The Headnotes, at their seasonal best.
By Career Services staff
We’re hearing that the federal government is poised to open up new legal positions in various government agencies as soon as the federal budget bill is passed, which may be as soon as this month. We know, for example, that the Department of Justice's Civil Rights Division will be hiring. The Civil Rights Division just released this description of their process for hiring new attorneys.
While we haven't confirmed that other DOJ units will expand their attorney ranks, any new DOJ jobs will be posted at http://www.justice.gov/oarm/attvacancies.html or http://www.justice.gov/crt/recruit.php. USAJobs is another place to look for new postings from other federal agencies, as well.
And keep in mind that the federal government has regional offices for many of its agencies. To find out whether a federal agency has regional offices, look at the U.S. Government Manual.
Passage of new federal budget—possibly this month—may open hiring for new legal positions.
Proud Michigan Law graduates pick up their J.D. and S.J.D. degrees Friday during December's Senior Day cermonies at the Michigan Theater. Afterwards the new graduates and their friends and families strolled back down State Street for a reception in the Lawyers Club Lounge. Watch a video ...
Katie Vloet, Law Quad Editor
The highest court in the land makes an appearance at the U-M Law School, and playing the part of Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr., second from the right, is none other than Professor Eve Brensike Primus.
Professor Richard Friedman’s colleagues mooted him recently to prepare him for arguments in an upcoming Supreme Court case. Professors Christina B. Whitman, David Moran, Samuel R. Gross, Brensike Primus, and Douglas Laycock, as well as Joan Larsen, counsel to the associate dean for student and graduate activities, acted as members of the High Court.
"I’m doing this because it’s an essential part of preparing for arguing before the Supreme Court," Friedman said. He joked about the stand-in justices: "They are a lot nastier; they have a lot less need for decorum" than the real Supreme Court.
Friedman, one of the nation’s leading scholars of Constitutional law and an expert on the confrontation clause contained in the Sixth Amendment, will argue for the petitioners in Briscoe, et al., v. Virginia on January 11. The case could help define the limits of a criminal defendant’s right to be confronted with the government’s witnesses against him.
John Masson, Amicus editor
Michigan Law’s new Bach’s Lunch music series may be named after a guy called Johann Sebastian, but it was a guy called Ludwig who drew scores for a recent lunch-hour concert featuring a string quartet made up of three law students and a professor.
The Lawyers Club performance of Beethoven’s String Quartet No. 7 in F Major featured students Ben Bodnar and Nathan Simington on violin, Richard Kim on viola, and Professor Ted Parson on cello.
Professor Parson introduced the piece and also composed program notes to guide listeners through the composition. Among other odd facts about the piece, revolutionary in its time, Parson said, was the reaction of the first musicians who were to perform it. They were a professional group (possibly the first) who were employed by Beethoven’s patron, and when they encountered the opening theme of the second movement—which is played on a single note—Parson said they broke up in laughter, convinced the composer was playing a joke on them and had the real music stuffed in a pocket.
Even though they were professionals, the musicians found this composition daunting, as they did others from this period of the composer’s life. When one violinist complained about a difficult passage in a companion work by Beethoven, he prompted the composer’s famous outburst "Do you suppose I think about your blasted fiddle when the spirit moves me?"
The program, one of several slated for this academic year, was sponsored by the newly constituted Law School Classical Music Society, whose goal is to encourage appreciation of classical music and the similarities between it and the law. Further support came from Whole Foods and the Law School Student Senate. A video of the performance is available here.
John Masson, Amicus Editor
He bears a striking resemblance to Harry Burns Hutchins, this cramped, carved little man who’s visible in one of the archways leading into the Law Quad.
And it’s no coincidence. Hutchins and several other Law School and U-M luminaries were immortalized in stone in various key locations when the Quad was built. Passersby who look up while passing through the Quad's stone archways, for example, are sure to spot the tiny granite men who seem to be bearing the weight of the buildings (as well as the occasional tennis racket or football).
Because the stone characters are such beloved Law School icons, we’ve chosen the Harry Hutchins figure as the logo and the standard-bearer (literally) for information updates about the School’s ongoing construction project. He’ll appear in his stylish maize hard hat in ongoing communications about the progress of the work. More information is always available on the construction updates website and the building project website.
While they are referred to casually as "gargoyles," the stone Harry Hutchins and the other figures—including fellow former U-M presidents Angell, Burton, Tappan, Haven, and Frieze—are properly known as "corbels," or, as their supportive stance would corroborate, "Atlas figures," or "atlantes."
But whatever we call them, we hope Hutchins’ no-nonsense figure will help us pay homage to the Quad's remarkable history and architecture even as it links us to the future, and to the new buildings that are destined to be an exciting part of it.
Considering the Hutchins corbel has been holding the place up since the 1930s, we believe bearing something as ethereal as construction news ought to be pretty light duty for him.
Venture capitalist Chris Rizik, ’86, co-authors an op-ed on job creation in The Detroit News.
1997 graduate Zach Falcon lauded for his fiction writing.
1982 grad Sharon Barner named deputy director of U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
Chuck Greenberg, ’85, joins in bid for Major League Baseball’s Texas Rangers.
Help support students and faculty by making a tax-deductible gift to Michigan Law by December 31. Give online at www.law.umich.edu or, if you have questions or would like to talk with someone about your gift, please call the Office of Development & Alumni Relations at 734-615-4500.
March 19: Student Funded Fellowships auction.
Have a story of interest to fellow alumni? Contact Amicus editor John Masson, Media Relations Officer for Michigan Law, at amicusnews@umich.edu or call 734.647.7352.