Diversity Happy Hour, June 16 at Mexican Post

The Young Lawyers Division will host its annual Diversity Happy Hour on Tuesday, June 16 from 5:30-7:30 p.m. at the Mexican Post. The event is co-hosted by the Barristers Association of Philadelphia, the Gay and Lesbian Lawyers of Philadelphia, the Hispanic Bar Association of Philadelphia, the Asian-Pacific American Bar Association of Philadelphia, and the South-Asian Bar Association of Philadelphia.

In addition to great drinks, food and company, the YLD will award its annual Diversity Scholarships to five outstanding law school students: Priya DeSouza of Temple's Beasley School of Law, Eartha Johnson of Drexel University Earle Mack School of Law, Samea Lee of Temple's Beasley School of Law, Maricruz Melendrez of Drexel University Earle Mack School of Law, and Jennifer Supplee of Temple's Beasley School of Law.

Pre-registration is encouraged as the first 200 to RSVP will be given two complimentary drink tickets for each attendee. Appetizers will also be available throughout the night.

James DeCrescenzo Reporting, LLC is sponsoring the event. To pre-register for this event, click here

Volunteers Needed to Teach at 2009 People's Law School

The YLD is now accepting applications from young lawyers to teach the following classes at this year's People's Law School (PLS): family law and custody, small claims and landlord/tenant court, consumer credit (including debt collection, identity theft, credit reports, utility issues), real estate (including foreclosures, predatory lending, actions to quiet title), bankruptcy, employment law, workers' compensation, social security and disability, elder law, personal injury, and criminal law.

The PLS is a six-week adult education course, beginning in September, that offers non-lawyers basic information about areas of the law that affect people's daily lives. If you are interested in teaching, please email your resume or information about your practice areas to Stephanie Mensing.

Calling On Firms to Help With Legal Line Program

The Legal Line program - in which volunteer attorneys staff a phone bank and provide legal help to callers - needs support. Law firms can help by adopting a Legal Line session, held at 5PM every third Wednesday of the month at the LRIS offices.

The firm would only need to staff the event with licensed attorneys and the cost is nothing. Alternatively, or in conjunction, the night could be a theme night, like family law or elder law. The sponsoring firm would get publicity in all promotional materials for the given Legal Line session. Please contact Roxane Crowley for more information.

Roughing it?

Admit it. The allure of that hoity-toity hotel room can be painfully short-lived. For some of us, the descent into anticlimax hell begins, fittingly enough, with the buzzkill of realizing that the mini-bar is priced to kill a buzz, not promote one. It's sobering to say the least. And for the Vox water-drinking, fifteen-dollar-snickers-in-a-plastic-tennis-ball container (one ball, mind you) amongst us, it's the little things that annoy, get our powdered noses out of joint. Mysterious neck marks when you're blissfully married which hopefully are the handiwork of that gargantuan arachnid which miraculously vanished into thin air, doing the early morning climb of shame. Irritatingly gelatinous pillows. Everything has its limits I suppose. Of course there's the inevitable toilet-clogging event, handled with the utmost sensitivity, except for the subtle grin of the questionably discreet, as-refined-as-is-humanly-possible maintenance guy.

Here's how one can avoid these and other distresses. In this world where Community 2.0, emblematic of the hunger for post-modern connections, is all the rage, perhaps we should just lower our expectations. Travel like a vagabond. Find yourself pleasantly surprised that there's actually a roof over the building when you arrive for a bell hopless check-in. Or that the bathing water is relatively rust-free. All kidding aside, hostels aren't just for the melodramatic directionless and flat-bloke teens anymore. Now they're for the community starved and directionless adults with money and in denial, who prefer to re-live their youth.

A recent article in the New York Times by Jennifer Conlin does a nice job of highlighting some of the trendiest (yes, trendiest) hostels globally. We're talking hip names, like The Circus in Berlin, Oops! in Paris and Yellow (just Yellow) in Roma. The backpackers in "American Werewolves in London" might still be alive had these swank chic resting places existed back in the day. Their metamorphoses would have entailed soul patches and sideburns, not werewolf caliber chest chair and fangs.

Just picture the scene at London's Central Youth Hostel: "At one end of the room was a sleek, well-stocked bar . . . Opposite was a line of computers . . . Two older women with trendy haircuts and rectangular-framed glasses were enjoying their drinks at one table, and at another sat a family playing cards. There was not a single poncho in sight." Sprockets anyone? Can’t forget about the Wi-Fi, DJs, live music and karaoke nights either. You know you're too cool for school when your hostel has a subterranean bar, with framed photos of David Hasselhoff (cheesy moustache included), vintage video consoles and décor right out of '70s Florida condo. So the next time you have the inclination to travel frugally, without necessarily forsaking comfort or style, I would urge you to check out the hostel offerings in your destination cities. If you can't afford to spend like a rock star, what's the point of pretending? It leaves you thirsty and envious anyway. It's so much hipper to just don those sporty frames and pretend you're with the band. The indie band that is...

CLE Presentation: "7th Annual Nonprofit Institute," Featuring Keynote Speaker Philadelphia Mayor Michael A. Nutter

Join the Pennsylvania Bar Institute for the "7th Annual Nonprofit Institute", this Wednesday, May 20, from 9:00 a.m. to 4:40 p.m. at the Pennsylvania Bar Institute CLE Conference Center.

The program will feature, as keynote speaker, Philadelphia Mayor Michael A. Nutter. Mayor Nutter will discuss Public/Private Partnerships - the Importance of Working Together in Challenging Times. He will address the impact of the city budget on social services and how the private community is helping to perform these services; the importance of nonprofits to the City of Philadelphia; the need for additional nonprofit agencies and services in troubled economic times and what the City of Philadelphia is doing to support the mission of nonprofit organizations.

The Nonprofit Institute is a must attend for anyone involved with the nonprofit sector. Hot topics will be included not only for lawyers, but also for nonprofit executives, employees and volunteers, accountants, nonprofit board members, fundraisers and anyone who is thinking of starting up a nonprofit. The program will offer four separate tracks for this seminar – a "basic" track for those new to nonprofit operations, a nonprofit management track, a nonprofit governance track, and a fourth track of miscellaneous nonprofit topics.

This seminar offers 6.0 CLE credits (5.0 sub/1.0 ethics) for a fee of $339. For more information on standard tuition fees and registration, please call 1.800.932.4637 or visit PBI's website at www.pbi.org. Lunch is included with tuition.

Bar Night at the Phillies June 17

Join your colleagues and friends at Bar Association Night at the Phillies on Wednesday, June 17 as the World Series champion Phils take on the Toronto Blue Jays at Citizens Bank Park at 7:05 p.m. Tickets are $28 and can be ordered by clicking here.

Seating (subject to availability) with fellow Philadelphia Bar Association supporters will be located on the Field Level Outfield (Sections 145 - 148). There is a special $2 discount off the cost of these tickets. To order your tickets for this special event, click here and enter the promotion code BAR.