Kentucky Law Review

Law Schools: First Year Oral Advocacy Competition Results at UofL Law

From UofL Law School Blog.  Nice to see pics of some of my old friends from Elizabethtown where I used to practice.  Tried a case with Judge Addington and was law partners with Judge Easton. 

Oh, life was so simpler then in those wide-eyed days of youth when I was a mere lad of ..... (sorry, I ain't telling!).  Yes, I remember when they did NOT have gray hair.  ;) and vice versa I am sure.

First Year Oral Advocacy Competition Results

Photo Gallery

Congratulations to Brittany Hampton, winner of the 2011 First Year Oral Advocacy Competition!

Appellant, Jamie Jackson, and Appellee, Brittany Hampton, advanced from the first semifinals to compete in the final round on April 8, which was judged by Sixth Circuit U. S. Court of Appeals Judge Danny Boggs, Hardin County Family Court Judge Pamela Addington, and Hardin County Chief Regional Circuit Judge Kelly Mark Easton.

UOFL LAW: "Professor Marcosson Quoted in "Time" Magazine"

From University of Louisville Brandeis School of Law Blog:

Professor Marcosson Quoted in "Time" Magazine

By vmsmit06 on Student

Professor Marcosson was recently quoted in a Time magazine article, "Why California's Gay-Marriage Ban Was Upended" (August 5, 2010). "The opinion is strong, first because it is carefully grounded in the factual record made by the parties," constitutional scholar Samuel Marcosson of the Louis D. Brandeis School of Law tells TIME. "Judge Walker used the combination of fundamental rights and equal-protection analysis. I don't think there is a better federal constitutional argument to be made. The question is whether we currently have a Supreme Court truly prepared to rule in favor of these arguments." The article was written by Michael A. Lindenberger, a 2006 graduate of the University of Louisville's Louis D. Brandeis School of Law.

UofL Law: Justice Cunningham to be judge in residence on Mon. Aug. 23

From University of Louisville Brandeis School of Law Blog:

Judge-in-Residence

By rbwimb01 on Student

Justice Bill Cunningham will be the Law School's judge-in-residence on Monday, August 23.  Students, staff, and faculty are invited to attend a community-wide forum from 11:30 to 12:15 in room LL75.   Pizza will be provided.    Please join us in welcoming Justice Cunningham to the Law School and making the most of his visit.

UofL Law Moot Court Teams Meets National Success

From University of Louisville Brandeis School of Law Blog:

Moot Court Teams Meet National Success

By vmsmit06 on Student

A moot court team from the UofL Brandeis School of Law recently won a national championship in the New York University Immigration Law Competition, placing first out of 16 teams from around the country. Law students Duffy Trager and Rachel Carmona argued for the team, which had to take on a case involving recidivism in immigration law. Maria Mourad worked on the brief and preparation for oral arguments. "We really put ourselves through the paces before we got there," said Trager of the team's intense preparation for the event. Carmona agreed that the secret to their success was practice, practice and more practice. "The more practice you can get, the better your chances-and we practiced all the time," said Carmona, who credited the team's coach, professor Enid Trucios-Haynes, and facilitator Jamie Izlar for preparing them. UofL teams placed second in the International Commercial Arbitration competition at Loyola University and the Kentucky Intrastate Mock Trial Competition. A UofL team also submitted the national second-place brief in the Saul Lefkowitz National Trademark Competition. The university also had semi-finalist teams in the American Bar Association Client Counseling Competition, the National Animal Law competition and the Giles Sutherland Rich Memorial Moot Competition (Intellectual Property Law) and quarter finalists in the National Health Law Moot Court Competition and the Florida Bar Association National Tax Law Competition. The law school had 18 moot court teams this year that included 50 to 60 students-all second-year law students or higher. Faculty members as well as local attorneys coach and facilitate the teams.   Full Story: "National Champs: Moot court team continues strong tradition" by Kevin Hyde (UofL Today, April 29, 2010)

The Constitution in 2020: Religion in the Public Sphere

From University of Louisville Brandeis School of Law Blog:

The Constitution in 2020: Religion in the Public Sphere By vmsmit06 on Student The Kentucky Lawyer Chapter and the University of Louisville Louis D. Brandeis School of Law Student Chapter of the American Constitution Society present:  "The Constitution in 2020: Religion in the Public" on April 27 at the Louisville Bar Association. The Constitution in 2020 is a new book edited by Yale Law professors Jack Balkin and Reva Siegel. It is a collection of essays by leading constitutional scholars regarding the directions that constitutional law should take in the decades to come. Featured Speakers: William P. Marshall, William Rand Kenan, Jr. Distinguished Professor of Law, University of North Carolina School of Law; Visiting Professor of Law, The George Washington University Law School; Member, Board of Directors, American Constitution Society; and Contributing Author, The Constitution in 2020 Paul E. Salamanca, Wyatt, Tarrant and Combs Professor of Law, University of Kentucky College of Law David Tachau, Moderator, Partner, Tachau Meek PLC There will be a reception following the panel discussion. The event is free of charge. 1.0 hours of CLE credit is pending for this event. The cost is $30 for members of the Louisville Bar Association and $60 for nonmembers. Please RSVP online.  This event is co-sponsored by Americans United for the Separation of Church and State, Kentucky Chapter and the Louisville Bar Association.

