Intellectual Life

When Textbooks Come to Life

/ Venus Chui / Leave a comment

Recently, it dawned on me that as a 3L, I only have one more year to enjoy what law school has to offer. Sometimes, I’m so eager to start my career that I forget to stop and appreciate the unique opportunities that I have as a law student, which may not be available anymore when I leave BC Law and start a full-time job.

One of these opportunities happened last week right on our campus. On Thursday and Friday, BC Law had the honor of hosting the Advisory Committee on Evidence Rules (thanks to Professor Coquillette, who is the Reporter to the Committee on Rules of Practice and Procedure for the Judicial Conference). The Committee, made up of federal judges and practicing attorneys, including members of the Department of Justice, is charged with making recommendations to the Judicial Conference on the Federal Rules of Evidence.

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“How Is That NOT Hearsay?” and Other Ways to Think Like a Lawyer

/ Brendan McKinnon / Leave a comment

There are few things cooler for an 11-year-old kid than getting to stay up later than your siblings to watch an R-rated movie, so I vividly remember hopping on the couch with my dad to watch Crimson Tide in 1995. I clung to a pillow with wide-eyed excitement as the USS ALABAMA and a Russian submarine fired torpedoes at each other while Denzel Washington and Gene Hackman squared off with a nuclear war on the line.

At the movie’s tense climax, my dad, a Navy veteran, turned to me dead serious and said, “That guy’s wearing the wrong collar devices.”

My first reaction was “stop talking during the movie so I can see if the submarine sinks,” but my next thought was “how can he possibly know that?” I didn’t appreciate it at the time, but my dad’s time in the Navy had left him with attention to detail that he couldn’t turn off.  It was impossible for him to watch the movie without critiquing the uniforms, lingo, and behavior of the sailors after it had been so ingrained in him by his supervisors and experience.

That’s what 1L does to BC Law students.

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The Infamous Cold Call: Should You Be Terrified?

/ Alex Bou-Rhodes / 2 Comments

In law school, the primary method of teaching, at least in larger classes and especially during the first year, is referred to as the Socratic method. A professor will call on and question a student (usually at random) about the day’s assigned reading, typically a judge’s written decision or case. You’re asked what happened to cause the dispute, what position the opposing sides took and argued, and how the court reasoned through the issue. This happens in front of the eighty or so other students in class.  Public speaking consistently ranks among our greatest fears. The cold call in law school has you speaking in public without much preparation because you cannot know exactly what question will be put to you.

I didn’t know cold calling was a thing in law school until family and friends started asking me if I was nervous about it. I did some research and became terrified – and while it’s normal to feel that way, let me tell you why it might not be justified.

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Now Playing: The IPTF Podcast, Episode 4

/ Charlene Ochogo / Leave a comment
I’m delighted to guest host 2L Ryan Sullivan today, who is bringing us the first ever Intellectual Property and Technology Forum podcast. The IPTF is dedicated to providing readers with rigorous, innovative scholarship, timely reporting, and ongoing discussion from the legal community concerning technology law and intellectual property. The Forum is designed, edited and published by students at Boston College Law School. And if you missed Episodes 2 and 3, check them out here!
What does the FCC’s rollback of limitations on ISPs really mean for consumers? Is the hysteria surrounding the rollback warranted? Are we closing in on the end of Net Neutrality under the Trump administration?
Tune in to Episode 4, where our guest is Gesmer Updegrove Litigation Partner, Joe Laferrera. In additions to leading Gesmer’s Data Security and Privacy practice group, Joe is a techie through and through.

Criminal Justice Reform Tackled at BC Law

/ Maria Colella / Leave a comment

At BC Law, your education does not only consist of the material you learn in your courses. BC hosts many conferences, functions, presentations, and discussions on just about every subject you can think of, from panels put on by professors addressing recent political actions to all-day events sponsored by BC’s journals and the Rappaport Center for Law and Public Policy. Recently, the Rappaport Center sponsored an all-day conference on criminal justice reform in Massachusetts that was open to both students and practitioners. There were three panels as well as a keynote address by Chief Justice Ralph D. Gants of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court.

