Welcome back to Ahead of the Curve. I'm Karen Sloan, legal education editor at Law.com, and I'll be your host for this weekly look at innovation and notable developments in legal education.

We're closing in on two months of the COVID-19 outbreak in the U.S., and the pandemic's impact on legal education hasn't waned. This week, I'm looking at how the Columbia Law School faculty pulled together to quickly release a free eBook that offers an overview of many of the legal aspects of the coronavirus on human rights, economics, and public health. Then I'm lightening things up a bit by checking in on Cardozo law professor Chris Buccafusco's weekly wine tasting on Zoom, which features discussions about the law of wine. Lastly, I've got some key bar exam updates ranging from dismal scores on the February test to notable innovations unveiled by Utah and Massachusetts. Read on and stay safe!

Please share your thoughts and feedback with me at [email protected] or on Twitter: @KarenSloanNLJ

Writing the Book on COVID-19 … Literally

Writing a book in a month is tall order.

Writing a book in a month on a rapidly developing topic with life-and-death implications for people across the globe while also shifting to online teaching is an even bigger feat.

But the Columbia Law faculty pulled it off with the publication last week of Law in the Time of COVID-19—a free eBook that runs down a myriad of pressing legal topics related to the coronavirus pandemic. The 214-page volume includes chapters on everything from prisoners' rights and immigration to election law, privacy, and bankruptcy, each through the lens of how the law applies amid COVID-19. The book is the brainchild of Columbia law professor Katharina Pistor, who said in an interview last week that she was inspired by The Economists' fast publication of an eBook on European Union economics during the pandemic.

"We lawyers are so central for everything that's happening right now, in so many ways," Pistor told me. "As the pandemic is deepening, we see that everyone is scrambling to find out what rights they have, what commitments; what happens to the most vulnerable people? Everybody is scrambling to figure out how to deal with this unforeseen pandemic, and how they do that within the confines of the rules we have. I felt like much of the information floating around was not well informed."

So she decided to marshal legal academics to help lay out the relevant ins and outs of the law. She first floated the concept on LinkedIn, where people liked the idea but didn't commit to writing any chapters. Pistor got much more traction when she emailed the Columbia law faculty, noting that many were already knee-deep in COVID-19-related work. Professors proposed a variety of chapter topics, and some drafted students to help them write. The eBook was written with a non-lawyer audience in mind.

"It's not legal advice," Pistor said. "It's basically how to think through problems if you have them, whether you are an NGO, whether you are individual; whether you are an economist who wants to understand how bankruptcy can be applied under the current circumstances."

Pistor said she doesn't envision most people reading the book cover to cover—rather she anticipates they will zero in on the chapters relevant to their situation or interest. The eBook contains links to many other resources as well. The authors plan to update the book with new information, and Pistor hopes to create a standalone website and distribute the book on various eBook platforms. For now, it's available to download, for free from Columbia Law's scholarship repository site. And there is clearly demand for this information. Law in the Time of COVID-19 was downloaded nearly 5,000 times during its first five days of availability.

My take: Hats off to the Columbia Law faculty for taking this project on at a time when they already have a lot on their plate—not to mention the stress and anxiety of being in epicenter of the U.S.'s coronavirus outbreak. And props to Pistor for conceiving of and leading the endeavor. It's yet another example of how legal academics are using their expertise for the public good at this challenging time. I'm sure the book will be a useful resource to many people trying to navigate the law amid so much uncertainty.

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Cheers to the Law of Wine

Cardozo law professor Chris Buccafusco worked at a wine shop back when he was a law student, and he would host wine tastings for his friends. It offered an opportunity to socialize and share his love of wine and spirits. He's now a wine collector and enthusiast.

So when the coronavirus pandemic forced his law school to close campus and move all classes online, Buccafusco quickly thought of wine as a conduit to bring everyone back together.

"I was looking for an opportunity to stay connected with my students after we turned to distance learning. It turns out I missed them a lot," he told me last week. So in early April, Buccafusco began hosting a Thursday evening wine tasting via Zoom, where each week he and participants taste wine and discuss a case or legal aspect of the wine industry. Buccafusco picks a weekly topic, usually a particular wine region, when sends an advance notice of which types of wines he will taste and how participants can get them. (Wine stores remain open in New York amid the shutdown, and there are plenty of delivery options.) Some students just end up drinking whatever they have on hand. The sessions are just for fun—students don't earn any credit, but it has proven to be a popular opportunity to see each other in a more social setting than class, to learn more about wine, and to get an overview of how central the law is to the wine ecosystem.

"It turns out that most of the things you need to learn about the nature of wine are fundamentally legal," he said. "There are a lot of things about tasting that aren't, but what makes one region different from another? What are they all called? How do all these systems work together or don't? Those are all governed by national and international laws. What counts as a Barolo and who can use the name Barolo is governed by a complex legal system that began in Italy in the middle of the 20th century, and has now been taken over by the EU."

The wine sessions typically draw between 150 and 200 participants, and students' spouses, siblings and parents often join in. Buccafusco opened up last week's sessions—on Italian wines—to Cardozo alumni and admitted students, which led him to worry about whether he would max-out his 300-user Zoom limit. If the wine discussions remain popular, he'll keep doing hosting them.

"It's pretty open, fun and lighthearted. We have a nice time," he said. "I will keep doing it as long as people will sit there and listen to me talk about wine."

Extra Credit Reading

The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court has committed to offering an online bar exam in September if it's unsafe to administer the traditional test.

Utah is the first jurisdiction to adopt an emergency diploma program that enables new law grads to skip the bar exam.

Law schools are starting to see a financial crunch from the COVID-19 pandemic, with furloughs and salary and hiring freezes.

Joe Biden will deliver a virtual commencement speech to Columbia law graduates.

The average score on February's Multistate Bar Exam hit an all-time low.

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I'll be back next week with more news and updates on the future of legal education. Until then, keep in touch at [email protected]