view of passing parades is permissible, but for the first time this year ladders must remain at least six feet from the curb and may not be chained together to reserve sitting room; to find out more, read Chapter 34 of the New Orleans Municipal Code , the entirety of which is devoted to regulat...