Law Commons^™

Checklists: Not Just For Pilots Anymore, Diane B. Kraft

Law Faculty Popular Media

In this column for Kentucky Bar Association's magazine (B&B - Bench & Bar), Professor Diane B. Kraft discusses how using checklists can improve an individual's legal writing skills.

What Great Writers Can Teach Lawyers And Judges: Precise, Concise, Simple And Clear, Douglas E. Abrams

Faculty Publications

Despite some imperfections across disciplines, advice from well-known fiction and non-fiction writers can serve lawyers and judges well because law, in its essence, is a literary profession heavily dependent on the written word. There are only two types of writing - good writing and bad writing. As poet (and Massachusetts Bar member) Archibald MacLeish recognized, good legal writing is simply good writing about a legal subject. "Lawyers would be better off," said MacLeish, "if they stopped thinking of the language of the law as a different language and realized that the art of writing for legal purposes is in no …

Improve Your Legal Writing, Christine C. Pagano

Publications

Christine Pagano of Golden Gate University School of Law suggests some helpful resources for attorneys wishing to hone their drafting skills.

Law And Economics As A Rhetorical Perspective In Law, Michael D. Murray

Law Faculty Publications

Law and Economics as a Rhetorical Perspective in Law

Michael D. Murray

Abstract

This article introduces twenty-first century law and economics as a school of contemporary legal rhetoric to test and improve general legal discourse in areas beyond the economic analysis of law. My article is the first to examine the prescriptive implications of the rhetoric of law and economics for general legal discourse as opposed to examining the benefits and limitations of the economic analysis of law itself. This article advances the conversation in two areas: the study and understanding of the persuasiveness of law and economics and the …

The Perils Of Hyperbole, Diane B. Kraft

Law Faculty Popular Media

In this column for Kentucky Bar Association's magazine (B&B - Bench & Bar), Professor Diane B. Kraft makes suggestions about avoiding hyperbole in legal writing.

Judicial Opinion Writing: An Annotated Bibliography, Ruth C. Vance

Law Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Bridging Gaps And Blurring Lines: Integrating Analysis, Writing, Doctrine, And Theory, Susan J. Hankin

Faculty Scholarship

This article is an outgrowth of the author’s participation in a July 29, 2009 panel presentation, “Change in Legal Education: Practical Skills,” at the Symposium, YES WE CArNegie: Change in Legal Education after the Carnegie Report. The article responds to the Carnegie Report’s call to “bridge the gap between analytical and practical knowledge” by presenting two models for integrating skills with doctrine in the first-year curriculum. The first model, built into the curriculum at the University of Maryland School of Law, involves teaching the first semester Legal Analysis & Writing course by pairing it with another required first-semester course, Torts, …

Do Law Schools Mistreat Women Faculty? Or, Who’S Afraid Of Virginia Woolf?, Dan Subotnik

Scholarly Works

No abstract provided.

Paper Tectonics, Patrick O. Gudridge

Articles

No abstract provided.

The Long And Winding Road: Developing An Online Research Curriculum, Jessica L. Clark, Nicole Evans Harris

GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works

In the realm of online research instruction, electronic research vendors (such as LexisNexis and Westlaw) play various roles in teaching and training law students. Some students take advantage of all free training opportunities, while others ignore even mandatory trainings assigned as supplemental course instruction through a first-year legal writing program. This article details the results of a cooperative initiative among a law professor, a librarian, and the Westlaw and LexisNexis academic account managers, designed to integrate online research instruction into the first-year curriculum. The multiple goals of the initiative included taking advantage of the vendors’ expertise and resources, reinforcing lessons …