Library Closed for Thanksgiving Holiday

Gallagher Law Library will be be unstaffed from Wednesday, November 24 at 5:00 pm until Monday, November 29 at 8:00 am for the Thanksgiving holiday. We will not be providing Info Desk staffing, reference services, or individual appointments during that time. The library facility will remain open to UW Law community members (see our 24/7 Access Policy for more information). 

Please use our online reference form to ask your questions while we are closed. We will return your message as soon as we are able when we reopen on Monday. 

Happy Thanksgiving!

National Bison Day

Today is National Bison Day (S. Res. 441). It comes around on the first Saturday of November. Hats off to our National Mammal (Pub. L. 114-152)!

 American Bison, by Pelck's Scenic & Art Studio, circa 1906.
Source: Library of Congress

 

It's appropriate that National Bison Day falls during Native American Heritage Month because bison were and remain important to many tribes. 

To learn more about bison, see Andrew C. Isenberg, The Destruction of the Bison: An Environmental History, 1750-1920 (2000), available to UW users as either an ebook or a print book. 

What about bison and the law? Here's a selection of law review articles:

• William Holland, Note, The Spirit of the Buffalo: The Past and Future of an American Plains Icon, 21 Animal L. 151 (2014) [HeinOnline]
  
  
• Dean Lueck, The Extermination and Conservation of the American Bison, 31 J. Legal Stud. S609 (2002) [HeinOnline]
  
  
• Erin Patrick Lyons, Note, Give Me a Home Where the Buffalo Roam: The Case in Favor of the Management-Function Transfer of the National Bison Range to the Conferederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes of the Flathead Nation, 8 J. Gender Race & Just. 711 (2005) [HeinOnline]
  
  
• Peter Morrisette, Is There Room for Free-Roaming Bison in Greater Yellowstone?, 27 Ecology L.Q. 467 (2000) [HeinOnline]
  
  
• Temple Stoellinger et al., Where the Deer and the Antelope Play: Conserving Big Game Migrations as an Endangered Phenomena,  31 Duke Env't L. & Pol'y F. 81 (2020) [HeinOnline]

(You might wonder why I link to HeinOnline, when you can also look up law review articles in Lexis or Westlaw. In fact, I did use Westlaw to find these articles--but I like HeinOnline's PDFs. Unlike Lexis and Westlaw, that are licensed only to UW Law users, HeinOnline is available to anyone at the UW.)

Native American Heritage Month on Your Screen

Check out these films and presentations during Native American Heritage Month.

Native Cinema Showcase, from the National Museum of the American Indian, will stream feature films and shorts from several countries, November 12 to 18. Check the schedule: the feature films are only available for 24 hours each. Four panels with indigenous filmmakers will be available during the whole week. 

The Burke Museum presents Historical Trauma and the Native American Boarding School Experience Thur. Nov. 18, at 5:30 pm. It's free, but you have to register.

You can also stream documentaries on PBS, including films about Natives in the military, the trauma of the adoption era, Natives in rock and roll, and Native women's influence on the suffrage movement.

Take you pick among dozens of video and audio recordings curated by the National Archives, the Library of Congress, and the Smithsonian.

Our Fastcase Now Includes WSBA Deskbooks

Did you know that Washington lawyers have access to Fastcase through the bar association? Fastcase has primary materials for federal and state jurisdictions. (There used to be another service called Casemaker, as well, but the companies merged this year, so now there's Fastcase.)

The Law Library subscribes to Fastcase for UW users. See the link under Washington on our homepage.

All WSBA members have access to the primary materials on Fastcase, but there are other modules. The Law Library also subscribes to a module with the incredibly useful WSBA deskbooks. If you want the scoop on estate planning, look at Estate Planning, Probate, and Trust Administration in Washington. If you have an ethics question, consult The Law of Lawyering in Washington. Real property, land use, or environmental law? Washington Real Property Deskbook. 

From Fastcase's home screen, click on "Browse Libraries." Then the WSBA materials are listed under Commentary. See the screen snips below.

Indigenous Peoples' Day - Land Acknowledgments, Research Guide

Different groups and governments have started marking Indigenous Peoples' Day instead of (or in addition to Columbus Day). This year, for the first time, a Presidential proclamation recognizes the day. See today's stories from NPR and the New York Times.

 

Indian camp with canoes on the Seattle waterfront, Washington, ca. 1898.
Photograph by Anders B. Wilse.  Negative Number NA698, UW12293.
University Libraries digital collection.

