idealawg

Blog Glob: "Legal Education at a Distance"

Excerpt from "Legal Education at a Distance" (Inside Higher Ed) . . .

While the ABA has not changed its rules, it has quietly approved an unusual variance from its procedures to allow the Penn State Dickinson School of Law to offer many more courses at a distance than ABA rules permit. While the effort relates in part to particular characteristics of the Penn State program (which makes use of two physical campuses), the ABA waiver represents the broadest experiment to date in the association giving its blessing to the extensive use of distance education.

Happy Halloween! And why pumpkins?

Carving vegetables into scary faces then lighting them is an odd kind of custom that just must have interesting roots.

The Irish do not disappoint. Folks there have a legend of a drunken farmer, whose dealings with the devil led to him being turned back at both the gates of heaven and hell upon his death. Forced to wander the darkness of purgatory, Jack made an o'lantern from a turnip and lump of burning coal to guide his lost soul. Every Halloween, communities in Ireland would craft their own turnip lamps to scare him and other wayward spirits away.

The tradition became pumpkin-ified when Irish immigrants found the orange veggie sprouting in abundance in North America. Today, pumpkins mean big business at Halloween: U.S. farmers grow over a billion pounds a year, worth about $106 million.

_"Why Do We Carve Pumpkins at Halloween?" (Live Science)

Bonus and holiday treat: Diane Levin's annual Halloween post at Online Guide to Mediation. Be sure to click now to see her Halloween-themed mediation posts and links for 2007.

Reminding you that today is the 8th annual Create a Great Funeral Day: Please enjoy your planning and suggest same to others

From 7th Annual Create a Great Funeral Day: A gift, not a joke, last year's post . . .

Too often I have seen the grieving survivors, when planning the funeral or memorial, struggle to answer this question about the deceased: "What would he/she have wanted?" That guessing often accompanies and sometimes exacerbates the pain of loss. I decided leaving behind your wishes about your event would be a gift to your friends and loved ones. And I wanted to make it easy for people to create that gift -- thus, the workbook.

As I researched and wrote the book, I realized filling out the workbook had several advantages:

• You relieve those you leave behind of many decisions during their time of grief.
• You give the bereaved the emotional satisfaction of knowing they are carrying out your wishes.
• You may open up new areas of discussion with your family.
• You are able to create an event that truly reflects your life.
• Reviewing your life for the purpose of creating the service allows you to evaluate how you want to use your future.
• And this gentle reminder of your mortality has an effect on your decisions about today.

On a lighter note, David Giacaloni of f/k/a. . . reminded me this morning that October 30 is also Haunted Refrigerator Night. I wrote back and reminded him to create a great funeral.

New edition of THE COMPLETE LAWYER now online: The focus is "Viewing The Law In 2020"

A look into the future from this new edition of The Complete Lawyer. Lead articles include . . .

• The Knowledge Revolution Will Make You Healthier
• An Open Letter From A Retired LawyerTo His Great-Grandson, Who Is Turning One
• Are You Ready For The Revolution In Legal Services?
• Elder Law Attorneys Can Help Humanize The Future Of Health Care

The edition presents many, many other articles such as these (it's a potpourri, cafeteria-style publication) . . .

• Four Good Reasons To Break Your PowerPoint Addiction
• Achieve Inspired Performance In Your Law Firm
• Values Are Who We Are

and even

• Raise Your Food Consciousness: Eat Strategically

Tip: The theme of the future of the legal profession has been often-visited. For thought-provoking analyses, I urge you to visit Rob Millard's Adventure of Strategy, particularly his recent The End of Lawyers?. Rob is one of the top thinkers on where the profession is heading.

Neurolaw and some of its potential dangers

As I have blogged before, neurolaw is fraught with danger and unsubstantiated promises. It overestimates what we can do, and learn about people, with the current state of neuroscience and leaves out some of the research that contradicts many of its assertions and predictions. Scary. I hope to promote critical thinking on the topic.

At the seminar on neuroscience and conflict resolution last week, I asked Dr. Jeffrey Schwartz to talk about the MacArthur Foundation grant to study neuroscience and law. He covered several of the problems that could result from research that leaves out much of the picture. (See my blog post for more.)

The morning of the seminar, The [London] Times coincidentally published an article on some problems with neurolaw. Here's an excerpt from "Why blame me? It was all my brain's fault-The dubious rise of 'neurolaw'" . . .

