Scalia and Garner at the Kennedy Center

Black’s Law Dictionary editor Bryan Garner and United States Supreme Court Associate Justice Antonin Scalia squared off in a unique live legal discussion on persuasion and argument at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. on Friday, July 25.

Garner and Scalia discussed their recent book “Making Your Case: The Art of Persuading Judges,” published by West, in a five hour continuing legal education (CLE) event. The CLE featured an entertaining and informative discussion of legal reasoning and argument, brief-writing and oral argument. The attendees included attorneys, other legal professionals and law students. Profits will go to Legal Aid.

It’s no surprise that a CLE featuring two of the preeminent authorities on legal writing and argument would generate a good deal of buzz in legal circles. Check out the links, below, to see what some media and bloggers had to say about the event:

Associated Press (via The Huffington Post)

The Blog of Legal Times from Tony Mauro (Also on Law.com)

Consumer Goods and Retail Industry Litigation Blog

A portion of the CLE with Scalia and Garner will soon be available – for free – through West LegalEdcenter. And, an upcoming Westcast video podcast about the event will feature highlights from the event. Keep an eye on WestBlog for more details on both.

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Campus Research in Connecticut

West has announced a deal between its Campus Research service and iCONN.org, the Connecticut State Library’s research engine for academic libraries.

Powered by Westlaw, Campus Research provides students and librarians with the most comprehensive collection of research materials available, making it easier for college students and faculty to find the news, business and law-related information they need faster and more efficiently.

Campus Research will replace the current research service used in iCONN, and provide its thousands of news databases, business journals and publications, and superior law-related resources to full-time students across Connecticut colleges. The three-year contract for nearly 140,000 students is the largest Campus Research agreement to date.

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A rose of a city

“The City of Roses” was a great host for AALL, but it’s time for us to leave Portland and head back to Minnesota.

(Image courtesy: AALL)

We hope you enjoyed our blog posts from the meeting and the videos, photos and text we brought you.

Next year, AALL takes its show to Washington, D.C.

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Arthur Miller interview featured at AALL

A video interview featuring West Key Author Arthur Miller was shown here at AALL as part of the West town hall on legal research skills. We blogged about that event in a previous post.

We broke the 14 minute interview with Miller in half, into two video clips:

Arthur Miller (Part 1): Legal research and writing training at law schools

Arthur Miller (Part 2): The “starting point” for legal research and use of technology for it

We welcome your comments to Arthur Miller’s remarks.

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West rewards library marketing excellence

Law libraries recognize the importance of getting the word out about their services.

The AALL/West Excellence in Marketing Awards honor outstanding achievement in public relations activities by an individual, a group of individuals, a library, a Chapter, an SIS, a Consortium, a Caucus, or any other group affiliated with the Association.

AALL believes public relations is a critical responsibility of nearly every member of the library profession and they issue the Excellence in Marketing Awards to inspire, educate and encourage promotional activities by the AALL membership.

This year’s winner for Best Brochure was the Law Library of Congress in Washington D.C.

Leon Scioscia talked to us about the Law Library of Congress and showed us the winning brochure:

The other four 2008 AALL/West Excellence in Marketing Award winners are:

Best Campaign
Rhode Island State Law Library (Providence, RI)
Justice Rules in Rhode Island-An Educational Collaborative

Best Newsletter
Jacob Burns Law Library (Washington D.C.)
Legal Miscellanea: A Newsletter for the Friends of the Jacob Burns Law Library

Best Public Relations Toolkit
Wahab Public Law Library (Virginia Beach, VA)
Welcome to Wahab!

Best Use of Technology
King & Spalding (Houston, TX)
Articles & Alerts Monitor of Peer Law Firms

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Case Notebook preview

Craig Larson, director, New Product Development at West, is at AALL showing off Case Notebook from LiveNote. It’s an electronic case file for litigators and will be available in the Fall of 2008 .