 Many institutions have begun acknowledging that they are on indigenous peoples' land. For example, the Washington Law Review states

Washington Law Review (WLR) acknowledges the Coast Salish peoples’ original ownership of the land on which the University of Washington sits, the traditional territory of all tribes and bands within the Suquamish, Tulalip, Duwamish, and Muckleshoot nations. WLR further acknowledges the state’s continuing obligation to fulfill promises made in the Treaty of Point Elliott.

The editors consulted with former Professor Emeritus Robert Anderson, then  Director of UW Law's Native American Law Center, in crafting the statement. Anderson was recently confirmed to be Solicitor of the United States Department of the Interior (although his agency profile still lists him as Principal Deputy Solicitor). (Other agency work might be higher priority than updating web profiles. Browse recent press releases to learn more about Interior's activities.)

Land acknowledgments can be controversial. In some cases, they might seem like mere lip service. Or they might give the mistaken impression that the indigenous people who once occupied the land are simply part of a mythic past. This essay by three anthropologists 2021 explores the topic (The Conversation, Oct. 7). 

Would you like to learn more about treaties with local tribes, federal Indian law, and tribal law? Check out our guide, Indian & Tribal Law.

Neat Trick: Search Law Firm Websites for Practice Tips, Legal Updates

You've probably stumbled across law firm newsletters or blogs that have helpful guidance about some area of the law.

Without counting on the lucky stumble, how can you find these gems? If you just use Google or another search engine, you might all sorts of stuff—newspaper articles, personal blogs, etc., in addition to law firm documents. Instead, try the Law Firm Search Engine, which uses a custom Google search to focus on law firm sites.

This can be really helpful. For example, I entered nonprofit incorporation washington state and found a post from Davis Wright Tremaine from May 2021: David A. Lawson, Washington's New Nonprofit Corporation Act: Is Your Nonprofit Ready?  What? There's a new statute? It goes into effect in less than three months?? Tell me more!

When I searched for covid vaccine mandate, I found a post from Littler, a big employment law firm, from today: Mandatory Employee Vaccines – Coming to A State Near You? (Oct. 7, 2021). If you just used Google (or another search engine), you'd find lots of documents, but you'd probably have to wade through a lot of news and opinion (not to mention a dose of misinformation) before getting to a legal analysis from a law firm.

This handy site was developed by Jeffrey Buckley, a law librarian in New York and graduate of the UW's iSchool. Cool, right?

Good Reads in the Law Library

 You know that the Law Library has tons of great resources for research, such as practice manuals and treatises, not to mention all the study aids. And, golly, the databases! 

But there's more! The Law Library also has a collection of books that we think might appeal to you for leisure reading. This Good Reads collection is on the low shelving across from the Law Student Lounge. Recent additions include a memoir (The Watergate Girl), a novel (The Coyotes of Carthage), and a comic-book-style book about the Constitution (Constitution Illustrated). Take a look!

Book jackets: The Watergate Girl,
The Coyotes of Carthage, Constitution Illustrated

Library Reopening! Woo-hoo!

After a long closure for the pandemic, the Law Library is reopening to the UW Law community, Monday morning, September 20. We're excited to see you again, and we hope you'll be happy with the study spaces, collections, and services available.

Photo by Alex Knight on Unsplash

There's still a pandemic going on, though, so we all need to be careful.

• UW Law students, staff, and faculty may visit the library in person. Just swipe in with your Husky card. 
• One person at a time, please!
• No guests allowed: just UW Law.
• Your Husky cards will open the door 24-7. Remember that Gates Hall is closed 1-6 a.m., and of course you have to be in the building to open the library door.
  
  
• Mask up! 
• Beverages are allowed (in covered containers). You may pull down your mask to take a sip.
• The only library space where food is allowed is the student lounge on L1. Obviously, you'll need to unmask to eat. But don't sit too close to others.
  
  
• Socially distance!
• You can now reserve your seat at a table or study carrel.
• Tables in the Reference Area and soft seating are available to the first sitter.
  
  
• Library staff will be here M-F, 8-5. You'll have remote reference service 9 am to 7 pm Monday-Thursday and Sunday afternoon.
   
  
• Self-service Course Reserves
  
• New check-out stations enable you to check out books to yourself with your Husky card.
• Course reserves may be checked out for four hours at a time, for use in the library only.
• Check them back in and reshelve them.
  
  
• Self-service Checkout
• You can check out books from anywhere (except the Reference Area and Reference Office) at the self-service checkout.
• Return those books to book drops.
   
• Contact us
• Email lawref@uw.edu (UW Law community only)
• Phone 206-543-6794
• Chat (coming soon!)
• Zoom--use the new terminal at the Information Desk to be connected directly to a reference Zoom Room!
  

 

What if you're not a UW Law student, staff member, or faculty member? We can serve you remotely. 

