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Legal Blog Watch

How Bob Dylan Shapes the Law Does it ever seem that the answer to a legal problem is blowin' in the wind? Have you ever wondered how many roads you must walk down before you can call yourself a lawyer? Do you believe that Ruben Carter was falsely tried? If so, you are not alone. An Oklahoma law professor's research on the use of song lyrics in legal writing found that the popular artist whose lyrics are most often cited in legal journals and judicial opinions is Bob Dylan, followed in rank by The Beatles, Bruce Springsteen, Paul Simon, Woody Guthrie, Rolling Stones, Grateful Dead, Simon & Garfunkel, Joni Mitchell and R.E.M. The professor, Alex B. Long of Oklahoma City University School of Law, recently published his findings in an article, [Insert Song Lyrics Here]: The Uses and Misues of Popular Music Lyrics in Legal Writing. He writes that one Dylan lyric, "You don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows," has virtually become boilerplate in California appellate decisions discussing the need for expert testimony. But one striking feature of the top-10 list, Long writes, is the absence of artists of color and the inclusion of just one woman. One portent of a shift in this trend is the increasing tendency of courts to cite hip-hop lyrics, he says. As an example, he offers a 2005 decision in which the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals was compelled to explain the difference between a "hoe" and a "ho." In so doing, it referenced the lyrics of rapper Ludacris, "You doin' ho activities with ho tendencies." You will find an abundance of folk lyrics cited in legal writing, but not as many drawn from country or alternative music, Long says. Something else you'll find in abundance is the metaphor, sometimes mangled, sometimes not. There is the 5th Circuit case in which a man carrying cocaine on a bus was confronted with a drug-sniffing dog. Wrote the court: [He] was thus forced to ask himself what The Clash famously asked two decades ago: "Should I stay or should I go now?" And then there is this somewhat mangled example from an unpublished federal district court opinion: The Beatles once sang about the long and winding road. This 1992 case has definitely walked down it, but at the ned of the day, the plaintiffs and their counsel were singing the Pink Floyd anthem "Another Brick in the Wall" after consistently banging their collective heads against a popular procedural wall -- Northern District of Illinois Local Rule 12 governing the briefing and submission of summary judgment motions. Long concludes his review of lyrics in law with this advice: There are most definitely risks in trying to work popular music lyrics into legal writing, but occasionally the attempt pays off in the form of more interesting and persuasive writing. So, be careful, but keep on rockin' in the free world. [Via The Volokh Conspiracy.] Posted by Robert J. Ambrogi on September 19, 2006 at 12:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) The Lawyers Behind Lonelygirl Last week's outing of lonelygirl15 quickly became the stuff of Internet legend. Rumors were already circulating that this YouTube favorite was a hoax when a reporter and his son broke the news on SiliconValleyWatcher that the supposed 16-year-old girl recording confessional videos in her bedroom was actually a 20-something actress named Jessica Rose. The next day, reporters Virginia Heffernan and Tom Zeller Jr. confirmed the story in The New York Times. To gauge the resulting uproar, you need only look to Google News. Less well known is that father-and-son lawyers played key roles in this Internet melodrama, one in the creation of lonelygirl15 and the other in her outing. The son, Gregory L. Goodfried, a 2005 law school graduate and an associate with the Los Angeles firm Mitchell Silberberg & Knupp, was one of the video's three co-creators, all described by news reports as aspiring filmmakers. His two creative partners, Miles Beckett and Mesh Flinders, reportedly met at a party earlier this year and then joined with Goodfried to script and film the series of short videos. When Goodfried got his father involved, the scheme began to unravel, not because of the father but because of sharp-eyed Internet sleuths. In August, Kenneth Goodfried, a lawyer in Encino, filed an application to trademark "Lonelygirl15." An astute fan picked up on the filing, and the news swept the Internet. From there, it was only a matter of time before fans uncovered the true identities of lonelygirl15 and her creators. Posted by Robert J. Ambrogi on September 19, 2006 at 12:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) Studying Law in Virtual 3-D A new law school opened last week, although it has no bricks-and-mortar campus, charges no tuition and is open to anyone. Called The State of Play Academy, its classes take place in a multiuser virtual environment (MUVE), where students and teachers adopt avatars and meet on the campus of the University of There. This virtual academy has a very real dean, Lauren Gelman, associate director of the Stanford Law School Center for Internet and Society. As a matter of fact, you can attend one of Gelman's classes this week. Today and Thursday at 5:30 Pacific time, she is teaching Blogging and Liability, covering the statutory and First Amendment protections applicable to bloggers. Other lecturers at the academy so far are Temple Law professor David Post and Colin Rule, a leading expert in online dispute resolution. The State of Play Academy is sponsored by New York Law School and is an outgrowth of the State of Play conference. Keep track of academy news at its blog. The State of Play Academy is not alone in legal education's move towards MUVE. Harvard Law School this semester launched Law in the Court of Public Opinion, a live course for Harvard Law students that is also offered to the public in a MUVE format through Harvard Extension School. The course covers creation and delivery of persuasive argument via new media. It is taught by Harvard Law professor Charles Nesson, his daughter Rebecca Nesson and Gene Koo. Unfortunately, the MUVE course is full, but videos of the course are being posted online free for anyone to view, and photos of both the virtual class and the live one are available through flickr. To enter the State of Play Academy's virtual world, you will need to download the software platform from There.com. A $10 upgrade version adds voice and audio. The academy's site provides more information. Harvard's program uses Second Life. Written instructions and a video tutorial on installing the software and creating your avatar are here.   Posted by Robert J. Ambrogi on September 19, 2006 at 12:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) Where's Ben Cowgill? We Got Him Upon reading Eugene Volokh's thoughts on whether New York's proposed advertising rules will make blogging too burdensome for lawyers, the anonymous editor at Blawg Review is prompted to ask, "Where's Ben Cowgill?", alluding to the author of the blog Ben Cowgill on Legal Ethics. Cowgill, the editor notes, played a central role in helping Kentucky's legal advertising commission arrive at a sensible policy on lawyer blogging. I don't have the answer to New York's problems, but I do know where Cowgill is. He is our guest on this week's legal-affairs podcast Coast to Coast, where he and fellow Kentucky lawyer Steven M. Frederick discuss the ethical implications of lawyer advertising in the wake of the Kentucky crash of Comair Flight 5191. Also on the program is Motley Rice partner Robert T. Haefele discussing ongoing litigation arising out of 9/11. Posted by Robert J. Ambrogi on September 19, 2006 at 12:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

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