Meanwhile, the neuromitigation of blame has to be treated with suspicion except in those instances where there is unambiguous evidence of grossly abnormal brain function or abnormal mental function due to clearcut illness that may have its origin in brain disease. Our knowledge of the relationship between brain and consciousness, brain and self, and brain and agency is so weak and so conceptually confused that the appeal to neuroscience in the law courts, the police station or anywhere else is premature and usually inappropriate. And, I would suggest, it will remain both premature and inappropriate. Neurolaw is just another branch of neuromythology.

Read the rest of the article, please.

"Will lawyers exist in 100 years? Join the debate"

You may join a debate about the future of the legal profession and contribute to the shaping of a new book The End of Lawyers? by Richard Susskind. For the coming six weeks, The [London] Times will be publishing excerpts from the book and you are invited to comment on them. Learn more. Click for the first excerpt "Legal profession is on the brink of fundamental change." Susskind writes . . .

This is neither a lawyer-bashing polemic nor a gratuitous assault on the legal profession. Instead, it is a collection of predictions and observations about a generally honourable profession that is, I argue, on the brink of fundamental transformation.

That said, I do admit, if I may give away the ending, that these articles will point to a future in which conventional legal advisers will be much less prominent in society than today and, in some walks of life, will have no visibility at all. This, I believe, is where we will be taken by two forces: by a market pull towards commoditisation and by pervasive development and uptake of information technology. Commoditisation and IT will shape and characterise 21st century legal service.

Against this backdrop, I should be honest about one issue from the outset. I do not believe lawyers are self-evidently entitled to profit from the law. As I have said

To lawyers' kids: A question for you

Lawyers, here's a question to ask your kids. The answers may be surprising, entertaining, wise, or insightful. The question for lawyers to ask their kids: What do I do all day?

Carol Ross at Ordinary Life, Extraordinary Living describes in her post A 12-Year Old's Perspective some surprising observations by her son of how his mother spends her day. Ross concludes her post . . .

It might be an interesting exercise to ask your child to describe what you do all day long. Don't be surprised if you hear the truth in a new way.

Although Ross is not a lawyer, the response to the question can be just as informative for members of the legal profession (or any profession). Bloggers, what do your kids answer to that question? Ask them. I would love to hear the answers.

I have no children but for childless bloggers perhaps asking the question to spouses, friends, colleagues, parents (maybe even clients?) might be just as fun, if not enlightening. I plan to ask.

Watch and participate in Pop!Tech

What's Pop!Tech? From the Pop!Tech Web site . . .

Held in a beautifully restored, 19th-century opera house, this three-day summit explores major trends shaping our future, the social impact of new technologies, and new approaches to addressing the world’s most significant challenges.

A first visit to Pop!Tech is often surprising. Unlike traditional conferences, here you’ll find an eclectic network of industry leaders, scientists, technologies, social change agents, artists, educators, the press, bloggers, explorers and one-of-a-kind thought-leaders from a huge variety of fields and number of different places – bound together by an intense curiosity about the forces, challenges and opportunities shaping our future.

Through the wonders of technology you can "attend" Pop!Tech. Click here to learn how to watch Pop!Tech and participate live and for free.

Click here for the Pop!Tech speaker lineup.

Novel concept, international and inter-hemisphere blawg review(s): Blawg Review #130

Two of my favorite bloggers created a blawg bridge between our planet's hemispheres today. Both Geoff Sharp of mediator blah... blah... and Diane Levin of Online Guide to Mediation posted Blawg Review #130 at 12:01 AM on Monday, October 15. But, due to the time difference between their locations, they posted 17 hours apart! What a  greative (great + creative ) idea! For world-encircling, hop-blogging links, click to Diane Levin's Blawg Review #130 and Geoff Sharp's Blawg Review #130. They remind us of the topics and talents of this tremendous international blawgosphere. Our world is big but our links are shared. Thanks to anonymous ed. of Blawg Review for facilitating this merger of hemispheres. I'd like to see more of this United Nations of Blawgs.

New book: GETTING A WINNING VERDICT IN MY PERSONAL LIFE

A colleague just informed me of a new book written by a trial lawyer. Have any of you read it? From a review of Gary J. Gwilliam's Getting a Winning Verdict in My Personal Life in LawyersUSAonline.com [a check in October, 2009, finds link no longer working] . . .

Self-help comes in many forms.

But rarely do the intimate details of someone's personal life challenge others to help themselves the way San Francisco plaintiffs' attorney J. Gary Gwilliam does in his book, "Getting a Winning Verdict In My Personal Life: A Trial Lawyer Finds His Soul."

By baring his own soul freely, Gwilliam challenges notions of what is okay for lawyers to say out loud.

He details his experiences with alcohol abuse, infidelity and even an arrest. In doing so, he gives other trial lawyers a chance to feel less alone in their own