“Most conversations are simply monologues delivered in the presence of a witness” - Margaret Millar

Good morning all you Law Buffs and Calves,

“Most conversations are simply monologues delivered in the presence of a witness” (Margaret Millar). If you need reference or circulation help as y’all progress through this semester, be sure to reach out to your friendly neighborhood law librarian.

The following are 10 interesting articles from the previous week. These articles were pulled from either the: ABA Newsletter, AALL Newsletter, vLex Newsletter, Law360, Law Practice Magazine Newsletter, LexisNexis’ Practical Guidance Newsletter, Bloomberglaw Filings of Note and/or Frontiers Newsletter. Enjoy!

“Major Model Management Inc., a modeling agency that has worked with the likes of Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar, filed for bankruptcy in New York on Friday.”

“A member of Congress pitched a bill to revise the federal hemp legalization statute to cure longstanding industry headaches about THC potency, while lawmakers in South Carolina, Utah, Maryland and Iowa advanced or introduced efforts to reform drug and cannabis laws at the local level. Here are the major moves in cannabis policy reform from the past week.”

Introduction: “Several months ago, there was a “soft” release of a new legal industry news product—Reuters Legal News (RLN). Today Thomson Reuters released several new features enabling lawyers and legal business professionals to create a customizable reading and alerting experience.”

Excerpt: “Director of the Citing Slavery Project, [law professor and legal historian at Michigan State University Justin] Simard is building a database of cases involving enslaved people and modern cases that cite them as a precedent. He even got the editors of the Bluebook—the legal profession’s arcane but rigorously adhered-to citation bible—to change its rules in its 2021 edition, requiring cases involving slavery to be identified.”

Introduction: “It’s pretty easy to get a copy of the laws and regulations that govern life in Colorado. But there’s another legal realm that is not so accessible: case law. This set of rulings by Colorado’s appeals and supreme courts lays out the precedents for how court cases are decided. Right now, the complete set is only available through pricy online services or by going to a law library in Denver, said state Rep. Matt Soper, a Republican. And it’s important to be able to access the full history of higher-court decisions, going back to statehood, to understand how different precedents have evolved.”

Introduction: “Valentine's Day is a time to celebrate romance and love and kissy-face fealty. But the origins of this festival of candy and cupids are actually dark, bloody—and a bit muddled. Though no one has pinpointed the exact origin of the holiday, one place to start is ancient Rome.”

“What are the financial risks you face when starting your own solo practice immediately after law school, and what steps can you take to be successful?”

Solos and small firms can compete against Big Law—and win—but it takes careful planning and consideration.

“An alphabet soup of U.S. government agencies has taken steps toward regulating artificial intelligence (AI). Last year, Congress passed the National Artificial Intelligence Initiative Act, which creates numerous new initiatives, committees, and workflows on AI, with the goal of preparing the federal workforce, conducting and funding research, and identifying and mitigating against risks. In November 2021...”

Introduction: “With Google Docs’ “find and replace” feature, you can find a certain piece of text in your document, replace that text with another text string, even utilizing regular expressions. Here’s how to use the feature on your desktop and mobile.”