TAX BNA Training

If you are taking any tax classes or are interested in tax law,  you may want to sign up to learn about the BNA Tax and Accounting Center.  BNA offers the very popular Tax Management Portfolios with in depth discussion and references to tax primary sources.  Portfolios are available on a variety of topics ranging from Doing Business in Brazil to Golden Parachutes.  BNA provides access to primary sources as well as detailed analysis of tax issues in the areas of U.S. Income, Federal Estates and Gifts, and Foreign and International Tax.  Classes will be taught by Tome Tanevski, an attorney editor of the BNA Tax Management Portfolios.

When:  Thursday Oct. 20  6:00-6:50
Where:  Library Room L206
Sign up:  Send email to Rosalie Sanderson at rsanderson@nyls.edu

Don’t miss this great opportunity!!

 

Mendik Mobile: See the App in action!

What’s Mendik Mobile?  It’s an App that will let you access some of the Mendik Library’s key services on your smartphone. It’s a free download and is now available for Apple, Android, Blackberry and a wide variety of other smartphone platforms.

Want to see the App in action?  Visit the Library Reference Desk on Tuesday, October 18, at 12:45 pm and/or 5:45 pm.  As an added bonus, you can have your photo taken with your favorite librarian while enjoying some sweet pre-Halloween treats.

 

TAX CCH Intelliconnect Training

Are you interested in tax law?  Don’t pass up the opportunity to learn how to use one of the premier electronic tax research systems:  CCH Intelliconnect.  This system gives you access to all primary sources for tax law, plus detailed explanations.  The system is organized by Internal Revenue Code section but allows you to do Boolean searching as well.  Learn how to find Internal Revenue Code sections, regulations, tax cases, tax rulings and much, much more.

When:  Thursday Oct. 13  6:00-6:50
Where:  Library Room L206
Sign up:  Send email to Rosalie Sanderson at rsanderson@nyls.edu
Don’t miss this great opportunity!!

 

 

Discover a New World with the Mendik Mobile App

 

We’re pleased to introduce an exciting new development, Mendik Mobile, an app that will let you access some of the Mendik Library’s key services on your smartphone. It’s a free download at all of the major smartphone app stores.

Using Mendik Mobile, you’ll be able to:

• Search our catalog for books and other library resources.
• Find the books your professors have placed on course reserve, and check on their availability.
• Login to your account to renew books you’ve borrowed, or to check on fines.
• Contact us by phone, text or email.
• Follow our blogs to learn about new books we’ve acquired and new services we’re offering.
• Search our DRAGNET search engines for free and reliable research sources.

Mendik Mobile is now available for Apple, Android, Blackberry and a wide variety of other smartphone platforms. Discover this new world, just in time for Columbus Day, by visiting: http://bit.ly/mendikmobile.

Bloomberg Law Training Sessions

Bloomberg Law is offering a series of trainings on how to use Bloomberg Law to search for various content types.  If you are a 1L, these trainings satisfy the Research Skills Workshops component of your Legal Practice Course requirement.

The current schedule of training classes is as follows:

Finding and Researching Administrative Regulations on Bloomberg Law (B5)

Oct 11 — 12:50 pm — 1:40 pm (Tuesday)
Oct 14 — 2:00 pm — 2:50 pm (Friday)

Finding and Researching Statutes on Bloomberg Law (B4)

Oct 12 — 1:00 pm — 1:50 pm (Wednesday)

Formulating Effective Searches on Bloomberg Law (B2)

Oct 15 — 12:30 — 1:20 pm (Saturday)

All classes will be held in the Mendik Library in L207.

Please contact Omesh Seemangal (contact information below) if you would like to reserve a spot for one of the above listed dates.  Bloomberg Law may add more dates as needed.

 

Omesh V. Seemangal, Esq.
Law School Relationship Manager Bloomberg L.P.
oseemangal@bloomberg.net
(212) 617-6632 (Phone)
(917) 369-66587 (Fax)

www.Bloomberglaw.com

 

First Monday in October

The 2011-2012 term of the United States Supreme Court begins Monday, October 3, 2011, the first Monday in October.  In most terms, the Court usually completes its work by the following July 1.  Of the approximately 10,000 petitions filed with the Court each term, very few cases are granted review and receive signed opinions.

Many interesting cases are on the 2011 October Term docket, including the indecent broadcast regulations case between the FCC and Fox Television and the 4th amendment case dealing with the warrantless use of a GPS tracking device.  Two great sources for learning about the new term are the ABA’s Preview of the United States Supreme Court Cases and Scotus Blog.  Preview is published eight times during the term.  Each issue provides a concise analysis of cases granted review and summarizes decisions reached by the Court.  The Preview website links the researcher to a list of the cases granted certiorari for the 2011-2012 term with links to the merits briefs filed in each case.  Scotus Blog provides comprehensive coverage and discussion of the Supreme Court and generally reports on every merits case before the Court at least three times: before argument; after argument; and after decision.

