Author Archives: Annie Coreno

PLI Librarians in Beantown: Highlights from AALL 2023

Earlier this month, the PLI librarians enjoyed connecting with law librarians from across the country at the 2023 American Association of Law Libraries Annual Meeting & Conference in Boston.

At the PLI Booth, we provided demos of PLI PLUS, answered questions about the PLI Press catalog of publications, and shared our new podcast PLI Ever Current: The Practising Law Librarian. Hosted by Karen Oesterle, PLI’s associate director of legal research development, The Practising Law Librarian features interviews with movers and shakers in the law librarian community – many of whom were at the conference – including Cornell H. Winston, the incoming vice president/president-elect of AALL, and Becky Katz, whose poster “On the Right Track: A New Approach to Access to Justice in the District of Columbia” was on display in the exhibit hall.

At PLI’s Lunch & Learn, attendees watched a demonstration of PLI PLUS that highlighted several new enhancements added to the platform in the last year including an archival titles filter, Ever Current links, the trending titles and topics display, and more. Check out the slides from the presentation.

Trisha Petitt, Foley & Lardner LLP’s technical services librarian, pictured here next to PLI’s associate director of library relations Kay Mitchell (on the left), was the lucky winner of this year’s Lunch & Learn raffle.

It was great seeing so many of our colleagues in Boston this year! For anyone who couldn’t attend, check out these flyers from our booth:

Introducing PLI Ever Current: The Practising Law Librarian Podcast

Calling all law librarians! We are very excited to announce the launch of PLI Ever Current: The Practising Law Librarian, a new podcast for – and about – the law librarian community. Hosted by our very own Karen Oesterle, PLI’s associate director of legal research development, The Practising Law Librarian features interviews with movers and shakers in the law librarian field about new and emerging trends, useful resources, and legal developments, interspersed with tales and hard-earned advice from the storied careers of today’s leading law librarians.

The first four episodes are available now with more to come! Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify.

Episode 1: Cornell Winston’s 11th CommandmentKaren chats with Cornell H. Winston, the Law Librarian and Records Center Supervisor for the United States Attorney’s Office, Central District of California, as well as the incoming Vice President/President-Elect of AALL, about his career path from student worker at the Harbor-UCLA medical library, to circulation clerk at Whittier Law, to library roles at law firms, to his current home at the Department of Justice. Hear about the “11th Commandment” he applies to every class or presentation he leads, as well as a discussion about the enormous increase in the complexity and breadth of legal research today.

Episode 2: Gen Z Research With Olivia Smith SchlinckAs Head of Research Instruction and a reference librarian at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, Olivia Smith Schlinck has some unique insights on Generation Z law students. She joins Karen to talk about her article “OK, Zoomer: Teaching Legal Research to Gen Z,” recently published in AALL’s Law Library Journal, as well as her tools for teaching introductory and advanced legal research at Columbia Law and Cardozo School of Law.

Episode 3: Music, Math, and More With Elaine KnechtElaine Knecht is not only the sole librarian for the 300-attorney firm Barclay Damon in New York — she is also a trained musician, opera singer, school librarian, and public radio classical music program host. In this episode, Karen explores the connections between music, mathematics, logic, and legal research with Elaine, and they discuss Elaine’s Summer Associate Research Academy and growing library of five-minute training videos on all matters library related.

Episode 4: Rebecca Katz on Access to Legal Research– Becky Katz’s lifelong commitment to serving those in need led her to found JusticeAccess, a free online law library for Washington, D.C. residents who need a law library but lack access to one. Among the library’s long-term plans is providing training to non-librarians so they can learn to do legal research and show others how to find the answers they need.

Happy National Library Week from Our Library Team to Yours!

Back row: Alexa Robertson (left), Ian Galloway, Annie Coreno, Emily Valentine, Kim Roma, Kay Mitchell; front row: Karen Oesterle (left), Mary MacLeod, Jennifer Fiore, Nora Elkind, Christina D’Ercole.

As information professionals living in the information age, librarians are more vital than ever. We are proud to work with so many amazing librarians and knowledge workers to provide attorneys, students, and legal professionals access to expert-authored legal analysis and practice-oriented content.

There’s More to the Story: Hidden Treasures on PLI PLUS

“Amusing” is perhaps not the first word to come to mind when describing the content you find in a legal research database. But every once in a while, you’ll come across a chapter on PLI PLUS that causes pure delight. In honor of the theme of this year’s National Library Week — “There’s More to the Story” — we’ve scoured our database to present a handful of fun, offbeat, zany, or just plain fascinating tidbits from the depths of PLI PLUS.

Anyone who practices intellectual property law surely has heard of the monkey selfie and the infamous whiskey-branded dog chew toy. Equally endearing (and hilarious) are the descriptions of feline exercise in this chapter from 2020’s Patent Fundamentals Bootcamp course handbook:

Chapter 16. Examiner Interview Script for Method of Exercising a Cat

Snippet: This method recites method of inducing aerobic exercise in an unrestrained cat; and directing an intense coherent beam of laser light … in a vicinity of the cat. Redirecting the light to induce the cat to chase it. We are not inducing humans to chase the spot from the laser pointer.

