Digital Commons Network^™

Contract Drafting Classes Should Introduce Law Students To Real World Practice Like Other Legal Writing Classes, Ben L. Fernandez

Saint Louis University Law Journal

Contract drafting classes in law school should not just be about clear writing. They should also cover more of the process of drafting in the real world, including contributing to the substance of agreements, working with precedents, negotiating contract language, and handling a closing. A textbook author’s opinions about how various phrases should be drafted are valuable, but it must also be recognized that lawyers seldom draft from scratch. They are primarily involved with tailoring prewritten documents commonly used for business and financial transactions. And the conventions followed in those documents vary.

From Classroom To Closing Table: Strategies For Teaching Transactional Drafting And Preparing Law Students For Practice And The Nextgen Bar Exam, Keisa M. Johnson Monroe

Saint Louis University Law Journal

Undoubtedly, at the end of each semester on the final evening of my Transactional Drafting course, a student approaches me to share feedback and reflections on the class. Their feedback often ranges from expressions of surprise—”This class was actually more enjoyable than I expected”—to reconsiderations of their initial intentions—”I’m going to be a trial lawyer, so I wasn’t even going to take this class, but I’m so glad I did!”—to newly discovered interests—”I think I’m actually interested in pursuing a career as a transactional lawyer now.” These student reflections are helpful as they offer valuable insights as I am constantly …

The Release: An Ideal Vehicle For A Short Runway, Dana M. Malkus

Saint Louis University Law Journal

Students in my Entrepreneurship and Community Development Clinic (“ECD Clinic”) often have opportunities to practice their drafting skills during their time with me. While students typically work on a wide variety of drafting projects, I have found that client matters that involve drafting what this essay will refer to as a “release” tend to present the best opportunities for students to practice a variety of core transactional skills in a short amount of time. Two recent client matters in the ECD Clinic illustrate why these kinds of drafting projects work well. In this essay, I describe those two recent projects, …

Breaking The Huddle: Judicial Deference, Antitrust, And The Ncaas Path Forward, Zeke Stockton

Saint Louis University Law Journal

The University of Tennessee Men’s Basketball team entered Week Ten of the 2024–25 college basketball season ranked number one in the country. The Southeastern Conference’s leading scorer going into Tennessee’s game against Texas that week was Tennessee’s Chaz Lanier. On the first play of the second half, Lanier launched a pass into Tennessee’s bench instead of taking an open jump shot. Rick Barnes, Tennessee’s head coach and one of the winningest coaches in college basketball history, immediately took Lanier out of the game. Barnes said in the post-game press conference, “[t]hat play was designed for that shot. I told him, …

Good Transactional Drafting Isn’T Just About The Nuts And Bolts, Joan E. Neal, Michelle M. Drake

Saint Louis University Law Journal

To create practice-ready transactional lawyers who can be valuable and valued advisors to their future clients, teaching technical nuts-and-bolts drafting is critical but not sufficient. Rather, transactional drafting professors need to embed other important lessons into the content for their students, including emphasizing the importance of forming a forward-looking or planning mindset and developing their students’ ethical awareness. To do this, these lessons and mindsets should be a part of the debriefs of all drafting exercises, so that the professor can model these ways of thinking when discussing drafting decisions. These additional lessons are particularly important because students may have …

Transactional Lawyering: Pro Bono Meets Digital Innovation, Patricia Hureston Lee

Saint Louis University Law Journal

The rapid expansion of digital innovation (i.e., cloud computing, the Internet of Things, artificial intelligence (“AI”), blockchain, voice recognition, large language models (“LLM”), and other virtual and augmented reality) enhances the possibility of more pro bono lawyering and greater access to justice. At the same time, the presence of lawyers is even more important and threatened than in previous eras because of the proliferation of digital innovation. The current dilemma is exacerbated by the convergence of three phenomena: the continuation of under-resourced and disadvantaged clients needing pro bono transactional legal services, the ever-present capacity constraints of legal service providers, and …

Masthead

Saint Louis University Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Both Sides Now—A Holistic Approach To Transactional Drafting (The Case For Better Preparing Our Students For A Business Transactions Practice), John G. Boyle

Saint Louis University Law Journal

I have much to be grateful for professionally.

For starters, St. Louis University School of Law (“SLU”) took a chance on me in the Fall of 1977. With the discipline, encouragement, and, yes, sometimes humor, dispensed by SLU faculty and administration over the following three years, I learned how to think like a lawyer: Analytical. Fact-based. Objective. Grit.

