The Legal Profession Course ? The Brief

Today, we continue our coverage of our third year curriculum with a look at the Legal Profession course, the?year-long lecture series devoted to the discussion of contemporary?issues confronting lawyers and the practice of law. A quick note before we get started.?At the conclusion of?yesterday?s post,?I referred to this as a semester-long course. Last year, it was a semester-long.?This year, it is a full year in length.

Here are the nuts and bolts of the Legal Profession course:

Depending upon a student?s level of interest, the course can be worth one or two credits. There are twelve, two-hour sessions offered over the course of the year. One session is offered during each immersion (one in the fall, one in the spring) and all students are required to attend these sessions. After that, if the student wishes to earn only one credit for the course, he/she must attend four of the remaining ten sessions. If the students intends to earn two credits for the course, he/she must attend eight of the ten remaining sessions. In addition, students are required to submit a ten page paper on any topic that has a direct relationship to the legal profession. This course is graded pass-fail.

Here?is the?list of topics from this year?s course:

Alternative Business Systems for Law Firms (Required ? Fall Immersion)
The Lawyer in a Global Market (Required ? Spring Immersion)
The Electronic Lawyer
White Collar Criminal Defense Lawyers
Life As Legal Aid Lawyer
The Perfect (And Not-So-Perfect) Associate
Lawyers in the Criminal Justice System
The Lawyer Entrepreneur
Professional Identity
Social Science Skills for Lawyers
The Future of Law Practice
On Having Influence

We asked Jim Moliterno, the professor who?leads/designs?this component of the third year, a few questions about this course:

What is the purpose of the Legal Profession course?

There are critical topics regarding the legal profession that do not fit neatly anywhere else in the curriculum.? The Legal Profession course exists to expose the students to these topics.? Examples of the topics include the economic systems of the legal profession, its culture, its current events and trends and challenges.

What topics did/will you cover during this year?s program?

The topics include The Future of Large Law Firms, The Perfect Associate, Lives and Work of White Collar Criminal Defense Lawyers (same for Legal Aid Lawyers),? Lawyers as Entrepreneurs, Lawyers in the Global Legal Economy, On Having Influence, Women?s Issues in the Legal Profession, The Electronic Lawyer (Note: A full list of the topics can be found above).

?What do you hope students get out of these discussions?

I hope the sessions assist students in becoming ?of the legal profession.? The 3L curriculum is in part designed as a transition year between the role of student and the role of lawyer. One piece of that is the sense of belonging to the legal profession. I hope students leave the Legal Profession sessions feeling more like they have a stake in the future of the legal profession, more like they will have some role in its future development, and more like they should care about the health of the profession beyond their own practice area.

How do you feel it fits within the larger context of the third year?

As the students experience the role of lawyer in the immersions, clinics, externships, and practicum courses, the Legal Profession course gives them a place in the 3L curriculum to pause and reflect on the context of their experiences.

Tomorrow, we will discuss the law-related service component of the third year. This component?requires all students to complete at least forty hours (40) of legal service to the public and/or service to the legal profession during their third year.

Click here to see all our blog coverage on the third year

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Source: http://wlulaw.wordpress.com/2012/01/19/the-legal-profession-course/

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Sundance Film Fest opens with 4 films, new snow

A sign welcomes visitors to the 2012 Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah on Thursday, Jan. 19, 2012. (AP Photo/Danny Moloshok)

A sign welcomes visitors to the 2012 Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah on Thursday, Jan. 19, 2012. (AP Photo/Danny Moloshok)

Sundance Institute president and founder Robert Redford looks on during a press conference at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah on Thursday, Jan. 19, 2012. (AP Photo/Danny Moloshok)

Sundance Institute president and founder Robert Redford speaks during a press conference at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah on Thursday, Jan. 19, 2012. (AP Photo/Danny Moloshok)

Sundance Institute president and founder Robert Redford, right, speaks as Festival Director John Cooper, left, and Sundance Institute Executive Director Keri Putman, center, look on during a press conference at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah on Thursday, Jan. 19, 2012. (AP Photo/Danny Moloshok)

Sundance Institute president and founder Robert Redford speaks during a press conference at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah on Thursday, Jan. 19, 2012. (AP Photo/Danny Moloshok)

PARK CITY, Utah (AP) ? A fresh dusting of snow over Park City heralded the beginning of the Sundance Film Festival on Thursday.

