Feeling overwhelmed by the plethora of legal articles and treatises to read, take a look at Jotwell.com (The Journal of Things We Like (Lots)). This brand new electronic publication, sponsored by the University of Miami School of Law, provides brief reviews of recent legal scholarship that the academic and practicing attorney-reviewers find worthy of greater dissemination. The site hopes to "celebrate works that make an original contribution" to legal scholarship.

The major areas of law currently featured include:

• Administrative Law
• Constitutional Law
• Corporate Law
• Criminal Law
• Cyberlaw
• Intellectual Property Law
• Legal Profession
• Tax Law

A new report from the Government Accountability Office finds that as law school tuitions have increased, Hispanic and Asians/Pacific Islander  enrollment in law school has increased or stayed at about the same level, while African American enrollment has declined. Contributing to increased tuitions have been  increased emphasis on hands-on clinical experiences and smaller skills-based courses; increased diversity of course offerings, such as international law and environmental law; and increased student support, e.g., academic support, career services, and admissions support.

   The Office of Documents and Administrative Issuances has released their new database for finding current DC Municipal Regulations (DCMR) and copies of the DC Register (DCR).  The DCMR and DCR are available in PDF format which make citation much easier.  In fact, when citing to the DCMR or DCR, you must use the official DC version available on this website and not Lexis or Westlaw. Lexis and Westlaw's versions of the DCMR are not current nor up to date because of the many changes that have been made in compiling the new official online version. In compiling the DCMR for its new release, many inconsistencies and mistakes were found in prior versions of the DCMR and are still found in the Lexis and Westlaw versions.  The new online version of the DCMR is the only source that contains the most up to date, official versions of the regulations.  Many inconsistencies exist between the DC government version and versions found on Lexis and Westlaw.  Be safe with citation, and in this instance, Lexis and Westlaw are not currently created equal to the official government source.

On October 12, 2009 the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) issued the sixth edition of the Trademark Manual of Examining Procedure (TMEP). The TMEP, provides USPTO trademark examining attorneys, trademark applicants, and trademark attorneys with detailed information about the practices and procedures for prosecution of applications to register marks in the USPTO.

The sixth edition incorporates USPTO trademark practice and relevant case law reported prior to September 1, 2009. The policies states that this revision supersede any previous policies stated in prior editions, examination guides, or any other statement of USPTO policy, to the extent that there is any conflict.

The TMEP may be viewed or downloaded free of charge from the USPTO Web site at: http://tess2.uspto.gov/tmdb/tmep/.

Members of the Georgetown law community who used to rely on the print Yellow Books for detailed directory information should now try the dynamic electronic resource which replaced them called the Leadership Library on the Internet. Whether you're searching for a job, preparing for an interview, networking with alumni of your alma mater or tracking down subject specialists, the Leadership Library can provide you with brief biographies of attorneys, judges and corporate executives, as well as federal, state and municipal government employees, association executives and members of the news media.

Researchers can use the Leadership Library to "Find a Person", "Find an Organization" or search by keyword. Individual entries provide the best contact information, often including e-mail addresses, as well as career and educational history.

Feel free to stop by the Reference Desk if you have any questions about this invaluable resource.

With the semester in full swing, are you in need of extra help in understanding some of the legal issues discussed in your courses? Would you like to test what you've learned before exam season approaches? Then you should take advantage of  CALI Lessons. The majority of the lessons have been written by law professors and are designed to take less than an hour. Students may browse lessons by topic, author, casebook, or by those recently added.

Some of the most popular CALI Lessons for 1Ls are:

• Acceptance
• Equitable Remedies - An Overview
• Basic Future Interests: The Concept of "Future Interest" - Lesson 1
• Plagiarism - Keeping Out of Trouble

• Character Evidence Under Federal Rules 
• Hearsay From Square One: The Definition of Hearsay
• The Hearsay Rule & Its Exceptions
• An Overview of Relevance and Hearsay: A Nine Step Analytical Guide
• Battle of the Forms (UCC 2-207)  

To access CALI lessons over the web, you must create a CALI.org account using your school's institutional authorization code. Please email the Reference Desk for Georgetown Law's code. 

The 20th anniversary edition of the University of Chicago Manual of Legal Citation, a competitor to the Bluebook, is now available for free online.

Our  Federal Court Rules Research Guide has just been updated. The guide describes resources for finding both common (e.g., Federal Rules of Civil Procedure) and obscure (e.g., Rules of the Courts of Military Criminal Appeals) federal court rules. It also briefly explains the rule-creation process and describes sources for researching the legislative history of the rules. Finally, it recommends secondary sources that help with rule interpretation and practice.

Legal researchers cannot rely on regular case reporters to locate jury verdicts and settlement decisions. However, a number of specialty publications exist which do report jury verdicts and the library's updated research guide outlines some of the resources available in the library and online through our database providers.

The guide also includes direct links to the model jury instructions available for the federal circuits and access to the American Bar Association's publications on topical jury instructions.

One new feature of the revised guide is the link to resources which research jury decision making and the jury process, such as the American Judicature Society's Jury Center and the National Center for State Courts Jury InfoCenter.

The TRACfed database allows Georgetown Law researchers to look at how the federal government spends its money and enforces the law. A new feature provides reports on the "lead charges" which resulted in federal prosecutions or convictions during the most recent month or most recently completed fiscal year. For example, researchers interested in federal convictions pursuant to 18 USC 554 (smuggling goods from the United States), can select that code section and retrieve a conviction report from all federal agencies in the latest month.