Birthing Inequality: How U.S. Midwifery Laws Perpetuate Racial And Socioeconomic Disparities, Miranda Martin

Saint Louis University Law Journal

“In our nation . . . more women are facing death because of childbirth than in any other developed nation.” “Black women are three times more likely to die in connection with childbirth . . . Native women twice as likely . . . [and] rural women are one and a half times more likely to die,” warned Vice President Kamala Harris, emphasizing the country’s maternal health crisis. Despite efforts to improve maternal health, access to safe and effective care remains uneven. In the United States, there is confusion among legal and healthcare professionals regarding the different types of midwives …

Table Of Contents

Saint Louis University Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Masthead

Saint Louis University Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Me Note

Saint Louis University Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Richard J. Childress Memorial Lecture: Immigration And The Supreme Court In The Early Days Of The Second Trump Administration, Kevin R. Johnson

Saint Louis University Law Journal

An enduring St. Louis University School of Law tradition, the Childress Memorial Lecture is devoted to “highlighting a provocative and timely area of law.” Discussion of immigration law and its enforcement by the Trump administration falls squarely into the category of provocative and timely. My lecture today analyzes the Supreme Court’s responses to the Trump administration’s immigration actions in the early months of his second term. Those responses no doubt provide an idea about the Court’s future responses to the administration’s immigration actions.

Immigration has been a divisive, often explosive political issue throughout U.S. history. The law as it has …

Cruel Deference: State Narratives, Credibility, And Power In Convention Against Torture Adjudications, Amelia S. Mcgowan

Saint Louis University Law Journal

U.S. courts and the Board of Immigration Appeals (“BIA”) have long treated the U.S. Department of State’s Country Reports on Human Rights Practices as uniquely authoritative sources for determining country conditions in claims for immigration protection. In its 2025 precedential opinion Matter of A-A-R-, the BIA extended this deference to claims for protection under the Convention Against Torture (“CAT”). This decision and others like it raise the question: whose voice matters most when evaluating the likelihood that an applicant faces torture, and why?

This Article critically examines the evolution of the Country Reports’ authoritative role in U.S. protection …

Illiberal Immigration Inconsistencies: Finding Unifying Principles On The Left, Sheldon Evans

Saint Louis University Law Journal

Immigration is one of the most important issues on the minds of Americans. While conservative lawmakers have rallied around the exclusionary principles of Donald Trump’s vision for America, liberal politicians have struggled to provide a unified ideological and pragmatic policy alternative. This Essay challenges that lack of identity from the political Left. By studying several inconsistencies among Democrats, I argue for realignment strategies to unify the Party to return to its traditional principles on immigration policy. These include addressing the underlying social problems causing migration, rethinking border control, providing legal pathways for immigrants, and moving towards global citizenship.

The Odyssey Of Third Country Removal, Matthew Boaz

Saint Louis University Law Journal

In February 2025, a hotel in Panama became a focal point for international media when a group of several hundred asylum seekers from countries such as Iran, Turkey, Nepal, Afghanistan, and Sri Lanka were suddenly sent there from the U.S. without legal recourse or notice of their destination. The majority of the migrants agreed to repatriation to their home countries, but a significant number remain, seeking to navigate an asylum system that seems intent on denying relief, with few other options available. A short time later, a similar cohort arrived in Costa Rica with an eerily familiar tale to tell. …

The End Of Asylum: Biden, Trump, And Latin America In Crisis, Ernesto Sagas, Ediberto Roman, Richard T. Middleton

Saint Louis University Law Journal

When Rosa crossed the Rio Grande in the summer of 2022, she sat to rest on the U.S. side of the muddy river that serves as the international border with Mexico. After weeks of a trip that took her from her hometown in Cuba to Nicaragua, Honduras, Guatemala, and across the length of Mexico, she was physically exhausted and emotionally drained. Instead of a sense of great fear of being discovered by U.S. authorities, she felt a sense of relief upon seeing them, even calling her relatives before the authorities made it to her to let her family know that …

Sanctuary Standoff: Constitutional Fault Lines In Immigration Enforcement, Cindy G. Buys