Larson gave us a preview of the capabilities of Case Notebook and how it is organized, in this video:

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Research skills white paper

As we mentioned in a previous post, a white paper distributed at a town hall discussion hosted by West at AALL is now available.

The “Partnership and Solutions for Preparing Job-Ready Attorneys” white paper addresses the key issues in the discussion surrounding the gap between desired and actual legal research skills among law students and new associates.

The discussion also was previewed in a Westcast podcast produced last week, a 20-minute discussion that featured Monice Kaczorowski, Neal, Gerber & Eisenberg LLP; Karl Gruben, St. Thomas University School of Law in Miami; and Lezlie Bartz and Anne Ellis from West.

The new white paper on legal research builds on the discussion sparked by the “Research Skills for Lawyers and Law Students,” white paper produced by West last year.

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West’s Anne Ellis talks about AALL

Anne Ellis, senior director, West Librarian Relations has experienced many AALL Annual Meetings in her career.

We asked her to give us her perspective on why it’s important for West to be at AALL and continue the strong relationships with law librarians, in this video interview:

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West party Monday night

West held “Librarian Camp” as the theme of its customer appreciation party last night at the Hilton Hotel serving as AALL headquarters in Portland.

We’ve posted some photos on our Flickr page.

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The Daily Rose

“The Daily Rose” is the daily newspaper for AALL 2008. Named appropriately, since Portland is known as “The City of Roses.”

The paper features articles and photo coverage of the sessions and events at AALL. We talked about it with Tim Kelly, co-editor of the paper, from Willamette University College of Law:

“The Daily Rose” is available in print and online. It also involves a blog, which provided information about Portland and the meeting events ahead of time to attendees to help them plan and prepare.

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Why come to AALL?

No matter where they work – in law firms, law schools or government agencies – the law librarians at AALL have good reasons for coming to the meeting.

Many cite the networking opportunities with their colleagues. They also come for the career development opportunities.

We interviewed a few librarians at AALL for WestBlog:

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New photos from Portland

We added some photos from AALL to our Westlaw Flickr page.

More to come!

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Librarians go to camp at AALL

One look around the West booth area at AALL and you get the sense you may be nestled into the scenic woods not far from Mt. Hood.

That’s the idea.

The large poster of the mountain – and the grass – may be fake but the pine trees are the real deal.

Kathy Granger, director of trade shows for West and the North American Legal businesses of Thomson Reuters, says like camp AALL is a time for law librarians to learn, enjoy existing friendships and cultivate new ones.

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Video gives new insight on West

Through a video, attendees at AALL are getting a chance to get a unique behind the scenes look at West and learn about the company’s approach to the business of law, new product development and the future, among other things.

Anne Ellis, senior director, West Librarian Relations narrates the 20-minute video titled “Faces of West” that is playing in the West booth. It also features interviews with key leaders within West.

We’ve broken it into eight parts. For example, this clip features a closer look at the library West maintains at its Eagan, Minn. headquarters:

Other video clips from “Faces of West” are:

New product development

Going to market

Print

Manufacturing

Business of law

A changing business

Future of West

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Free books to AALL attendees

Attendees at AALL are getting some free titles from Aspatore Books and West, just for stopping by the West Print/CD booth.

The books, appropriately, are two Aspatore titles for law firm and academic librarians: The Changing Role of Academic Law Librarianship: Leading Librarians on Teaching Legal Research Skills, Responding to Emerging Technologies, and Adapting to Changing Trends (Inside the Minds).

And The Changing Role of Law Firm Librarianship: Leading Librarians on Developing Budgets, Evaluating Resources, and Responding to the Expanding Role of the Law Firm Library (Inside the Minds).

Both books feature multiple authors and address the ongoing transition of the law librarian profession as a whole.

Aspatore Books offers more than 4,000 expert authors, addressing legal and business strategies for numerous topics, including intellectual property, bankruptcy, human resources, insurance and venture capital.

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