LOUISVILLE: "U of L course sees law through lens of literature" taught by attorney Donald Vish

From Courier Journal is a very interesting story regarding a "Law and Perspective" course at UofL Law entitled "Law and Literature" taught by attorney Donald Vish:

U of L course sees law through lens of literature

In most of their classes, they pore over torts, contracts and other exacting areas of the law. But for one evening each week this semester, about two dozen law students have been meeting in a basement classroom at the University of Louisville to study the words of a different set of authorities — Aeschylus, Jesus, Dante, Shakespeare, O. Henry and others. * * *

The course on “Law and Literature” shows that courtroom dramas are anything but a modern TV invention.

Authors have been exploring the genre for thousands of years — whether it's Aeschylus' dramas on justice and vengeance in ancient Greece; the medieval Dante's matching of punishments to crimes in his “Inferno”; or Charles Dickens' lighter parodies of the law in the 19th century.

“Everything about this course is about the same thing: What is justice?” instructor Donald Vish tells the students at the Brandeis School of Law.

“They'll never be able to get this course out of their minds (even if) they may not be able to use it in the next few years,” he added after the class. “They know what law and justice look like to lawyers. But I want them to see what it looks like to artists.”

UofL Law: The Value of a Diverse Judiciary is the Focus of Tuesday's Forum

The Value of a Diverse Judiciary is the Focus of Tuesday's Forum

By vmsmit06 on Student

Chief Justice John D. Minton Jr., Judge Denise Clayton, and Judge Joan A. “Toni” Stringer will speak at the next program in our Diversity Forum Series on Tuesday, February 9. Marque Carey will moderate the forum, which will focus on the benefits of diversity in the judiciary and what's being done to encourage diversity on the bench.

• Why did it make a difference that these women were on the bench?
• What were/are the obstacles for African American women on the Jefferson County bench?
• What has changed during their tenure?
• What lessons can they impart to students who aspire to a career on the bench?  

This forum will also address "Pipeline Programs", like the Central High School Law Magnet Program, and their effect on creating chances for interested "diverse" students to excel academically and eventually go on to law school.

Lunch will be provided for all attendees, beginning at 11:30 AM outside of room 275. The program will begin at 12 noon.

UofL Law: UofL Law Library Enhances Its Digital Collection

From UofL Law School is the following post by Virginia Smith.  Click on link for entire post.

UofL Law Library Enhances Its Digital Collection

PRESS RELEASE

UofL Law Library Enhances Its Digital Collection

January 6, 2010

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — The University of Louisville Law Library, in conjunction with University Libraries, has enhanced its digital collection with the addition of 88 plates from H. Levin's Lawyers and Lawmakers of Kentucky (1897).  The illustrations are portraits of lawyers active in Kentucky’s first century of statehood. The persons portrayed include the nationally famous, like U.S. Supreme Court Justice John Marshall Harlan and Senator Henry Clay, but the majority of the illustrations are of lawyers whose greatest prominence was in the cities and towns of Kentucky where they practiced their trade.  The Law Library Collection can be accessed at http://digital.library.louisville.edu/collections/law/.

LAW SCHOOLS - UofL: "Carpe Diem: Privacy Protection in Employment Act" by Ariana Levinson

From SSRN - abstract of law review article to be published by UofL Law School's Ariana Levinson:

LEGAL SCHOLARSHIP NETWORK: LEGAL STUDIES RESEARCH PAPER SERIES
UNIVERSITY OF LOUISVILLE SCHOOL OF LAW

"Carpe Diem: Privacy Protection in Employment Act" 

Akron Law Review, Forthcoming
University of Louisville School of Law Legal Studies Research Paper Series No. 2009-11

ARIANA R. LEVINSON, University of Louisville - Brandeis School of Law
Email: a.levinson@louisville.edu

Scholars generally agree that the law in the United States fails to adequately protect employees from technological monitoring by their employers. And groups as diverse as the ACLU and a coalition of multi-national businesses are calling for legislation to address privacy concerns stemming from the rise of new technologies. Yet, few, if any, academic articles have proposed an actual draft of legislation designed to protect employees from technological monitoring by their employers. If recent calls for privacy protection to address emerging technologies are to succeed, blueprints for legislation must be provided. This article, thus, contributes to the call for reform by proposing a federal statute to protect employees’ privacy from technological monitoring by their employers.