Sundance Institute founder Robert Redford opened the festival by characterizing the slate of 117 feature films as products of "dark and grim" times and the "suffering from a government that's in paralysis."

"Even though the work reflects hard times, there's not paralysis here," the 75-year-old filmmaker said at an afternoon news conference. "They're breathing life into fresh, new stories."

The selection of films are "as diverse as they can be" and no overriding theme has emerged, said festival director John Cooper.

"Independent film is the theme," he said.

For 11 days every January, Sundance becomes the focal point of the independent film world as established directors and stars mix with up-and-coming talent, while theatrical distributors prowl the festival looking for the next indie hit, and film lovers just have a good time being the first audiences to see new movies.

"You can't make a film with a festival in mind, and it's not something I would have expected or taken for granted. But it's always kind of the dream in the back of your mind," said Lauren Greenfield, who premiered her debut documentary "Thin" at Sundance in 2006 and returns this time with one of the opening-night films, "The Queen of Versailles," chronicling the housing-bust story of a couple that tried to build a palatial 90,000-square-foot (27,000-meter) mansion.

"I think it's this really magical environment, a place that's such a nurturing, supportive influence for independent films. Even when you're out there making your film, I think that you think about Sundance, and it just kind of gives you motivation."

Also opening Thursday is "Hello I Must Be Going," actor-turned-director Todd Louiso's U.S. dramatic entry that centers on a love story between a 19-year-old man and a 35-year-old divorcee, and stars Melanie Lynskey; the world-cinema drama "Wish You Were Here," a dark story of a vacation gone wrong from Australian filmmaker Kieran Darcy-Smith that stars Joel Edgerton and Teresa Palmer; and Swedish director Malik Bendjelloul's world-cinema documentary "Searching for Sugar Man," a portrait of promising 1970s singer-songwriter Rodriguez and his fade into obscurity.

Sundance also is a launch place for films that already have distributors, who show off their films hoping to build buzz among audiences and the legions of cinema journalists and bloggers who attend the festival.

"All the film press in North America is at Sundance to discover films," said Michael Barker, co-president of Sony Pictures Classics, which is showing director Nadine Labaki's Lebanese drama "Where Do We Go Now?" and Gareth Huw Evans' Indonesian action tale "The Raid" at the festival. "Sundance is like the best place to set up a film for release. You have instant press junkets at Sundance."

Among the more established filmmakers showcasing their work at the festival are Spike Lee with his urban drama "Red Hook Summer," in which he reprises the character he played in "Do the Right Thing"; Stephen Frears with his sports-wagering caper "Lay the Favorite," starring Bruce Willis, Catherine Zeta-Jones and Rebecca Hall; documentary veteran Joe Berlinger with his Paul Simon portrait "Under African Skies"; and Julie Delpy with her relationship comedy "2 Days in New York," in which she stars with Chris Rock.

The Sundance Film Festival has grown tremendously over its 28 years, but Redford said the institute's mission remains the same: to support and encourage independent filmmakers and provide a platform for their work to be seen.

"There are those people who say, 'Why give money to art? It means nothing,'" Redford said. "I think it means a lot. And we're here to try and prove how much it does mean. So we can only do what we can do, but we're going to keep doing it.

The Sundance Film Festival continues through Jan. 29.

___

AP Entertainment Writer Sandy Cohen is on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/APSandy . AP Movie Writer David Germain contributed to this report.

___

Online:

http://www.sundance.org/festival

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/4e67281c3f754d0696fbfdee0f3f1469/Article_2012-01-19-Film-Sundance/id-2da2babf26a846e0bd10a508c9c929e9

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Christian Bale returns to China in new film (AP)

LOS ANGELES ? Christian Bale says he isn't concerned with what Chinese government censors approved or cut from his new film "The Flowers of War."