• Ask Us! service (You ask a question via a web form and get an answer via email.)
• Phone 206-543-6794
• Chat (coming soon!)

 

Let's have a great school year!

Access to Justice Speaker Series (Sept. 21—Nov. 30)

Angélica Cházaro, UW Law

Sports fans know that the Pac-12 is an athletic conference of major universities in the West. But the universities are much more than their sports teams. Most of them also have law schools (all but WSU* and Oregon State). 

The law schools don't face off on the football field or volleyball court (although that might be fun to see). Instead, they've gotten together to plan a speaker series on access to justice, featuring big thinkers from around the conference. 

The series runs Tuesdays throughout the fall, and concludes on November 30 with Angélica Cházaro from UW Law.

Tuesday, September 21, 6 pm Pacific Time
Jody Armour
University of Southern California Gould School of Law
Negrophobia and Reasonable Racism: Race, Language, Unequal Justice, and the Law

September 28
David Oppenheimer
University of California Berkeley School of Law
Responding to the Humanitarian Crisis in Afghanistan 

October 5
Margaret Hagan
Stanford University Law School
Justice Innovation

October 12
Anna Carpenter
University of Utah S.J. Quinney College of Law
Judges in Lawyerless Courts

October 19
Stacy Butler and Christopher Griffin
University of Arizona James E. Rogers College of Law
Developing and Simulating Non-Lawyer Models of Medical Debt Advocacy

October 26
Scott Skinner-Thompson
University of Colorado Law School
Identity By Committee 

November 2
Laura Gomez
University of California Los Angeles School of Law
Inventing Latinos: A New Story of American Racism

November 9
Justin Weinstein-Tull
Arizona State University Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law
Title coming soon 

November 16
Kimberly Johnson
University of Oregon School of Law
This is My America: Stories, Storytelling and Access to Justice

November 30
Angélica Cházaro
University of Washington School of Law
Due Process Deportations? The Limits of Universal Representation for Immigrants

Right now, registration is only available for the first presentation. Check the series website for the following lectures' times and registration as they become available. 

 

————

* The legislature decided back in 1917 that only the UW would have a law program and only WSU would have programs in agriculture and veterinary science. 1917 Wash. Laws ch. 10, Regulating Courses of Instruction in State University, College, and Normal Schools. By now the list exclusive to UW includes law, medicine, forest products, logging engineering, library sciences, and fisheries. RCW 28B.20.060. 

Speaking of "library sciences": the UW Information School is home to a terrific program in law librarianship. If you're curious about this rewarding field, ask a law librarian, or start with this online essay.

Tax Forms Through History (#TaxForms)

Individuals' federal income taxes are due today. If you got yours in before the traditional April 15 deadline, good for you! If you're still not on top of it, an extension can give you till Oct. 15. 

Nearly everyone has filed a tax form, but how much have you thought about the forms? 

"For most taxpayers, the Internal Revenue Service forms are the only connection the have with the tax laws enacted by the Congress."

Rep. J.J. Pickle, introducing Development of Federal Tax Forms by the Internal Revenue Service: Hearing Before the Subcomm. on Oversight of the Committee on Ways and Means, 101st Cong. 5 (1989) [HeinOnline]

Tax forms can't just slapped together!

fans of typographic design should pause to appreciate just how difficult this project must be, which makes the result all the more impressive. These forms necessarily represent a collaboration between IRS lawyers (who have to make sure the forms are accurate relative to the ever-changing thicket of tax law), graphic designers (who have to create visual hierarchy & order while preserving an economical density of information), a warehouse of fact-checkers and proofreaders who have to make sure the forms are flawless before they head to the printer (can you imagine the costs of getting a form wrong?), and some chain of command that has approval over all of it.

Matthew Butterick, the best typography in the US federal government (May 13, 2021). (Haven't heard of Matthew Butterick? Don't miss out on his Typography for Lawyers (2d ed. 2015) [catalog record] [website].)

The IRS has posted an impressive collection of forms and publications. Sort by date to travel through history. For example, here are snippets for the tax years 1863 and 1918.

 

 

 

Check out a Book for #AAPI Heritage Month (or Perhaps for Summer Reading)

In honor of AAPI Heritage Month, I'm highlighting an assortment of books in the law library and the UW system. 

You can find hundreds of books about Asia or Asian Americans, using the scholarly lenses of history, sociology, or political science—not to mention novels, poetry, and plays. I looked for a legal connection, and selected memoirs, biographies, and histories that seemed engaging enough that you might want to pick one up, perhaps when exams are over. Many, but not all, are written by Asian Americans or Pacific Islanders.

This list doesn't include books about the Japanese American incarceration during World War II—not because it's not an important topic, but just the opposite: we already have several blog posts on it.

