By Darius Woods

For years, two of the countries largest professional sporting organizations, the National Football League (NFL) and Major League Baseball (MLB), have taken an individual case-by-case based approach to handling domestic violence incidents and allegations. On the other hand, the National Basketball Association (NBA) can impose a minimum 10-game suspension as well as mandatory counseling for convictions under their collective bargaining agreement.

The case-by-case approach taken by the NFL and MLB is currently facing a great deal of scrutiny, as many people believe that the leagues have historically taken a soft stance on the players and these incidents.

For example, in 2012 the Milwaukee Brewers did not suspend or fine reliever Francisco Rodriguez after he was arrested and charged for domestic violence. In another case, the Seattle Mariners suspended pitcher Julio Mateo for 10 days after he was arrested in a 2007 domestic incident with his wife, which he reportedly punched, choked and bit. In February of this year, the NFL initially suspended Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice for two games after he was arrested and charged with simple assault for an incident in which he punched his then fiancée, now wife. In September, the NFL suspended Ray Rice indefinitely and the Baltimore Ravens released him after videotape of the incident surfaced online.

Over the summer, national media attention intensified and looked critically at how the NFL handled their domestic violence incidents. This led Commissioner Roger Goodell to introduce a new league-wide domestic violence policy. Under the new policy, a domestic violence violation of the personnel conduct policy will result in a “suspension without pay of six games… with consideration given to mitigating factors, as well as a longer suspension when circumstances warrant.” While the “second offense will result in banishment from the NFL; while an individual may petition for reinstatement after one year, there will be no presumption or assurance that the petition will be granted.”

Currently the Commissioner of MLB, Bud Selig, is in discussions with the players’ union to create a comprehensive league-wide policy on domestic violence.

See the following for additional information:

The Integrity of the Game: Professional Athletes and Domestic Violence

New NFL domestic violence policy

NBA Policy faces test

MLB mulling new domestic violence policy

by Meghan Starr

image by flickr user Flazingo Photos

If you are thinking about life after law school or preparing for a summer job, check out the Law Library’s new display on interviewing (just past the reference desk).   The Librarians have pulled together some great books on perfecting your resume and interviewing skills, as well as information on non-traditional career paths and becoming a solo practitioner.

Just a few of the highlighted books are:

• The Insider’s Guide to Getting a Big Firm Job by Erika Finn and Jessica Olmon
  • Get tips for OCI interviews, call-backs, and networking strategies.
•  A Law Graduate’s Guide by Nelson P. Miller
  • Advice ranging from course selection to networking and interviewing tips designed to get you to your preferred legal career.
• The Millennial Lawyer by Ursula Furi-Perry
  • Advice, tips and techniques, and best practices for making the most of generational differences in a firm.
• Flying Solo: A Survival Guide for the Solo and Small Firm Lawyer edited by K. William Gibson
  • Advice from various contributors that will take you from startup issues like creating a business plan, choosing a specialization, getting capital, and leasing office space to marketing, hiring staff, file/document management, and even selling the practice.
• Fifty Unique Legal Paths: How to Find the Right Job by Ursula Furi-Perry
  • Explore growing legal careers in firms, government, non-profit and academia.
• Essential Qualities of the Professional Lawyer edited by Paul A. Haskins
  • No matter what type of career path you follow, this book provides some practical guidance on how to strive for a rewarding career with a high degree of professionalism.

By Mark Stuckey

You may be like me and view the Law Library as merely a sensory deprivation chamber, to drown out the distractions of the outside world, so you can get at least some of the school work done that you should have been doing for the last 5 weeks. However, the Law Library serves a much higher purpose, it is home to multiple collections of both the legal and non-legal variety. Join me on a rather brief and truncated overview of the library’s physical collections.

Georgia Collection:

The Georgia collection is located on the lower level of the library across from the computer lab and is home to many useful sources, primary and otherwise. Specifically, the primary resources include the OCGA, Georgia Laws, Georgia Appeals Reports, and Georgia Digest. These primary resources will not only help you master your Legal Bib homework, but may also come in handy in the future if you need to do some cost effective Georgia legal research.  In addition to the primary resources, the Georgia Collection is home to secondary resources such as Georgia practice treatises on specific topics of Georgia law, Georgia CLE materials and loads of other great stuff.

