Photos of My Russia Trip

I have posted photos of my recent trip to Russia in this gallery. They include photos of the Siberian city of Tomsk as well as pictures of Moscow taken during stopovers there.

Google Maps Adds Street Views

One of my favorite features of Amazon.com's A9 search engine was its ability to display maps with block view images. Unlike the aerial views shown by other mapping sites, it took you to street level, linking map addresses to photographs of the actual streets and buildings in 22 major U.S. cities. Sadly, Amazon dropped this feature last year. (Windows Live has a limited beta version of something similar, letting you drive a virtual sports car or walk through areas of San Francisco and Tacoma, Wash.)

Now comes Google Maps to the rescue. It has added a similar feature, called Street View. The screen capture accompanying this post shows the Street View image of Grand Central Station in Manhattan. Blue outlines on maps show locations where it is available. Drag an icon to a point on the map, and the image pops up showing the street view of that address. You can rotate the image 360 degrees and click arrow buttons to move up or down a street. I have not found a listing of the cities it includes, but I can see from checking that it includes New York, San Francisco, Las Vegas and Miami.

New Site Calculates Impact of Intestacy

When someone dies without a will, the impact on his or her estate depends on the state in which the decedent resided. A handy new intestacy calculator -- the central feature of a Web site called MyStateWill.com -- helps determine the outcome of intestacy on a state-by-state basis.

The calculator is the work of Kurt R. Nilson, a lawyer in State College, Penn. It is the outcome of more than 1,000 hours of legal research along with time for programming, design, implementation and testing.

As an example, take my state of Massachusetts. The calculator begins by asking for the value of my estate and whether I am married. I enter $500,000 (I wish) and select married. It then asks whether I have living children and how many (two) and whether I have deceased children (no). With this information, the calculator says my wife will receive $250,000 and each of my children will receive $125,000.

Of course, some states' laws are more complex. Nilson says that among the more interesting are Arkansas, California, Missouri and Texas.

The site also includes an interactive summary of state laws. It shows you which states apply certain types of laws, such as giving community property to a surviving spouse. Another feature of the site is a federal estate tax calculator.

Lawyer2Lawyer: Defending Celebrities

This week on the legal-affairs podcast Lawyer2Lawyer, we talk to the lawyers who defend high-profile celebrities in criminal cases. Why is the public so fascinated with stars in legal trouble? What challenges do lawyers face in representing a high-profile client? Can celebrities ever get a fair trial?

Joining cohost J. Craig Williams and me to share their insights and experiences are Tom Mesereau, partner with the Los Angeles firm Mesereau & Yu, who has defended Michael Jackson and Robert Blake, among others, and Jennifer Keller, a Southern California criminal defense attorney who also represented Robert Blake, among other celebrities.

Read more about the program and download or listen to it at this page.

Found: Russian Legal Blog

Who said there are no Russian legal blogs? Here's one: Russian Patents Blog. This appears to be the blog of a company providing patent and trademark registration and search services in Russia.

Legal PR Firm Launches Blog

Levick Strategic Communications, a public relations firm that represents many clients in the legal field, has launched a blog, Stop the Presses. Written by the firm's president and CEO Richard S. Levick, the blog will focus on helping executives and business leaders understand the mechanics of crisis, litigation and regulatory communications. Among the posts so far: The 9 Steps You Need to Take if You Think You're on The DC Madame's List (dump your phone and change your number, among them) and The Power of Pictures: The Impact of Comey's Testimony on Alberto Gonzales.

Legal Bloggers in Russia - Nyet!

Earlier this month, in anticipation of my trip to Russia, I asked here whether anyone knew of legal bloggers in Russia. No one did, apparently. While there last week, I investigated this question for myself, and likewise came up empty-handed.

My investigation consisted of asking everyone I could. I was hampered by the fact that our translators had never heard the word "blog" and their attempts to convey the concept often seemed to meet only blank stares. Still, I was able to speak with a handful of English-speaking Russian lawyers, law students and journalists about the topic.

On my flight to Russia from New York, I had the good fortune to meet Alexander Christophoroff, a Moscow patent lawyer. He was well-acquainted with the concept of blogging and familiar with some U.S. legal blogs, but could identify no Russian legal bloggers.

On our first day there, we met with a group of local reporters together with law students and journalism students. I asked the group as a whole about blogs and here is where I met my first set of blank stares. Later, however, a radio reporter from the audience approached me. He was fluent in English and had recently spent time in the U.S. He said that blogging in Russia so far is pretty much limited to the more personal, journal-like form more commonly found on sites such as LiveJournal and MySpace. He was aware of no Russian blogs either specifically focused on law or more generally used for news and social or political commentary.

Another day, we met with another group of students (pictured above) from the Law Institute at Tomsk State University, many of whom had studied English. Again, I asked several about blogs. Again, none were aware of legal blogs.

No doubt, my inquiry is hampered by my inability to speak or read Russian. Search Google for "Russian blog," and a number of results come up. Search for "Russian legal blog," and the top result I get is my own post asking about them. If I search Russian Google, I get mostly U.S. blogs as results.

So from this admittedly unscientific survey, I have been unable to find any Russian legal blogs. If anyone knows otherwise, please let me know.

Back from Russia

For someone who grew up during an era when our collective image of Russia was based on grainy black-and-white photos of May Day military parades in Moscow's Red Square, my trip to Russia this week was eye-opening. Our destination was the Siberian city of Tomsk and our focus was media and the courts. I learned much about the Russian courts and the Russian media, and I hope I left some knowledge behind as well. I will blog more about the visit after I recover from the long trip home. For now, here is a photo taken during my presentation to judges, lawyers and media representatives at the Tomsk Oblast Court.

