Group Assignments for the Legislative Hearing Assignment

Charlie, Mike, Vanessa, Erin -
Voices for America's Children - (www.voicesforamericaschildren.org)

Jen, Sarah, Kevin -
Our Bodies Ourselves (www.ourbodiesourselves.org)

Dave, Brandon, Rachel, Sam -
The National Council for Adoption (www.ncfa-usa.org)

Audrey, Tenzin, Kryssie -
The Adoption Network, Inc (www.adoptionnetwork.com)

Extensive instructions are on pp. 208-212 of the green coursepack. Your 1-2 page typed summary of the major points you will address at the hearing needs to be posted to Blackboard by Monday, October 1, 8:00p. Please post them on our LO 11 Blackboard, under "Discussion Board," "Adoption Legislative Hearing Posts." Thanks!!

Examples of testimony: http://ctnonprofits.org/pages/legislature/testimony.asp

Additional Adoption Links

Here are some links to sample adoption forms found on the web. It is pretty amazing the choices that are given to adoptive parents. Definitely worth the few minutes to check them out.

Alberta Children's Services
Adoptive Home
Foster/Adoption Application

Baby Pool!!

I finally have Vanessa's baby pool up and running. Place your bets as soon as you can...her due date is right around the corner. The information that we know as of now -- Due Date: Oct. 8, Gender: Female, Name: Kayla Michele.

It is $5 per person, per entry and we'll collect the money in class next week and the week after. (No pressure Vanessa, but my bet is that you'll have Kayla on the 7th, so think early! :) )

Online baby pool: http://bebepool.com/emilyrenshaw

Third Reflection

Hope you all had a great weekend! I know you're all swamped with work, so I wanted to post a reminder that your third reflection assignment is due this Tuesday, by 8:00p. There is a thread to reply to on our LO11 Blackboard discussion board. See you on Thursday!

Bar Review this Thursday!

This week's bar review is going to be at Pour House, on Boylston St. http://www.pourhouseboston.com/. Bar review officially starts at 5:30p. There will be $2 NUSL shots (not sure what they will be), free wings, free chips and salsa, and 1/2 off Mexican food all night. Pour House is easily walkable from school -- located right across from Hynes Convention Center. I'll be heading there after class, so feel free to walk with me if you're not sure where it is (or if you just want to spend more quality time with me :) ).

Role Assignments for Thurs. Class

In addition to the email I sent out this afternoon, I thought I'd post the role assignments for tomorrow's class here, in case you check this first. Please see the email for more detail. See you tomorrow and WHO'S BRINGING TREATS??

The Organ Trade – Role Playing Exercise

* Alberty/Alberta Jose da Silva (primary organ seller) – played by the Tenzin & Kryssie

* “Middle man/Middle woman” (facilitating sale) – played by Dave & Audrey

* Brooklyn woman (kidney purchaser) – played by Jennifer & Vanessa

* Alexander M. Capron (Director of Ethics, WHO) – played by Michael

* Health Ministry Representatives from Israel – played by Sarah

* S. African physician performing procedure– played by Erin

* Mr. Peri (ringleader of organ trade) – played by Brandon & Sam

* Orley de Santana (26-year-old laborer, organ seller) – played by Charlie

* Jose Carlos da Conceicao da Silva (other organ seller) – played by Kevin

* Rogerio Bezerra da Silva (other organ seller) – played by Rachel

Free Hornbooks and Study Guides!

Just found out that the ASP office (located right outside of the locker room) has horn books and other commercial outlines that you can sign out for ten days at a time. These are old, torn up copies either - they have some of the newest materials. Wish I would have known about this last year!

Class FRIDAY!

Just a reminder that our makeup LSSC class will be held on Friday, September 14th from 12:30-2:30p in ROOM 86. Be there or be square. Actually, just be there - if for nothing else, it's Vanessa's b'day! :)

Field Day Postponed!

Due to probable rain and thunderstorms, the SBA decided to move Field Day to NEXT Saturday, September 22nd at 1pm.

It would be great to see LO 11 there in full force (as we are a force to be reckoned with!), so I hope many (if not all) of you can make it. Should be a great time!

Location: Cleveland Circle - take the green line (B to Chestnut Hill, C to Cleveland Circle, or D to Resevoir). The park is located where all three lines basically converge.