"I just do what I do," Bale said. "What happens after I'm wrapped is always out of my hands. It doesn't matter which country that's in. ... Which scenes get chosen, which scenes get cut, that has nothing to do with me."

The movie marks Bale's return to the country where he launched his Hollywood career in 1987 with Steven Spielberg's "Empire of the Sun." And while Bale didn't worry about intrusion into the filmmaking process, the government did publicly rebuke him for a recent run-in with state-backed guards. With a CNN camera crew in tow, Bale attempted last month to visit the home of blind activist Chen Guangcheng before being physically turned away.

In an interview before that incident, Bale said he picked "The Flowers of War," with dialogue divided about evenly between Mandarin and English, out of a desire to get outside his comfort zone and work with director Zhang Yimou.

"I have a great sense of adventure, and whatever adventure I can take out of moviemaking, I'm going to," said Bale, who won a supporting actor Oscar for last year's "The Fighter." "So I hope that not just with China but with just internationally that we'll start to get much more mixing of nationalities and film cultures. And I think we're going to get some really interesting results from that."

Bale used an interpreter to communicate with Zhang during production of "Flowers," set during the Japanese army's brutal 1937 rampaging of Nanjing. The 37-year-old actor said they used gestures and developed "a good kind of a short-hand, kind of a lingua franca" to get through scenes.

Zhang said Bale suggested changes that the director incorporated into the finished film, which like other Chinese productions was subject to review by censors. (Bale notes that while he's happy to make such suggestions, he has no hopes to direct: "I don't want the responsibility.")

The film was at the top of the Chinese box office last year and is being released in the U.S. on Friday. Bale stars as a mortician who pretends to be a priest and works to protect two groups of young women inside a Catholic cathedral during the invasion known as the Rape of Nanking.

In the interview, Bale also confirmed that July's "The Dark Knight Rises" will be his final appearance as the Caped Crusader.

"There's a time to finish anything. And this feels like the time," Bale said.

___

AP Entertainment Writer Ryan Pearson is on Twitter: www.twitter.com/RyanPearsonLA

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/movies/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120120/ap_en_mo/film_christian_bale

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Ratings king 'American Idol' ready for 11th season (AP)

LAS VEGAS ? It's been a decade since Texas native Kelly Clarkson was plucked from obscurity and turned into the nation's first American Idol.

Now the TV show that has spawned dozens of other pop stars and talent competitions is opening its 11th season Wednesday under a cloud of uncertainty.

Is this Ryan Seacrest's last year hosting the nation's most popular TV show?

Will fans return after new judges Jennifer Lopez and Steven Tyler embraced flattery over tough criticism during their debut season last year?

Does America still want pop stars invented by a TV show audience?

Seacrest, Lopez, Tyler and lone original judge, Randy Jackson, are hoping fans will return despite these questions.

They are helping to usher in the new season with a press conference on the Las Vegas Strip.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/tv/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120118/ap_en_tv/us_american_idol

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Obama set to reject Keystone oil pipeline: sources (Reuters)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) ? The Obama administration was poised on Wednesday to reject the Keystone crude oil pipeline, according to sources, a decision that would be welcomed by environmental groups but inflame the domestic energy industry.

Sources familiar with the matter told Reuters the administration could announce its rejection of TransCanada's Keystone XL pipeline late on Wednesday. But State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said later that it has not made a decision on the proposed pipeline.

TransCanada Corp. shares slid more than 3 percent after reports that rejection was imminent.

"We're expecting the pipeline to be rejected," the source said.

Rejection of the pipeline had been expected in Washington after Obama tried to delay the decision until 2013 but Congress forced his hand as part of a popular tax cut measure. Republican lawmakers have already begun work on a plan to let Congress circumvent the administration and give the project the go-ahead. [ID:nL1E8CBIA7]

State Department officials said TransCanada will be allowed to apply again for a permit if it identifies a new route for the pipeline through Nebraska. Critics of the pipeline have said a spill along this route could contaminate the aquifer. But a new route would mean substantial delays.

