Law School Is Starting Already in the U.S. ...

Many American students are beginning their first year of law school by now. The University of Virginia asked Virginia Solicitor General Toby Heytens, a professor there, to give a short (one hour) overview of the U.S. legal system and a description of how a typical case goes through the legal system. Unfortunately you can't see the slides illustrating the talk, but you can put on the subtitles on YouTube to help you follow along.
A related video presents a description of five first-year law school courses (tort, contract, criminal law, civil procedure and legal writing). 58 min., no transcript, but subtitles available.

Nudging Government

Cass Sunstein, professor of law at Harvard Law School, co-authored a book, Nudge, in 2009 with Richard H. Thaler who was just awarded the Nobel Prize for Economics. At a recent book talk sponsored by the Harvard Law School library, Sunstein explained how nudging can be used to help governments obtain better results. If you don’t know what a nudge is, you will after listening to this enlightening talk. 60 minutes, no transcript.

Advice about Legal Writing and Oral Advocacy

Legal English in Hong Kong has produced a series of short interviews about legal writing and oral advocacy. Particularly interesting is the advice from The Honourable Chief Justice Geoffrey Ma Tao-li, current Chief Justice of the Hong Kong Court of Final Appeal. Part one of his advice is here, 8 min, subtitles, transcript available. Part two is here, 4 min, subtitles, transcript available. Spoiler: the short answer to the question of what makes good legal writing is brevity.

Harvard Law School Thinks Big 2014

Once a year for several years now Harvard Law School has held a gathering, modeled on the TED talks, asking several scholars to give short (8 min.) presentations about big ideas.  In May, 2014 these presentations included

• "The Future of Scholarly Publishing and How to Stop It" by Jonathan Zittrain
• "Finding the Child in Child Welfare" by Elizabeth Bartholet
• "Linking Law and Movements" by Tyler Giannini 
• "Back to the Future of Islamic Law: Digital Islamic Law" by Intisar Rabb 
• "From Court to Table" by Jacob Gersen

You find a video of the whole event (1h 30 min) with the questions and comments after the talks here.

Advice from Justice Elena Kagan

Justice Elena Kagan of the U.S. Supreme Court spoke at Georgetown University Law Center, answering questions from its dean about her career in the law. Her remarks from when she was dean of Harvard Law School are particularly interesting for law students. She also goes into some detail about how she writes her opinions at the Supreme Court, how she uses her law clerks, and the role of oral argument. 1 h, no transcript

Justice Elena Kagan

Justice Elena Kagan of the U.S. Supreme Court was interviewed by Martha Minow, dean of the Harvard Law School in September. Kagan, a former dean at Harvard herself, spoke very frankly about her new job as a justice. Very interesting for SCOTUS fans. You will find the video here. 1h 18 min, no transcript.

Conversation with Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan

Justice Elena Kagan, the newest and youngest associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, answered questions this week at the University of Richmond Law School about oral arguments, how the Court decides cases, the role of clerks, how she writes opinions, the blogs she reads and much more. Very interesting.
58 min, no transcript

What Makes a Contract Valid?

Legal Lad's Quick and Dirty Tips for a More Lawful Life's episode 90 of August 12 answers the question - What Makes a Contract Valid?
5:48 min, transcript available

Bob Dylan and Legal Writing

University of Tennessee law professor Alex Long wrote a law review article in 2007 about the uses and misuses of popular music lyrics in legal writing (64 Wash. & Lee L. Rev. 531) which has just received the attention of a journalist from the Los Angeles Times. Long was then interviewed on NPR's All Things Considered. His findings: the musician who is the favorite of judges is Bob Dylan, cited 186 times. 5 min 20 sec, transcript available. Fun and instructive.

Justice Scalia on the art of persuasion Supreme Court groupies will be glad to know that Associate Justice Antonin Scalia of the U.S. Supreme Court has given a lengthy interview in which he talks about his new book, Making Your Case: The Art of Persuading Judges, which he wrote with Bryan Garner. The program, aired May 4, 2008, can be found here. 60 min. transcript available here.

A summer intern's first writing assignment Georgetown Law Center has made a useful video illustrating how to go about getting all the information you need before you begin a writing assignment. RealPlayer, 10 min, no transcript. They also include a .pdf document with a checklist giving the same advice.