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TODAY'S NEWS
5.16.2019
Intelligize Launches Securities RedBook--Reimagining the "Book" as a Workflow Hub 
Dewey B Strategic  / 5.15.2019  /  *Author Is AALL Member*
Summary: Intelligize, (a LexisNexis company) is launching a new workflow enhancement resource called the Intelligize RedBook (IRB). The SEC forms that lawyers are required to draft and update are the core of this product.
Ruminations on Researching Customary International Law 
DipLawMatic Dialogues: FCIL-SIS  / 5.16.2019  /  *Author Is AALL Member*
Introduction: Customary international law has been a contested concept for a long time. In 1939, a fateful year, Hans Kelsen remarked that the theory of customary international law "has no other function than to conceal [dissimuler] the important, not to say dominant, role that is played in the formation of customary law by the arbitrariness of the organ competent to apply the law." 
Episode 39- Hannah Bloch-Wehba: Who Is Governing the Algorithms? 
3 Geeks and a Law  5.15.2019  /  *Authors Are AALL Members*
Introduction: When you think of algorithmic governance, you may go right to things like predictive law enforcement, or risk assessment of setting bail or prison sentences for those in the criminal justice system. However, algorithms have a much broader application in the legal system, far beyond those criminal justice aspects. Drexel law professor, Hannah Bloch-Wehbawalks us through number examples of other areas which algorithm governance is being used.
Bullying and Sexual Harassment "Are Rife in the Legal Profession," Global Survey Finds 
ABA Journal  5.16.2019
Introduction: One in three female lawyers have been sexually harassed in a work context, while one in two women have experienced bullying in the workplace, according to a recently released global survey of nearly 7,000 lawyers in 135 countries. [Download full report--Us Too? Bullying and Harassment in the Legal Profession--from the International Bar Association for free.]
Legal Tech Vendors Aiming to Be One-Stop Shops for Attorneys 
Bloomberg Law  / 5.16.2019 
Introduction: Legal technology companies are expanding their products and buying vendors with niche market expertise as they aim to become sole sources of cutting-edge tools for law firms and legal departments.Onit, DISCO, and other providers of such legal optimization tools as e-discovery and document review are scaling up to provide enterprise-wide solutions for their customers.
Staring Down "Stare Decisis": How to Ask SCOTUS to Overturn Precedent 
Law.com  / 5.15.2019
Excerpt: The U.S. Supreme Court's decision May 13 in Franchise Tax Board of California v. Hyatt seemed to open the public's eyes to a long-running reality: The high court does sometimes overrule its own opinions and is likely to do so in the future. By the count of a  Congressional Research Service report updated last September, the court has explicitly overruled past opinions 141 times since 1851. 
 


Inmates Sue Over Suspension of Debate Class at Stateville Correctional Center
Chicago Sun-Times  / 5.16.2019
Excerpt: The inmates are claiming officials violated their First Amendment rights to free speech by shutting down the debate team and did so in retaliation for exercising those rights in the first place."The fact that they were using their Constitutional right to effectively advocate for parole to legislators angered certain IDOC [Illinois Department of Corrections]  officials," Brad Thomson, one of the inmates' attorneys, said in a statement.
Measuring Inequality: Creating an Indicator to Assess Gender Bias in Universities 
LSE Impact Blog: London School of Economics & Poli. Science  /  5.15.2019
Introduction: Higher education and research institutions are increasingly coming to terms with the issue of gender inequality. However, efforts to move in this direction are often isolated and difficult to compare and benchmark against each other. In this post, Caroline Wagner presents a new initiative from the Centre for Science and Technology Studies at Leiden (CWTS), to assess gender inequality in research publication across different institutions internationally and drive further change in the sector.
 
 


Questions About the Case of Harvard Law Professor Ronald Sullivan 
WGBH: NPR Boston  5.14.2019 
Summary: Until recently, Harvard Law School professor Ronald Sullivan was part of the defense team of Harvey Weinstein, the movie mogul accused of numerous sexual assaults. Students at Harvard protested Sullivan's work for Weinstein while serving as faculty dean at Harvard's Winthrop House. Now, Harvard is not retaining Sullivan as a faculty dean when his term is up next month. Robert Bloom, a law professor at Boston College, speaks with WGBH All Things Considered anchor Barbara Howard about the case. [Transcript also available.]
What Exactly Is "Alkaline" Water, Anyway? And What About "Raw" or Even "Spring" Water?
Consumer Reports / 5.15.2019
Excerpt: In some cases, the Food and Drug Administration has defined the meanings of the terms used to describe bottled water, what it calls "standards of identity." But those definitions may not mean what you think they do. 
Creative Commons Officially Launches a Search Engine That Indexes 300+ Million Public Domain Images 
Open Culture / 5.15.2019
Introduction: Heads up: Creative Commons has officially launched CC Search, a search engine that indexes over 300 million images from 19 image collections"including cultural works from museums (the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Cleveland Museum of Art), graphic designs and art works (Behance, DeviantArt), photos from Flickr, and an initial set of CC0 3D designs from Thingiverse." [Search database.]
The Best Free Apps and Software You're Not Already Using
Gizmodo  5.16.2019
Summary A freshly curated list to highlight the top tools and applications you're (probably) not already using.
Reading & Resources List: Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) 
Hack Library School / 5.9.2019
Summary: Resources and articles on a variety of diversity and inclusion topics. [Google Doc lets you add your own suggestions.]
What Happens When You Always Wear Headphones 
The Atlantic  / 5.15.2019
Excerpt: I have headphones for basically every activity I do. In fact, I recently came to the disturbing realization that there's rarely a moment of my day when my ears are not filled with or covered by something.
The Journey to an Agile Organization  
McKinsey & Company / May 2019
Excerpt:  Agile organizations are different. Traditional organizations are built around a static, siloed, structural hierarchy, whereas agile organizations are characterized as a network of teams operating in rapid learning and decision-making cycles. Traditional organizations place their governance bodies at their apex, and decision rights flow down the hierarchy; conversely, agile organizations instill a common purpose and use new data to give decision rights to the teams closest to the information.
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