Saint Louis University Law Journal

During both its first and second terms, the Trump Administration has taken aim at so-called “sanctuary” jurisdictions to try to encourage or force cooperation with federal immigration law enforcement. In addition to targeted immigration enforcement efforts, the Administration has waged a legal and public media campaign against states, counties, and cities that the Administration views as sanctuary jurisdictions and has attempted to withhold a wide variety of federal funds from those jurisdictions to pressure them to change their policies. While there is no definition of a sanctuary jurisdiction in any federal statute or executive order, the Department of Justice (“DOJ”) …

Eliminating Prior Pay: Reframing The Equal Pay Act's "Factor Other Than Sex" In Federal Employment, Jack Weilmuenster

Saint Louis University Law Journal

The federal government is the largest employer in the United States, with over 1.5 million General Schedule (“GS”) employees working across various agencies. Under the federal pay system, salaries are determined by the GS, a structured scale that assigns employees to grades and steps based on qualifications and experience. However, agencies may rely on prior salary when setting pay, a practice that risks perpetuating gender-based wage disparities. Given the federal government’s influence on broader employment practices, whether prior pay qualifies as a “factor other than sex” under the Equal Pay Act (“EPA”) is a question with far-reaching implications.

Ice Non-Accountability In The Second Trump Administration, Sabrina Balgamwalla

Saint Louis University Law Journal

By the beginning of the second Trump administration, the tone of Know Your Rights presentations for community members had noticeably shifted. Advocates regularly tell people that they don’t have to open the door to their home to an officer without a judicial warrant and that if they are stopped by law enforcement, they have the right to ask who is conducting the stop and why. But audience members have questions informed by news headlines about various Immigration and Customs Enforcement (“ICE”) practices: How can you tell definitively if a law enforcement officer is an ICE agent when they aren’t wearing …

Defending Bad Men: Public Perceptions Of Female Advocates In A Post-#Metoo Society, Grace Wallis

Saint Louis University Law Journal

As the dust settled on the heavily publicized, 2022 defamation trial of actors Johnny Depp and Amber Heard, an unlikely star stepped into the limelight: Johnny Depp’s attorney, Camille Vasquez. Over the span of the seven-week trial, Vasquez gained social media notoriety due to her frequent objections and stern trial demeanor. Vasquez’s cross-examination of Heard on May 16 and 17 of 2022 called into question Heard’s credibility and increased Vasquez’s online celebrity by a significant margin. In fact, according to Google search trends, public interest in the search terms “Camille Vasquez” reached peak popularity on May 18, 2022. Vasquez’s instant …

Filling The Network Gap In Research Ethics: Analyzing Ethical Issues At Scale In Big Team Science, Susan Wolf, Gillian H. Roehrig, Timothy L. Pruett, Korkut Uygun, Claire Colby Mcvan, Evelyn Brister, Shawneequa L. Callier, Alexander M. Capron, James F. Childress, Rosario Isasi, Andrew D. Maynard, Kenneth A. Oye, Paul B. Thompson, Terrance R. Tiersch

Articles

Scientific research increasingly involves large, multidisciplinary teams networked across multiple institutions to develop new technologies. Despite the rise of complex research networks and big team science, there has been too little analysis to date of the ethical challenges facing these networks. The extensive literature on the ethical issues confronting individual researchers and small teams (the microlevel) and on the larger societal challenges flowing from research and new technology (the macrolevel) leaves a troubling gap in between, at the mesolevel of the research network involved in big team science. Yet the ability of complex networks to conduct research ethically—which is essential …

Raw Data For "Copper And Lead Adsorption Of Hydroxyl-Functionalized Mo-Based Mbene/Mo₂Alb₂", Michael Yeung

Chemistry Department Faculty Scholarship

Abstract for data:

Raw data for the journal publication, Copper and Lead Adsorption of Hydroxyl-Functionalized Mo-Based MBene/Mo2AlB2A. ReadMe file provided.

Abstract for journal publication:

MBene is a type of 2D metal boride compound that has drawn broad attention in the past decade. In this study, MoAlB was partially etched into a mixture of MoBene (Mo-based MBene) and Mo2AlB2. The performance in metal adsorption of the product was investigated. The large surface area (40 times higher than that of the MoAlB precursor) and −OH-functionalized surface enable MoBene/Mo2AlB2 to have excellent adsorption efficiency and capacity for Cu2+ and Pb2+ ions. An adsorption …

All The Beautiful Bodies, Nancy Dew Taylor

Ninety-Six Press

No abstract provided.

