Law Commons^™

Academic Law Libraries And Scholarship: Communication, Publishing, And Ranking, Dana Neacsu, James Donovan

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

The context in which academic libraries operate is fast evolving, and the current COVID pandemic has underscored the new demands on libraries to reinvent themselves and their scholarship role. The library’s role has always been focused on scholarly dissemination and preservation, more recently by archiving their faculty work on mirror sites known as academic repositories. Libraries connect scholarship and users by offering the space for users to come and use the archived knowledge. However, if historically their role was to collect and provide secure access to sources, that role is in the midst of radical transformations.

In our age of …

Explain It To Me: Tips For Effective Rule Explanation In Legal Analysis, Melissa N. Henke

Law Faculty Popular Media

The process of rule explanation is an important part of legal analysis, because it informs the legal reader, be it another attorney or a judge, how the legal rule has been applied in past cases. In other words, the rule explanation is where we use case law “to define, explain, and exemplify” the legal rule that determines the outcomes of the client’s problem or dispute. Legal writing texts refer to this discussion of past cases as case illustrations, case descriptions, or case examples, and they often devote substantial space to the topic. This column highlights four tips for improving the …

Sources Of American Law: An Introduction To Legal Research, Tina M. Brooks, Beau Steenken

Law Faculty Books and Chapters

At its most basic definition the practice of law comprises conducting research to find relevant rules of law and then applying those rules to the specific set of circumstances faced by a client. However, in American law, the legal rules to be applied derive from myriad sources, complicating the process and making legal research different from other sorts of research. This text introduces first-year law students to the new kind of research required to study and to practice law. It seeks to demystify the art of legal research by following a “Source and Process” approach. First, the text introduces students …

Getting Visual, Michael D. Murray

Law Faculty Popular Media

No abstract provided.

Good Critical Reading Strategies Can Improve Legal Writing, Jane Bloom Grisé

Law Faculty Popular Media

No abstract provided.

Language Changes, But Should Legal Writing Change With It?, Diane B. Kraft

Law Faculty Popular Media

No abstract provided.

Tips For Writing Concisely, Kristin J. Hazelwood

Law Faculty Popular Media

No abstract provided.

Polishing Makes Perfect . . . Or Maybe Not, Melissa N. Henke

Law Faculty Popular Media

This column offers some tips and strategies that can improve the proofreading process you use. To be clear, I use the term proofreading to refer to the final stage of editing. Of course proofreading can never take the place of earlier stages of rewriting or revising for organization, content, clarity, or conciseness. But this final stage of editing is crucial, because it is where you identify and fix any problems with spelling, grammar, and punctuation that leave your document looking less than polished.

The Future Of Law Libraries, Tina M. Brooks, Franklin L. Runge, Beau Steenken

Law Faculty Popular Media

Law libraries are filed with the rules that govern our society, thoughtful scholars, conscientious lawyers, some hard working students, and some procrastinating students. In the past, this required libraries to collect hardbound volumes and loose leafs. Today, the collection is beginning to give way to research platforms filed with those same, or similar, materials and then some; much of the primary legal documentation is even freely available on the web.

While the physical footprint of the library may be smaller as a result of this transition, the amount of legal information that researchers have access to has grown exponentially. We …

Do Real Lawyers Use Creac?, Diane B. Kraft

Law Faculty Popular Media

No abstract provided.

Historical Headnotes: A Case Study Of A Research Problem, Amelia Landenberger

Law Faculty Popular Media

This article began as a case study of a legal research problem: how to properly attribute a note that was printed in the margins of a historical case reporter. The article guides the reader through various methods of investigating ambiguities in historical legal texts, including comparing the electronic and print versions of the text, contacting editors at Westlaw and Lexis, conducting research in contemporary newspapers, and researching the author of the document. The article also addresses the importance of early court reporters and court reporting generally. It concludes with a reminder to carefully consider sources of information and the reporters …

Visual Rhetoric: Topics Of Invention And Arrangement And Tropes Of Style, Michael D. Murray

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

This Article evaluates visual legal rhetoric in order to demonstrate the potential of visual-graphical devices and narrative elements for use in legal discourse. The subject of my demonstration of graphical rhetorical devices is the famous work of modern rhetoric, Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "Letter from Birmingham Jail." I will perform a rhetorical analysis of the verbal topics of invention and tropes of style in the text of the letter, and simultaneously demonstrate the use of images and visual elements in an "illustrated" form of the letter.