In preparing for the new term, you may also want to look back at earlier terms.  At the end of each term, a number of journals and blogs provide a wealth of information on the types of cases heard by the Court, a breakdown of cases by major subject areas, analysis of key cases and opinions, and discussion of interesting voting trends.  For example, the eighth issue of Preview is a special issue devoted to a review of the newly completed term.  Harvard Law Review devotes its November issue to coverage of the previous term and the Scotus Blog provides a comprehensive end-of-term statistical analysis.  As noted in the analysis of this past term, the Court decided a total of 82 merits cases.  That number includes 75 signed opinions, five summary reversals, and two cases that were affirmed by an evenly divided court.  End-of-term reviews are a great way to learn more about the work of the nation’s highest court.

Websites:

http://www.supremecourt.gov/about/institution.aspx

http://www.supremecourtpreview.org

http://www.scotusblog.com

Harvard Law Review (via HeinOnline)

Cases:

FCC v. Fox Television Stations, No. 10-1293, 613 F. 3d 317 (2d Cir. 2010) http://www.americanbar.org/publications/preview_home/10-1293.html

United States v. Jones, No. 10-1259, 615 F.3d 544 (D.C. Cir. 2010)
http://www.americanbar.org/publications/preview_home/10-1259.html

 

Celebrate National Punctuation Day!

Take a break from the tedium of law study and enjoy the pleasures of punctuation!  September 24 is National Punctuation Day:  “A celebration of the lowly comma, correctly used quotation marks, and other proper uses of periods, semicolons, and the ever-mysterious ellipsis.”  How do you celebrate such an event?  Enter the Punctuation Paragraph Contest; entries must be one paragraph, a maximum of three sentences – this post isn’t – and use the thirteen punctuation marks (you may use a mark more than once) you see used in this post [apostrophe, brackets, colon, comma, dash, exclamation point, hyphen, parentheses, period, question mark, quotation mark, semicolon . . . and don’t forget the ellipsis].

 

Learn to Use BNA Online for Legal Research

BNA, a leading legal publisher used extensively by practicing attorneys, can be a valuable component in your legal research toolbox.  Don’t miss these opportunities to learn how to use it effectively. No preregistration is required for any of the 45-minute sessions.

Legal Research Using BNA

Students will learn how to conduct legal research using BNA online resources. Using BNA’s current awareness services, students will learn how to recognize emerging legal trends, locate paper topics, and sign up for e-mail alerts in subject areas of interest. Using BNA’s online Web libraries, students will gain an in-depth exposure to specific sources such as tax, labor and employment law, and intellectual property law, and will gain an understanding of how to use these secondary sources of law to conduct comprehensive legal research.

Friday September 23rd at 11:00 am – 11:45 am
Tuesday September 27th at 11:00 am – 11:45 am
Room L206

Federal Tax Research with BNA Tax Management Portfolios

Participants will learn how to use BNA’s Tax and Accounting Center (BTAC) — an all-in-one resource—to get the complete answer to any federal tax question quickly.  Learn how to use a variety of search methods, including code section or word searching, and how to use BNA’s topical indexes. The Tax and Accounting Center fully integrates all BNA Federal Tax Management Portfolios— US Income, Estate Gifts & Trusts, Foreign — as well as news and analysis in the Tax Management Weekly Report and primary sources.

Friday September 23rd at 12 noon – 12:45 pm
Tuesday September 27th at 12:00 noon – 12:45 pm
Room L206

 

Free Federal Rules Ebooks

Cornell Law School’s Legal Information Institute (LII), in partnership with the Center for Computer-Assisted Legal Instruction (CALI), now offers free electronic versions of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, Criminal Procedure, and Evidence.  These electronic files become ebooks when viewed on a Kindle, Nook, iPad, iPhone, or any other device that supports .epub or .mobi files.

The federal rules ebooks include the text of the rules and the Advisory Committee notes.  They support handy electronic features such as internal hyperlinks and external links to the LII website’s version of the US Code.

To download these ebooks, visit http://elangdell.cali.org/content/federal-rules-ebooks-legal-information-institute.  You’ll find links and complete tech help instructions on that site.

 

Celebrate Constitution Day

September 17 marks Constitution Day, commemorating the 1787 date on which thirty-nine of the Philadelphia Convention’s delegates signed the new Constitution.

The Office of Academic Affairs will be handing out free, pocket-size constitutions (while supplies last) at the entrance to 185 West Broadway this Friday, September 16.  (If supplies stop lasting, don’t despair; you can always get a copy at the Mendik Library Reference Desk.)

ConstitutionFacts.com has put together a variety of fun ways to test/expand your Constitutional knowledge.

Which Founding Father are you?

“Expert” level quiz.  Harder than you think!  This librarian only scored 43 out of 50.

Crossword puzzles.

Real or fake?

Famous quotes.

Further reading:

R.B. Bernstein, The Constitution as an Exploding Cigar and Other “Historians’ Heresies” About a Constitutional Orthodoxy, 55 N.Y.L. Sch. L. Rev. 1073 (2010/2011).

Jethro K. Lieberman, A Practical Companion to the Constitution: How the Supreme Court has Ruled on Issues from Abortion to Zoning (1999).