7th Circuit Launches Judiciary's First Wiki

The National Law Journal today reports that the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has launched its own wiki, a first for the federal judiciary. The wiki will allow lawyers and judges to post and change notes on procedure and practice. It launches with the complete contents of the Seventh Circuit Practitioner's Handbook. Chief Judge Frank Easterbrook, who spearheaded the project, told the NLJ:

"The goal is to concentrate on procedure (in both the court of appeals and the district courts) but not to cover substance. We aren't interested in comments about the meaning of ERISA or the Internal Revenue Code and will take down any pages that go beyond the scope of practice and procedure (including jurisdiction)."

As I noted here earlier this week, my Law Technology News article surveying legal wikis is currently available on Law.com Legal Technology.

A Great Camera Gets Better

Canon yesterday announced the forthcoming release of a new camera, the Canon PowerShot S5 IS. I have the current model, the S3 IS, and love it. The S5 makes a great camera even better, with an upgrade from 6.0 to 8.0 megapixels, a larger LCD, a flash hot shoe and new face-detection technology. Both the S3 and the S5 have 12x optical zoom with image stabilization that allows amazing distance shots. Its LCD pops out and rotates so you can view it from any angle, even from in front of the camera or with the camera flat on the ground. Its records high-quality video at 30fps with stereo sound at the push of a single button and allows you to snap stills while recording video.

With the release of the S5, this may be a good time to grab an S3 at bargain-basement prices. It normally lists at $449, but Amazon.com has it now for $304.88. I'd wager the price will drop much more over the next month or two, before the July release of the S5.

Any Russian legal bloggers?

If anyone knows of Russian lawyers who blog or Russian bloggers who write about courts and legal affairs, please let me know.

Where There's a Wiki, There's A Way

My article on legal wikis appears today on Law.com Legal Technology.

Web Site Seeks Missing Lawyer

Royal "Scoop" Daniel III disappeared from his Breckenridge, Colo., law office early in the morning on April 27 and has not been heard from since. Now, concerned friends of the 61-year-old lawyer have set up a Web site in the hope of finding clues to his whereabouts.

As Vail Daily reports, the site collects news reports about Daniel's disappearance and includes a forum for providing anonymous tips.

Florida Bar to Post Disciplinary History

The Florida Bar will begin posting on its Web site its members' 10-year disciplinary histories, according to a report in the Jacksonville Daily Record. Each member's page will show all admonishments, reprimands, suspensions and disbarments from the previous 10 years. If a member had no discipline, the word "none" will appear.

New Site Tracks Wrongful Convictions

The Tarlton Law Library at the University of Texas School of law has created the Actual Innocence Awareness Database to track developments related to wrongful convictions. The database contains citations (and links, when the materials are online) to popular media, journal articles, books, reports, legislation and Web sites. Materials are classified by the primary causes of wrongful conviction: forensics/DNA, eyewitness identification, false confessions, jailhouse informants, police or prosecutorial misconduct and ineffective representation. There is also a general category and the entire database can be searched.

LLRX Gets an Overhaul

Not only did LLRX.com undergo a major redesign of its appearance, but it also got a good scrubbing beneath the surface. LLRX, of course, is the long-running law and technology resource site maintained by Sabrina Pacifici. Its redesign was engineered by Justia.com, and as Justia CEO Tim Stanley explains:

"Sabrina had us work on the redesign of the site, with a lot of work on the user interface and search functionality. We also did a lot of data clean up, going through years and years of articles. We are still making some fixes, and adding some features. But the design is nice and much cleaner."

Nice and cleaner it is. And it now incorporates Google Co-op search, with a choice of searching just LLRX, LLRX and Pacifici's blog or the legal Web.

Traveling to Russia

I am thrilled to announce that I will be visiting Russia May 12-19 as part of a five-person delegation to discuss the relationship between the news media and the courts. We will be visiting the Siberian city of Tomsk, some 2,200 miles east of Moscow, where we will meet with Russian judges, lawyers, journalists and law students. Through a series of meetings and presentations, we will share perspectives on libel and defamation law, media access to judges and court proceedings, media coverage of court proceedings and other issues of common interest.

The trip is under the auspices of the Russian American Rule of Law Consortium, an organization that promotes partnerships between legal communities in the United States and Russia. Massachusetts has had such a partnership with Tomsk since 2001.

Details on the trip I am part of can be found here.

Lawyer2Lawyer: Colleges and Legal Liability

In the wake of the Virginia Tech shootings, our legal-affairs podcast Lawyer2Lawyer examines the legal liability of higher-education institutions for students who are homicidal or suicidal. Joining my cohost J. Craig Williams and me for this discussion are Anthony J. Sebok, professor at Brooklyn Law School and author of a recent article exploring Virginia Tech's liability, and Robert B. Smith, partner with the Boston firm Nelson, Kinder, Mosseau & Saturley and author of a recent opinion piece in The Chronicle of Higher Education about student suicide and colleges' liability.

Listen to or download the full program at this page.

LawHelp, FindLaw Win Webbys

The 2007 Webby Awards have been announced, and in the law category, the Webby Award winner is LawHelp.org, a Web site created by probono.net that helps low-income people find legal assistance and answers to legal questions. Winner of the People's Voice award -- decided by votes from the online community -- is FindLaw.