Adrienne Berard, Water Tossing Boulders: How a Family of Chinese Immigrants Led the First Fight to Desegregate Schools in the Jim Crow South (2016) [ebook]

Joshua Takano Chambers-Letson, A Race So Different: Performance and Law in Asian America (2013) [ebook]

Robert Chang, Disoriented: Asian Americans, Law, and the Nation-State (2000) [print] [ebook]

 Yves Dezalay & Bryant G. Garth, Asian Legal Revivals: Lawyers in the Shadow of Empire (2010) [ebook] [print]

Andrew Gyory, Closing the Gate: Race, Politics, and the Chinese Exclusion Act (1998) [ebook] [ebook & HeinOnline] [print]

Robert Terry Hayashi, Haunted by Waters: A Journey Through Race and Place in the American West (2007) [ebook] [print]. "Using a wide range of materials that include memoirs, oral interviews, poetry, legal cases, letters, government documents, and even road signs, Robert Hayashi illustrates how Thomas Jefferson's vision of an agrarian, all white, and democratic West affected the Gem State's Nez Perce, Chinese, Shoshone, Mormon, and Japanese residents." 

Madeline Yuan-yin Hsu, The Good Immigrants: How the Yellow Peril Became the Model Minority (2015) [print]

Stephanie Hinnershitz, A Different Shade of Justice: Asian American Civil Rights in the South (2017) [ebook] [print]

Estelle T. Lau, Paper Families: Identity, Immigration Administration, and Chinese Exclusion (2006) [ebook]

Erika Lee, At America's Gates: Chinese Immigration During the Exclusion Era, 1882-1943 (2003) [ebook] [print][print]

Eric Liu, The Accidental Asian: Notes of a Native Speaker (1998) [print; temporary online access during COVID]

Michael W. McCann & George Lovell, Union by Law: Filipino American Labor Activists, Rights Radicalism, and Racial Capitalism (2020) [ebook] (Authors teach at UW and UPS.)

Chris W. Merritt, The Coming Man from Canton: Chinese Experience in Montana, 1862-1943 (2017)  [ebook] [print]

Kim Park Nelson, Invisible Asians: Korean American Adoptees, Asian American Experiences, and Racial Exceptionalism (2015) [ebook]

Jonathan Y. Okamura, Raced to Death in 1920s Hawaiʻi: Injustice and Revenge in the Fukunaga Case (2019) [ebook] [print]

Yung-Yi Diana Pan, Incidental Racialization: Performative Assimilation in Law School (2017) [print]

John P. Rosa, Local Story: the Massie-Kahahawai Case and the Culture of History (2014) [ebook]

David E. Stannard, Honor Killing: How the Infamous "Massie Affair" Transformed Hawai'i (2005) [print; temporary online access during COVID]. 

David E. Stannard, Honor Killing: Race, Rape, and Clarence Darrow's Spectacular Last Case  (2006) [print] (The paperback edition has a slightly different title from the hardback's.)

Jose Antonio Vargas, Dear America: Notes of an Undocumented Citizen  (2018) [print]

Michael Withey, Summary Execution: The Seattle Assassinations of Silme Domingo and Gene Viernes (2018) [print] (Author is a Seattle lawyer.)

John R. Wunder, Gold Mountain Turned to Dust: Essays on the Legal History of the Chinese in the Nineteenth-Century American West (2018) [ebook] [print] 

Bruce I. Yamashita, Fighting Tradition: A Marine's Journey to Justice (2003) [print]. The book's website includes a brief (4:26) documentary.

Kenji Yoshino, Covering: The Hidden Assault on Our Civil Rights (2006) [print] [temporary online access]

More on Data and Supreme Court Justice names

In 2012, this blog discussed the popularity of the names of the Supreme Court Justices at the time.  With several new members on the Court since then, it's time for an update.

The following charts (prepared by author) show the popularity (by rank) of the first name of each Justice in the year of their birth and in 2019, based on data from the Social Security Administration (SSA). Source for birth years is Supreme Court's About the Court page. 

Popularity of Justices' first names in years born

Popularity of Justices' first names in 2019

As with any dataset, it's interesting to see what patterns the data indicate:

• Everyone's name was in the mainstream in the year they were born.
• Only "Samuel" and "Elena" are more popular now than they were when the Justices were born.
  

Understanding the data is also critical.

• Does the highly ranked "John" include variations such as "Johnny"?
• No. In the SSA data, "John" and "Johnny" are each ranked separately as different names. "Jon," "Johnnie," and "Johnie" are also each ranked separately as different names. For that reason, babycenter.com's list of most popular baby names combines spellings of similar names to reveal their "true popularity."
  
