The ABA issued a formal ethics opinion in April that allows attorneys to check out at a juror’s social media accounts or website as long as they don’t communicate directly with them. Click here for more information on the ABA’s news page and for a link to the opinion itself.  [JL]

Check out Casetext and Mootus, two websites that use the power of crowdsourcing to help attorneys and students find more relevant research results. Read this ABA Journal article for more information about the concept. [JL]

Lexis:

For summer 2014, Lexis offers students unlimited use of Lexis Advance for any research purpose, educational or commercial/job related. No additional steps are necessary for access besides registering your Lexis Advance ID (please contact the LRC reference desk if you need an ID).

Full access to Lexis for students graduating in May 2014 will automatically continue through the end of July. Through the Lexis Law School Graduate Program, all graduating students can apply for free extended access to Lexis Advance through the end of December 2014. Graduates conducting verifiable 501(c)(3) public interest work may instead sign up for the Lexis ASPIRE Program, which will permit job-related access to Lexis Advance for the duration of the public interest work, even if beyond December.

Westlaw:

Westlaw passwords will automatically remain active over the summer for a limited number of hours of research each month. Students can get full access over the summer if they have a valid educational need under one of the following provisions:

• Summer School
• School-Related Research Assignment
• Moot Court Research
• Law Review or Journal Research
• Working as a Professor’s Research Assistant
• Non-Profit Externship (receiving academic credit AND unpaid)
• Unpaid Internship/Externship (receiving academic credit AND unpaid)

If one of the above describes your summer activities, please apply to extend your full access at Westlaw’s Password Extension page. If you take no action, your account will remain active but limited in the number of hours for June and July. Live Chat on WestlawNext will remain active throughout the summer.

Graduating students can extend access while studying for the bar by registering for Westlaw’s Grad Program. Registered graduates will retain access to Westlaw through November if graduating in May, or through June if graduating in December. Please note that this extension will be limited in the number of hours allowed. All graduates will also automatically retain access to a number of career-related databases for 18 months following graduation.

Bloomberg Law:

Bloomberg Law accounts remain fully active over the summer for registered law students, including access for research conducted during summer employment (please contact the LRC reference desk if you need an ID).

Graduates automatically keep full access to Bloomberg Law through their individual account for six months following graduation.

[AR]

Simply put, the first sale doctrine is the copyright exception that allows you to resell your used casebooks. Recently, Aspen Publishers launched its “Casebook Connected” program. In an email to professors whose assigned casebooks fell under the aegis of this program, Aspen announced that purchase of the book would include:

• A new, bound version of the casebook, which can be marked-up, highlighted, and kept through the length of the course, but which must be returned to us at the conclusion of the class.

• Lifetime access to CasebookConnect, a rich digital companion to the casebook, containing a full digital version of the casebook as well as selected proven learning accelerators, such as examples, explanations, and a collection of issue-spotting and hypothetical exercises.

Following a serious outcry and petition opposing the program by law professors, Aspen has revised the Casebook Connected program to include an alternative option of purchasing the book alone without the digital version and without the obligation to return the physical copy at the end of the term.In addition to being alarmed, many have been amused by the publishers’ attempt to put one over on law professors, especially since the program included a casebook on property law!

[RL]

Are you hoping to be sworn in to the California bar this year? If your hope is realized, you will be among the first California lawyers to swear to be a civil lawyer, even if you practice criminal law. The California supreme court has approved rule 9.4 of the California Rules of Court adding the following wording to the oath: “As an officer of the court, I will strive to conduct myself at all times with dignity, courtesy, and integrity.”

The court said that “[t]he adoption of the rule was consistent with the nationwide efforts, led in part by the American Board of Trial Advocates (ABOTA), to include a ‘civility’ provision to [sic] the oaths taken by lawyers admitted to the bar in jurisdictions nationwide.” According to Patrick Kelly, immediate past-president of the State Bar of California, the civility language was inserted to “create an added reinforcement for attorneys entering the bar in California to remember the principles of professionalism that brought them to the practice in the first place and in particular in their dealings with clients, other attorneys, and judges.”

[RL]