The City of Detroit’s filing for Chapter 9 bankruptcy protection, the largest municipal bankruptcy filing in U.S. history, and the breaking news that Michigan Circuit Court Judge Rosemarie E. Aquilina has issued an Order directing Governor Rick Snyder to withdraw the petition because the filing violated the state’s constitution, raises serious issues for financially stressed local governments. For more on this development, see the NY Times article.The potential for the Detroit bankruptcy as a test case for municipalities restructuring retirement benefits in bankruptcy court is significant.  


On the subject of municipal bankruptcy, the Brooklyn Law School Library has in its collection When States Go Broke: The Origins, Context, and Solutions for the American States in Fiscal Crisis by Peter Conti-Brown and David Skeel (Call #KF1535.S73 W48 2012). Chapter 3 is entitled Public Pension Pressures in the United States. The book collects insights and analysis from leading academics and practitioners that discuss the ongoing fiscal crisis among the American states. No one disagrees with the idea that the states face enormous political and fiscal challenges. There is, however, little consensus on how to fix the perennial problems associated with these challenges. The book fills an important gap in the dialogue by offering an academic analysis of the many issues broached by these debates. Leading scholars in bankruptcy, constitutional law, labor law, history, political science, and economics have individually contributed their assessments of the origins, context, and potential solutions for the states in crisis. It presents readers – academics, policy makers, and concerned citizens alike – with the resources to begin and continue that important, solution-oriented conversation., the largest municipal bankruptcy filing in U.S. history,

Brooklyn Law School students now have a new tool they can use to conduct due diligence on M&A targets, to advise clients regarding competition, and to evaluate potential buyers to ensure financial solidity. In a recent press release, Thomson Reuters announced the launch of Company Investigator, a comprehensive resource for information on private and public companies. Users can find information on companies to assist with business development, litigation, due diligence and a host of other applications.

Company Investigator accesses more than 30 million company profiles — of which 20 million are hard-to-find private companies — including general corporate information, subsidiary data, legal disputes, secretary of state filings, regulatory filings, and material agreements. Users can search by company name or other terms to locate a search subject.

Company Investigator is available on WestlawNext and presents information in a manner that makes it easy to analyze corporate “family tree” structures, relationships among corporate entities, and other company-related information, such as recently filed court dockets, bankruptcy filings and more.

Users can easily create customizable reports that assemble all of the relevant business and legal information. Email alerts can be set up to provide notification of new business developments or changes to a business’s status. With its comprehensive data as well as powerful search and information management tools, Company Investigator saves hours of research time and helps effectively manage risk.

“Legal industry professionals depend on relevant, accurate and current company information,” said Steve Obenski, senior director and general manager, Business Law Solutions, Thomson Reuters. “Company Investigator is remarkably easy to use while at the same time incredibly powerful. It makes it fast and easy to understand corporate structures, relationships and other information about business entities. This is a must-have tool that is invaluable for transactional lawyers, litigators and legal researchers alike.”

A podcast on how Company Investigator can help find information on public and private companies is available here.

Congratulations to Brooklyn Law School alumna Catherine F. Duggan, Class of 1987, who has written The Lost Laws of Ireland: How the Brehon Laws Shaped Early Irish Society. The book, published by Dublin-based Glasnevin Publishing on June 11, 2013, tells how the ancient laws of Celtic Ireland were used from the time before Patrick until the 17th century when they were outlawed and disappeared. Crafted by judges, known as Brehons, the laws were surprisingly modern in their approach to timeless issues and reflect a complex and sophisticated society. This book gives an outline of the main features of the laws and their history, and ultimately focuses on certain themes that are significant to the modern reader, such as equity and fairness, transparent legal process and women’s rights. Many of the legal manuscripts have been lost or destroyed and the laws were not translated into English until modern times. As a result, they have mostly remained obscure and unstudied. Only recently have they given up their secrets. The ancient laws provide a window into society in early Ireland where learning was revered, social mobility was expected and fairness and harmony were social goals. Their resilience demonstrates their value and effectiveness. The Brehon legal system came to an end officially in 1605 after enduring for over a thousand years.

