A Lawyer\u27s Lament: Law Schools and the Profession of Law

Back in the mid-eighties, I offered a first year, second semester un-elective called American Legal Theory and American Legal Education. It scrunched together two history courses I had taught irregularly before. I liked the way the two topics fit together and still do, but with so many recalcitrant law students enrolled in it, the course was an unmitigated disaster. As is always the case with such attempts at offering perspective, amidst the shambles I had acquired at least a few devoted students. At the end of the last class one of them came up to the front to ask a somewhat rhetorical question. He said, Do I read you correctly? You have been arguing that if we want to change legal education, we have to change the categories of legal thought? I nodded in agreement, to which he replied, You know that\u27s gonna be damn hard? I remember this comment not just because of the student\u27s insight but also because it pretty much marked the end to my active participation in attempts at significantly reforming the curriculum at the University at Buffalo Law School. An attempt to comprehensively reform the first-year curriculum had recently broken down when one crucial participant offered a my way or the highway alternative that none of us could understand. Such a result was a fitting tombstone to a career that had started back in 1967 when I was a third-year law student. Gerhard Casper, then new to the University of Chicago Law School faculty, gathered a group of my classmates together to discuss revision of that school\u27s curriculum. As a member of this group, I suggested that the first year be given over to tutorial work designed to bring all students up to master\u27s degree level of competence in a range of relevant social sciences. World Report rankings respect practitioners\u27 inputs as one criterion in the ranking process. But the reader should also consider me as one who is gravely concerned about legal education because I am gravely concerned about the practice-the profession-of law. And it is that concern that I wish to discuss with you. Let us all acknowledge at the outset that the practice of law is under stress from both internal and external sources. Candidly and sadly, a primary cause of the stress is the rise of greed and a corresponding focus on self esteem. Too often lawyers, and citizens at large, look at every situation as one in which there must be a winner and a loser. This win-lose mentality leads to a shocking decline in civic engagement. Therefore, one should readily acknowledge that a great deal of the problem of internal and external stresses in the practice of law rests on the bar and on its members. However, that determination is not the entire answer

Ticks Associated with Macquarie Island Penguins Carry Arboviruses from Four Genera

Macquarie Island, a small subantarctic island, is home to rockhopper, royal and king penguins, which are often infested with the globally distributed seabird tick, Ixodes uriae. A flavivirus, an orbivirus, a phlebovirus, and a nairovirus were isolated from these ticks and partial sequences obtained. The flavivirus was nearly identical to Gadgets Gully virus, isolated some 30 year previously, illustrating the remarkable genetic stability of this virus. The nearest relative to the orbivirus (for which we propose the name Sandy Bay virus) was the Scottish Broadhaven virus, and provided only the second available sequences from the Great Island orbivirus serogroup. The phlebovirus (for which we propose the name Catch-me-cave virus) and the previously isolated Precarious Point virus were distinct but related, with both showing homology with the Finnish Uukuniemi virus. These penguin viruses provided the second and third available sequences for the Uukuniemi group of phleboviruses. The nairovirus (for which we propose the name Finch Creek virus) was shown to be related to the North American Tillamook virus, the Asian Hazara virus and Nairobi sheep disease virus. Macquarie Island penguins thus harbour arboviruses from at least four of the seven arbovirus-containing genera, with related viruses often found in the northern hemisphere

Complete Genome Sequence and Updated Annotation of Desulfovibrio alaskensis G20▿

Desulfovibrio alaskensis G20 (formerly Desulfovibrio desulfuricans G20) is a Gram-negative mesophilic sulfate-reducing bacterium (SRB), known to corrode ferrous metals and to reduce toxic radionuclides and metals such as uranium and chromium to sparingly soluble and less toxic forms. We present the 3.7-Mb genome sequence to provide insights into its physiology