TransCanada's planned 1,700-mile pipeline has become a potent symbol in the battle over of the future of U.S. energy policy.

With environmental groups concerned about carbon emissions from oil sands production, the administration in November delayed a decision on a presidential permit for the project until 2013.

But lawmakers that support the project attached a measure to a tax-cut law passed at the end of last year that set a February deadline for a decision.

The administration has said it needs more time to consider alternative routes for the pipeline, which originally was planned to traverse sensitive habitats and a crucial water source in Nebraska.

CAUGHT IN MIDDLE

The pipeline has placed the Obama administration in the middle of a dispute between two key parts of its voting block: green groups who oppose the pipeline over concerns about climate change and some unions who back the project because of the jobs they believe it would create.

Supporters say the pipeline that would transport 830,000 barrel per day of crude to U.S. Gulf coast refineries would create thousands of jobs and is integral to U.S. energy security.

Environmentalists say the job-creation claims are inflated and warn that the pipeline would lock the nation into the use of carbon-intensive oil sands crude for years. They said their support for Obama's reelection campaign this year depended on his rejection of the pipeline.

The company in November agreed to find a new route away from the Sandhills and Ogallala aquifer in Nebraska.

TransCanada shares tumbled as word circulated of a rejection for the project the company has developed and promoted for more than three years. The stock was down more than 3 percent at C$40.91 on the Toronto Stock Exchange at midday.

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper said this week that Iran's threat to block shipping in the Strait of Hormuz pointed to why Washington should approve the project.

(Additional reporting By Roberta Rampton, Jeff Jones; Writing by Ayesha Rascoe; Editing by David Gregorio and Russell Blinch)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/obama/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120118/wl_canada_nm/canada_us_keystone_decision

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Iran and US: Could they talk war into happening?

Analysts warn about the dangers of rhetoric as the stage appears set for a highly volatile year with both the United States and Iran preparing for elections.

With this month's assassination of an Iranian nuclear scientist ? widely seen as part of a covert war ? and impending sanctions targeting Iran's oil industry, tensions between the Islamic Republic and the West have escalated to their highest pitch in years.

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What began as a US-led carrot-and-stick policy designed to goad Iran into dropping any aspirations of developing nuclear weapons has turned into a purely punitive approach that leaves Iranian leaders little reason to cooperate, say analysts. "[Iranian leaders] have very few tools in their tool kit right now, and in a sense we have pushed them into a corner with sanctions," says Anoushiravan Ehteshami, an Iran specialist at Durham University in England.

"So what else do they have to lose? If they retaliate, they can change the game a bit, and that's what they are doing," says Mr. Ehteshami. "Of course, when you start changing the game a bit, you don't quite control how much you change. You can unleash all kinds of forces."

Indeed, the stage appears set for a highly volatile year, as both the United States and Iran prepare for important elections, Tehran faces key decisions on its nuclear program, and an Iranian-American convicted of spying sits on death row in Iran.

When Iran's supreme religious leader looked out on his nation's strategic landscape in mid-November, he saw many gathering storm clouds. Enemies were readying tougher sanctions ? perhaps to embargo oil, Iran's economic lifeblood. They were killing Iranian nuclear scientists. They had sent a computer virus to disrupt Iran's uranium enrichment. Their agents were reportedly inside Iran, replacing street signs and bricks in buildings with new ones equipped with radiation detectors.

And the United Nations nuclear watchdog had just published details of alleged "systematic" nuclear weapons-related work by Iran through late 2003, and declared of "particular concern" more episodic work as recently as 2009 ? prompting fresh global opprobrium.

So Ayatollah Ali Khamenei issued a warning. "Iran is not a nation to sit still and just observe threats from fragile materialistic powers which are being eaten by worms from inside," he told military college students in Tehran. "Iran will respond with full force to any aggression or even threats in a way that will demolish the aggressors from within."

Since then, Mr. Khamenei has stayed true to his promise. When the US and Israel staged or announced military exercises in the neighborhood, so did Iran, unveiling new rocket and missile capabilities.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/XYE-IK0HaVg/Iran-and-US-Could-they-talk-war-into-happening

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