For a dose of celebrity drama, check out this chapter from the 2016 course handbook Fundamentals of Taking and Defending Depositions, which features a transcript from a deposition in which Lady Gaga testifies against her ex-best friend/former assistant:

Chapter 5. S.J. Germanotta, Deposition Transcript, Case 1:11-cv-09128-PGG (January 30, 2013)

Snippet: Because she slept in Egyptian cotton sheets every night, in five-star hotels, on private planes, eating caviar, partying with Terry Richardson all night, wearing my clothes, asking YSL to send her free shoes without my permission, using my YSL discount without my permission.

In this lively transcript from last year’s Advertising Law Institute, you’ll find a hysterical sequel to a classic children’s book, in which the main character is all grown up and a lawyer:

The Advertising Lawyer and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

Snippet:  In high school and in college, he thought he was a real bad dude. And he started smoking and maybe hanging around with a rough crowd. But I have good news for you. He turned things around, and he eventually went to law school.

The artist Banksy makes an appearance alongside a succinct history of graffiti and a fascinating discussion of Street Art and the law in this chapter from the popular PLI treatise Art Law: The Guide for Collectors, Investors, Dealers & Artists (Fifth Edition):

Chapter 12: Moral Rights

Snippet: Although, from the 1960s on, a number of these artists of the street sought to initiate political change and enhance community awareness of particular issues through their art, the public largely viewed the early graffiti artists as vandals and few supported their work.

The treatise Trial Evidence Brought to Life: Illustrations from Famous Trials, Film and Fiction is chock full of pop culture. We’re particularly fond of the chapter that recalls Marissa Tomei’s superb performance as an expert witness in the 1992 film My Cousin Vinny:

Chapter 14. Expert Testimony and Lay Opinion Testimony

Snippet: Well, my father was a mechanic, his father was a mechanic, my mother’s father was a mechanic, my three brothers are mechanics, four uncles on my father’s side are mechanics.

Finally, as members of the law librarian community, this chapter from 1997’s Managing the Law Library course handbook is especially dear to our hearts. Some might call it outdated, but we see it as an amusing reminder of how far our profession has come in the last several decades. It also illustrates how librarians are always looking ahead — because there’s more to the story!

Chapter 3. THE CD DEBATE: WILL THEY BE PART OF THE FUTURE

Snippet: Will publishers replace CDs altogether by licensing contents on the Internet for access and downloading?

Free Legal Form of the Month

PLI PLUS offers unlimited electronic access to more than 4,500 downloadable, searchable, and editable legal forms ready for use in your practice. To showcase this unique content type, we’ve selected one form per month and made it available for anyone to download for free – no subscription required.

March’s free form:

Commitment Letter for an Acquisition Financing

More information about Legal Forms & Checklists:

  • Forms & Checklists Flyer – This flyer provides an overview of the forms & checklists on PLI PLUS and highlights a handful of popular examples.
  •  Popular PLUS Forms – This flyer provides a list of the top five most downloaded forms in prominent practice areas on PLI PLUS.

Send us an email at plus@pli.edu to learn more.

Fashion Law Featured in Fashionista’s ‘The 21 Best Fashion Books of All Time, According to Professors’

We were delighted to see the PLI Press publication Fashion Law and Business: Brands and Retailers recently featured in an article entitled “The 21 Best Fashion Books of All Time, According to Professors,” on the fashion news website Fashionista.

Kenya Wiley, a professor at Georgetown University and the Fashion Law Institute at Fordham Law School who assigns the book as part of her course on Fashion Law and Social Justice, praised the book as “a great reference book for attorneys, designers and other industry professionals.” The treatise provides clear guidance on the wide range of legal and business issues faced by fashion industry participants, including designers, suppliers, manufacturers, and retailers. Written by fashion and retail law authorities Howard S. Hogan and Jennifer Bellah Macguire, of Gibson Dunn, Fashion Law appears on the list alongside titles by well-known names such as Tim Gunn, André Leon Talley, and Diana Vreeland.

Order a print copy or access this title online with a PLI PLUS subscription.

Popular Titles on PLI PLUS Right Now

The tallies are in. Here are the popular treatises and answer books on PLI PLUS right now:

  1. The Corporate Tax Practice Series (Second Edition)
  2. Private Equity Funds: Formation and Operation (Second Edition)
  3. An Associate’s First Year: A Guide to Thriving at a Law Firm
  4. Sack on Defamation: Libel, Slander, and Related Problems (Fifth Edition)
  5. Hillman on Commercial Loan Documentation (Sixth Edition)
  6. Stocker on Drawing Wills and Trusts (Fourteenth Edition)
  7. Faber on Mechanics of Patent Claim Drafting (Seventh Edition)
  8. Depositions Answer Book (2021 Edition)
  9. Commercial Ground Leases (Fourth Edition)
  10. Corporate Compliance Answer Book (2022 Edition)

For a listing of popular items by practice area, check out our Popular PLUS Treatises and Answer Books Flyer. See also Popular PLUS Course Handbooks Flyer and  Popular PLUS Forms Flyer.