Flicker photo by smlp.co.uk.

As evidenced by recent developments to laws regarding marijuana, same-sex marriage, and the right to carry, laws are constantly changing. An attorney’s legal education doesn’t end after graduating law school and passing the bar exam. On the contrary, these are mere starting points, as an attorney’s legal education continues throughout their career.

The Georgia Bar requires active lawyers in Georgia to attend a minimum of 12 hours of continuing legal education each year. While not required, many attorneys will also use current awareness resources to stay up-to-date with their area of practice. Current awareness resources come in many shapes and sizes, from a magazine or a newsletter, an email alert, or a blog. Each attorney will have their own preference for how they stay abreast of developments in their area of law.

Below you will find a few popular current awareness resources:

Georgia and Atlanta

• Daily Report (formerly Fulton County Daily Report): The Daily Report is Fulton County’s official legal newspaper and Georgia’s leading source for legal news and information. It focuses on the latest developments in specialized practice areas, court decisions, business developments, and political news.
• Georgia Bar Journal: A bimonthly publication of scholarly articles, feature articles, updates, rules changes, notices, classified ads and other information pertinent to practitioners in Georgia.
• The Atlanta Lawyer: A monthly newsletter that provides news and section updates to members of the Atlanta Bar Association.
• “Review of Selected Georgia Legislation,” Issue 1 of Georgia State Law Review: Annual legislative review that provides the legal community with an in-depth view of the Georgia General Assembly’s activities and the legislative intent behind significant bills.
• “Annual Survey of Georgia Law,” Issue 1 of Mercer Law Review: Reviews Georgia appellate court decisions that have an impact on major practice areas.
• “Annual Eleventh Circuit Survey,” Issue 4 of Mercer Law Review: Reviews Eleventh Circuit decisions that have an impact on major practice areas. 

National

• ABA Journal: A monthly publication and website that provides breaking legal news, analysis, and stories.
• ABA Sections: The specialty sections through the American Bar Association are excellent sources of current developments and legal news for a specific area of law.
• SCOTUSblog: A blog that provides comprehensive coverage of the Supreme Court.
• Law Professor Blogs Network: The network includes over 40 legal blogs that are edited by law professors. Posts include legal news, information, commentary, and analysis.

flicker photo by Steve Rhode

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) will vote today to determine whether to propose new rules for net neutrality. The idea behind net neutrality is that internet service providers should treat all online traffic equally. Hence, in the Atlanta area, Comcast and AT&T would have to treat online traffic coming from Georgia State College of Law Library’s website the same as it would traffic from Hulu or Yahoo!. This is not the FCC’s first attempt to propose net neutrality rules.

The United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled in favor of Verizon on January 14, 2014, holding that the FCC did not have the power to require internet providers to comply with net neutrality regulations in regards to traffic (opinion PDF). The court reasoned that the FCC could not impose “open Internet” rules on internet providers because the Telecommunications Act of 1996 exempted them from being treated as common carriers (e.g., telephone, water, and electricity providers). The rules under consideration today will allow internet providers to charge companies for faster, higher quality content delivery.

As with all new regulations, the proposed rules must go through a public comment period before they can take effect. The FCC will publish the proposed rules in the Federal Register, which the public can view through the Federal Register website. The proposed rules will include the contact information of the person that comments can be sent to, along with information for how to access the rule and leave a comment on Regulations.gov. Once the comment period ends, the rule makers will consider the comments and publish the final rule, which will also be published in the Federal Register. The final rule will also be incorporated into the Code of Federal Regulations, which the public can access on the Government Printing Office’s FDSys website.

Based on the deep feelings on both sides of the argument, one can expect plenty of comments on the proposed rules. Gail Sullivan of the The Washington Post notes that those in favor of net neutrality believe that without it, higher prices will get passed onto consumers and innovation will suffer, while those against net neutrality believe that without it, internet providers will be able to provide faster, better quality service for customers and better network quality (“What the heck is net neutrality?,” The Washington Post).

News Stories on Net Neutrality

• FCC lacked authority to impose ‘Net neutrality’ on broadband carriers, federal appeals court rules by Martha Neil (ABA Journal)
• What the heck is net neutrality? by Gail Sullivan (The Washington Post)
• Amid protests, U.S. FCC to vote on new ‘net neutrality’ proposal by Alina Selyukh (Reuters)

Books on Net Neutrality at Georgia State

• Net neutrality: towards a co-regulatory solution by Christopher Marsden (Law Library)
• The illusion of net neutrality: political alarmism, regulatory creep, and the real threat to Internet freedom by Robert and Eva Zelnick (Main Library)
• Regulating the Web: network neutrality and the fate of the open Internet by Zachary Stiegler (Main Library)

image by Flickr user probonobaker

It’s exam time, which also means it’s time for exam study breaks. The Law Library will be providing free coffee and hot tea in the Law Library Conference from from 10 a.m. – 6 p.m. on the following dates:

• Monday, May 5th
• Wednesday,  May 7th
• Monday,  May 12th

We will also have a station set up where you can take the 2014 Spring Law Library Survey.

Stop by and enjoy!

