Why I Blog, Tweet, Like, Post, etc.

Because I get e-mails from old friends like this one.

Jason,

Congratulations on graduation (it may not have happened yet, but soon I’m sure)!

I wanted to send along some unsolicited bar advice.  It’s been 4 years since graduation but it’s still pretty fresh in my mind.

1. There is no need to take the extra Kaplan or other non-BARBRI courses that start before BARBRI or run over July 4 weekend.  Relax at those times.  If you already signed up, I’m sorry I’m too late.  If you haven’t signed up, good for you.  Don’t regret it, ever.

2. If you pay attention during all of the lectures and take your notes (either by doing the fill ins if they still do that, or by taking notes on your computer like I did to make outlining easier), and do most of the assigned practice questions (all becomes nearly impossible because they assign an amount that a human isn’t capable of completing in a normal day, even while working very, very hard), you will be absolutely fine.  You will pass.  And it doesn’t really matter by how much (except for waiving into DC you need a certain MBE score, but you’ll get that).

3. If you’re taking New Jersey: Don’t worry about it.  It’ll be fine. It’s sooo much more open ended than New York, so a question could be a contracts question to one person and a torts question to another, and it doesn’t matter, neither of you are “right,” because as long as you make coherent arguments and show that you know things, you’ll pass.

Now some observations:
- You’ll work harder than you’ve ever worked before.  Or maybe I just wasn’t such a hard worker or didn’t know how to work hard before this, but the fear set something off in me that turned me into a machine from about 8:30am until 7:30pm, and sometimes later as we neared the end.
- I found it helpful to study away from the law school after lectures. I went to the public library so I wasn’t surrounded by the same fear and anxiety that I was already feeling.
- Running kept me sane.  If you like running, walking, biking, skateboarding, whatever – do it.  Something that is (a) outside and (b) athletic is really important for you during this time to relieve stress, clear your head, and also of course give you some fresh air during one of the nicest times of the year.  It’s good for you.

Good luck, and have some fun before stuff gets real (July I suppose).

Almost $%#&ing There

If I had to choose one word to describe my experience these past three years, well, I don’t think I could pick one. Rigorous. Narcoleptic. Expensive. It’s been, in one word, endless… but I’m finally about to graduate.

I have no master plan for how I want to wind down the blog, much less everything I’ve still got coming between now and the bar. One post isn’t going to do it. In fact, I might be better off skimming the last three years’ worth of entries and putting them all together because I have no idea how to even begin to sum up what I’ve gained, what I’ve lost, and how I’ve changed since I decided to do all of this. 

I think a lot now as I walk through the expansive halls of the law school what went through my mind the first time I saw it. I’d taken the PATH train over from Hoboken to take a tour of the school. It was big, it was gleaming, and it was packed with people carrying thick textbooks and speaking a language I’d soon come to learn myself. New York Law School was a far cry from some of the other schools I visited, schools with students crammed into stuffy lecture halls and dimly lit libraries. I also distinctly remember wondering how the hell students paid for all of it, the spring of 2010 probably being only a precursor to what the job market for attorneys is today.

I remember enjoying the tour. I had plans to meet up with an old friend who, at the time, was a second-year student, and he was going to show me around. I decided at the last minute to stick with the tour guide, an admissions officer whom I naturally assumed had at least some say in whether I’d get in or not. After a quick conversation and a Q&A around the building, he said he was glad I stuck around. I’m glad I did too because who knows what would’ve been if I didn’t?

Now, with bar applications filed in both New York and New Jersey, a mixed academic record, and three years worth of internships, outlines, relationships, and endless lectures about Business Corporation Law, the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, New York Civil Procedure, the Internal Revenue Code, and god-knows-what-else, I’ve made it to the finish line.

I have mixed feelings about graduating which should surprise anyone who knows I almost didn’t finish. Never one to quit, it was almost too tempting to walk away at the first sight of a job that would pay me more than I made sitting in school (which, even in this economy, wasn’t hard to find). All throughout law school, I tried to remain focused on the big picture. That, or at least the sense of satisfaction I hoped to feel when I received my diploma at Lincoln Center and then later when I became a duly admitted attorney.

