Bad Hurricane Relief

So apparently if you want to help victims of Katrina, you can donate your Lexis Nexis rewards points. I was considering doing this, but I looked through the rewards section and there's some stuff I really want. I also thought about it, and I've come to the conclusion that it's a bad idea anyway. The victims of Katrina need things like shelter and food, and help rebuilding their lives, not reward points. I suppose some law students had to flee the storm, but it seems as though they would be among the least needy of the victims. Also, a number of them were admitted to upper-tier law schools, which I have to assume was a bump up in some respects.

Anyway, I'm pretty sure you need a Lexis Nexis ID to access the rewards section. As far as I know, Lexis Nexis isn't giving free access to its legal database to the hurricane victims. Even if it were, though, I'm a big believer in self-reliance. If the Katrina victims want access to the excellent rewards that Lexis offers, they should earn points the same way everyone else does: by logging in every day and doing legal research. Lexis even offers extra points if you take online tutorials, which would be doubly useful for hurricane victims since it's safe to say many of them are unfamiliar with the ins and outs of Lexis online research.

Which brings me to my final point: we shouldn't think that Lexis is being entirely altruistic here. Clearly they want to give Lexis points to hurricane victims to lure them away from Westlaw. If we contribute to this effort, we might perversely make the hurricane victims worse off when they get jobs as summer associates at big firms and don't know how to use Westlaw. By all means do what you can to help the victims of Katrina, but don't participate in this misguided and ineffective effort.