Harris County Law Library on The Geek in Review Podcast

Harris County Law Library Deputy Director, Joe Lawson, recently appeared on The Geek in Review podcast to talk with hosts Greg Lambert and Marlene Gebauer about the kinds of services and resources the library provides on a daily basis to the residents of Harris County, most of whom are self-represented litigants.

As discussed in the podcast, “Lawson believes that there is a duty of the law library to help train lawyers, not to just be more efficient in their personal practices, but to help them have more capacity to help assist pro se litigants. Lawson’s calculation is that a 3% increase in capacity, through advancements in technology usage, could help eliminate a majority of the pro se issues in the county.”

Tune in to hear Joe share his thoughts on how the Harris County Law Library and our Hand-On Legal Tech programs in particular can help train lawyers to assist the burgeoning number of pro se litigants who are filing suit in this, the third largest county in the United States. .

How to Practice Artisanal Law on National Let's Laugh Day 2019

Today is National Let’s Laugh Day, 24 hours dedicated to jokes, laughter, and all things funny. In honor of this silly day, which happens to fall on Tech Tuesday, we at the Harris County Law Library are turning our attention to legal humor with a tech focus. Instead of highlighting a new development or trend in technology, however, we’re calling for a moratorium on tech (just for today) with a reminder to remember a simpler time when artistry, craft, community, and tradition still mattered. Reclaim this heritage, slow your pace, and embrace your inner Luddite. Claim your title as an “artisanal lawyer” as the authors of the following articles have done.

• How to Practice Artisanal Law (Big Legal Brain)

• I Am an Artisanal Attorney (McSweeney’s)

• In Which the Artisanal Lawyer Dismisses Google (BitterLawyer)

For further laughs, try the following, two analyses of laughter at the United States Supreme Court.

• Taking Laughter Seriously at the Supreme Court (Tonja Jacobi, Northwestern University’s Pritzker School of Law & Matthew Sag, Loyola University Chicago’s School of Law) (2019)

• Laugh Track (Jay D. Wexler, Boston University School of Law) (2005)

Happy National Let’s Laugh Day 2019!

Click for a Laugh!

Happy PI Day from the Harris County Law Library

Happy Pi Day from the Harris County Law Library.

Quick tip: shelving reporters in order of Pi makes them harder to find... we'll have them back in order by tomorrow!

Texas Supreme Court Requires Attorneys To Know Legal Tech

On February 26, 2019, the Texas Supreme Court took an important step in the advancement of legal ethics in Texas by amending Paragraph 8 of the comment to Rule 1.01 of the Texas Disciplinary Rules of Professional Conduct. The rule, which addresses the duty of all Texas attorneys to be competent and conscientious in providing effective legal representation, now requires that practitioners also be aware of “the benefits and risks associated with relevant technology.”

By adopting this amendment, Texas has joined 35 other states who also require a duty of technology competence for lawyers. The significance of this new development cannot be overstated. By order of the Texas Supreme Court, attorneys must become aware of, if not proficient in, using technology to best serve their clients.

If you are a Texas lawyer who needs to brush up on your tech skills and learn more about recent developments in legal tech, the Harris County Law Library can help! Our Legal Tech Institute offers a variety of learning opportunities including our popular Hands-on Legal Tech Training courses every Thursday afternoon at 2:00 pm in the Law Library’s Legal Tech Lab. We also provide access to free online CLE courses via our On-Demand Learning Opportunities page.

To find out more about what the Harris County Law Library offers through our Legal Tech Institute, visit the LTI page on our website. With so many free learning opportunities at your disposal, it will be easy (and fun!) to comply with the new Texas Supreme Court requirement.

Women's History Month at the Harris County Law Library

March is women’s history month and the Harris County Law Library marks this important commemoration with an exhibit celebrating the contributions of Camille Elizabeth Stanford Openshaw. Among her many accomplishments, Ms. Openshaw was the first woman to serve on the Law Library’s oversight board and helped shepherd the institution through the Great Depression. All who benefit from access to legal information at the Law Library today can thank Ms. Openshaw for doing her part to ensure access to the Law Library for all.

To learn more about Ms. Openshaw, please visit the Harris County Law Library’s downtown location, where an exhibit honoring her accomplishments will be on display throughout the month of March. An accompanying digital exhibit can be viewed on the library’s website.