Digital Commons Network^™

Family Law, Joanna L. Grossman, Christine P. Leatherberry

SMU Annual Texas Survey

More than 300,000 new family law cases were filed in Texas in 2022; more than a third of those were divorces (and there were more divorces in Texas than in any other state). Tens of thousands of children live in households that are involved in family court proceedings in any given year. Family law remains one of the areas with the greatest unmet legal need—more than half of litigants are pro se in cases with enormous stakes. The work of lawyers, judges, and other professionals in this area should not be underestimated. In this Article, we will try to lighten …

Reformation Of Will Statutes And The Legality Of Ewills, Kareem A. Elsheryie

Student Works

No abstract provided.

Tshlf And Tshl Memorandum Of Understanding And 2025-2023 Roster Foundation Board Of Directors For The Texas Silver-Haired Legislature Foundation, Texas Silver-Haired Legislature

Texas Silver-Haired Legislature

Memorandum of Understanding between the Texas Silver-Haired Legislature and the Texas Silver-Haired Legislature Foundation dated during the 20th TSHL Legislative Session and the 2025-2023 Rosters Foundation Board of Directors for the Texas Silver-Haired Legislatures Foundation.

Race And Entrepreneurship: Reclaiming Narratives, Priya Baskaran, Alicia E. Plerhoples

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

This essay makes the case for engaging in counter-narratives and inclusive storytelling within the transactional clinic curriculum. The authors leverage lessons from Critical Race Theory to amplify the voices and experiences of underrepresented entrepreneurs and marginalized communities in both clinic seminar and selected casework. In doing so, we challenge hegemonic narratives of entrepreneurship and expose our law students to the presence and impact of interlocking systems of subordination that minimize the existence and contributions of entrepreneurs of color. We challenge our law students and ourselves to become more creative and thoughtful lawyers to a more inclusive and diverse set of …

Producing Procedural Inequality Through The Empirical Turn, Danya Shocair Reda

University of Colorado Law Review

Procedural rulemaking and scholarship have taken an empirical turn in the past three decades. This empirical turn reflects a surprising consensus in what is otherwise a highly divided field and an inherently adversarial system. Because procedural rules distribute legal power in society, they invariably raise questions about who should have access to courts, information, and the means to defend one's legal rights. While debate rages about these normative commitments, procedure has developed a surprising epistemic agreement on empiricism, with its promise of rising above these competing interests with data. In procedure, the turn toward empiricism has become a strategy for …

Clients And Lawyers Unite: The Dysfunction Of Law Firm Teams Need A Cure, Joseph Regalia, David Wallace

Scholarly Works

Attorneys and clients have made clear: Dysfunctional law firm teams are not working. Gone are the days when lawyers had to quietly endure poor management, poor planning, and all-around poor work dynamics. Growing pressure on lawyers to get more efficient and produce more value—and a welcome focus on lawyer wellbeing—means that law firms can no longer ignore their responsibility to cultivate better workplaces.

It is no secret that law firm lawyers consistently rank as among the least happy workers in the world. And team dynamics—how attorneys and other legal professionals work together—may be a bigger piece of that puzzle than …

Reimagining “Reasonableness” Under Section 330(A) In A World Of Technology, Data, And Artificial Intelligence, Nancy B. Rapoport, Joseph R. Tiano Jr.

Scholarly Works

Transformations in the legal industry’s supply chain caused by legal technology and innovative service delivery models have triggered the need for courts to reimagine how to assess the reasonableness of legal fees under 11 U.S.C. § 330. In nearly every other industry, when there are changes or fluctuations in supply chain costs, it is typical for the market price paid by end-users or consumers to fluctuate as well. Market forces organically dictate the reasonableness of the market prices in light of current production cost and demand. In contrast, the legal industry hasn’t kept up with a unified, market-driven supply cost …

Beyond Response: Reimagining The Legal Academy's Role In Disaster Recovery And Preparedness, Latisha Nixon-Jones