  
• Do the name rankings reflect gender classifications?
• Yes. The SSA data separates "male names" for those assigned or designated as male at birth and "female names" for those assigned or designated as female at birth in Social Security applications. For example, in 1972, "Amy" as a male name was ranked 952 and "Amy" as a female name was ranked 5.
  
  
• How does the SSA collect this data?
• The SSA explains the source of the data as follows: "All names are from Social Security card applications for births that occurred in the United States after 1879. Note that many people born before 1937 never applied for a Social Security card, so their names are not included in our data. For others who did apply, our records may not show the place of birth, and again their names are not included in our data. All data are from a 100% sample of our records on Social Security card applications as of March 2020."
  
  
• How does the SSA rank the names? 
• The SSA rankings for each year are based on the frequency of the male name or female name.  If two names have the same frequency, the SSA explains that the names are ranked in alphabetical order.  For example, in 2019, both "Alberto" and "Neil" had a frequency of 422, so "Alberto" received a rank of 635 and "Neil" received a rank of 636.

Here are some resources for understanding data:

• Data & Statistics Research Guide (University of Washington Libraries)
  
• Data Literacy Research Guide (Rutgers University Libraries)
• Data Feminism (2020) (open access book)
  
• Data Literacy Guidance for Law Firms, The Legal Toolkit Podcast (2019)
  
• Why Data Literacy Matters, The Legal Toolkit Podcast (2019)
• Data Literacy in the Real World (2017)
• Stat-Spotting: A Field Guide to Identifying Dubious Data (2013) (ebook version)
  

Names can be powerful.  Here are some articles that discuss various implications of names:

• Why You Should Be Proud of Your Ethnic Name (2021) 
• Top 100 Most Common Last Names in the United States (2020)
  
• People Will Judge You Based on Your Name (2019)
• Female Lawyers with Masculine Names May Have a Better Shot at Judgeships (2009)
• If you have the power to name, how do you use it?  The Bias Hiding in Your Library (2019) (discussing names that are assigned as subject headings in libraries)
  

Finally, for a fascinating look at how data and the law can intersect, see Making the Law Computable (2019) for a discussion of the Harvard Caselaw Access Project.

Gallagher Quarterly Newsletter (Spring 2021)

 Another quarter, another edition of the Gallagher Quarterly Newsletter! The Gallagher staff are still working hard from home to make sure library resources and services are still available in this remote environment. Check out our Spring 2021 newsletter for the latest recommended eBooks, databases, research guides, and more! In this special edition of the Gallagher Newsletter, we celebrated National Library Week by creating a Gallagher Puzzle Pack that is available for everyone to enjoy! 

As always, the library staff is still available to support you! If you have any questions, ask us! 

Gallagher Quarterly Newsletter (Spring 2021) 

Contact us! 

Law Students

Law Faculty & Staff 

UW & Seattle Community, Ask Us! or view our Library Visitors page for more information. 

Review our past newsletters: 

Winter 2021 

 Fall 2020 

Try out Our National Library Week Puzzle Pack!

To celebrate National Library Week this year, our team has created a puzzle pack for you.  It has a variety of puzzles in favorite genres, including word search, crossword, and Jumble. (Don't be surprised if you see a hint of law library here and there in the puzzles.)

UW Law students: You can enter for a prize drawing we'll hold next Monday. Tell us what program you're in (JD, LLM, MJ, or PhD) and which puzzles you complete. You could win!

But the fun doesn't stop with a puzzle pack! Join us for a trivia game Friday afternoon at 3 pm. Details to come.

By the way, last year's National Library Week included a series of online escape rooms--look for them under this year's National Library Week info.

Meet the Library's New Chatbot!

Chatbots have demonstrated success in banking, travel, and customer service generally. And now they're moving into libraries as well. Always innovative and forward-looking, the Gallagher Law Library has launched a chatbot of its own. We're calling her Ms. G.

Marian Gould Gallagher,
the original "Mrs. G."

The chatbot will expand your access to responsive, reliable assistance. Unlike librarians and library staff, Ms. G is happy to answer questions in the middle of the night and throughout three-day weekends. With just a slight decrease in speed, the chatbot can even respond to several students or professors at once.

Of course, everyone is pleased that this move will free up the money from a couple of salary lines.

Unfortunately, budget considerations preclude contracting for top-of-the-line AI from IBM Watson. Instead, Ms. G is running on a four-year-old PC that has been sitting idle since most of the staff started working at home. Ms. G might be a teensy bit slower than some other chatbots, but will still get the job done. (We'll miss hearing the inside story of Watson's Jeopardy! triumph, but we can still hang out with our friends who rock the Burke Trivia night each month.)

We're excited to share with you representative transcripts from the usability tests of our chatbot. 