Bar Review - WED. 9/12

This week's bar review has been moved to Wednesday because of the holiday on Thursday. Details: 6 PM at Clery’s (corner of Dartmouth and Columbus in the South End). It si a short walk from the Orange Line Back Bay stop or the Green Line Copley stop. http://www.irishconnection.com/clerys.html

Great site - PDF conversion

Just a quick post -- if you ever need to convert a Word doc, or any other word processing document into a PDF, this site is free and fast. https://www.pdfonline.com/convert_pdf.asp If ever you are emailing something to a prof/co-0p employer, etc, always convert it to PDF first so that the formatting stays the same and the spell check marks don't show. Ok, that's all. :) Hope you all had a great weekend!

SBA!

I would love it if you all ran for SBA. It's a great resume booster. Oh, and we'd get to spend more time together. :) Let me know if you have any questions!

NUSL Field Day!!

(Msg from Nick Horan, 2L - SBA vice-chair of recreational activities). The SBA is sponsoring a NU Law field day next Saturday (Sept. 15th) and we would love to get the 1Ls to attend, ideally as law offices. Although the exact details are still in the planning stages, I would like to give advance notice of the date. If the LFs could all inform their respective LO of this event and also tell them to be on the lookout for more information and sign up sheets next week it would be much appreciated. Just to give you a preview, some of the activities at the field day will include softball, kickball, bacce, tug of war, capture the flag, and ultimate Frisbee. Although, there is a potential issue with the Park permit, it will most likely be located at a baseball field near Cleveland Circle. I am reticent to promise anything more definite at this point, but everything should be finalized by next Wednesday. If you have any questions at all please don’t hesitate to contact me. horan.n@neu.edu

Advocacy Exercise Preparation!!

As you prepare for your first advocacy exercise, please bear in mind the following points:

Please be conversant with the goal of the exercise in the grey box on page 103. To effectuate this goal, you will have to step into your role the minute the exercise begins. The consultations between "lawyers" and "clients" at the beginning of the exercise are crucial. Thus, you should come prepared to exploit your creative interpretations of your roles when you enter those discussions.

When preparing for your roles in the advocacy exercise, please first read the instructions that appear right beneath the grey boxed goals on page 103. Also, go to the LSSC general Blackboard, where you will find:

* A "video clips" folder that now contains three video clips (two with sound, one without) ;
* An article on migrant worker health care access issues; and
* As this meeting may result in litigious or non litigious negotiation opportunities between the parties, you will also find a document on negotiation strategies and styles.

These supplementary materials will give you a sense of lawyering methods and the factual context of your role. Next, as regards your lawyering choices and strategies, bear in mind that last week's readings discussed the real and perceived impacts of culture on individuals and communities. Furthermore, be aware that this week's readings deal with the representational decisions lawyers make with regard to their clients' goals. Both weeks of readings deal with the power dynamics between lawyers and clients, and with the pressures applied to both the lawyers and the clients by their respective cultures.

Observers: be sure to read and understand your instructions in the assignment description. Your role is essential to this exercise, because your observations will lead and inform our debriefing discussion.

Good luck!

THE VOICE IN THE BACK OF YOUR HEAD...

Is telling you to make it a habit to check your email, Blackboard, and the LO 11 blog frequently. Religiously, if you will.

This week...

Just to recap, the following "to-do's" are coming up in LSSC this week:

1) Tuesday 9/4 by noon - Second reflection assignment (p. 61 of green coursepack) due to me (via email or in my mailbox outside of Rm. 65).

2) Wednesday 9/5 - Lunch with our LO at Pho & I (unless anyone has other suggestions) . We'll meet by the front door of the law school at 12 noon.

3) Thursday 9/6 - Class from 3:30-5:30p in Rm. 54. Assignments due: read pp. 97-138 in the green coursepack. We will discuss these readings and do the advocacy exercise (detailed on pp. 102-104). Additional materials to help you prepare for the exercise should be reviewed before class and can be found on the LSSC General Blackboard site.

Next week (looking ahead) Thursday 9/13 - 8:30a, WEstlaw training

As always, let me know if you need anything and congrats on making it through the first week!

Blackboard Info

Just a few things...

There are two new announcements on the "General LSSC Blackboard" site (https://blackboard.neu.edu/, then "LSSC General 2007/2008"). Two important things are addressed and you should check them out. The first is a link to the videos and article you need to review to prepare for next week's Shack advocacy exercise. The other deals with the Vista compatibility issues and offers solutions. Have a great holiday weekend and let me know if you need anything!!