It’s that time of the year again. The sun is starting to shine, college basketball is over, and the annual Law Library Spring Survey has just been posted. While it might not seem like the most fun activity ever, taking time to fill out the survey will be very beneficial to you and your classmates.

The survey enables us to determine what we are doing well and what we can improve upon in the law library. It also gives students a chance to voice their concerns and provide suggestions.

Based on past survey responses, we have done the following over the last few years:

• Added books and DVD’s to our Leisure Collection
• Bought additional Study Aids
• Increased awareness of the Quiet Level
• Improved lighting around the library

For taking time to fill out the survey, you can earn one Library Reward point.

Take the Law Library Spring 2014 Survey

 We are in the heart of the 2014 Session of the Georgia General Assembly. Beginning the second Monday in January, the assembly will meet for a Georgia Constitution required 40 days. Depending on the number of adjournments, the session usually ends between late March and early May.

Those interested with keeping up with General Assembly can do so by following the status of bills introduced in the assembly, as well as watching live broadcasts of the proceedings from both the House and Senate chambers. You can also locate archived videos and reports on a specific assembly day by using GPB Lawmakers.

Check out the following resources to get more information on the General Assembly:

• Handbook for Georgia Legislators by Edwin Jackson, Mary E. Stakes, and Paul T. Hardy (available at the Reference Desk)
• Georgia General Assembly Website
• New Georgia Encyclopedia: Georgia General Assembly
• Georgia.gov: General Assembly 

This past Sunday was the NFL Super Bowl XLVIII. The game pitted the AFC Champion Denver Broncos against the NFC Champion Seattle Seahawks. The Seahawks prevailed in the game, winning 43-8. While the action during the game captivated many sports fans, it was the action between the snaps that keeps the attention of the casual/non sports fan.

The Super Bowl is one of the most watched events of the year in the United States, so it would make sense then that companies also roll out new commercials just for the event. Beer, Car, Food, and Internet, the list of companies goes on and on. For the most part, people will see the same commercials across the nation. However, there are some slots set aside for regional/local ads. One local attorney commercial in Georgia has sent the web buzzing over the past two days. The commercial is for Jamie Casino, an attorney in Savannah, GA.

This is not Jamie’s first commercial. He are two more short commercials for Jamie Casino.

For your viewing pleasure, here are a couple of other creative lawyer commercials.

By Nirvi Shah

On January 29, 1802 John Beckley was appointed as the first Librarian of Congress.  The Librarian’s first power was that he would be solely responsible to make the institution’s rules and regulations and appoint its staff.  One of the more recent developments in the Librarian’s role is that he is granted the authority to issue exemptions for piracy statutes – one of the newest controversial areas for artists’ creations. As Archibald MacLeish declared, “[e]very American librarian worthy of the name is today the champion of a cause.  It is, to my mind, the noblest of all causes for it is the cause of man, or more precisely, the cause of the inquiring mind by which man has come to be.”

Here are a few links to provide more information about the Library of Congress:

• Library of Congress’s website: http://www.loc.gov/index.html
• How the Cataloging system organizes every book in the Library system: http://www.loc.gov/aba/cataloging/classification/lcco/
• Librarian Pam Brannon’s Blog on the origins of the Library of Congress: https://theblackacretimes.com/2011/09/28/jefferson/
• Librarian Austin William’s Blog about the current Law Librarian of Congress: https://theblackacretimes.com/2012/01/06/new-law-librarian-of-congress/?relatedposts_exclude=894
• NPR Article about the Librarian’s authority over your personal phone: http://www.npr.org/blogs/alltechconsidered/2013/03/06/173614675/why-the-library-of-congress-has-a-lock-on-your-phone

Flicker photo by Wyoming_Jackrabbit.

As a law student and an attorney, the last thing you might want to hear is legal issues intersecting with sports. For many of you, sports is a way to escape the word of contracts law or an upcoming case for a couple of hours. While watching or playing sports can be a great way to take your mind of things, legal issues do come up quite often. The past two weeks alone is a great example of how sports and the law intersect. Here are a few breaking stories:

Vince Young Files for Bankruptcy

Former NFL and University of Texas National Champion winning quarterback Vince Young filed for bankruptcy last week. Young is filing under Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, also referred to as bankruptcy reorganization.

Full Story: ESPN

Raiders Cheerleaders Sue Team

Current and former Raiderettes filed a suit this week claiming that team withheld wages, did not compensate them for all hours worked, and made them pay business expenses. Their lawyer claims based on the amount they are paid and the hours they put in, they are making less than $5 an hour.

Full Story: San Jose Mercury News

Read the full complaint

Feds Investigating Dennis Rodman

Josh Rogin from The Daily Beast reported today that the U.S. Treasury Department is investigating whether Rodman violated United States sanctions by bringing gifts into Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (“North Korea”) for Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un. While in North Korea for a basketball game, Rodman brought Kim several gifts which are reported to be in value of more than $10,000.  Not only may this violate the International Emergency Economics Power Act (IEEPA) signed by President Obama in 2010, but it may also violate United Nations Security Council Resolutions 1718 and 2094.

Full Story: The Daily Beast