 ⎯ ⎯ ⎯ ⎯ ⎯ ⎯

Test One

 

I need help formatting citations.

Use The Bluebook: A Uniform System
of Citation, 21st ed., 2020.

Yes, but I don’t understand it!

Understand what?

The Bluebook.

Use The Bluebook: A Uniform System
of Citation, 21st ed., 2020.

Need help with a white paper.

You can buy white paper at
officedepot.com

How do I cite a white paper from AI Now?

I am using AI now.

I give up.

Thank you for using our service.
Would you like to take a survey
about your experience?

                       

Hello? Hello? 

                       

 

⎯ ⎯ ⎯ ⎯ ⎯ ⎯

Test Two

 

I need USC.

University of Southern California or
University of South Carolina?

I want the federal code.

There are many federal codes.
The National Security Agency has
declassified some code-related
documents. See https://www.nsa.gov/
News-Features/Declassified-Documents/
NARA-Releases/

I need the statues.

Ah, an art lover. Do you want
a museum or a gallery?

Statutes! Statutes!
(Stupid autocorrect.)

No need to get agitated.
Autocorrect is a good friend of mine.

Oh, sorry. Where's the USC?

University of Southern California or
University of South Carolina?

Never mind. I'll figure it out.

Thank you for using our service.
Would you like to take a survey
about your experience?

                       

Hello? Hello? 

                       

⎯ ⎯ ⎯ ⎯ ⎯ ⎯

Test Three

 

When will I be able to visit the
library?

I don't know. That answer
is not in my database.

Can you be more specific?

Yes, chatbots, like all AI systems,
are limited to the data they have
been trained on.

Well, thanks for that.

Thank you for using our service.
Would you like to take a survey
about your experience?

                       

Hello? Hello? 

                       

⎯ ⎯ ⎯ ⎯ ⎯ ⎯ 

We are very pleased that not a single user in our pilot expressed dissatisfaction with the chatbot. One person who reviewed the study noted that comparatively few people chose to take the survey, but we believe that that is because they were so satisfied with the service. They certainly had every opportunity to comment.

And of course this is just the beginning. The beauty of machine learning is that Ms. G will continue to learn as she responds to more questions and becomes familiar with the UW Law community.

Practice Advice for Litigation, from Bloomberg Law

If you're facing an externship, a summer clerkship, or your first job after law school, there's a good chance that you'll suddenly realize that you'd like to improve your skills. It's not that you learned nothing in law school—just that there's an awful lot to know, and you haven't been in a setting where you need to do a lot of things. How do you serve papers? How do you manage privileged documents? What's the deal with document review?

Bloomberg Law now offers you a suite of very practical documents to help fill that gap. In the Litigation Intelligence Center, choose the Core Litigation Skills Toolkit.

The documents are divided into Litigation Research, Litigation Writing, Motions Practice, Serving and Filing Documents, Using BLAW Research Tools, Document Review, and Privilege Review. Just from that list, you can imagine how helpful the toolkit can be!

Some of the documents and checklists are by Bloomberg staff. "Perspectives" pieces are by guest authors. For instance, the documents on writing memos and writing persuasive briefs are by a lawyers from from big firms (Baker McKenzie and Goodwin, respectively). 

Maya Swanes

Being a librarian, I'm always eager for students to understand the terrific resources and services that libraries offer. And there's a Perspectives piece on just that: Understanding Law School Library Resources. Hey, look! It's by my colleague, Maya Swanes, who offers tips on making the most of what's available to you. 

These resources are not "all Bloomberg, all the time." In fact, most of them are just about the nuts and bolts of practice, without promoting Bloomberg Law's databases--although Bloomberg does have some material that can be really helpful.

UW Law students, if you've never gotten around to setting up your Bloomberg account, see our page on acccess to restricted databases (you will need to use your UW NetID and password to access this page). We even have videos to help you register: check out our Registering for and Using Legal Databases page on our guide, Gallagher Basics: Welcome to Law School! 

Diverse Voices: Websites

This post in our Diverse Voices blog series highlights selected websites for exploring African American history, literature, and culture. Happy browsing! 

Portrait of Ella Fitzgerald.

BlackPast

The BlackPast website was created by a UW History Professor Emeritus named Quintard Taylor, whose academic interests include African American, Nationalism, Race and Ethnicity, and Urban History. This website is dedicated to providing the general public with accurate and first-hand accounts of African American history and of African descendants around the world. Spend some time browsing through the African American History or Global African History sections. Each has a wealth of knowledge that can be found in primary documents, institutions, speeches, and perspectives. The Special Features section includes topics on 101 African American Firsts, Black Inventors and Inventions, Historical Black Churches, and more! 