That relief might seem a little misplaced when I’ve never been sure I wanted to practice law. In this environment though, when many of the rules that worked for our parents’ generation don’t seem to apply anymore, I’m not so sure that’s the right attitude. I’ve put myself through the wringer. I’ve pushed myself harder at getting past wanting to quit a hundred times than anything I’ve ever attempted before. I told myself I was making an investment in my future, never quite being sure, while my debt seemed to grow almost as fast as the din around me saying going to law school was the worst career decision I’d ever make. (If that doesn’t whet your appetite for doom-and-gloom, click here or here.)

Sitting on the cusp of graduation and looking out at what I’ve got ahead, I think I’d be shortsighted to say if I made the “right” decision. Do I necessarily have a better idea now of why I came to law school than I could articulate in my personal statements? While sure, it would be great to land a Biglaw job and put a dent in my loans. To find a legal position that kept the brain muscles I’ve developed in law school strong and the $160,000/year salary to go along with it. The fact is that it’s not reality for most of us anymore. Reality is keeping the big picture in mind, taking the first worthwhile position I find whether it’s in business or law or anywhere else, and probably standing over the copy machine in my first job thinking “I went to law school for this?”

The fact is that life’s one challenge after another. If I’ve learned anything in law school, it’s probably that, and as someone who always feared cracking under pressure, law school was probably the best thing I could have done with these last three years. And I definitely don’t want to ever go through it again.

Special Section Reception at the Ronald Reagan Building/International Trade Center

I originally wrote this article for the American Bar Association’s Law Students Action Group (LSAG), at the 2013 ABA-Intellectual Property Law section conference in Washington, DC.

By Jason Rindenau

Thursday, April 4^th; 7:30-9:30

There was something special about the last networking event last night. To quote the program preview, we experienced “a location that is reflective of the symbolic importance of the historic capital of Pennsylvania Avenue and the nation’s capital.” The location, D.C.s second largest government building, added an air of something special to what would have been just another networking opportunity.

I thought the reception showed the care with which the ABA planned all of this week’s events. The beautiful backdrop said, to me at least, that we value your time. We appreciate that many of you traveled around the world to join us and that you not only came to learn what’s happening on the cutting edge of IP practice, but that you also want to enjoy all the city has to offer.

The special section reception was an appropriate sendoff. It encouraged me to become involved in the section, especially as I’m about to graduate from law school. I will absolutely keep in touch with many of the friends I’ve made here. When I look back through my contacts list after I take the bar this summer, I will undoubtedly remember that this section meeting wasn’t just another networking event. It was an opportunity to connect with interesting IP practitioners and law students who  were ambitious enough to travel for a CLE and who feel the same way about entering the job market as I do.

If you aren’t attending the 28^th Annual Intellectual Property Law Conference, you can still follow all the action by following the tweets and blog entries of the ABA-IPL’s Law Student Reporters, who are covering all the events of the Conference on Twitter.  You do not have to sign up for Twitter to follow the Law Student reports.  Just bookmark http://bit.ly/IPLSpring and revisit the link from April 3-5, 2013 to follow all the action.

Rights of Publicity for Entertainers and Athletes

I originally wrote this article for the American Bar Association’s Law Students Action Group (LSAG), at the 2013 ABA-Intellectual Property Law section conference in Washington, DC.

Kelli Sager, Ben Sheffner, Ahmad Nassar, Ronald S. Katz, Cydney A. Tune

by Jason Rindenau

Friday, April 5^th; 8:30-10:00

If there was a single takeaway from this session, it’s that the attorney can determine the outcome of a rights-of-publicity dispute. Ronald S. Katz, who heads the litigation office in Manatt Phelps & Phelps’ Palo Alto office, said the standard is simple: whether the defendant has been unjustly enriched. That, and a defamation claim is an unwieldy weapon when battling, say, publishers’ broad First Amendment rights.

How do we apply this principle consistently? These matters, mainly as they pertain to figures in the sports and entertainment worlds, are the perfect intersection of morality and legality. Is making money off of someone else’s likeness enough? What about when the sum of money is small? Can Tom Brady convincingly show he’s been wronged when he earns millions of dollars per year in endorsement deals, not to mention his lucrative contract with the NFL?

