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Survey Says--How To Engage Law Students In The Online Learning Environment, Andrele Brutus St. Val

Articles

The pandemic experience has made it clear that not everyone loves teaching or learning remotely. Many professors and students alike are eager to return to the classroom. However, our experiences over the last year and a half have also demonstrated the potentials and possibilities of learning online and have caused many professors to recalibrate their approaches to digital learning. While the tools for online learning were available well before March of 2020, many instructors are only now beginning to capitalize on their potential. The author of this article worked in online legal education before the pandemic, utilizing these tools and …

Exemplary Legal Writing 2020: Five Recommendations, Femi Cadmus, Ariel A.E. Scotese

Faculty Scholarship

A brief review of five recommended exemplary legal books published in 2020.

Exemplary Legal Writing 2019: Books: Five Recommendations, Femi Cadmus, Casandra Laskowski

Faculty Scholarship

A brief review of five recommended exemplary legal books published in 2019.

Exemplary Legal Writing 2016: Books Selected By Our Respectable Authorities: Five Recommendations, Femi Cadmus

Faculty Scholarship

A brief review of five recommended exemplary legal books published in 2017.

Exemplary Law Books Of 2015: Five Recommendations, Femi Cadmus

Faculty Scholarship

A brief review of five recommended exemplary legal books published in 2015.

Increased Importance Of Legal Writing In The Era Of “The Vanishing Trial”, Edward D. Re

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

No Shoehorn Required: How A Required, Three-Year, Persuasion-Based Legal Writing Program Easily Fits Within The Broader Law School Curriculum, Adam Lamparello, Charles Maclean

Adam Lamparello

In prior articles, we advocated for a required fifteen-credit, three-year, persuasion-based, linear legal writing curriculum. Our model begins with persuasive advocacy from the first day of law school, and takes a sequential approach that mirrors the practice of law — from the initial client meeting to the appellate brief.

It includes a separate track for those interested in transactional work, incorporates alternative dispute resolution and settlement simulations, and involves students in researching and drafting amicus briefs before federal appellate courts. Students are also offered several electives each semester to complement their required course load, and receive intense training in narrative …

Designing Spaces: Planning The Physical Space For A Legal Writing Program, Jan M. Levine

Jan M. Levine

Silence Is Golden: Using A "Silent Scrolling Powerpoint" Series To Enhance Your Course Dynamic, Julia M. Glencer Professor

Julia M. Glencer

This article explores the use of an alternative teaching tool in a law school classroom as a method of inspiring law students and prompting excited engagement in both the underlying course and the legal profession. The author, a seven-year Legal Research & Writing Professor, first explains how she has used the automatic advance feature in Microsoft PowerPoint to create a semester series of weekly “Silent Scrolling PowerPoints,” 5 to 7 minutes in length, on a variety of topics of interest and inspiration to her first-year law students. She then summarizes the six benefits observed while experimenting with this tool over …

A Call To Combine Rhetorical Theory And Practice In The Legal Writing Classroom, Kristen Konrad Robbins-Tiscione

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

The theory and practice of law have been separated in legal education to their detriment since the turn of the twentieth century. As history teaches us and even the 2007 Carnegie Report perhaps suggests, teaching practice without theory is as inadequate as teaching theory without practice. Just as law students should learn how to draft a simple contract from taking Contracts, they should learn the theory of persuasion from taking a legal writing course. In an economy where law apprenticeship has reverted from employer to educator, legal writing courses should do more than teach analysis, conventional documents, and the social …

Outcomes & Assessment: A Golden Opportunity For Lrw Professors, David I.C. Thomson

Sturm College of Law: Faculty Scholarship

The American Bar Association is currently discussing drafts of a proposal to shift the law school accreditation standards from inputs measurements (such as numbers of books, faculty student ratios, etc.) to outcomes assessment. While still in discussion, this shift has the potential to create profound change in legal education. For the first time, law schools may be held accountable – beyond the bar exam – for what and how they teach their students. Law schools all across the country are busy trying to determine what this will mean, and how to go about meeting the new ABA standard.