Part II of this Article provides an introduction and background information regarding …

The Ethics Of Visual Legal Rhetoric, Michael D. Murray

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

This article discusses both visual rhetoric and visual narrativity. Visual rhetoric is the use of graphics, photographs, and other depictions for communication, for construction of knowledge and understanding, and ultimately for persuasion in the truth and rightness of the communication. Narrativity, which is sometimes described as narrative reasoning or storytelling," is the modern movement to focus our legal writing on the tools that best communicate our clients' stories-their situation, conditions, and circumstances-along with the "story" of the development, growth, and meaning of the law itself that provides the context for the clients' legal situation. Communicating the story of the development …

Keeping Up With New Legal Titles, Beau Steenken

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

In this book review, Beau Steenken discusses Legal Research Methods by Michael D. Murray & Christy H. DeSanctis.

Creac In The Real World, Diane B. Kraft

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

This article will examine the extent to which common legal writing paradigms such as CREAC are used by attorneys in the "real world" of practice when writing on the kinds of issues law students may encounter in the first-year legal writing classroom. To that end, it will focus on the analysis of two factor-based criminal law issues: whether a defendant was in custody and whether a defendant had a reasonable expectation of privacy. In focusing on "first-year" issues, the article seeks not to examine whether organizational paradigms are used at all in legal analysis, but to discover whether and how …

Effective Writing Is Organized Writing, Melissa N. Henke

Law Faculty Popular Media

Effective legal writers organize their analysis with the reader in mind. This article focuses on two common techniques used in creating organized writing strong topic sentences and appropriate transitions.

Outcomes In The Balance: The Crisis In Legal Education As Catalyst For Change, Beau Steenken

Law Faculty Popular Media

In this article, the author discusses how changes in the legal education market can force legal research teachers to focus their energies on meaningful assessment.

The Open Access Advantage For American Law Reviews, James M. Donovan, Carol A. Watson, Caroline Osborne

James M. Donovan

Open access legal scholarship generates a prolific discussion, but few empirical details have been available to describe the scholarly impact of providing unrestricted access to law review articles. The present project fills this gap with specific findings on what authors and law reviews can expect.

Articles available in open access formats enjoy an advantage in citation by subsequent law review works of 53%. For every two citations an article would otherwise receive, it can expect a third when made freely available on the Internet. This benefit is not uniformly spread through the law school tiers. Higher tier journals experience a …

The Open Access Advantage For American Law Reviews, James M. Donovan, Carol A. Watson, Caroline Osborne

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

Open access legal scholarship generates a prolific discussion, but few empirical details have been available to describe the scholarly impact of providing unrestricted access to law review articles. The present project fills this gap with specific findings on what authors and law reviews can expect.

Articles available in open access formats enjoy an advantage in citation by subsequent law review works of 53%. For every two citations an article would otherwise receive, it can expect a third when made freely available on the Internet. This benefit is not uniformly spread through the law school tiers. Higher tier journals experience a …

Law, Legitimacy, And The Maligned Adverb, James M. Donovan

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

The standard rules for good writing dictate that adverbs should be avoided. They undermine the effectiveness of the text and detract from the author’s point. Students and teachers of legal writing have incorporated this general rule, leading them not only to avoid adverbs in their own writings, but also to overlook them in the writings of others, including statutes and cases. However, as Michael Oakeshott has argued, law happens not in the rules but in the adverbs. To become desensitized to the power of adverbs, or to presume that they are weak and unnecessary, leads the reader not only to …