A Systematic Review: Comparative Analysis Of Healthcare Waste Management Practices In Kenya And In The United States, Esther Nyokabi Gathungu

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This comparative study used a systematic literature review to explore waste management practices in Kenya and the USA, examining predefined concepts to identify new patterns relevant to sustainable healthcare waste management (HCWM) practices. The study aimed to understand sustainable practices in healthcare waste management and how developing nations such as Kenya can benchmark from practices in developed nations such as the USA. While the study identified challenges in waste management across Kenya and the USA, it also identified sustainable practices that could be adopted across contexts. The study followed the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines …

Enhancing Postoperative Esophagectomy Outcomes With Preoperative Education: A Quality Improvement Project, Gaelyn Kattman

DNP Projects

Title

Enhancing Postoperative Outcomes with Preoperative Education for Esophagectomy Patients

Background/Significance

Esophageal cancer is an aggressive disease and the fourth most common gastrointestinal cancer. A surgical treatment for a patient with esophageal cancer who is a surgical candidate is an esophagectomy. Immediate postoperative complications may include pneumonia, arrhythmias or anastomotic leaks, all of which can potentially increase the patient’s length of stay. Delayed discharges can lead to a backup throughout the hospital, limiting the amount of available inpatient beds for patient care.

Purpose 

The DNP project purpose was to implement an additional preoperative telehealth visit in order to provide  patient …

Implementation Of An Updated Opioid Overdose Response Policy To Address Xylazine-Involved Overdoses In A Federally Qualified Health Center, Dana Umbro

DNP Projects

The increasing prevalence of non-opioid adulterants like xylazine, a veterinary tranquilizer, has introduced significant challenges in overdose recognition and management. Non-opioid adulterants cause central nervous system depression, respiratory compromise, and severe soft tissue injury that is not reversed by naloxone. Many healthcare organizations lack standardized clinical guidance for managing overdoses involving non-opioid adulterants, resulting in variability in care and increased risk for adverse outcomes. The purpose of this Doctor of Nursing Practice project was to update and implement an opioid overdose response policy incorporating evidence-based guidance for the recognition and management of overdoses potentially involving non-opioid adulterants. This was conducted …

Transitional Care Model Telehealth Calls To Improve Hospital Follow-Ups In A Community Health Center: A Quality Improvement Project, Veronica Dejesus

DNP Projects

Title: Transitional Care Telehealth Calls to Improve Hospital Follow-Up in a Community Health Center: A Quality Improvement Project

Background/Introduction: Transitions from hospital to primary care are a vulnerable period associated with missed follow-up appointments, poor patient outcomes, and increased readmissions, particularly in underserved populations. Internal data identified gaps in timely post-discharge follow-up, while external evidence supports structured transitional care interventions, such as telephone outreach within 48–72 hours, to improve patient engagement and continuity of care.

Objective/Purpose: The purpose of this quality improvement project was to evaluate whether structured, nurse-led transitional care telehealth calls improve completion of primary care follow-up visits …

Improving Nasal Decolonization Rates In The Inpatient Medical-Surgical Setting, Francesca Annunziato Royer

DNP Projects

Background/Significance

Hospital-onset methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) remains a significant cause of morbidity, mortality, and increased healthcare costs. Alcohol-based nasal decolonization is an evidence-based strategy to reduce MRSA transmission; however, staff compliance with decolonization protocols is often suboptimal, limiting effectiveness in inpatient medical-surgical settings.

Purpose

The purpose of this evidence-based quality improvement (EBQI) project was to evaluate whether implementing a structured, evidence-based nasal decolonization protocol improved staff compliance and reduced missed administrations and patient refusals among eligible medical-surgical inpatients.

Methods

This EBQI project was implemented on five inpatient medical-surgical units at a large academic medical center. Interventions included standardized staff education, …

Leveraging Technology To Improve Throughput: A Qi Project Utilizing Electronic Sbar, Suzy Candito

DNP Projects

The DNP practice site, a high-acuity Level I trauma center and regional referral hub, experiences persistent emergency department (ED) crowding and prolonged admission throughput times. Regional data show average ED wait-times near 252 minutes, underscoring the urgency of reducing delays between bed assignment and bed occupancy (assigned-to-occupied time). Inefficient or varied written handoffs contribute to calls for clarification, omissions, and transition delays, where structured, electronic SBAR tools are associated with improved completeness, standardization, and workflow efficiency. At the systems level, prolonged ED boarding is linked to higher daily hospital costs and safety risks, making communication optimization an operational and patient-safety …