Legal Profession Commons^™

Lawyer As Soothsayer: Exploring The Important Role Of Outcome Prediction In The Practice Of Law, Mark K. Osbeck

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Outcome prediction has always been an important part of practicing law. Clients rely heavily on their attorneys to provide accurate assessments of the potential legal consequences they face when making important decisions (such as whether to accept a plea bargain, or risk a conviction on a much more serious offense at trial). And yet, notwithstanding its enormous importance to the practice of law (and notwithstanding the handsome legal fees it commands), outcome prediction in the law remains a very imprecise endeavor. The reason for this inaccuracy is that the three principal tools lawyers have traditionally relied on to facilitate outcome …

From Sagebrush Law To A Modern Profession, Kristina J. Running

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No abstract provided.

Using Appellate Clinics To Focus On Legal Writing Skills, Timothy Pinto

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Five years ago, I went to lunch with a colleague. I was teaching a legal writing course to 1L students, and he taught in a clinic in which 2L and 3L students were required to write short motions and briefs. Several of his students had taken my writing class as 1Ls, and he had a question for me. "What the heck are you teaching these students?" he asked as we sat down. He explained that several of his students were struggling with preparing simple motions. They were not laying out facts clearly. They were not identifying key legal rules. In …

The Law Hasn't Yet Achieved Parity, Leah Litman

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Parity between men and women in the legal profession is an aspiration. It’s not reality, at least not yet. I wish I’d have understood that in law school because hearing that there’s parity when there’s none can be maddening. I also wish I would have known about the resources available to people who want to do something about the lack of parity in our profession.

Tenure Redux, Jacqueline D. Lipton

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This essay is a reflection on some of the questions that arose during the author's tenure process that are likely pertinent to others on the tenure track today particularly with respect to questions about writing style in tenure pieces, and on whether early scholars should focus on general law reviews or specialty journals--depending on their areas of expertise--or a combination of both. It also reflects on choice of subject matter for tenure work, and whether some of that work may or may not stand the test of time, as well as on differences between the U.S. legal scholarship process and …

Telling Tales The Transactional Lawyer As Storyteller, Karen J. Sneddon

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Transactional lawyers are storytellers, although they may not think of themselves as such. They work with provisions and clauses to build trans-actional documents that encapsulate the wishes, hopes, and fears of the transacting parties to promote, guide, and control the relationship of those parties. Narratology, the theory of narrative, can provide a resource to transactional lawyers that facilitates the construction of a wide range of transactional documents, which can themselves be considered narratives.

The form documents that transactional lawyers use as starting points in the drafting process are already rife with narrative characteristics; they are embedded with characters and plots, …

The Runaway Judge: John Grisham’S Appearance In Judicial Opinions, Nicholas Mignanelli

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No abstract provided.

Beyond The "Practice Ready" Buzz: Sifting Through The Disruption Of The Legal Industry To Divine The Skills Needed By New Attorneys, Jason G. Dykstra

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A heightened velocity of change enveloped the legal profession over the last two decades. From big law to rural practitioners, the traditional law firm model proved ripe for disruption. This disruption is fueled by several discrete changes in how legal services are provided, including technological advances that allow for the automation of many routine tasks and the disaggregation of legal services; enhanced client sophistication and cost-consciousness; global competition from offshoring routine legal services; the rise of the domestic gig economy, creating a new wave of home-shoring legal services; and competition from non-traditional legal services providers. In the face of declining …

An Invitation Regarding Law And Legal Education, And Imagining The Future, Michael J. Madison

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This Essay consists of an invitation to participate in conversations about the future of legal education in ways that integrate rather than distinguish several threads of concern and revision that have emerged over the last decade. Conversations about the future of legal education necessarily include conversations about the future of law practice, legal services, and law itself. Some of those start with the somewhat stale questions: What are US law professors doing, what should they be doing, and why? Those questions are still relevant and important, but they are no longer the only relevant questions, and they are not the …