Technology is, by far, the singular driving force behind our changing standards. The ease with which consumers access information has forced the model to adapt. The speakers raised a Supreme Court case where a circus performer who made his living shooting himself out of cannon lost his only means of income when the local news service recorded his entire act and showed it for free on television. Did it matter that instead of promoting his performance, the news service obviated any need for an interested fan to purchase a ticket?

The bottom line, I believe, is that there isn’t one. It’s important for us as attorneys to keep in mind there’s a fine line between rights of publicity, defamation, and publishers’ First Amendment rights. The standard for newsworthiness, which removes a defendant from the reach of many of our laws, is also low. Individuals who’ve chosen to thrust themselves into the spotlight are generally going to have to show tangible damage before they can assert any rights-of-publicity, if at all.

If you aren’t attending the 28^th Annual Intellectual Property Law Conference, you can still follow all the action by following the tweets and blog entries of the ABA-IPL’s Law Student Reporters, who are covering all the events of the Conference on Twitter.  You do not have to sign up for Twitter to follow the Law Student reports.  Just bookmark http://bit.ly/IPLSpring and revisit the link from April 3-5, 2013 to follow all the action.

Patent: Working at the Edge of Settlement/ADR: What You Can and Cannot Do

I originally wrote this article for the American Bar Association’s Law Students Action Group (LSAG), at the 2013 ABA-Intellectual Property Law section conference in Washington, DC. 

By Jason Rindenau

Wednesday, April 3; 10:30-12:00

This event stood out in my mind since it showed the truly dynamic nature of the law… and not just in intellectual property. Since I started law school, I’ve wondered how our lessons played out in the real world. How do winning parties enforce their judgments? Does a judge necessarily have a better understanding of the subject matter than the counselors? And why does it all have to be so expensive?

It seems as if the practice of law is finally considering these questions, a subject which was discussed thoroughly at this CLE. Moderated by Suzanne Nusbaum, founder of the preeminent ADR service, Impartia, panelists Les Weinstein and Roderick McKelvie spoke about the factors driving high-stakes players to alternative means of settling their disputes.

The speakers’ experiences caught my attention since this is precisely the opposite of what we discuss in my classes. In an academic setting where litigation is the foundation of most case studies, it’s difficult to imagine that litigation is the exception, not the norm in understanding real-world practice.

Especially for someone as new to the field as I am, there was plenty to be learned during the session. For instance, why is high-tech litigation on the wane? It’s due to such factors as the growing expense of discovery and expert witnesses plus the fact that all IP law is global now. Foreign corporations don’t want to operate in our courts nor risk losing valuable trade secrets by publicly airing their dirty laundry.

There are procedural benefits to alternative dispute resolution, as well. For a student trained on formalistic legal procedure, this is difficult to understand but there are distinct advantages to evading privilege laws when dealing with matters privately. ADR removes the threat of collateral estoppel and possibly alienating important professional relationships in a public forum.

This benefit works two ways, however, and Judge McKelvie was quick to point out that there can be no expectation of privilege when negotiations are private. This raises the question of what does it mean to mediate effectively. Is it possible to reduce the danger of poisoning a relationship with your client by choosing the wrong means of helping them? There are also ever-present disclosure requirements and attorneys aren’t going to be able to avoid the taint of bias simply by staying out of the courtroom.

The bottom line is that settlements are an effective tool for serving clients. There are caveats, however, and we have a responsibility to best educate ourselves on proper methods before agreeing to take on a case.

If you aren’t attending the 28^th Annual Intellectual Property Law Conference, you can still follow all the action by following the tweets and blog entries of the ABA-IPL’s Law Student Reporters, who are covering all the events of the Conference on Twitter.  You do not have to sign up for Twitter to follow the Law Student reports.  Just bookmark http://bit.ly/IPLSpring and revisit the link from April 3-5, 2013 to follow all the action.

Patent: What is the Future of RAND/FRAND Licensing?

I originally wrote this article for the American Bar Association’s Law Students Action Group (LSAG), at the 2013 ABA-Intellectual Property Law section conference in Washington, DC. 

