The Young Texas Lawyer

Above the Law has a very telling story about a law students experience at UT OCI. To quote their source:

I am walking up the stairs to get to my OCI appointment. I overhear some interviewers from various firms talking to each other as I hold the door for them and their heavy bags of firm-branded crap.One lady says to another, “Did you get a lot more applicants from UT this year?” Lady 2 says, “No, it was the usual number for us.” Lady 1 replies, “I had 200 applicants from UT alone for the 15 total spots we will fill this year.” Lady 2 says, “I think it’s gonna be a great year for employers!” They all laugh.

Seems like the economists are all signaling the end of the recession this week, but the pain might be felt in the legal industry for some time to come if the above story is any indication of OCI’s around the country.

Sonia Sotomayor won confirmation Thursday as the nation’s first Hispanic Supreme Court justice, a history-making Senate vote that capped a summer-long debate heavy with ethnic politics and hints of high court fights to come. The third woman in court history, she’ll be sworn in Saturday as the 111th justice and the first nominated by a Democrat in 15 years.

The Senate vote was 68-31 to confirm Sotomayor, President Barack Obama’s first Supreme Court nominee, with Democrats unanimously behind her but most Republicans lining up in a show of opposition both for her and for the president’s standards for a justice.

Most attorneys these days are carrying Blackberry smart phones to help them stay organized, keep in touch, and access the internet on the go. Although the iPhone has started to make its way into the legal marketplace, it still hasn’t seemed to get the job done for what lawyers need on a daily basis. Recently, and similar to Apple’s App Store, Research in Motion has started the “Blackberry App World” and YTL has combed through the myriad of applications to bring you the Top 10 Blackberry Apps for Lawyers.

1. The Law Pod – View the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure, Federal Rules of Appellate Procedure, Federal Rules of Bankruptcy Procedure, Federal Rules of Evidence and the U.S. Constitution all on your phone.
2. LawPDA – State statutes for California, Texas, and Florida.
3. DateMathica – Helps you figure out the date of a deadline so you don’t miss it. See how many days you have left until a deadline. Easy to use and accurate.
4. BizTrackIt – Simple to use, project-based, time tracking tool. Only provides the functionality you really need to track your time painlessly so you don’t miss out on a single billable hour. Just select a project from a list you create, clock in and clock out.
5. WikiPock - Allows you to search and read the wiki encyclopedia articles without an internet connection (offline). All the articles are stored in your mobile phone’s memory so there is no need to download anything from the network. Over 2.8 million articles in English
6. Evernote – Allows you to easily capture information in any environment using whatever device or platform you find most convenient, and makes this information accessible and searchable at any time, from anywhere.
7. RDM+ – Remotely access your computer, even through NAT and Firewall from your phone. You can send and receive emails, edit word documents, surf web, manage files and folders and do hundreds of other things that you usually do sitting in front of your home or office computer.
8. Google Maps – Offers most of what you love about the desktop version—including satellite views, turn-by-turn directions, and local business searching—and adds a GPS-enabled, location-based search component for use with your BlackBerry.
9. WorldMate Live – Lets you check flight status, book hotels, connect with friends, and share your itineraries right from your phone. There’s also a currency converter, a time zone calculator, and BlackBerry Maps integration.
10. Quick Pull – Offers the same functionality as pulling your battery and can even be scheduled to do so at predetermined times. Sometimes your Blackberry will begin to slow down and this is a quick way to reset it and start fresh.