Unless you have some special interest in or connection with a particular judge, use the standard form letter. The cover letter is not the place to recount all of your academic and professional accomplishments or to discuss your summer work experiences; that is the purpose of the resume. If you are the editor of a journal or rank highly in your class, you may note those achievements. Other than that, however, the cover letter should be straightforward and short.

And for those students who are enthusiastic users of social software, the authors give this cautionary advice:

Most judges may be unfamiliar with the power of the Internet, but their clerks are not. This past year, when there was a free moment or two in the chambers, the law clerks "Googled" several of our applicants’ names and, lo and behold, they found a treasure trove of information omitted from the carefully-crafted application packet. What does this tell you, the applicant? Be careful what you put on personal web pages, web logs, or other Internet sites such as Friendster, because a clerk with a couple of minutes on his or her hands could be researching you. Although clerks may find it fun to circulate a link to your website around the office, you may not appreciate what knowledge of your party antics may do to your job chances.

We’ve recently updated two of our research guides.  Heafey’s "California Legal Research Guide" furnishes tips on researching California law using treatises or legal encyclopedias, annotated codes, and case digests.  Our "Guide to American Law Reports" provides information on how to use ALR, a multi-volume secondary source that provides detailed articles about selected topics in state and federal law.   Both of these guides are excellent resources for students who are just beginning to familiarize themselves with legal research.  As always, you can find electronic copies of every Heafey research guide on this page.

I had the privilege of hearing New York Times reporter Linda Greenhouse speak about her research in the Blackmun archives for her book, "Becoming Justice Blackmun," at the AALL conference in St. Louis.  LLRX has posted this transcript of the speech.  Here’s my favorite anecdote from Greenhouse’s speech:

Blackmun’s files documented just how doctor-centered his interest in the abortion issue was, and just how naïve he and the court were about what to expect once the decision was issued. My favorite document in the Roe file was a handwritten note the Blackmun wrote to himself as part of a draft of the “mandate” section. He was suggesting that, assuming the decision was issued in January 1973, the mandate be delayed until April 1 to give states a chance to adjust their statutes to the decision. “It will be an unsettled period for a while,” he noted (emphasis supplied).

The latest issue of Yale’s Pocket Part tackles the topic of post-Booker appellate review of federal sentencing decisions, with contributions from Judge Nancy Gertner (Federal District Court, Mass.), Professor Douglas Berman, Professor Steven Chanenson, and Yale Law Journal Editor Eric Citron. 

Now that I’m back from my two-week plus jaunt across the United States, I’ve been wading through my e-mail and came across a particularly pertinent article in the latest issue of the ABA’s Law Practice Today.  In her article, "Too Much to Do, Too Little Time?" Allison Shields recommends making a list of things that you shouldn’t do rather than a "to do" list so that you stop overextending yourself.  For example, attorneys can make a list of tasks that they should delegate to others so that they can concentrate on the most important tasks in their practices.  Attorneys can also use their "don’t do" list to remind themselves to avoid abusive clients and to protect their personal time by listing dates and times when they will not make themselves available to colleagues and clients.  Time-consuming marketing and networking activities that rarely yield new clients should also be added to the "don’t do" list.  I like Shields’ approach because it requires you to analyze your practice (or your job) and figure out the activities that are truly necessary and worthwhile and jettison the activities that aren’t worth it. 

I'll be taking a blogging break in order to attend the American Association of Law Libraries' annual meeting in St. Louis from July 8-13, then vacation at the Jersey Shore.  I'll be back on July 25. 

Georgetown Law’s faculty have been busy this summer, joining the ranks of law professors who are working collaboratively on one blog.  This new venture is logically called the Georgetown Law Faculty Blog, and the faculty have started out with several lively posts about the U.S. Supreme Court’s Hamdan decision.  Thanks to PrawfsBlawg, another collaborative law prof blog, for the heads-up.

I know that not everyone reads the news about Orradre’s big construction project as thoroughly as we do over here at Heafey, so for those of you who missed this news the first time around, here’s a recap.  Orradre Library is Santa Clara University’s main campus library, and as all law review editors know, law faculty, students, and staff have full borrowing privileges there.  The old Orradre Library building closed a few weeks ago and is in the process of being demolished to make way for a new library on the same site.  The Orradre staff have managed to reestablish most of their services in a very large modular trailer that can be found between the parking garage and the Buck Shaw stadium.  We’ve toured the new temporary library structure, and we were amazed at how quickly the folks at Orradre got everything up and running!  The Circulation Desk has been operational since June 23, and the staff are ready to handle all of your library needs.  If you need library materials that are located at Orradre, simply look up the material in our online catalog, OSCAR, request the material from the ARS, then pick up your books a few hours later at Orradre’s Circulation Desk.  If the books that you need aren’t available from SCU libraries, try LINK+, which allows you to borrow books from other public and academic libraries in California and Nevada free of charge.  Even if you’re a law student or faculty member, you’ll still need to pick up and drop off LINK+ books at the new Orradre Circulation Desk.   Summer hours for Orradre can be found on the website.  If you have questions, contact Orradre at 408-554-5020.

During the past year, CALI has added many new features to its website to provide resources for the legal education community, including new lessons for law students and podcasts on a wide range of topics.

 ***2006-07 CALI Library of Lessons***
Over 20 new lessons in Legal Research, Copyright, and Property Law are now available on the CALI website, which brings the total number of CALI lessons to over 625.  Watch for the new Family Law lessons! The CALI Family Law Fellows are working on a series of lessons that will be released beginning in September.

 ***Legal Education Podcasting Project***
As Amy mentioned in an earlier post, the 20 faculty who participated in CALI’s Legal Education Podcasting Project produced over 1,000 podcasts of class lectures and summaries. Many of these podcasts are freely available to anyone.

In addition, 10 faculty podcasters are interviewed and these are posted as podcasts. In these interviews, faculty talk about how podcasting helped their students and offer advice and reflection on using podcasting in the classroom.

If you're a student or faculty member who's interested in CALI, contact the reference staff at 408-554-4452 or email us at lawref@scu.edu for the SCU Law username and password.

The Judicial Council of California announced last Friday that it has approved "a major reorganization of the California Rules of Court."  Most of the changes involve renumbering, reordering, and rewording the rules "to make them clearer, better organized, and easier to read."  The changes will become effective on January 1, 2007, and you can read a complete description of the changes in this report.