idealawg

"Inside A Psychopath's Brain: The Sentencing Debate"

This is the second of a three-part series by Barbara Bradley Hagerty on the brains of psychopaths. I posted about the first article in the series yesterday: Neuroscientist who is descendant of Lizzie Borden considers his predisposition for serial killing.

Excerpt from today's:

Kent Kiehl has studied hundreds of psychopaths. Kiehl is one of the world's leading investigators of psychopathy and a professor at the University of New Mexico. He says he can often see it in their eyes: There's an intensity in their stare, as if they're trying to pick up signals on how to respond. But the eyes are not an element of psychopathy, just a clue.

Officially, Kiehl scores their pathology on the Hare Psychopathy Checklist, which measures traits such as the inability to feel empathy or remorse, pathological lying, or impulsivity.

"The scores range from zero to 40," Kiehl explains in his sunny office overlooking a golf course. "The average person in the community, a male, will

New three "R"s: Reflection, relationship, resilience—Goldie Hawn and Dr. Dan Siegel on the brain

"Neural integration is the heart of health," says Dr. Dan Siegel of the Mindsight Institute. In this short TEDMED video, he talks with Goldie Hawn of The Hawn Foundation and MindUP about how our present educational system imprisons the brains of children. And he talks about how we now have the technology to promote a different kind of brain growth.

H/T: Dr. Martha Lucas.

"Quiet Justice": New article about mindfulness in the law

An article by Charlie Halpern entitled "Quiet Justice" was just posted at the Greater Good Web site. Excerpt:

Judges have been meditating before taking the bench, and opening their courtroom with a moment of meditative silence. Lawyers in tense divorce negotiations have been more effective by maintaining a perspective of mindful reflection throughout the process. Courses offered at a dozen law schools have given law students an introduction to meditation—an effort to help them sharpen their legal skills and make them more effective trial lawyers, negotiators, and mediators. All these steps are part of a bigger effort to help these budding and

Emotion Affects Memory's Reliability - Emotion-driven false memories could directly impact court cases, researchers say

Press release (National Science Foundation):

June 28, 2010

This is your memory. This is your memory on emotion.

Does emotion distort children's memories? Cornell University researchers Chuck Brainerd and Valerie Reyna say yes, and they say emotion-driven distortions or falsifications could directly impact court cases, affecting decisions made by prosecutors, judges and juries about the reliability of child witnesses.

"Emotion is so central to memory in the law," said Brainerd, professor of human development and an adjunct law professor at Cornell. "Determining the conditions in which false memories increase or can be suppressed or eliminated is an urgent question."

In a recent research study, Brainerd and Reyna found that emotion appears to distort both children's and adults' memories, especially when events have a negative emotional charge, such as those associated with crimes. They also found that children are less susceptible to false memories resulting from negative events, but that as a person grows older he or she is more susceptible.

The co-authors report their findings online this week in the Journal of Experimental Child Psychology. The research is supported by the National Science Foundation.

Leading memory theories claim that adults remember negative events better than children and have fewer false memories resulting from them. The law also assumes the validity of these theories. But Brainerd and Reyna's data show

Neuroscientist who is descendant of Lizzie Borden considers his predisposition for serial killing

Can we tell in advance who is likely to commit murder? That's the question neuroscientist James Fallon looked at when he discovered his heritage of serial killers. This question is related to neurolaw, a field that sometimes seems willing to jump the gun and apply brain science to lie detection and other evidentiary matters before the science has evolved to a point where it might be helpful. (See past posts on neurolaw below.)

Fallon's story is intriguing. It is told in an article by one of my favorite writers Barbara Bradley Hagerty. From "A Neuroscientist Uncovers A Dark Secret" (wbur.org):

About four years ago, Fallon made a startling discovery. It happened during a conversation with his then 88-year-old mother, Jenny, at a family barbecue.

"I said, 'Jim, why don't you find out about your father's relatives?' " Jenny Fallon recalls. "I think there were some cuckoos back there."

Fallon investigated.

"There's a whole lineage of very violent people -- killers," he says.

...

After learning his violent family history, he examined [his family's brain] images and compared them with the brains of psychopaths. ...

"... I took a look at my own PET scan and saw something disturbing that I did not talk about," he says.

...

"If you look at the PET scan, I look just like one of those killers."

Fallon cautions that this is a young field. Scientists are just beginning to study this area of the brain -- much less the brains of criminals. Still, he says the evidence is accumulating

"N.Y. State Bar Launches Task Force to Examine Changes in Legal Profession"

Excerpt:

A task force of the New York State Bar Association kicked off a monthslong examination of the legal profession on Wednesday, with the goal of producing a report that will influence fundamental changes in the law firm billing structure, improvements in legal education and training, providing better work-life balance, and harnessing new technologies.
...

"Our focus is not only to look at the future of the profession but to change it," [T. Andrew] Brown said.

