Archive of Archaic NY DOL Council Opinion Letters

Emily Moog, a librarian at Carter Ledyard & Milburn LLP, wrote in about an online archive of New York Department of Labor Council Opinion Letters, a type of private letter ruling no longer issued by the DOL.  Nice to know if you ever need one!  I added the archive to the “Employment and Labor” section of the New York State – Executive Branch – Agencies and Offices.  Thank you Emily!

New and Improved Vienna Conventions entry

The Vienna Conventions entry has been substantially expanded.  I added a short list of the most influential Vienna Conventions, with links to their respective pages in the UN Audiovisual Library of International Law.   I also added links to:

• the longer list of Vienna Conventions in Wikipedia;
• the Guide to Research on Vienna Convention on Consular Relations Notification Requirements;  and
• the Ozone Secretariat web site for the Vienna and Montreal Ozone treaties.

Little things added lately

Been adding lots of little things lately.  Here are a few of them.

North Carolina entry:  Added a “News” section referencing the state’s leading legal and business newspapers.

Massachusetts entry:  Added an online map that links to the online land records for each county.

International Trade entry:  Added Piers.com and the D&B Million Dollar Directory to the sources you can use to locate U.S. import/export companies by state or region.

Commodity Prices entry:  Added MetalPrices.com to the “Metals” section.

All things must pass: the demise of the free Social Security Death Index

The Social Security Death Index database from Ancestry.com is no longer free.   I edited the Finding People, Social Security Numbers and Vital Records entries accordingly.

California Dreaming: New search for recent bills

The California Legislature has a new bill search (covering the 1999/2000 session to the present) that I added to the “Bills and Bill Status” section of the California entry.  I also added a section on “California Attorney General Opinions;” apparently I had never been asked to get them before this week.

Running the numbers

The Guide received 468,582 site visits in 2011.

Inside source for law firm billing rate data

One more for the Law Firms entry:  I added the Serengeti Matter Benchmark Reports on WestlawNext to the list of sources for billing rate information.  Serengeti makes their real money analyzing law firm invoices for in-house counsel.   The Matter Benchmark Reports cost $250 a pop, but Serengeti’s inside access billing rate data make the Reports worth every penny.

Law Firms entry ready for 2012

We’re starting off 2012 with a bang — Marianne Purzycki, the librarian at the Hildebrandt Institute, carefully reviewed and updated the Law Firms entry.  I spent Monday afternoon entering Marianne’s suggestions, and the result is a much better entry.   Thank you, Marianne!

A securities law send-off for 2011

I ended the year working on some of the securities law entries.  I added a list of useful treatises and a new a paragraph on Regulation D to the Private Placements entry.  I also added a “Treatises” section to the Blue Sky Laws entry and revised the cross references in those entries plus Securities Laws, the Securities Act of 1933, FINRA and Venture Capital.  That’s it for 2011.   Happy New Year everyone!

Week in Review: Holiday Edition

Happy holidays!  I didn’t do the best job keeping track of my edits this week, but new stuff includes:

District of Columbia – Judicial Branch entry — Added the Daily Washington Law Reporter’s Opinions on Demand Service as a source for D.C. Superior Court Decisions and Google Scholar as a source for published D.C. case law.

Compensation entry — Added the annual Empsight/ACC Law Department Compensation Survey to the “Lawyers and Law Firms” section.

Congressional Hearings entry — Added the House and Senate Committee Hearings and Publications collection posted by the University of New Orleans to the list of free online sources.