Over the next three months, the CockleBur will provide a series of conversations about the law with a number of prominent legal journalists, practitioners, scholars, policy makers, and social justice advocates. I chose these particular people because I think they can bring a unique perspective about topics such as advocacy, legal education, [...]
There is a debate fermenting at my law school, the University of Washington, over whether the school should fund a criminal prosecution clinic. I weighed in on the debate, and to the surprise of many, I said that I favor a prosecution clinic. I favor it because I think such a clinic, [...]
I am a relatively recent convert to the theory of libertarianism. In fact, I didn't even know I was a libertarian until I started reading economics books, and I realized that the heavy hand of government is not always the best, and rarely the most efficient, way to help people. My first introduction to real [...]
Loyalty. It’s devotion. It’s faithfulness. It’s considered one of the highest acts of life. And think about this: the opposite of loyalty is betrayal. The reason for all this loyalty talk is because I must define mine this week. In two days, I start first year orientation at the University of Washington [...]
I visited the University of Washington School of Law back in April. What I found at UW was a strong commitment to freeing the innocent. In 1997, Jacqueline McMurtrie founded the Innocence Project Northwest (IPNW) at UW. Overall, the IPNW has helped overturn 15 convictions for prisoners in Washington State. In addition to assisting [...]
Yes, even after watching David Kazzie’s video about the fun and joy of law school, even after weighing the investment risk versus reward of attending law school, and even after heading Elie Mystal’s repeated warnings, I am still determined to follow through with my dream. In August, my wife, son and I will be moving to [...]
Many have argued that the Supreme Court’s process for choosing cases is too secretive, allows too much influence to the Court’s clerks, provides too many opportunities to business interests and too little opportunities to public interests, and should be changed. To alleviate some of these concerns, scholars have proposed changes to the Court’s certiorari [...]