Law Commons^™

Appellate Law, L. Steven Emmert

University of Richmond Law Review

No abstract provided.

Ten-Step Guide To Oral Argument For Junior Attorneys, David A. Grenardo

Faculty Articles

Understanding what is necessary to argue effectively is important for junior attorneys to make compelling oral arguments. They must be persuasive, prepared, and precise. By following this 10-step guide, junior attorneys can maximize their opportunity to litigate and represent their clients’ interests.

First, tell the judge why you are there and what you want. Judges are extremely busy and may have hundreds of cases on their docket. Next, anticipate arguments and counterarguments that may be made by the parties and the court. Anticipating potential arguments aids in preparation prior to the hearing. Be responsive and respectful to the judge. Take …

Sexual Politics And Social Change, Darren L. Hutchinson

Darren L Hutchinson

The Article examines the impact of social movement activity upon the advancement of GLBT rights. It analyzes the state and local strategy that GLBT social movements utilized to alter the legal status of sexual orientation and sexuality following the Supreme Court’s ruling in Bowers v. Hardwick. Successful advocacy before state and local courts, human rights commissions, and legislatures fundamentally shifted public opinion and laws regarding sexual orientation and sexuality between Bowers and the Supreme Court’s ruling in Lawrence v. Texas. This altered landscape created the “political opportunity” for the Lawrence ruling and made the opinion relatively “safe.” Currently, GLBT rights …

Attitudes, Advocacy And Polarization: The New Iron Triangle Of American Public Policy, Roger L. Conner, Patricia Jordan

Roger L Conner

Electoral politics in the U.S. have always been nasty and brutish. Pervasive polarization in public policy disputes is a new an worrisome trend that has attracted considerable attention recently. Using insights gleaned from social psychology, this article finds that “strong", negative "attitudes," once attached to an “attitude object” such as the “other side” in a policy conflict, will operate subconsciously to distort cognition in ways that generate extreme and polarized thinking. Scholars from a different field, public policy studies, find that conversations about public policy increasingly occur inside of “advocacy coalitions,” vast and networks of people and groups that are …

Bush, Obama And Beyond: Observations On The Prospect For Fact Checking Executive Department Threat Claims Before The Use Of Force, Leslie Gielow Jacobs

McGeorge School of Law Scholarly Articles

This piece looks at the recurring problem of inflated threat claims offered by executive branch actors to persuade the Nation to consent to the use of force. It sets out the experience of the Bush Administration’s use of incorrect threat claims to persuade the country to consent to the use of force in Iraq as a backdrop to evaluating the President Obama’s use of threat claims to support the continuing use of force in Afghanistan. Although comparison of threat advocacy by the Bush and Obama administrations must be imperfect, it allows for some observations about the extent to which the …

"Should I Stay Or Should I Go?"- Covenants Not To Compete In A Down Economy, Kathleen (Kate) M. O'Neill

Kathleen M. O'Neill

Suppose an employee assents to a covenant not to compete in exchange for a job. The formation of this “contract” is unexceptionable and one would suppose that ordinarily the employee ought to be bound by her promise. But suppose that, between the formation of the covenant and a dispute over enforcement of the covenant, the employer’s business deteriorates and the employer begins to squeeze the employee to work harder or take a cut in benefits. Should the squeeze be irrelevant if the employee eventually decides to quit and tries to take a job within her field that’s barred by the …

The Human Rights Of Non-Citizens. By David Weissbrodt. (Book Review), Caroline Bettinger-López, Bassina Farbenblum

Articles

No abstract provided.

Changing Fashions In Advocacy: 100 Years Of Brief-Writing Advice, Helen A. Anderson

Articles

American appellate practice is accomplished mainly through the written word, and there seems to be a modem consensus about what constitutes a good appellate brief. Books, articles, and continuing legal education materials tell the appellate advocate to be succinct, to organize arguments clearly, and to present facts and law truthfully yet persuasively. The ideal appellate advocate is a careful strategist and accurate researcher who writes crisply and credibly. The power of emotional or narrative arguments has not been stressed although this may be changing-because appellate judges are presumed to be less emotional than juries.

As one who teaches advocacy, and …

What's Love Got To Do With It?: Contemporary Lessons On Lawyerly Advocacy From The Preacher Martin Luther King, Jr., Deborah J. Cantrell

Publications

Lawyers have long been inspired by the advocacy work of Martin Luther King, Jr. From his work on the Montgomery bus boycott, to lunch counter sit-ins, to his March on Washington, Dr. King demonstrated skilled advocacy that resulted in important legal advancements. While lawyers give primacy to Dr. King as an advocate, Dr. King gave primacy to his work as a preacher. This article challenges the legal profession to consider the ways in which Dr. King, the preacher, may be as inspirational and instructive as Dr. King, the civil rights icon. Just as Dr. King's religious values were not abstracted …

Representing Parents In Child Welfare Cases, Vivek Sankaran

Book Chapters

A parent's constitutional right to raise his or her child is one of the most venerated liberty interests safeguarded by the Constitution and the courts.2 The law presumes parents to be fit, and it establishes that they do not need to be model parents to retain custody of their children.3 If the state seeks to interfere with the parent-child relationship, the Constitution mandates that the state: (1) prove parental unfitness, a standard defined by state laws; and (2) follow certain procedures protecting the due process rights of parents. The constitutional framework for child welfare cases is premised on the belief …

Through A Glass Darkly: Using Brain Science And Visual Rhetoric To Gain A Professional Perspective On Visual Advocacy, Lucille Jewel

Scholarly Works

American legal culture, tracking the trend within the media culture as a whole, has become inherently more visual. Visual competency is now required for effective persuasion in the courtroom and in a variety of other advocacy settings. The central thesis of this Article is that visual advocacy is here to stay, but that there is a large knowledge gap that prevents advocates from being able to evaluate the professionalism of their own visual arguments and properly respond to the visual arguments submitted by their opposing counsel.

Accordingly, this Article offers a detailed outline of the knowledge bases that attorneys need …