Is Westlaw Discriminating Against Puerto Rico?
Update (4:15): After this post went was published, Thomson Reuters reversed course and reinstated the free printer access to Puerto Rican law schools. Click here for our coverage.
Thomson Reuters owns Westlaw and is one of the two major gatekeepers to legal research in the modern world. Recently, the company made an economic decision that some claim unfairly impacts law students in Puerto Rico. A tipster reports:
It seems Westlaw has decided to cut their free printer service to the four Puerto Rico Law schools for economic reasons, while keeping the service in all US law schools.
Why would Westlaw only discontinue free printer access to Puerto Rican law students? One Westlaw user wrote to Thompson Reuters, asking the company to reconsider its decision. But he also seems to have figured out why Westlaw made this decision.
As you may imagine, Westlaw, as well as Lexis-Nexis printers at the local law school libraries are mostly used by full time students who spend most of their day and night at the schools, but more importantly, by underprivileged students with limited resources who do not have at their disposal computers, printers and other technological equipment. Although we may take for granted that nowadays everybody has a computer and a printer, our local reality in Puerto Rico is still much different than the one for US law school students. Based on a local law school census made, it seems that the canceling of this service was limited to the Puerto Rico law schools, as contacts have been made with US law schools and so far Westlaw has not limited the printers’ service at their libraries.I was informed that the printers and related supplies use at the Puerto Rico law schools is proportionately much higher than the one at US law schools. Should this be the case, it would be totally consistent with the fact that Puerto Rico law school students, as opposed to US law school students, have less resources at their disposal, as mentioned before, forcing them to use your research and printers’ services at the local law school libraries….
[I]t is really sad for me to be witness to many of my fellow students’ hardships trying to come up with means to pay law school and sacrificing themselves and many times their families, which for many of us would be difficult enough; now having to add another obstacle forcing them to stay even longer hours at the law school libraries to be able to perform research only through Lexis-Nexis in order to be able to print through their printers after making long waits for their few printers.
Is Westlaw cutting off free printer access to students who need it most? It might make sense from a cost control standpoint, but it’s not a strong moral position.
University of Puerto Rico School of Law professor José Julián Álvarez-González also wrote to Westlaw. He referenced the first letter to Westlaw, and then launched into a possible solution:
Dear Thomson Reuters executives:The enclosed e-mail by Mr. Alberto Lázaro to you is self-explanatory. In it, he objects to your discriminatory policy to discontinue providing the printers’ service (complimentary printers and supplies), which were installed at the local Puerto Rico law school libraries. That policy, it seems, is only directed against Puerto Rican law schools. I am also informed that all efforts by our head librarian at the University of Puerto Rico Law School to have Thomson Reuters end that discriminatory policy have been rebuffed.
Since Thomson Reuters seems only to understand cost benefit analysis (in its own idiosyncratic way), let me complicate that analysis a bit. If Thomson Reuters does not immediately change its discriminatory policy to make it non discriminatory (for instance, a cap on sheets of papers and ink, applicable to all law schools everywhere on a per student basis), I will cease using Thomson Reuters texts in my courses, and will urge all colleagues at the four Puerto Rican law schools to do likewise. I will also bring the matter up with as many colleagues as I can in United States law schools.
I teach Constitutional Law, Federal Jurisdiction and Comparative Law. In Constitutional Law I have used Foundation Press casebooks for 28 years, usually Gunther´s (now Sullivan & Gunther), but some years I also used Cohen’s. During those 28 years I also used some version of Nowak & Rotunda’s hornbook as an additional text. My sections usually have between 60-80 students. In Federal Jurisdiction I have always used Wright’s casebook, and many times I have also assigned Wright’s hornbook as an additional text to the 30-40 students in that course. In Comparative Law, which I have taught for some seven years, I have used Schlesinger’s casebook and Glendon’s nutshell. I usually have some 10-15 students in that course. Also, I have taught that course four times in January at the University of Ottawa Law School, and will be teaching it again this January, Those courses usually have 15-20 students. I had already informed Ottawa that I would be using the new edition of Schlesinger (Mattei et al.) next January, but there is ample time to change that. And, as you well know, and Aspen and Lexis-Nexis representatives keep reminding me, there are many satisfactory susbtitutes for all of these texts.