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Law Journals 101

/ Venus Chui / Leave a comment

People often ask me what’s different about 2L year compared to 1L year. Among other things, like more challenging classes and having a better handle on the way law school works, there’s one thing in particular that has made my 2L experience a whole lot different from my 1L year: being on a journal.

What’s a journal? At the end of their 1L year, BC Law students have the opportunity to participate in a writing competition in order to be on the staff of one of BC Law’s nationally-recognized law journals. Currently, there are five journals at BC Law: the Boston College Law Review (BCLR), the Boston College Environmental Affairs Law Review, the Boston College International and Comparative Law Review, the Boston College Journal of Law and Social Justice, and the U.C.C. Reporter-Digest (note: with the exception of the U.C.C. Reporter-Digest, at the end of this academic year all the journals will be consolidated into the Boston College Law Review, and each subject area will be given appropriate space for articles within BCLR). All 2Ls hold staff writer positions in the journal to which they belong, while the 3Ls hold different editorial positions.

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The Case of the Drunken Sailor

/ Alex Bou-Rhodes / Leave a comment

One night in the 1960’s, a Coast Guard sailor, whose ship was in port for repairs, came stumbling back to the vessel in, to use the words of the judge, “the condition for which seamen are famed.” His ship was in a dry-dock, a floating tub of water which is drained once the ship is inside so that repairs to the hull can be made. The sailor, buoyed by drink, tried his hand at the dry-dock control wheels, letting in water which eventually caused the boat and dry-dock to partially sink. The dry-dock owners sued the government for the money damages the sailor’s actions caused, and the government eventually had to foot the bill. Continue reading →

Teach, Work, Love: Professor Hillinger on BC Law

/ Ryan Murphy / Leave a comment

Take a few minutes to watch the following video profiling Professor Ingrid Hillinger, who is one of BC Law’s most respected professors . She is known for her demanding but rewarding teaching style and her tireless devotion to members of the BC Law community. One of her students told me she has, at times, sent emails in the wee hours of the morning, and that she is rumored to be the one who unlocks the school in the mornings.

Her reputation isn’t restricted to our campus, either—she was named one of the “26 best law teachers in the country” in the book What the Best Law Teachers Do (Schwartz, 2013). See a BC Law Magazine article here  about what makes her so good.

I have not had the privilege of taking a class with Professor Hillinger, so I turned to two of my classmates for their perspectives:

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Now Playing: The IPTF Podcast, Ep. 1

/ Charlene Ochogo / Leave a comment

I’m pleased to guest host 2L Ryan Sullivan today, who is bringing us the first ever Intellectual Property and Technology Forum podcast. The IPTF is dedicated to providing readers with rigorous, innovative scholarship, timely reporting, and ongoing discussion from the legal community concerning technology law and intellectual property. The Forum is designed, edited and published by students at Boston College Law School.

I am pleased to announce that the first episode of the IPTF Podcast is complete! The podcast is in conjunction with the Intellectual Property and Technology Forum Journal at BC Law.

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Dream Big: The Forbes’ Under 30 Summit

/ Venus Chui / Leave a comment

I’m pleased to be able to host a guest blog today by second-year student Leah Herscovici, who attended the recent Under 30 Summit event in Boston.

Boston is known for many things: it’s the city that helped spark a revolution, that holds the sound of Paul Revere’s mighty cry, that is the birth place of political upheaval. It is also the home of thousands upon thousands of Millennials (otherwise known as those who will one day take over the world).

Currently populating colleges and businesses across the nation, Millennials are the people who are holding the latest iPhone, know the difference between Uber and Lyft, and can sometimes repeat stories in 120 characters or less. These people are the driving force behind new ideas and innovations that are constantly appearing online, offline, and on platforms we have yet to even imagine.

For a weekend and one day, I was able to submerge myself among these amazing professionals during Forbes’ Under 30 Summit held in the tech-savvy center of Boston from October 16-19. More than 5,000 young professionals flocked to the massive event to join the many panels and discussions revolving around new media, professionalism in the 21st century, and how to make the next coolest gadget.

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