Roscoe Pound, dean of Harvard Law School, was an influential legal scholar with a large body of writings. Some say he later contradicted himself; perhaps, but his earlier writings offer deep insight into the American legal system. (Pound was born in 1870, and was raised in Nebraska. His chief academic training was as a botanist, …
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Prof. Andrew McClurg is the author of an excellent guide to the first year of law school. Below are short excerpts relating to mental health issues that can affect law students. Self-Doubt Law school is the undisputed champion of causing talented people, people who have achieved at a high level their entire lives, to almost …
Many smart people think about attending law school. The stress factor is not always considered by prospective students. Prof. Carroll Seron at the UC Irvine School of Law candidly acknowledges this issue. “It is a rite of professional passage that the first year of law school is highly stressful and, indeed, is designed to be …
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The Uniform Commercial Code covers a wide scope of commercial transactions, from the sale of goods to warehouse receipts to secured transactions. Article 3 deals with promissory notes, sometimes referred to as negotiable instruments. In his 2012 book, The End of Negotiable Instruments, James Steven Rogers argued that most of the law contained in Article …
The recent decision in Tribeca Companies, LLC v. First American Title Insurance Company (Aug. 26, 2015) ___ Cal.App.4th ___ reaches an unsurprising result – an escrowholder is not liable for damages when it delivers money to the owner of the funds. If you continue to the end of the decision, however, you’ll find a peculiar …
A recent study published by the U. C. Giannini Foundation of Agricultural Economics reports an increase in the number of agricultural employees in California. Using data from the Employment Development Department, the authors conclude “since 1990, average employment in [California] agriculture rose 10%.” To support their conclusion, the authors “extracted all SSNs reported by agricultural …
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The federal courts continue to narrow the circumstances in which a person can be denied relief in bankruptcy court based on breach of fiduciary duties. In Double Bogey, LP v. Enea, ___ F.3d ___ (9th Cir. July 22, 2015), an unpaid creditor sought to invoke nondischargeability on the grounds that the debtor, as the alter …
Several categories of debt are excluded from relief under the Bankruptcy Code, meaning that a debtor cannot obtain a discharge for these debts. In Bos v. Board of Trustees, ___ F.3d ___ (9th Cir. 2015), the Ninth Circuit considered whether an employer’s contractual requirement to contribute to an employee benefits fund made the employer a …
Sir Edward Coke was born in 1552. He was regarded as a great lawyer. He was twice married, his domestic life being full of quarrels. Coke was one of the most truculent of English lawyers, and an arch-rival of Francis Bacon. “He was a potent element in Francis Bacon’s ruin,” says Dean Church. On the …
It seems that we’re not afraid to be packin’ down on the ranch.