• Note: for those interested in other state specific resources, the Law Library has state primary resources other than Georgia on the second floor. Federal Primary materials are located on the first floor near the Georgia Collection.

Reference Collection:

The reference collection is located on the first floor conveniently near the reference desk (that place where you see the friendly librarians). The reference collection contains, among other things, another copy of the OCGA, study aids, legal dictionaries, and Georgia Practice Materials (behind the reference desk). The Reference Collection is a great resource to gain a better understanding of broad concepts of the law (for your classes or generally edification), and Georgia specific practice issues.

Leisure Collection:

The Law Library knows that you’re stressed, and need to blow off some steam, and that’s why we have the leisure collection. In the leisure collection, you will find an assortment of DVDs from classic law related movies like My Cousin Vinny, to television series whose presence on the shelf of a Law Library is a little more enigmatic like Battlestar Galactica. Additionally, the leisure collection contains, get this, books that are actually entertaining, like the LOTR trilogy, and whatever the new John Grisham book is. Next time you find yourself in need of a brief distraction mosey over to the leisure collection.

Government Documents:

Apparently, the Law Library is a participant in the United States Federal Depository Library Program, and as such it houses government documents for the general public to peruse. The Government Documents are locate on the first floor between call numbers KF1 -101. I myself had no idea that this existed until a little while ago, so be adventurous like me and go check it out.

Microform Collection:

This may come as a shock, but that weird room, to the right, on the second floor houses the Law Library’s microform collection.  There are both microform and microfiche formats in this room. The collection contains a bunch of federal and state primary source. There is the ability to print copies of these materials.

Rare Books Collection:

The rare books collection is the last, but probably coolest collection that I am going to tell you about. Located in the locked cabinets of the Law Library Conference Room. As the name might suggest, this collection houses a mish mash of rare books, from 18^th century Blackstone’s commentaries on various topics to a signed copy of Professor Emanuel’s biography of Judge Tuttle.

There you have it, a very brief overview of the Law Library’s physical collections. It just goes to show that the Law Library is more than a place with great ambiance and friendly faces, it also houses a great volume of resources.

image by flickr user hpnl

Have you ever wanted to travel through time? To see big events in our history as they happened? Unfortunately, no one seems to have invented a time machine yet (still), but you can still get a glimpse of the past using our new America’s Historical Newspapers database.

The oldest available issue is from a newspaper called Publick Occurrences, a Boston publication. The issue was published nearly 324 years ago, on September 24, 1960. In the issue, a smallpox outbreak is reported, there is a house fire, Native Americans have a Day of Thanksgiving, and more.

The archive covers newspapers through December 31, 1922, so many of the major events our our nation’s history, from Independence through World War I and the start of the Roaring Twenties, can be found.

By Darius Wood

This Sunday, September 7^th at 7 p.m. ABC will air a special where they attempt to rank and determine the best School House Rock song of all-time.

School House Rock is educational musical series that aired from 1973 to 1985 on ABC. The series covered a variety of topics including science, history, grammar, economics, and mathematics. Some of these songs may be particularly helpful and provide you with a creative refresher on some topics that you haven’t dealt with in years. Many of my teachers’ used these cartoons to introduce topics and help teach us things like The Preamble of the Constitution and how a bill becomes a law. So, take a break this Sunday and enjoy!

Voted top 25 on the 30th Anniversary DVD!

1. Conjunction Junction
2. I’m Just A Bill
3. Lolly, Lolly, Lolly, Get Your Adverbs Here
4. Electricity, Electricity
5. Interjections!
6. The Preamble
7. Three Is A Magic Number
8. Interplanet Janet
9. A Noun Is A Person, Place, Or Thing
10. The Shot Heard ‘Round The World
11. My Hero, Zero
12. Figure Eight
13. No More Kings
14. Unpack Your Adjectives
15. Rufus Xavier Sarsaparilla
16. Ready Or Not, Here I Come
17. Elementary, My Dear
18. Dollars and Sense
19. The Great American Melting Pot
20. 20. Mother Necessity
21. Naughty Number Nine
22. Telegraph Line
23. Them Not-So-Dry Bones
24. Verb: That’s What Happening
25. Elbow Room

You can listen to many of these at Disney or on YouTube.