I am sending a copy of this e-mail to Professors Kathleen Sullivan, John Oakley and Ugo Mattei, whose casebooks I would be forced to discontinue using, if you discriminatory policy remains in effect, and to Professors Owen Fiss and Carol Rose, of the editorial board of your University Casebook Series (Foundation Press). I will also forward it to as many stateside professors of Puerto Rican descent as I can identify. Professors Angel Oquendo (Connecticut), Pedro Malavet (Florida), Ediberto Román (Florida International) and Alberto Bernabe (John Marshall) immediately come to mind. All professors at Puerto Rico law schools will also receive a copy of this e-mail.
Since moral arguments have not been enough to make Thomson Reuters reconsider its discriminatory policy, I hope that math does the trick.
Sincerely,
José Julián Álvarez-González
Professor of Law
University of Puerto Rico School of Law
You don’t have to be Puerto Rican to disagree with Westlaw’s decision, but this might not be the best time to be pissing off an entire ethnicity. If Puerto Ricans — from Sonia Sotomayor on down — boycott Westlaw, it might make the company change its mind.
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Comments
First to say
Why are there 4 law schools in Puerto Rico?
What you won't continue to give me free stuff!!! Then I won't buy your books. Clearly, they are doing this because of a secret hatred of Puerto Ricans!!!
Srsly, how did this guy get a job as law professor.
I thought Puerto Ricans were "wise latinos" and don't need Westlaw to write brilliant briefs.
I <3 Emerimom
I suppose that I should know the answer to these questions, but which of the four law schools in Puerto Rico are accredited by the American Bar Association? Which are members in good standing of the Association of American Law Schools?
I can't believe I just wasted three minutes on this.
2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS --- to 190K!
Step ahead on the Westlaw ban, our firm is switching to Lexis exclusively on 9/1 due to Westlaw massively hiking our rates.
This reminds me of a Davis Cup team match my brother Patrick was coaching in Puerto Rico. They asked Andy Roddick (after his match) if they could use his racket. My brother politely declined because our sponsors did not want to be associated with Puerto Rican Tennis.
I can't believe there are four law schools in PR. I wonder how OCI is going down there.
9=FAIL. Completely nonsensical schtick for a law blog. Try the Tennis Channel instead.
Elie must be Puerto Rican. Wow, that's some shitty writing.
westlaw is retarded! I am changing to the other guy.....
"if you discriminatory policy remains in effect"
This TTT prof sucks even at English; his math can't be all that right either.
Where did the prof get 4 schools from? ABA website lists only 3, so unless 1 is unaccredited... (damn the accreditation troll might actually be right for once...)
It is a bit funny that this tard views a marketing tool as an entitlement that should be rationed.
5.
The University of PR Law School (where Prof. Alvarez teaches) has been ABA approved since 1945 and is a member in good standing with AALS since 1948. (links ABA: http://www.abanet.org/legaled/approvedlawschools/alpha.html AALS: http://www.aals.org/about_memberschools.php )
The Interamerican School of Law has been ABA approved since 1969 and the Pontifical Catholic School of Law has been ABA approved since 1967. Both schools Non-Member Fee-Paying Schools with the AALS.
The fourth school, the Eugenio María de Hostos Law School, was recently founded and is not yet accredited by the ABA or the AALS.
17 -
Thank you.
- 5
I like it! Hit 'em wear it hurts Prof. José Julián Álvarez-González - the wallet
Elie you fat slob. If you had read the comments before ripping this story off of out of the jungle, you would have seen that they are pulling printers from crappy US law schools as well.
http://outofthejungle.blogspot.com/2009/08/thomson-reuters-discriminates-against.html
Good on this dude. Nothing wrong with putting your money where your mouth is. Geniuses, it's not that he's pissed off specifically at not getting free stuff -- it's that ONLY Puerto Rican schools are being singled out to no longer get free stuff. On its face, anyway, that looks pretty unfairly discriminatory and even has a mild waft of potential racism. I can definitely understand him getting upset -- good for him exerting his influence to send a message to Westlaw. If they think Puerto Rican law schools are unimportant, let them continue and see if his threats make a difference. I guess that's one way to see who's important and who isn't.
