BLS Library Blog

A Brooklyn Daily Eagle article, Lost and Found: Investigative Attorneys Specialize in Finding the Missing, features two Brooklyn Law School alumni, Charles-Eric Gordon, Class of 1979, and James Renken, Class of 2007. Gordon serves the legal profession and the business community as “investigative counsel”, concentrating in locating missing heirs, beneficiaries, shareholders, witnesses, defendants and other absentees, especially those missing for an extended period of time and/or about whom little information is known. He currently serves on the Board of Directors of the Society of Professional Investigators and is a member of the World Association of Detectives, the National Law Enforcement Associates and other investigative organizations. Renken has been working as a Systems Engineer at Brooklyn Law School since February 2008 and has received recognition from the Brooklyn Bar Association and the New York State Bar Association‘s Empire State Counsel program for his pro bono service for indigent clients in Brooklyn.

Earlier this month, they teamed up to teach a Continuing Legal Education class “Tracing Missing Persons” which the Brooklyn Bar Association’s Volunteer Lawyers Project sponsored. The summary of the session said that in the course of practicing law, many attorneys encounter situations in which necessary parties to an action or witness cannot readily be located, even through the use of common databases. The session had a “Question and Answer” period during which actual missing person situations were discussed and for which Gordon and Renken offered guidance on how these particular problems may be solved. The BLS Library has in its collection How to Find Anyone Anywhere by Ralph D. Thomas (Call # HV6762.U6 T36 2001), an encyclopedia on locating missing persons with little known techniques usually known only by the pros with years of experience and a highly valuable manual for any type of skip tracing or people locating.

Students can book study room  starting on Wednesday morning, April 25, 2012 through Friday, May 11, 2012. The online study room reservation system link is available on the Brooklyn Law School Library home page, on the right side of the home page under “Related Links.”

Study room may be reserved  from  Thursday, April 26th through Friday, May 11, 2012.  Reservation may be made same day and two days ahead. Students may only reserve rooms for four hours per day. Study rooms are groups of two or more students.  The study room reservation system will be monitored. If a student exceeds the four hour daily limit, the additional time will be canceled.

Instructions for making online reservations are below:

1. Select the time duration for your reservation: 30 minutes, 1 hour, 2 hours, 3 hours or 4 hours.
2. Select the study room number. Click the “Study Room” link at the top of the page for descriptions of the study rooms.
3. Select the number of people in your group.
4. Choose the date of your reservation.
5. Choose the time for your reservation by clicking on an open slot in the grid.
6. New users will need to register as “New User.” You will create your own username and password. Returning users will enter their username and password.
7. Click “Finalize Room Reservation” link.
8. At the time of your reservation go to the circulation desk to obtain the key to the room; please remember the room number of your reservation.
9. Online study room reservations for the exam period end Friday, May 11, 2012.

A few reminders:
• Library hours are 8:00am – 2:00am, Thursday, April 26th – Thursday, May 10th . On Friday, May 11th the hours are 8:00am – 10:00pm.
• There is no eating in the library. Please go to the student lounge or the dining hall for snacks and meals.
• Please limit all conversation in the library. Remember that your colleagues are studying too.
• Do not leave valuables unattended. If you have to step away from your work area, even for a few minutes, take anything of value to you with you. Computer locks are available at the Circulation Desk for student use.

Brooklyn Law School students who want to have a voice in legal education and law school reform have a new place to post their concerns. Law Schooled, a new blog, allows students to learn from other students and connect to faculty, so that students can work together to shape the future of legal education and help each other survive three grueling years with a bit of advice and a bit of humor. Its mission statement says “Law Schooled is an open forum for students to discuss legal education and law school reform. This blog and network aims to include all members of the law school community in a substantive discussion about how students can play a role in shaping the future of legal education.”

Recent posts have covered law school reform, curriculum, bar preparation, and thinking like a lawyer. Law students are encouraged to submit a post to the blog. This experiment may work if students can find the time to speak out and take action. Consider becoming a contributor to the blog by submitting posts and establishing a law school reform organization to discuss financial and employment data and lobby for student interests.

Working in New York this Summer?  Need to sharpen your research skills? Then register for Advanced Legal Research: New York Civil Litigation.  The class, which is taught by Reference Librarian and Prof. Kathleen Darvil, follows the research process from the initial client interview through the final appellate judgment.  The intensive course runs from May 14-17, 2012.  The class meets from 6:00 pm-9:30pm, Monday-Thursday.  For more information please email Kathleen Darvil at kathleen.darvil@brooklaw.edu

The Brooklyn Law Incubator & Policy (BLIP) Clinic’s first ever NYC Legal Hack-a-thon took place this Sunday. It was a great success with about 260 registrants coming together in person and online to hear lawyers, advocates, and technologists discuss how to address the evolving needs of governments, entrepreneurs, and advocacy groups in today’s technologically convergent world. 

The morning session featured two panels and two keynote speakers and a team from Docracy which students used in a Hack the Act competition. The first panel, Gov 2.0: A Primer on Crowdsourced Policymaking and Fostering Civic Engagement through Technology, had Art Chang, Founder & CEO of Tipping Point Partners, Sherwin Siy, Deputy Legal Director and Fellow at Public Knowledge, John Bergmayer, Senior Staff Attorney at Public Knowledge, Jed Alpert, Chief Executive Officer of Mobile Commons, and Benjamin Kallos, Executive Director of the New Roosevelt Initiative and candidate for New York for City Council. The first keynote speaker was Andrew Rasiej, entrepreneur, technology strategist and founder of the Personal Democracy Forum, whose address was titled “From e-Gov to WeGov, The Internet’s New Political Power”. 

Hacking the Act: Why Do SOPA/PIPA Matter? was the second panel with Brooklyn Law School Adjunct Professor of Law Lawrence “Lon” A. Jacobs, who was the Chief Legal Officer of News Corporation, technology attorney Amyt Eckstein, artist, designer, scholar and CUNY Associate Professor Michael Mandiberg, and Matt Wood, Policy Director of Free Press. Columbia Law School Professor Tim Wu gave the second keynote address. See below.

The afternoon session had nine workshops run by BLS faculty, staff students and others. They were Hacking Contracts with Docracy; The PriView Project: Hacking an Assessment Standard for Privacy Policies; Crowdsourcing Legal Knowledge; Crowdsourcing the Mayor with WhyNot; The Calyx Institute: Hacking a Model Privacy Policy for ISPs and SaaS; Law Mob NYC: Porn Trolls which discussed how pornography copyright holders have been suing “John Does” for IP address caught downloading their copyrighted material (See Judge Howard R. Lloyd’s recent Order in the case of Hard Drive Productions, LLC v. Does 1-33.) and Crowdsourcing Legal Resources for Nonprofit Missions; Creating a Legal Framework for Socially Responsible Digital Products; Creative Rights Education; and This Legal Hackathon is Being Mapped Here and Now!

At the end of the Hackathon, teams of students agreed to present concepts for ways to improve IP law. Teams will submit their finalized implementation to compete for prizes for the best presentation. First prize is lunch with Bloomberg Executives and second prize is a Kindle Fire. The Huffington Post article Legal Hackathon Challenges Lawyers to Think like Hackers has more on the event.