New Ways To Teach Drafting And Drafting Ethics, Lisa Penland, David I.C. Thomson, Susan Duncan, Karen J. Sneddon, Susan M. Chesler

Sturm College of Law: Faculty Scholarship

As foreign as it can seem to not be in a physical classroom with bodies sitting in the chairs listening, it is a very different way of teaching but it can be very effective. If you go through this process of developing and dividing outcomes, dividing modules, and selecting the right technology, it can work. And that is kind of a scary thought to some people. Perhaps not people who have come to this section today or to this conference about What's Next, but for many of our colleagues, this is kind of a scary thought – that you might …

Teaching As Art Form - Review Of The Elements Of Teaching, David I.C. Thomson

Sturm College of Law: Faculty Scholarship

The authors of this gem of a book—both retired college teachers who gave their professional lifetimes to teaching—write simply and passionately about what it takes to be an effective teacher, and manage to reduce the key aspects of a complex process down to nine primary elements. In so doing, they provide not only a road map of aspiration for the new teacher, but also signposts of inspiration for the experienced teacher.

Helping Students Develop A Humanistic Philosophy Of Lawyering, Beth Cohen

Faculty Scholarship

This Article considers the need to help students develop a cohesive philosophy of lawyering and suggests some ideas and methods to help introduce these concepts and concerns to students. Although this Article focuses primarily on aspects of the legal research and writing curriculum and pedagogy as well as professional development programs that can enhance the curriculum, the concepts are applicable and transferable to other subjects and courses. The purpose of this Article is to explore the issues raised by a conscious decision to help students consider and develop a beneficial philosophy of lawyering in areas including the development of legal …

Using A Literary Case Study To Teach Lawyering Skills: How We Used Damages By Barry Werth In The First-Year Legal Writing Curriculum, Jeanne M. Kaiser, Myra Orlen

Faculty Scholarship

First-year law students arrive for their first day of classes with varying perceptions about the practice of law and what it means to be a lawyer. Although some students have first-hand knowledge of the profession based on their work in a law office or from family members who are attorneys, many students base their entire conception of what it means to be a lawyer on images from popular media. The Authors discuss how they used a literary account to acquaint students with an authentic picture of litigation, while still teaching the rudiments of legal research and writing. The book used …

An Elective Advanced Course, Beth Cohen, Jeanne Kaiser

Media Presence

This Article discusses the experiences of offering an Advanced Legal Research and Writing tutorial as an elective at Western New England College School of Law. This course is taught by a member of the Legal Research and Writing faculty on a rotating basis. This elective course allows students the opportunity to research and write for another semester of law school.

Modeling: Placing Persuasion In Context, Myra G. Orlen

Faculty Scholarship

The Author discusses the use of a contextual model to teach persuasion and its proven success in first year classes at Western New England College School of Law.

Commenting On Student Writing, Beth Cohen, Jocelyn Cuffee, Harris Freeman, Jeanne M. Kaiser, Myra G. Orlen

Faculty Scholarship

The Authors from Western New England College School of Law discuss perspectives on and approaches to responding to student writing.

Commenting On Student Writing, Beth Cohen, Jocelyn Cuffee, Harris Freeman, Jeanne Kaiser, Myra Orlen

Media Presence

This Article, written by the five-person faculty in the legal research and writing program at Western New England College, discusses the process of critiquing student work. They share some ideas they have discussed in order to promote good legal writing.

A Computer-Assisted Legal Research And Writing Course, Jocelyn Downie, Michael Deturbide, Laura Fraser

Dalhousie Law Journal

In this paper, the authors describe and assess their experience with the use of WebCT (a computer program that facilitates the creation and management of courses using the Internet) in the Dalhousie Legal Research and Writing Program. They explain what WebCT is, why they decided to use it, and how they used it. They assess its inaugural use and conclude that, despite some difficulties, the pilot project was a success and WebCT can be a useful tool for other teachers of legal research and writing.

Reflections Of Irac, Beth Cohen, Chris Iijima

Media Presence

The authors agree that IRAC provides a good starting point to explain the components of legal argument. It requires students to present a good, clear statement of law, a clear and affirmative statement of the issue, an articulation of applicable rules, an analysis and an application of facts to rules of law, and a statement of the ultimate conclusion or prediction. These elements are essential components of good legal writing that should be contained in all good and thorough legal writing from inter-office memoranda and persuasive court briefs to law school exams.

Preventive Law And The Legal Autopsy: For Legal Profession As A Whole, It's A Learning And Research Tool, Robert M. Hardaway

Sturm College of Law: Faculty Scholarship

The legal autopsy can be a careful learning and research tool, not only for the individual practitioner, but for the legal profession as a whole. A complete (or "horizontal") autopsy which includes an investigation of both sides of a case can be expensive and time-consuming to prepare. In many cases, practical consideration may dictate a more limited (or "vertical")-but also useful-autopsy investigating only one side of the case.