PE, you are generally unjustifiably pompous and obnoxious, and this time even your attempt at snark is completely ill-conceived. The entire *point* of this professor's email is that Puerto Ricans like him don't need Westlaw -- they can get by on products put out by companies other than Thomson Reuters. That's kind of *why* he can threaten a boycott. Because, you know, there are other alternatives. Also, double-check your grammar. Pick a tense and stick with it. I'm sure you must have a first year around who you can ask to proofread your ATL comments for you.
There are four Puerto Rican law schools:
University of Puerto Rico School of Law
Eugenio María de Hostos School of Law
Interamerican University School of Law
Catholic University of Ponce School of Law
They are all accredited by the ABA.
Prof. Alvarez is one of the most respected scholars in Puerto Rico. Tomorrow, he will be publishing a treatise on Constitutional Law that he has been writing for the past two decades.
Now here's some important news:
"Skadden is cutting the size of its 2010 summer associate class by half and adjusting its recruitment strategy by making all of its offers on a single day in late September, according to a letter the firm will send to prospective summers. Skadden hired 225 summer associates this year and expects to hire a little more than 100 next year, though the precise figure will depend on offer acceptance rates, the firm says. But Skadden will not rescind offers to any prospective 2010 summers, no matter how many accept."
Members of the Class of 2011 join the lost generation.
There are four Puerto Rican law schools:
University of Puerto Rico School of Law
Eugenio María de Hostos School of Law
Interamerican University School of Law
Catholic University of Ponce School of Law
They are all accredited by the ABA.
Prof. Alvarez is one of the most respected scholars in Puerto Rico. Tomorrow, he will be publishing a treatise on Constitutional Law that he has been writing for the past two decades.
AI POPPY!
"t's that ONLY Puerto Rican schools are being singled out to no longer get free stuff"
Wrong. See 20. Try again.
"Prof. Alvarez is one of the most respected scholars in Puerto Rico. "
LULZ
I thought there was a 5th law school:
La Universidad de Julio Iglesias de Sontomayor Ciudad de la Playa
Elie
You need a permanent ban against you for blogging about racial issues. You love to point out how racist whitey is, but it usually takes all of five minutes to refute your racial claims. Im getting sick of "oh my god- look at the racism" followed shortly after by "my bad." Maybe in the future you could leave racial issues to be blogged about either not at all, or by someone who has not completely lost their credibility on the issue.
20/26, looks like we have information from a respected constitutional scholar against an anecdotal example from a possibly-pseudonymous blog commenter that there might be one additional school. Boy did you show me.
-21
When my son was insolent he was placed in a burlap bag and beaten with reeds — pretty standard, really.
Another brilliant comment PE. Pompous idiot
29, I'll favor banning Elie from talking about racism just as soon as we get a ban on racist comments. Har har.
Emerimom, not to question your parenting skills or anything, but you really should have beaten him a lot harder.
30- a scholar who is clearly grinding an axe and basically admits to not having any factual evidence for his claim.
blog commentors > wild ass speculation by anonymous surveyors who may or may not have actually surveyed anyone.
Although I highly doubt Westlaw's move was done for racially discriminatory reasons, I generally applaud the professor's response. He is simply using the power of the marketplace to protect his students. West is apparently deciding that the PR schools (possibly among others) do not "matter" and can receive materially deficient treatment than nearly every other law school in the US -- he is trying to show them that PR schools do "matter" and this will have consequences. This is not so different than Coke not opening a distributorship in Israel until Mt Sinai Hospital and Nathan's hot dogs threatened to boycott Coke in response.
34, bear in mind that attempts by various persons at the law school to contact Thomson Reuters have at the very least not resulted in clarification from them supporting your reading of the facts. You would think a company interested in maintaining its image would bother responding to a law school librarian under the mistaken (if it is so) impression that his/her school had been singled out for discrimination based on geographical location. Thomson's lack of a satisfactory response seems confirmation enough that its policy affects only Puerto Rican schools.