Scholarly Works

This Article proposes expanding the legal academy's role in responding to disasters and emergencies, specifically through creating disaster clinics that take a community-based lawyering approach. The Article is one of the first to identify the need for community-based disaster legal clinical education that goes beyond the immediate response phase. It also proposes creating a disaster legal pipeline from the clinic through post-graduation employment. The Article furthers the literature's discussion of the need for sustained disaster legal education. As the global pandemic caused by COVID-19 coronavirus continues to impact vulnerable populations and the frequency of natural disasters continues to increase, this …

Toward National Regulation Of Legal Technology: A Path Forward For Access To Justice, Drew Simshaw

Scholarly Works

No abstract provided.

Tribute To Professor James Moliterno, Patricia Roberts, Soledad Atienza, Eleanor Myers, Jim Heller, Gary Tamsitt, Neal Devins, Peter Čuroš, Maxim Tomoszek, Veronika Tomoszek, Pavol Žilinčík, Rongjie Lam, José M. De Areilza, Irina Lortkipanidze, Ján Mazúr, Javier Guillen, Lucia Berdisová, James Étienne Viator

Washington and Lee Law Review

A tribute to Professor James Moliterno, who served on the faculty of the Washington and Lee University School of Law from 2009 to 2022. An internationally active scholar of legal and judicial ethics, Moliterno was most recently the Vincent Bradford Professor of Law. For 21 years prior to joining W&L, he was a member of the faculty of the William & Mary Law School.

Judicial Discretion Within The Florida Probate Field: Guiding Judges To Find The Proper Balance Between Upholding Attorneys' Fees And Maintaining The Interests Of The Client, Natalie Owchariw

Nova Law Review

No abstract provided.

Leveraging Academic-Medical Legal Partnerships To Advance Health Justice, Vicki W. Girard, Yael Cannon, Deborah F. Perry, Eileen S. Moore

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

Unmet legal needs contribute to housing, income, and food insecurity, along with other conditions that harm health and drive health inequity. Addressing health injustice requires new tools for the next generations of lawyers, doctors, and other healthcare professionals. An interprofessional group of co-authors argue that law and medical schools and other university partners should develop and cultivate Academic Medical-Legal Partnerships (A-MLPs), which are uniquely positioned to leverage service, education, and research resources, to advance health justice.

Prosecuting Russian Leaders For War Crimes (Oct. 24, 2021 Broadcast), Talking Foreign Policy

Case Western Reserve Journal of International Law

No abstract provided.

The Domestic Violence Survivors Justice Act And Criminalized Immigrant Survivors, Assia Serrano, Nathan Yaffe

City University of New York Law Review

This piece explores how New York’s Domestic Violence Survivors Justice Act (“DVSJA”), a law meant to grant freedom to criminalized survivors, plays out in practice for criminalized immigrant survivors. New York enacted the DVSJA to address the unjust, but common, harsh punishment of survivors for conduct that an abuser compels, coerces, or otherwise causes. When the court grants a survivor DVSJA relief, the material benefit is shortening that survivor’s sentence of incarceration.

However, for criminalized immigrant survivors, the DVSJA’s promise of freedom may amount to little more than a mirage because DVSJA relief does not expunge, vacate, or alter underlying …

Bot Article Xii Officers Of The University, Kettering University

Assurance Argument Evidence Files

No abstract provided.

Bot-Bylaws, Kettering University

Assurance Argument Evidence Files

No abstract provided.

