Life of a Law Student

I know many of you are getting tired of seeing new blog posts but no new content.

I understand. It’s killing me that I haven’t had the opportunity to add much to the site in some time.

Unfortunately, I see now that my 18 credit hour schedule is not going to be as friendly as I had initially thought. The internships are taking up a significant amount of time, and the reading for three of my classes is much longer (and in one case, much more technical), than I’ve previously had. I’m not complaining by any measure, but more time is being taken up than I expected.

And let’s not forget that I’m still married, and I need to be spending some time with my wife. (I made a sacred vow to her, not to this site :).)

What does all of this mean for LoaLS?

It means that updates this semester are going to be sporadic at best. My substantive classes have to get first priority (which paid off with 3 A+’s, 2 A’s and a Moot Court championship last semester). I also need to ensure that I’m spending time with my wife.

So is LoaLS dead?

Not at all. I’ll put up what I can this semester and over the summer. Next year I will only have to take 12 credit hours each semester (although 1 hour of that may be Moot Court board). That will help me clear out the backlog and potentially start bringing in new content from other sources. Additionally, I hope that my grades and resume will enable me to get a job nailed down by early in the fall, so I don’t have to spend a significant number of hours job-hunting.

So sorry if things go / remain silent. The silence won’t last forever :).

- Neil

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Hi LoaLS Readers,

I am a 1L at the University of Pittsburgh, and avid LoaLS reader.   As I told Neil in my e-mail, the resources he has have been extremely helpful to me in my first year.  Neil is letting me post here about the 2008 Webby Awards and JURIST, the site I write for.  JURIST was nominated this year for a Webby in the law category.

As a Webby Award nominee, JURIST is also eligible to win a People’s Voice Award. I am writing here to ask you to vote for JURIST. JURIST is up against the ABA Journal, a Goliath to JURIST’s David.  However, with help from the law student online community like LoaLS readers, I believe JURIST can win the award.

Voting on Webby nominees is open to the public from April 8th to May 1st. To vote for JURIST, go to the “People’s Voice” voting site by clicking here. Register (you may need to scroll down), get the activation code that will be sent to your e-mail account, then log in to the People’s Voice site, click on the “Website” grouping, scroll down to “Society” and vote in the Law category. The process takes just a couple of minutes. It’s easy.

Headquartered at Pitt Law, JURIST is powered by a team of some 45 law student reporters, editors and web developers led by law professor Bernard Hibbitts who volunteer their time and talent to the project, working with leading legal experts from around the world to provide up-to-the minute legal news, primary source research and analysis as an educational service to the public and the legal community.

Please feel free to e-mail me with any questions: josh at joshcamson dot com.

Thanks to Neil for letting me post here!!

Josh Camson

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The company that runs the back-end CMS I use (Podango) is still experiencing problems. They transitioned servers last night, and now I’m unable to log in to my control panel to manage audio and troubleshoot the problems with the recently uploaded audio.

I have sent them an email, and hope to get this resolved shortly.

Unfortunately, time I spend fixing the site is not time I can spend recording. This is getting quite frustrating…

- Neil

Update: Podango has fixed things are their end, and hopefully this weekend I’ll be able to start recording and posting new content.

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Hey all,

So last semester is over, and a new semester is about to begin. You may have noticed a few episodes up, but they are taking time to get up (and often don’t work if you go to listen to them).

Here’s what’s going on. The back-end Content Management System I use was taken over by another organization. Since that hand-over, technical problems have begun occurring. The CMS team sent out an email apologizing to the entire user base regarding these problems, but they have not yet all been resolved.

These technical problems slowed me down quite a bit over winter break, when I hoped to clear out the episode backlog. I’ve also been slowed down because I’m recording Copyright Law first. (It’s not that I don’t understand the material, the opposite in fact. I’m being much more careful and re-recording episodes if I’m not completely satisfied with them.) I’ve also been busy over Winter Break with coaching our school’s national trademark Moot Court team.

I anticipate this semester to be a bit easier than last semester. First, I’m taking a few less credit hours. Second, five of those hours are internships (ie no reading, recording, or exams). Third, I don’t have the writing credit hours that I did last semester. Finally, I don’t have a Saturday class, as that drains the life out of you.

So that’s where we’re at. I’m going to keep troubleshooting these back-end problems, and try to get Copyright Law recorded in the near future. As always, feel free to contact me with questions.

- Neil

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