The dean's argument would have held more water if he hadn't used the discrimination card and had just used economics
OMG
Logical reasoning is not 36's strong suit.
Serious comment
Has anyone ever worked with or been against a lawyer from these schools?
LOL...absence of evidence = confirmation. Flaw in reasoning 101.
Since Thomson bought them, West doesn't care about pissing people off. Because you don't have to deal with the actual company on a regular basis, most of you don't realize how ruthless they are. This printer issue is nothing compared to other things I've seen them do. You can boycott, complain, and bitch all you want but it won't do a bit of good. They. Do. Not. Care.
UPR tuition: ~$3000 / year ($100/credit)
With various other fees, you owe the school ~ $3200 /year.
http://ls-po.law.upr.edu/portal/page?_pageid=33,151067,33_151057&_dad=portal&_schema=PORTAL
It's like this every day in Puerto Rico.
Partner Emerimom rocks!
this has nothing to do with race it has to do with economics.
Lexis doesn't have free printers at a lot of law schools either.
Westlaw and Lexis are trying to gain favor with law students who will go to AM200 firms. They don't need to win favor with students who go to third rate law schools and don't have a shot in hell of working in BigLaw.
46: Law schools in Puerto Rico are not rated by your precious US NEWS so there is no evidence to back up your assumption that we are Third Tier schools.
I thought that people saying Americans are ignorant was just a crude generalization, I guess I was wrong.
41, you must be a law student who hasn't yet learned the rule of evidence that the absence of a denial where one would reasonably expect one can be used as evidence against the would-be denier. It has to do with preventing people from changing their stories when it suits them -- if you're denying now, why didn't you deny before, when you had the chance?
I don't remember the specific rule, as I'm years and years out of law school. Enjoy 1L year!
What makes you think everybody wants to work at BigLaw you BigAss?
An email just sent by Prof. Alvarez confirms that Westlaw has decided to reestablish the program. I copy the email verbatim:
Dear all:
After a very good and thoughtful telephone conversation with Mr. Mike Suchsland, President of West Education Group, and Mr. Chris Parton, Vice President, the Westlaw printer program has been reinstated for all Puerto Rico law schools. Both officials have promised that any future reductions in the program will be equally applicable to all law schools who currently participate in it.
Dean Aponte-Toro and myself are very satisfied with this result and wish to thank all of you who helped that our voices from this "distant ocean community" (Chief Justice Taft in Balzac v. Porto Rico, 1922) were heard. We also wish to thank Mr. Suchsland and Mr. Parton for their understanding and swift action.
If those of you who sent messages concerning this subject could relay this one to those you contacted, I would certainly appreciate it. The same request to you bloggers, who also helped a great deal.
Thank you all very much,
José Julián Álvarez González
Professor of Law"
Thanks to all who helped!
I am startled at what cretins many posters on this site are. Given that PR has been a territory, and an important generator of 1st Cir. and constitutional law, one would hope for a minimum of intelligence. Of course, lawyers through and through, many are still willing to use arrogance as a veil for their ignorance and insularity.
Comment removed by moderator.
53: Touché. UPR Law Alum.
This seems like simple economics all the way around. Who is West marketing to at the most basic level? It's the students who are most likely to go off and work for big law firms and use Westlaw for all their litigation needs. There is a mistaken mentality that everyone is entitled to free printing and that all law schools have it. This is, in fact, not the case. There are a lot of "lower tier" law schools in the states that don't have printers from either West or Lexis.
So, with the economy in the crapper and all companies looking to cut costs, it's only natural that the "lower tier" lawschools are going to loose their free printing. I'm guessing the points are the next thing to go, we'll see. However, to chalk this up to discrimination is the most ridiculous thing I've heard, it's all about the bottom line, it always has been. If you don't like it, use Lois law or something.
So, they reinstated the free printer access, this shows that PR law schools are not that insignificant as some of the people blogging here think, how about that?