Law, Legitimacy, And The Maligned Adverb, James M. Donovan

James M. Donovan

The standard rules for good writing dictate that adverbs should be avoided. They undermine the effectiveness of the text and detract from the author’s point. Lawyers have incorporated this general rule, leading them not only to avoid adverbs in their own writings but also to overlook them in the writings of others, including statutes. However, as philosopher Michael Oakeshott has argued, law happens not in the rules but in the adverbs. Through its adverbs the law allows moral space for the citizen to consent to the social order, rather than merely conforming to an imposed command to comply. To become …

The Lexis Two-Step: After Two Major Updates In 2014, Lexis Advance Empowers Users With Improved Functionality, Beau Steenken

Law Faculty Popular Media

In this article, the author discusses improvements to the Lexis Advance research platform.

Helping International Students Avoid The Plagiarism Minefield: Suggestions From A Second Language Teacher And Writer, Diane B. Kraft

Law Faculty Popular Media

In this column for Perspectives: Teaching and Writing, Professor Diane B. Kraft provides suggestions to address the problem of plagiarism by international law students.

Citations: Suggestions For Citing Authority Without Distracting The Reader, Kristin J. Hazelwood

Law Faculty Popular Media

In this column for Kentucky Bar Association's magazine (B&B - Bench & Bar), Professor Hazelwood makes four suggestions to "un-clutter" legal writing. Practitioners are encouraged to: (1) limit string citations; (2) keep citations at the end of the sentence; (3) use explanatory parentheticals to explain the significance of citations, but not to replace text; and (4) avoid unnecessary repetition.

Technology And Client Communications: Preparing Law Students And New Lawyers To Make Choices That Comply With The Ethical Duties Of Confidentiality, Competence, And Communication, Kristin J. Hazelwood

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

That the use of technology has radically changed the legal profession is beyond dispute. Through technology, lawyers can now represent clients in faraway states and countries, and they can represent even local clients through a “virtual law office.” Gone are the times in which the lawyer’s choices for communicating with clients primarily involve preparing formal business letters to convey advice, holding in-person client meetings in the office, or conducting telephone calls with clients on landlines from the confines of the lawyer’s office. Not only do lawyers have choices about how to communicate with their clients, but they also frequently choose …

Take A P.A.S.S. On Your Next Legal Document, Melissa N. Henke

Law Faculty Popular Media

In this column for Kentucky Bar Association's magazine (B&B - Bench & Bar), Professor Henke suggests that writers to contemplate: Purpose, Audience, Scope, and Stance. The goal is to improve the legal writing of practicing lawyers.

Something Bad In Your Briefs, Richard H. Underwood

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

In a profession heavily driven by writing, plagiarism is an ethical issue that plagues the legal community. The legal profession generally views plagiarism as unethical, but often sends mixed messages by condemning it in some settings, but not others. In this short Commentary, Professor Underwood discusses the ethical implications of plagiarism in legal writing.

When Is Copying Ok In Legal Writing?, 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 the best practices for copying in legal writing.

The Promise Of Parentheticals: An Empirical Study Of The Use Of Parentheticals In Federal Appellate Briefs, Michael D. Murray

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

This article on current trends in briefing reports an empirical study of the use of parentheticals in federal appellate court briefs submitted between February 1, 2011, and July 31, 2011. The study was designed to answer this question: How are parentheticals currently used for rhetorical purposes in appellate briefs to explain a synthesis of authorities? My hypothesis entering the study was that parentheticals currently are used beyond a simple informational function in citation forms for four rhetorical purposes: (1) to quote and highlight portions of authorities ("quotation" function), (2) to explain and illustrate the principles induced from a synthesis of …

E-Mails To Clients: Avoiding Missteps, Kristin J. Hazelwood

Law Faculty Popular Media

In this column for Kentucky Bar Association's magazine (B&B - Bench & Bar), Professor Hazelwood addresses the ethical implications of emailing with a client. Practitioners are provided a series of questions to ask before emailing a client.