African American History Month

Although February is over, that doesn't mean we can't continue to learn about African American History. This website hosts a wide variety of exhibits and collections, audio and video, and images collected from multiple libraries, archives, and museums. The goal of this website is to pay tribute to generations of Black Americans who struggled with adversity to be recognized as full-fledged Americans. Explore exhibits on African American Educators, Education, and Schools. Find resources on African American Jazz artists like Ella Fitzgerald and Eric Dolphy. Listen to a video or audio recording on African American Poetry and Literature. There are even resources for teachers! 

African American Intellectual History Society 

In 2014 the African American Intellectual History Society (AAIHS) was started by Christorpher Cameron as a blog. Today, AAIHS is a flourishing scholarly organization that hosts communication regarding writing, researching, and teaching black thought and culture. AAIHS also publishes Black Perspectives, which is a popular blog that focuses on global Black history, culture, and thought. The AAIHS website also provides an in-depth collection of resources which are subdivided by topic. Read up on the Civil Rights-Black Power Era or find your next book club reading under the African American Literature section.

Northwest African American Museum

Looking to do something with the family one evening? Then look no further than Seattle's own Northwest African American Museum. This museum's website includes virtual exhibits and events. Join NAAM every 2nd Sunday of the month on their YouTube channel for interactive storytime. Take some time to look through their Educational section which includes their blog and a Think Like Malcolm section. There are activities and resources for the whole family!

Want to do more than browse through websites? Think about supporting Black-owned businesses by visiting the Support Black Owned website. Use the website's directory to find items on sale by category or by location. Know a Black-owned business and don't see it on the website? Become an SBO member and add a business to the website. 

Image Citation: Gottlieb, William P. Portrait of Ella Fitzgerald, New York, N.Y., ca. Nov. United States, 1946., Monographic. Photograph. https://www.loc.gov/item/gottlieb.02871/.

Observe International Women's Day with an Oxford Handbook or a UN Database

March 8 is International Women's Day, a good time to feature some resources about women in international development.

Oxford Handbooks Online (licensed for UW users) are edited by prominent scholars. Chapters—also by prominent scholars—can give you a good start on a topic, with overviews and bibliographies.  For International Women's Day, you could search for specific topics (e.g., education or reproductive health) or browse:

• The Oxford Handbook of Women, Peace, and Security
• The Oxford Handbook of Transnational Feminist Movements 
• The Oxford Handbook of Gender and Politics

Interested in the legal and economic conditions in different countries? Check out the UN Food and Agricultural Organization's Gender and Land Rights Database. For family law issues, see the UN Women's Family Law Database, hosted by Penn Law.

For more on researching sustainable international development, see our recent guide.

Diverse Voices - Art & Activism

As Nina Simone opined “[a]n artist’s duty, as far as I’m concerned, is to reflect the times.” That reflection can capture not only the joy and beauty of the world, but also the pain, anger, and injustice. Ms. Simone’s statement has held true throughout many periods of social upheaval, including this past year when artists came out in full force to document and participate in the racial justice movement that spread throughout the country and world. No single type of medium has been used to depict and explore the movement's messages, and works range from photography to poetry to dance to street art and beyond. With the near-instantaneous availability to share photos and videos social media, many of these works, such as the now-iconic mural at the George Floyd Memorial depicted below, have been captured and spread widely. 

Some types of media are ephemeral and can be difficult to preserve and this is particularly true for murals and street art. Given the impermanent nature of these pieces, museums and others are working to insure that they are collected and maintained for future generations. One such project from the Urban Art Mapping project is the George Floyd & Anti-Racist street art database. This database documents and catalogs the work of street artists and members of the public are encouraged to submit photos of the art they see on the streets in their neighborhoods to add to the collection.

Even those who do not necessarily think of themselves as “artists” are able to contribute to story of this movement through tangible items used in protests and demonstrations. For example, pieces on display at the National Museum of African American History & Culture include a t-shirt worn by Rahiel Tesfamariam at a protest commemorating Michael Brown in 2015 and a protest sign from 2015, both shown below. You can explore the Museum's entire collection of objects related to activism from various times in history here.

These pieces, together with the more traditional works, help paint a broad picture of this movement and the many ways that people participate, express themselves, and make their voices heard.