Suzanne Drennon Munck, Niklas Ostman, Roger Brooks, Michael Dansky, Jeffrey Catalano

By Jason Rindenau

Wednesday, April 3; 1:00-2:30

Ensuring standardization across different technological areas is a field rife with potential conflict. How can manufacturers of leading technologies reliant on a seamless network of collaboration make sure they remain profitable while protecting themselves and maintaining relationships with a distinct customer base? The answer is the RAND/FRAND licensing schemes. These schemes are designed to maximize consistency across a swath of product components, such as Wi-Fi technologies, for example. It simply wouldn’t be possible for me to connect to the ABA-IPL LSAG Tumblr blog on my laptop from the lobby of this Marriott if the manufacturers of all the necessary components couldn’t figure out some way to work together.

Reasonable and Non-Discriminatory Licensing (or, in many other countries, fair, reasonable, and non-discriminatory licensing), refers to the expectation that companies should be able to maintain competition and product quality through patent schemes. Timely, effective, and widely accepted standards such as Standard Essential Patents (SEPs) will be protected but must be shared through various licenses.

Disclosure regimes and hold-up allow multiple technologies to compete for the so-called standard title. (For another example on the battle between HD-DVD and Blu-ray technologies, click here.) A committee called the Standard Setting Organization (SSO) chooses the standard assuming it doesn’t infringe on developments of standard follow-ups. In order to contest, the party must show irreparable injury, that remedies-at-law are insufficient, and that public interest would not be underserved by issuing the injunction. The FTC says that legal damages may be sufficient to compensate for the infringement if the patented invention is only a small component of the project.

However, it remains unclear as to what are patent holders’ specific obligations. What about on the patent user? Does this threat constrain innovation or encourage innovators to work together while excluding outliers? Michael Dansky said SSOs are merely the next step in the evolution of IP law. They should motivate parties to resolve differences amicably and incentivize parties who would have otherwise operated under a cloak of secrecy to work together.

If you aren’t attending the 28^th Annual Intellectual Property Law Conference, you can still follow all the action by following the tweets and blog entries of the ABA-IPL’s Law Student Reporters, who are covering all the events of the Conference on Twitter.  You do not have to sign up for Twitter to follow the Law Student reports.  Just bookmark http://bit.ly/IPLSpring and revisit the link from April 3-5, 2013 to follow all the action.

ABA-IPL Law Student Reporters for the 28th Annual Intellectual Property Law Conference

This is from the ABA-IPL LSAG blog which will showcase the goings-on at the American Bar Association’s Intellectual Property Law section national conference next month in Washington, DC. I’ve been selected to join the team so I hope you’ll follow our reports and let me know what you think.  For more information on the conference, please visit any one of these links or take a look at the following, IPL Spring Brochure.pdf

From the unprecedented number of applications received last month, the ABA-IPL’s Law Student Action Group (LSAG) has selected 13 IP and social media savvy law students to participate in the 3rd Annual Law Student Reporters Program.  As participants in the Program, the law students will attend, tweet about, and blog about the ABA-IPL’s 28th Annual Intellectual Property Law Conference in Arlington, Virginia next month.   Make sure to say “hello” to the 13 participants in person at the Conference or online, where you can follow their coverage of all the Conference events by following the Conference hashtag #IPLSpring.  Additionally, the following link allows you to follow the Conference tweets without having to join Twitter:http://bit.ly/IPLSpring.

And now, please take a moment to check out some of our Law Student Reporters…

Comedians at Law – Getting into Law School

In this video, Comedians at Law demonstrate the highs and lows experienced by a young law student upon receiving his law school acceptance letter. http://www.comediansatlaw.com.

This was me. I snuck away from my desk everyday at 3:00 to call home because that’s when the mail came.

Branching Out

If there’s any skill graduating law students should possess as we’re about to venture out in the world, it’s the importance of being open-minded. That doesn’t necessarily mean passing the bar and accepting the first bar tending job you come across but I’ve come to realize any future Esq. who assumes “the law” is the only path for a lawyer is probably going to struggle in the marketplace.

Keeping your options open is easier said than done but searching for side projects that capture my interest has always been something I enjoy. In the last month, for instance, I’ve applied for a Law Student Social Media Reporter position at the ABA’s upcoming Intellectual Property Section Conference in Washington, D.C. and taken to Twitter to reach as many people as I can who might be interested in what I have to say about it.

I’ve arranged meetings and reached out to those who may be able to help the Comedians-at-Law move beyond their daily law practices. These side ventures, in addition to school, the upcoming bar exam, and a part-time administrative position at the IP firm of Lynn Cahill, don’t leave time for much else but you can’t blame me for trying.