[Stephen P.] Younger said 2009 was probably "the worst year in history to be a lawyer in New York." ...

With the economy showing signs of recovery, Younger said lawyers had a choice: They could wait for the rebound and deal with the stresses when

Symposium on the Status of the Legal Profession

From the Web page (Inns of Court):

A Symposium on the Status of the Legal Profession will be held at the Georgetown University Law Center on March 31 to April 2, 2011. The symposium is presented by the American Inns of Court and the Georgetown Law School with assistance and support from the Honourable Society of the Middle Temple in London. The purpose of the symposium is to discuss timely topics relating to the practice of law and the administration of justice.

We are delighted that the following distinguished judges and lawyers have already agreed to be presenters at the symposium:

Justice Stephen G. Breyer
Lord Nicholas Phillips,  President of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom
Justice Sandra Day O’Connor

MetLife Supports Sidley Prelaw Scholars Initiative

The news release (Business Wire):

June 25, 2010 12:20 PM Eastern Daylight Time

MetLife Supports Sidley Prelaw Scholars Initiative

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sidley Austin LLP is pleased to announce that MetLife, a firm client deeply committed to improving diversity in the legal profession, is partnering with the firm to support Sidley’s Prelaw Scholars Initiative and offer a legal internship to a Sidley Prelaw Scholar who has completed first year law school studies. The Sidley Prelaw Scholars Initiative, now in its fifth year, seeks to enlarge the pool of diverse students able to attend law school and

Links to articles from The First "Colonial Frontier" Legal Writing Conference

Duquesne Law Review has posted links to its Spring, 2010 edition. In April, I linked to one article "The Future’s So Bright, I Gotta Wear Shades: Law School Through the Lens of Hope" from the edition. Click to read all the rest. Other titles (apologies for all the caps, but I copied and pasted from the Web page):

• THE FRUITS OF HOPE: STUDENT EVALUATIONS Julia Glencer, Erin Karsman, Jan Levine, and Tara Willke
• HOW TO USE A TUBE TOP AND A DRESS CODE TO DEMYSTIFY THE PREDICTIVE WRITING PROCESS AND BUILD A FRAMEWORK OF HOPE DURING THE FIRST WEEKS OF CLASS Camille Lamar Campbell
• IF I HAD A HAMMER: CAN SHEPARDIZING, SYNTHESIS, AND OTHER TOOLS OF LEGAL WRITING HELP BUILD HOPE FOR LAW STUDENTS? Ted Becker
• NORMALIZING TREPIDATION AND ANXIETY Christine Pedigo Bartholomew and Johanna Oreskovic
• AUTONOMY SUPPORT 101: How USING PROVEN AU'T'ONOMY SUPPORT TECHNIQUES CAN INCREASE LAW STUDENT AUTONOMY, ENGENDER HOPE, AND IMPROVE OUTCOMES Carol L. Wallinger
• STUDENTS CRITIQUING NOVICE WRITING: BUILDING HOPE BY BUILDING BRIDGES Terri L. Enns
• A SYNERGISTIC PEDAGOGICAL APPROACH TO FIRST-YEAR TEACHING Jamie R. Abrams
• ENDURING HOPE? A STUDY OF LOOPING IN LAW SCHOOL Mary-Beth Moylan and Stephanie Thompson
• BEFORE THEY EVEN START: HOPE AND INCOMING 1LS Barbara J. Brunner
• WOULD YOU SAY THAT TO YOUR CHILDREN? ENHANCING LEARNING THROUGH IMPROVED COMMUNICATION Karin Mika
• HOPE, AGAIN: HOPE THEORY IN BAR EXAM PREPARATION Rebecca A. Cochran
• IT WAS THE BEST OF PRACTICE, IT WAS THE WORST OF PRACTICE: MOVING SUCCESSFULLY FROM THE COURTROOM TO THE CLASSROOM Sherri Lee Keene

Lawyer talks about "Personal Legacy Statements/Ethical Wills"

What are the benefits of writing a personal legacy statement, also known as an ethical will? Watch this video created by lawyer Don West to learn about the value of composing one, regardless of your age. Those benefits extend to you, your family, your community, and perhaps to the culture of today and tomorrow.

From YouTube:

Don West, Jr. and Tim Morrison present on "A Step-by-Step Guide to Crafting Personal Legacy Statements" on the campus of the University of Miami School of Law in Coral Gables, Florida, USA. See the complete presentation at www.DonWestJr.net - an online community dedicated to Empowering Legacy Development & Strategic Action-Based Life Planning.

Here is the video:

• Part 1
• Part 2
• Part 3
• Part 4
• Part 5
• Part 6

Past idealawg posts mentioning ethical wills:

• Heaven must be missing a lawyer: Kind-hearted counsel for some clients
• Ethical wills: Have any clients who might want to pass on another kind of legacy in addition to the monetary?
• Want to celebrate the unique past, present and future of your life, your pet's life, your firm's life? An intriguing new Web site