“Fundamental Fairness”: Finding A Civil Right To Counsel In International Human Rights Law, Meredith Elliot Hollman

Law Student Publications

Every other Western democracy now recognizes a right to counsel in at least some kinds of civil cases, typically those involving basic human rights. The World Justice Project’s 2021 Rule of Law Index ranked the United States 126th of 139 countries for “People Can Access and Afford Civil Justice.” Within its regional and income categories, the United States was dead last. The United Nations and other international treaty bodies have urged the United States to improve access to justice by providing civil legal aid. How did we fall behind, and what can we learn from the rest of the world? …

A Call For Change: Doing More To Protect Black And Brown Victims Of Domestic Violence, Kiana Gilcrist

Law Student Publications

Domestic violence (“DV”) disproportionately affects Black and Brown women. This article examines the tense history of law enforcement engagement with minority groups, which has caused a strain on that relationship, leaving minority groups more likely to choose to stay in their DV situations than seek out law enforcement help. The divide still impacts these groups today. Additionally, the article highlights several organizations that have formed to address the needs of minority individuals. Other organizations have been around, but their ties to law enforcement create an added barrier for Black and Brown women seeking protection. The article concludes by briefly examining …

The Single Religion Clause: Non-Established, Free, And Independent Exercise, Gregory Velloze

South Carolina Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Pro Se Gender Gap, Roger Michalski

Faculty Articles

This article is the first to identify, name, and empirically measure the pro se gender gap. Drawing on a massive dataset of all federal civil dockets spanning 10 years, it finds a 2-to-1 gender imbalance. For every federal female pro se litigant there are two males. This finding is robust and stable. It holds true for plaintiffs, defendants, and other parties. It is also true across most subject areas, across time, across length of litigation, and across states, districts, and circuits. The study excludes prisoner-rights and habeas petitions (including them would widen the gender gap even further). This gender gap …

Privacy For Student-Patients: A Call To Action, Stacey A. Tovino

Faculty Articles

Consider a law student who has a mental or reproductive health issue that the student wishes to keep private. If the student seeks care at an off-campus health clinic that is not affiliated with the student’s law school or university, the student typically has a number of federally enforceable privacy rights. For example, the federal HIPAA Privacy Rule will typically apply and prohibit the clinic from disclosing the student’s protected health information to professors, parents, and other third parties without the student’s prior written authorization. The law student also will have the right to receive a notice of privacy practices, …

Vol. 28: No. 2 (Spring 2023)

Roger Williams University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Vol. 28: No. 3 (Summer 2023)

Roger Williams University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Essay In Honor Of Dean David Logan, Sheldon Whitehouse

Roger Williams University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Reclaiming Rights: Combatting Employee-Sided Labor & Employment Legal Accessibility Issues For The New Working Class Through Unionization, Evan Dandrea

Roger Williams University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Mind The Gap: A Tribute To David Logan On His Retirement, Colleen P. Murphy, Justin R. Kishbaugh

Roger Williams University Law Review

No abstract provided.

"No Evictions" Policies: Evaluating The Disparate Impact Of Auto-Rejection On Black Women, Mehreen Tariq

Public Interest Law Reporter

No abstract provided.

Looking Inward: Building A Restorative Legal Aid Agency, Andy Froelich

Public Interest Law Reporter

No abstract provided.

What To The Marginalized Person Is The American Dream

Florida A & M University Law Review

I will organize this Note around three themes Douglass articulated in his speech. These themes, which remain timely and relevant over 170 years later, are (1) the importance of attending to those most impacted by injustices; (2) the responsibility of each of us to address the injustices we see in the world around us; and (3) the practice of remaining hopeful in the face of what, at times, may feel like daunting circumstances. I will structure this Note around these three themes as I consider what the American Dream means for marginalized persons. Throughout, I will weave in examples of …

Ordinary Meaning And Ordinary People, Kevin Tobia, Brian G. Slocum, Victoria Frances Nourse

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

This Article considers the relationship between ordinary meaning and ordinary people in legal interpretation. Many jurists give interpretive weight to the law's ordinary meaning (i.e., general, nontechnical meaning). Modern textualists adopt a strong commitment to ordinary meaning and justify it by alluding to ordinary people: people understand law to communicate ordinary meanings. This Article begins from this textualist premise and empirically examines the meaning that legal texts communicate to the public. Five original empirical studies reveal that ordinary people consider genre carefully, and regularly take phrases in law to communicate technical legal meanings, not only ordinary ones. Building on the …