Researchers at the BLS Library can learn more about the subject of Celtic Law using SARA to locate Traditional Irish Laws by Mary Dowling Daley and illustrated by Ian McCullough (Call #KDK172 .D25 1998). It is a short book only 79 pages in length with a humorous look into the laws and culture of the ancient Irish. The BLS Library also has the print edition of The Brehon Laws: A Legal Handbook by Laurence Ginnell (Call #KDK145 .G56 1993). Both of these items are located in the BLS Library International Collection. The BLS Library also has the HeinOnline digital version of Brehon Laws: A Legal Handbook (1894).

William S. Hein & Co. and Fastcase, two independent legal publishers, announced they would be combining their resources  and forming a unique partnership to the benefit of their customers.

“Under the agreement, Hein will provide federal and state case law to HeinOnline subscribers via inline hyperlinks powered by Fastcase. In addition, Fastcase will completely integrate HeinOnline’s extensive law review and historical state statute collection in search results, with full access available to Fastcase subscribers who additionally subscribe to Hein’s law review database.”

This means that Hein’s federal case coverage will include the judicial opinions of the Supreme Court (1754-present), Federal Circuits (1924-present), Board of Tax Appeals (vols. 1-47), Tax Court Memorandum Decisions (vols. 1-59), U.S. Customs Court (vols. 1-70), Board of Immigration Appeals (1996-present), Federal District Courts (1924-present), and Federal Bankruptcy Courts (1 B.R. 1-present). The state case law will cover all fifty states with nearly half of the states dating back to the 1800’s. Coverage for the remaining states dates back to approximately 1950. When Hein users link to case law through Fastcase, they will be able to utilize Authority Check, an integrated citation analysis tool developed by Fastcase to help identify negative citation history at no additional cost.

Conversely, Fastcase users will be able to search all content available in the Law Journal Library, Session Laws Library, State Attorney General Reports and Opinions, and State Statutes: A Historical Archive and see Hein results and abstracts for free, with subscription options for the full articles.
The integrated libraries will be available to members of the BLS Community at the end of the summer.

Dominic A. Saglibene, Brooklyn Law School Class of 2014, has posted his note “The U.K. Bribery Act: A Benchmark for Anticorruption Reform in the U.S.” on SSRN.  The note is scheduled for publication next year in Volume 24 of the Transnational Law & Contemporary Problems, a journal of the University of Iowa College Of Law. Saglibene won the Trandafir Writing Competition for the note. For more, see the news item at the Brooklyn Law School website. The abstract reads:
 
This Note will argue that the U.S. should look to the U.K. Bribery Act in amending the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (“FCPA”) to criminalize foreign bribery across the board. Part I will introduce the thesis. Part II will explain the relationship between public and private bribery, and outline how some nations have come to recognize that overlooking private bribery undermines anticorruption laws and policies in general. Part III will describe the FCPA and other anti-bribery laws in the U.S., and present the U.K. Act as an improvement on the FCPA. Part IV will then discuss U.S. prosecutions – especially U.S. v. Carson – demonstrating the inadequacy of American law against bribery in the foreign private sector. Part V will conclude.

I want to highlight the new procedure for the BLS community to access Lexis.com. At the top of your Lexis Advance screen, there is a pull-down arrow in the red tab: Research.  One of the options in the pull-down menu is: lexis.com.
At this point, a message might pop up–in the message, you might need to click: “Continue” to reach the Lexis.com main screen. In Lexis.com, tab: Legal still contains the menu of legal sources.

Also, according to Lexis, if you are a BLS subscriber using Lexis.com (as opposed to Lexis Advance):

• Your history is not saved
• Your tabs might not be there the next time you log on to Lexis.com because you are sharing a “party line password” with others
• BLS students cannot print documents from Lexis.com through the dedicated Lexis printers in the library.  (BLS students CAN print documents from Lexis Advance through the dedicated Lexis printers.)

Note: Lexis could not tell me when the foreign law sources that are only available in Lexis.com will migrate to Lexis Advance.

The Library has added a charging station for mobile devices on the first floor.  The station has connections for eight devices that use micro USB, Apple 30-pin and Apple Lightning connectors.  The station will charge any device that uses those connectors.  This station is for phone and tablets only, not for laptops.

Students should sit nearby to watch their phones and tablets while they are charging; the Library is not responsible for any device left unattended.