The article surveys potential sources of law and legislation that, while inadequate on their own to protect employees’ privacy, serve as a foundation for the proposed legislation. While each of these sources has been reviewed by scholars in the past, consideration of all as a potential source upon which to model legislation is a notable strength underlying the proposed statute. The basic framework of the proposed statute is to provide protection based on the degree of intrusiveness of the privacy invasion. The framework provides baseline protection for on-duty actions, intermediate protection for on-duty communications and use of employer communications technology, and the greatest protection for off-duty behavior. Other notable features of the proposal include the comprehensive nature of the proposal, in comparison to most prior scholarly proposals; the flexibility the statute provides to employers to engage in necessary monitoring; provisions designed to foster employee involvement in implementing and enforcing workplace technological monitoring policies; and the involvement of a government agency, the Department of Labor, in educating interested parties about employee privacy issues and in enforcing the statute. While passage of legislation protecting employees’ privacy from employer technological monitoring may face an uphill battle, it is possible and should be done.

From UofL Law: " House Approves Yarmuth's Resolution Honoring Career of Louisville Native and Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis"

Thanks to Virginia Smith at UofL Law for the following post at the school's web site:

House Approves Yarmuth's Resolution Honoring Career of Louisville Native and Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis

By vmsmit06 on Student

Wednesday December 16, 2009

(Washington, DC) Today, the House of Representatives approved – by a vote of 423 to 1 - H. Res. 905, legislation introduced by Congressman John Yarmuth (KY-3) honoring the life of one of Louisville’s most distinguished natives - Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis - on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of his retirement from the Court.

For more on the legislation and Brandeis, click here.

The text of Congressman Yarmuth’s speech today in support of the resolution is below, and a video of the speech can be seen here:

Mister Speaker, in Louisville, we are proud of many of the great things our most legendary residents have achieved. From Muhammad Ali’s success in and out of the boxing ring to Diane Sawyer’s groundbreaking work in journalism to Harlan Sanders’ achievements as an entrepreneur, there’s evidence of their legacies throughout our community. It’s in the stories we tell, it’s found in the history embedded in our neighborhoods, and it’s seen on the banners hung in their honor throughout town.

We are proud that our city has been home to people who have changed the world in the realms of athletics, literature, art, music, business and – in the case of the man we are celebrating today – law.

Louis D. Brandeis was born in Louisville, Kentucky in 1856, the son of immigrants - and it was to Louisville that he would return throughout his life.

It was from the cradle of the burgeoning immigrant communities of 19th Century Louisville that Brandeis began his distinguished career. He excelled first at Louisville’s Male High School and then Harvard Law, before beginning a successful career as a lawyer and academic that led, in 1916, to the bench of the United States Supreme Court when he was nominated by Woodrow Wilson as the first Jewish Justice.

The achievements of Justice Brandeis, however, go far beyond breaking that ground. His legacy as a jurist and litigator has had a longstanding impact not just in the courtrooms and law books, but in the lives of every American citizen. His accomplishments were far ranging, but their influence resonates today and will do so far into the future.

To those of us who treasure the First Amendment and its protection of free speech, we can thank the work of Louis Brandeis. To those who value the extension of equal rights to all Americans, we can thank Louis Brandeis.

The right to privacy, groundbreaking work in the field of labor relations, successful challenges to once powerful corporate monopolies – the list is long and establishes Justice Brandeis’ career as one well deserving of our recognition in this House – a recognition he has not yet received in the 70 years since he retired from the Supreme Court.

The work of Louis Brandeis deserves not just our honor, but our attention. Though the battles we fight today may have changed from those of Brandeis’ era, his work is rich in relevance for all of us involved in lawmaking.

When few others would, Brandeis took on the powerful monopolies that caused economic havoc during the first half of the 20th century. He was continuously skeptical of large banks and their relationship to corporations whose failure could threaten the entire economy, and he helped develop the Federal Reserve Act of 1913 which clamped down on the banking industry‘s most egregious practices. In his book Other People‘s Money: And How the Bankers Use It and a series of columns, Brandeis warned his contemporaries of the dangers posed by massive financial corporations accumulating resources and using them irresponsibly – lessons that forewarned the economic crisis we faced in this country just last year.

As a litigator, educator, philanthropist, and jurist, Louis Brandeis did nothing short of ensuring that the rights we now regard as commonplace would persevere.

His contributions are those for which all the country should be grateful and his legacy is something for which all of us from Louisville can be proud. In fact, his legacy in Louisville lives on at the University of Louisville, where the law school now bears the name of Justice Louis Brandeis.

I join Justice Brandeis’ grandsons Frank Gilbert and Walter Raushenbush, his granddaughter Alice Popkin, and the rest of his family in urging my colleagues to support H. Res. 905, recognizing the 70th anniversary of the retirement of this legendary American, educator, litigator, and jurist.