Want to further explore the interplay of art, protest, and activism? Check out the following:

Read:

• Thessaly La Force, Zoe Lescaze, Nancy Hass & M.H. Miller, The 25 Most Influential Works of American Protest Art Since World War II, N.Y. Times Style Magazine (Oct. 15, 2020)
• Liz McQuiston, Protest! A History of Social and Political Protest Graphics (2019)
• Makeda Best & Miguel de Baca, Conflict, Identity, and Protest in American Art (2015)

Listen:

• Art, Activism, Race and the Law, Nasher Museum of Art (April 18, 2017)
• Who We Be: Superpanel on Art, Protest and Racial Justice, Bay Area Society for Art & Activism (April 4, 2015)

Watch:

• Marcus Ellswoth, Art as Activism, TEDx (Nov. 15, 2014)

Credit for mural image: munshots on Unsplash

Diverse Voices: Articles

 

This post is part of this week's Diverse Voices series, on the topic of articles. Recent thoughtful and generous scholarship has offered valuable critiques of traditional social justice practices and values, such as implicit bias testing and free speech. This scholarship pushes us to examine not only a racist, misogynistic and ableist culture but also the tools we use to criticize and understand that culture.

Additionally, the popular press has provided a platform for more “on-the-ground” perspectives, humanizing the abstract. The piece from The Cut, below, illustrates in personal terms how casual but vicious racism can inflict serious and long-term harm on POC impacting careers and mental health.

Racism at My Job Literally Gave Me PTSD by Erika Stallings – Stallings discusses how a racist partner at her first legal job gave unfair performance reviews because she is black leading to her PTSD. The resultant anxiety and trauma impacted her mental health and her ability to enjoy her work at subsequently positions. She interviews a doctor studying this phenomena and another professional who experience similar treatment at Vox Media.

Lawyering with Challenges: Disability and Empowerment by Stuart Pixley – Pixley is a Washington attorney working in-house with Microsoft. Here he writes about his challenges practicing with cerebral palsy, from practical considerations, such as cramped conference rooms, to confronting traditional notions of what an attorney “looks like.”

‘Continually Reminded of Their Inferior Position’: Social Dominance, Implicit Bias, Criminality and Race by Darren Lenard Hutchinson – Professor Hutchinson writes about the success of implicit bias theory in developing an understanding of personal racism. However, he critiques the theory as being insufficient to explain broad social tolerance of racism and racial inequality. He specifically examines this phenomena within criminal law and law enforcement.

Toxic Misogyny and the Limits of Counterspeech by Lynne Tirrell – Professor Tirrell offers a more academic look at misogynist American culture and the harmful speech arising therefrom. She argues that more speech is not a sufficient response and that traditional First Amendment dogma struggles to contend with the present and real misogyny of American law and politics.

Diverse Voices: YouTube

YouTube is a fantastic tool for anyone interested in watching talks, speeches, and conversations that would otherwise go unseen by those outside the participants and live audience. If you're unfamiliar with YouTube's interface, try using the main search box to find videos, playlists, and channels featuring diverse voices. 

To get started, here are a few videos featuring influential women in the law. Watch the videos, and grapple with the thoughts and questions these thinkers pose. We've crafted brief summaries and a few questions after each video in order to focus your thinking on DEI themes: 

In her talk “Hiding in Plain Sight,” John H. Watson, Jr. Professor of Law at Harvard Law School Jeannie Suk Gersen discusses shifts in the thinking behind legal education over the past several decades. Suk Gersen begins with the history of legal pedagogy in America, the Socratic Method, as well as Duncan Kennedy's Legal Education and the Reproduction of Hierarchy: A Polemic Against the System, a class-, race-, and gender-based critique of legal education. Suk Gersen also asks how professors may best promote equality of education through their teaching. In Suk Gersen's experience, the Socratic Method helps to encourage women and minorities to participate in the classroom conversation--when other methods are used, white male voices dominate the classroom. Have you considered whether the Socratic Method establishes or perpetuates hierarchies in the classroom? Do you agree with Professor Suk Gersen that the Socratic Method is a useful tool in hearing from diverse voices?

In a conversation with BARBRI, Associate Director of Admissions at Villanova University Charles Widger School of Law Alicia Miles discusses the importance of diversity in the ambitions and perspectives of law students. She emphasizes that law schools do a disservice to students when they don't assemble classes that feature diverse perspectives, and that modern attorneys need to be able to navigate diverse landscapes, including diversity in ethnicity, gender, and sexual orientation. Miles encourages prospective law students to examine faculty and staff, leadership teams, student organizations, and other factors to assess diversity. If you're already enrolled in law school, did diversity factor into your school choice? If you're looking at prospective law schools, how will diversity influence your choice, if it will play a role at all? 

In a conversation with Chief Justice Earl Warren Professor of Constitutional Law at New York University School of Law Kenji Yoshino, former Associate Justice of the Supreme Court Ruth Bader Ginsburg discusses her experience as a Jewish woman in legal practice, and the evolution of diversity in legal practice over her long career. How do you see the meaning of diversity expanding in your lifetime as a lawyer?