Live-Blogging the Clerkship Meeting

Live BLOG!

LRAP

Last night the BHSA discussed revisions to the LRAP. The Administration has set itself a deadline of having a document outlining a new LRAP policy by the end of the semester. We are excited by the revisions (see http://www.nasfaa.org/publications/2009/anberkeley090409.html), and are considering laying out student priorities for the new LRAP. We eagerly await the policy document.

professional responsibility

According to the academic rules, the professional responsibility (PR)/ethics requirement is supposed to be completed during your 2L year. This requirement is at odds with the fact that many students have other course preferences or intentions to enroll in a clinic as a 3L. Students who want to get other course requirements out the way during 2L year or wait until 3L year to do a clinic have to choose between violating the current rule or completing a redundant 2-unit class. You might say it's an ethical dilemma.

Last night at the BHSA meeting, we voted unanimously on a motion to request that the curriculum and clinical committees work on a solution that would change the current rule. BHSA has asked them to formulate a plan that would allow PR to be completed in the same time-frame as the writing requirement - that is, by the end of the fall semester of your 3L year. We will keep you updated as we try to figure out a solution that works for everyone affected by the PR requirement.

Keep in mind that we have only started the conversation - the rule has not changed yet. So, if you are a 2L, you need to register for classes accordingly and make plans to complete PR this year.

We want to hear your thoughts. How would it affect your academic planning if you had an extra semester to complete PR? What kind of changes to the rule do you want to see? Looking forward to reading what you have to say in the comments.

Boalt Centers + Students = Mutually Beneficial Relationship

As some of you might know, Boalt currently has several "Centers":

• Berkeley Center for Criminal Justice
• Berkeley Center on Health, Economic & Family Security
• Berkeley Center for Law, Business and the Economy
• Berkeley Center for Law & Technology
• Center for Law, Energy & the Environment
• Thelton E. Henderson Center for Social Justice
• Chief Justice Earl Warren Institute on Race, Ethnicity and Diversity 
• The Center for the Study of Law and Society
• The Institute for Legal Research
• Kadish Center for Morality, Law & Public Affairs
• Robert D. Burch Center for Tax Policy & Public Finance
• The Honorable G. William and Ariadna Miller Institute for Global Challenges and the Law

 Six of these centers have been formed within the last 5 years.  They bring prestige to Boalt by being at the forefront of tackling real-world problems and by producing superior research.  However, student contribution and interaction with the centers is relatively limited (more so with some centers than others).  BHSA wants to remove the disconnect between students and the centers; we will be working on possible opportunities for students to become more involved and to encourage the centers to capitalize on all that Boalties have to offer.

If you have suggestions on what you want to see/what you like now/ what sucks now....feel free to share.

Janky at Boalt

Dear friends,

They always say that folks who go through the fire together come out stronger, united, and motivated by a deep sense of community. Whatever your degree program or year, that fire can be as simple as dysfunctional electrical sockets, or the automated bathroom paper towel dispensers only giving you a 2-inch rectangle of paper despite fervent hand-waving.

To alleviate some of that frustration, we'd like to invite you to post on this thread about facilities issues. Our Building Staff are wonderful and over-stretched, so instead of bottling everything up and exploding at them in frustration, we wanted to provide a space to flag issues so that we can raise them in a timely manner. This will help everyone triage requests and make sure they are heard by the deciders.

Please try to keep things constructive and relatively kind; we definitely want things to be flagged, but not to get buck wild.

Chat with your 1-L Reps

Our meeting today went well! 1L's... keep your eye out for the following upcoming events:

NOVEMBER 5: Most Charitable Mod Competition Launch Party (keg in the courtyard!)
NOVEMBER 10: Donate blood, and represent your mod!
WEEK BEFORE THANKSGIVING: Donate canned goods, and represent your mod!

Check out the posting BELOW, also. Important stuff.

Con Law

All --

I know that there is some concern floating around about the lack of availability of spaces in the con law classes for this spring. As you all know, the Faculty last fall voted to give preference to 1Ls in Con Law classes for this spring. What this means, is that 1Ls do have priority.

However, I met with Dean Hirsh** on Monday to discuss this issue and to let her know that people are not happy. We are working to secure at least 20 more 2L/3L spots in both Prof. L** and Prof. D**vir's classes but we cannot guarantee this.

That said, the 1L spots will not fill up in these classes -- it is statistically impossible. Any unfilled spots will go to 2Ls and 3Ls on the waiting list. What this means is that you should definitely be signing up for waitlists for these classes. I know this isn't exactly the solution that some of you would want. If you have any helpful ideas about this please post them here and I will compile the results and send them along to the administration.

Thanks to everyone who has already emailed me. Who knew the Constitution was so hot right now?