I’ve also started attending the UJA Federation of New York’s Young Lawyers and Young Entertainment Divisions’ events since, while my evening job at the law office may provide the first regular paycheck I’ve earned in almost three years, I’m convinced networking effectively with the crowd I hope to join when I crawl out from what feels like has been a 3-year-long hibernation should ease the transition.

I hope you’ll join my conversations by following me on Twitter @jasonrindenau.

Crazy Lawyer Tricks

I love so-called “second act” stories, especially ones about attorneys and law students who made the jump to whatever else it is they’re passionate about. These are stories law schools would do well to highlight since while I may only begrudgingly accept the oft-touted saying that “you can do anything with a law degree,” (Case-in-point: It’s a Cupcake Truck. Need We Say More?) maybe there’s something to be said about the type of person who goes to law school.

Combining their diverse and intelligent brand of humor with a desperate desire not to practice law, Comedians at Law has traveled the country entertaining law schools, comedy clubs and anywhere else with someone willing to cut a check towards five sets of student loans.

It takes a certain amount of ambition to take three years and potentially a lifetime of debt (President Obama himself has said he and Michelle didn’t make their last payments until around the time he entered office, the millions he earned from speaking engagements and publishing contracts notwithstanding) to pursue a J.D. On top of it, there are countless stories of people who, whether they finished or not, began law school only to go down “non-traditional” career paths.

Creative types, in particular, warrant attention when you consider the risk it must have taken to walk away from the law, some with impressive credentials and in a strong job market, after making the investment. Matthew McConaughey, Demetri Martin, and, heck, even Jerry O’Connell have dabbled in the law. (Although it’s Jerry’s Goonies co-star, Chunk, who stuck with it and is now a practicing entertainment lawyer.) I look at these examples and think whatever drives us to make the decisions we’ve made can just as well drive us to make the decisions we want to make.

Norman Steinberg, a University of Pittsburgh-educated copyright attorney, left the practice of law in the early 1970′s to pursue screenwriting full-time. It was, he says, a chance encounter with Mel Brooks and his willingness to pester him until Mel couldn’t take it anymore that led to his Emmy-award winning career in comedy writing and, perhaps, the work he’s best-known for, Blazing Saddles. Mr. Steinberg currently teaches at the TV Writers Studio, an MFA program at Long Island University’s Brooklyn Campus.

Marlo Thomas posted a great piece in the Huffington Post about the skill and luck it takes to break out of where you don’t want to be anymore. Andrea Bocelli, who practiced law in Italy, sang in bars at night and on the weekends until he was discovered. (And how many lawyers/aspiring tenors can sing like Andrea Bocelli?) Ken Jeong, Mr. Chow in the blockbuster Hangover movies, was a physician in Louisiana before he made the leap to performing full-time. My point is that you’ve got to admire these professional folks who found the time to pursue their passions.

I also want to draw attention to Alex Barnett and the Comedians at Law, a group of guys who left law to pound the pavement in comedy clubs full-time. They are working hard to get some semblance of the stability back they had when they had to wear a suit everyday and I’d love to help them sell tickets. For more information on their schedule, including a show in Manhattan I’ll be at next week, you can get in touch with me or visit http://thestand.laughstub.com/show.cfm?id=222642&cart.

On the other hand, that’s not to say the door can’t swing the other way. Child actors Josh Saviano and Charlie Korsmo, who could have rode the coattails of their early successes, went to Cardozo and Yale Law Schools, respectively. Both remain in the legal field to this day. There are also plenty of J.D.s climbing the ranks in corporate settings where their law degrees, while unnecessary, are seen as assets.

Josh Saviano, as Paul Pfeiffer on the Wonder Years and from his attorney profile page on the Morrison Cohen website

Charlie Korsmo, best known for his roles in Hook and Can’t Hardly Wait, received a degree in physics from MIT and went on to teach at Brooklyn Law School

The bottom line is, to quote the main character in a book I’m reading right now, there’s always a silver lining. Whether it’s what you set out to do in school or what you enjoy doing for a couple of hours on Sunday afternoons, you hope that life’s long enough to wear different hats. My wish for everyone out there, including myself, is that you find the hat you enjoy wearing the most.