Topic: Events

Events on Campus

Life on campus affords so many opportunities to learn from and interact with a wide array of lawyers, judges, and legal scholars that attending all the available events would barely leave any time for class. For those that just can’t say no to an interesting lecture or distinguished panel, it can almost become a problem. Last week, on a break between classes, I found myself in the LRC just in time to catch a panel comprised of Oregon Supreme Court Chief Justice Paul J. De Muniz, Oregon Court of Appeals Judge Darleen Ortega, and Washington County Circuit Court Judge Marco Hernandez. A pretty surprising group to come upon when all I expected was to grab a salad and check my email. The judges spoke about the essential functioning of their respective courtrooms and how they interrelate, the function of lawyers within their courtrooms, and what they look for in a clerk (a topic that has been on the minds of many a 1L since the second semester began). Many thanks to the Latino Law Society for organizing and hosting this fantastic event. For those who missed it, the podcast is available here.

Earlier in the week, the 2009 Distinguished IP Visitor, Judge Pierre N. Leval of U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, gave a lecture entitled “Did Campbell Fix Fair Use?” I have not yet had the opportunity to take an IP (intellectual property) class, but find the topic fascinating. So, following class on Tuesday, I and many other students, along with faculty members and practicing attorneys from the Portland area filled a lecture hall to hear from Judge Leval. Starting with the 1710 Statute of Anne and making it all the way to Google Image Search, Judge Leval’s lecture centered around Justice Souter’s opinion in the 1994 landmark fair use case Campbell v. Acuff-Rose Music. Even without an IP background, the exploration of fair use expressed in terms of the essential goals of copyright (balancing the author’s prerogative and ability to profit with the public’s interest in freely available and usable information) was quite accessible and engrossing. For anyone even remotely interested, I strongly recommend the podcast available here.

Events of this caliber take place on campus with surprising frequency, and these are just two that I managed to catch in between classes, researching, and studying. While most of us have schedules that are oversubscribed already, events like these provide an extremely complementary and toothsome addition to our classes.

17 February 2009