Law Commons^™

How To Train Your Supervisor, Kris Franklin, Paula J. Manning

Articles & Chapters

In an ideal world every meeting between law students and professors, or between beginning lawyers and their supervisors, would leave supervisors impressed by their charges and junior lawyers/students with a clear sense of direction for their work. But we do not live in that ideal world. Instead, supervisors, supervisees, law professors and law students frequently leave such meetings feeling frustrated, disconnected and without a shared understanding of how to improve the experience (and future performance).

This Article seeks to improve supervisory meetings, and to do so from the perspective of the ones under supervision. There is a genuine art to …

We Carry Each Other, Heidi K. Brown

Articles & Chapters

No abstract provided.

Civility Reboot: Can Lawyers Learn To Be Nicer To One Another, Heidi K. Brown

Articles & Chapters

No abstract provided.

Talented But Overlooked, Heidi K. Brown

Articles & Chapters

We should transform hiring and mentoring of introverted lawyers.

Inclusive Legal Writing, Heidi K. Brown

Articles & Chapters

No abstract provided.

The Life Of The Law Cannot Be Coded, Rebecca Roiphe

Other Publications

No abstract provided.

Applying Daubert To Flaubert: Standards For Admissibility Of Testimony Of Writing Experts, Heidi K. Brown

Articles & Chapters

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Breaking Bad Briefs, Heidi K. Brown

Articles & Chapters

This article focuses on the practical effects of bad briefing on our legal process and suggests a holistic remedy: a system-wide commitment to striving to instill in law students and lawyers a respect for legal writing as, not only a fundamental competency of our chosen profession, but a talent that requires initial training, focused study, repeated practice, and conscious evolution throughout the arc of one’s legal education and career. Effective brief-writing is not as simple as a quick cut-and-paste job, a template download, or a stream-of-consciousness exercise, even for lawyers who repeatedly practice one type of case. Part I of …

Converting Benchslaps To Backslaps: Instilling Professional Accountability In New Legal Writers By Teaching And Reinforcing Context, Heidi K. Brown

Articles & Chapters

A search in published and unpublished court decisions for derivations of phrases like "poorly written brief" or "failure to follow court rules" yields an alarming multitude of case opinions in which judges admonish lawyers of all levels of experience for shoddy briefs or for flouting non-negotiable substantive and procedural rules. Legal bloggers have affectionately dubbed these public reprimands "benchslaps."

Section I of this article provides a contextual background that professors and practitioners can share with rookie legal writers, using judicial opinions to demonstrate the eight most-common ways that attorney work product falls short of judges' expectations and, more importantly, how …

A Tale Of Three Hoaxes: When Literature Offends The Law, Molly Guptill Manning

Articles & Chapters

No abstract provided.

The Decline And Fall Of The Dominant Paradigm: Trustworthiness Of Case Reports In The Digital Age, William R. Mills

Articles & Chapters

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See Erie: Critical Study Of Legal Authority, Kris Franklin

Articles & Chapters

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Lost In Translation: Some Brief Notes On Writing About Law For The Layperson, Brandt Goldstein

Articles & Chapters

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Writing About The Law, Jethro K. Lieberman

Articles & Chapters

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Law In The Plays Of Elmer Rice, Randolph N. Jonakait

Articles & Chapters

While novels, short stories, television shows, movies, and classic dramas are often analyzed for insights into the law, modern plays are seldom similarly examined. The plays of Elmer Rice, however, should be discussed by those interested in our legal system. Rice, although now largely forgotten, was a leading playwright of the last century. He was a law school graduate, and his work often incorporated legal themes. His plays provide provocative commentaries about the law and raise dilemmas about justice and ethics that resonate today. This essay explores the interplay between plays and the law by examining the life and work …

Wikipedia And The Future Of Legal Education, Beth Simone Noveck

Articles & Chapters

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The Perils Of The Spellchecker / A Day On Jury Duty, Camille Broussard

Other Publications

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Bad Writing: Some Thoughts On The Abuse Of Scholarly Rhetoric, Jethro K. Lieberman

Articles & Chapters

Like most kinds of writing, academic writing rarely shines, but far more often than ordinary writing scholarly prose is murky and impenetrable. This brief jeu d'esprit considers several forms of bad writing, rejecting the claim, increasingly made in academic quarters, that "difficult writing" is necessary to the scholarly enterprise. Bloated, foggy, and enigmatic prose masquerades as profundity that escapes conventional mental grooves. In fact it is useless, unethical, and taken far enough, evil.

Integrating Legal Research Skills Into Commercial Law, Camille Broussard, Karen Gross

Articles & Chapters

No abstract provided.

Rhetoric, Advocacy And Ethics: Reflections On Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, Stephen A. Newman

Articles & Chapters

The rhetorical skill necessary to speaking and writing persuasively may be studied with great profit by exploring realms of knowledge far from the courtroom and the law office. Literature naturally comes to mind as a rich resource for the study of persuasion. For this essay, I have chosen a well-known set of speeches that appear in William Shakespeare's Julius Caesar to illustrate various aspects of persuasion.

In the play's most riveting scene, Marcus Brutus and Mark Antony speak before a crowd of Romans, giving their opposing views of the assassination of Caesar. Brutus claims justification for his and his co-conspirators' …

The Shape Of The Universe: The Impact Of Unpublished Opinions On The Process Of Legal Research, William R. Mills

Articles & Chapters

Unpublished appellate judicial opinions present formidable challenges for modern legal researchers, from both practical and ethical points of view. The practice of selective publication of court opinions, and attendant court rules that restrict citation of unpublished opinions, have long been the subject of debate within legal profession. The recent case of Anastasoff v. United States, 223 F.3d 898 (8th Cir. 2000), vacated as moot 235 F.3d 1054 (8th Cir. 2000), has rekindled this debate, giving it a new constitutional dimension, and placing it squarely within the context of judicial accountability and the appropriate separation of powers among our branches of …

Not Whistlin' Dixie: Now, More Than Ever, We Need Feminist Law Journals, Carlin Meyer

Articles & Chapters

No abstract provided.

The Rhetorics Of Legal Authority Constructing Authoritativeness, The “Ellen Effect,” And The Example Of Sodomy Law., Kris Franklin

Articles & Chapters

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Common Disorders Of The Appendix And Their Treatment, Roger J. Miner '56

Federal Courts and Federal Practice

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Attorney Hit With Sanctions For Poor Brief (New York Law Journal), Deborah Pines

News Articles

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Remarks: Annual Banquet Of The University Of Pennsylvania Law Review, Roger J. Miner '56

Law Review Addresses

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Advice And Consent In Theory And Practice, Roger J. Miner '56

Federal Court System and Administration

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Twenty-Five 'Dos' For Appellate Brief Writers, Roger J. Miner '56

Federal Courts and Federal Practice

No abstract provided.

Remarks: Appellate Advocacy Program, New York County Lawyers Association, Roger J. Miner '56

Bar Associations

No abstract provided.

Just The Facts: The Field Code And The Case Method, William P. Lapiana

Articles & Chapters

No abstract provided.