Law Commons^™

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.

Legal Writing As Good Writing: Tips From The Trenches, Andrey Spektor, Michael A. Zuckerman

The Journal of Appellate Practice and Process

No abstract provided.

A Third Semester Of Lrw: Why Teaching Transactional Skills And Problems Is Now Essential To The Legal Writing Curriculum, Karin Mika

Law Faculty Articles and Essays

The article advocates including drafting and transactional courses in Legal Writing programs to better prepare students for practice. The article also advocates teaching various upper level skills courses so that students learn "soft skills," such as dealing with clients and understanding their personal legal needs.

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.

Legal Form, Style, And Etiquette For Email, George Kuney

Scholarly Works

No abstract provided.

The Joy Of Collaboration: Reflections On Teaching With Others, Richard Strong, Sarah Morath, Elizabeth A. Shaver

Akron Law Faculty Publications

Three legal writing professors who have worked collaboratively for several years describe why their experience collaborating with one another worked so well. In particular, this essay outlines the many personal benefits that can be experienced as part of a collaborative process. This essay also describes several benefits that students and law schools can experience. For those interested in collaborating with others, the essay concludes with some useful tips.

One Redeeming Quality About The 112th Congress: Refocusing On Descriptive Rather Than Evocative Short Titles, Brian Christopher Jones

Brian Christopher Jones

For all intents and purposes the 112th Congress has been deemed a massive failure by most; fewer laws enacted and contemptuous debates characterized the session’s most lambasted qualities. However, one redeemable aspect was present: a focus back on descriptive and technical words for short titles, rather than evocative or tendentious terms. When compared to the 111th Congress, the use of evocative words slowed while the use of technical terms increased. This is the first time this has happened since the 101st-102nd Congress (1989-1993). Additionally, it is the largest separation between technical and evocative words since the 103rd Congress (1993-1995). Yet …

One Small Step For Legal Writing, One Giant Leap For Legal Education: Making The Case For More Writing Opportunities In The "Practice-Ready" Law School Curriculum, Sherri Lee Keene

Sherri Keene

Legal writing is more than an isolated practical skill or a law school course; it is a valuable tool for broadening and deepening law students’ and new attorneys’ knowledge and understanding of the law. If experienced legal professionals, both professors and practitioners alike, take a hard look back at their careers, many will no doubt remember how their work on significant legal writing projects advanced their own knowledge of the law and enhanced their professional competence. Legal writing practice helps the writer to gain expertise in a number of ways: first, the act of writing itself promotes learning; second, close …

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.

Professional Legal Writing Declaring Your Independence, Patrick R. Hugg

Journal of the National Association of Administrative Law Judiciary

This article proposes two controversial assertions about the writing of many lawyers and judges today and offers a central theme for improving that writing. These bold propositions are offered in an effort to awaken and perhaps inspire the legions of overworked, harried legal scriveners inhabiting our legal community to adopt a new methodology of writing. Too many legal writers today are forced by the various (nefarious) circumstances of their work to crank out reams of hastily conceived and poorly edited text. The time has arrived for us to admit to this unacceptable state of affairs and to declare independence from …

Professional Writing Methodology , Patrick R. Hugg

Journal of the National Association of Administrative Law Judiciary

Characterizing attorneys as professional writers, in the literary sense, who just happen to work in the legal milieu, this article discusses the author’s principles of “Professional Writing Methodology.”

Evidence Column, Paul R. Troeh Jr

Journal of the National Association of Administrative Law Judiciary

No abstract provided.

The Art Of Legal Writing, Thomas E. Spahn

Journal of the National Association of Administrative Law Judiciary

No abstract provided.

Sight And Sound In The Legal Writing Classroom: Engaging Students Through Use Of Contemporary Issues, Karin M. Mika

Law Faculty Articles and Essays

Using the Fair Use Act as the basis of a research problem done in conjunction with YouTube music videos presents a variety of ways to demonstrate the range of situations in which the Fair Use Act might apply. Karin Mika discusses ways to force students to think in depth about various scenarios while comparing and contrasting them. As an example, when comparing two similar musical compositions using a Fair Use factor analysis, one need only concentrate on the notes and the various choruses in the songs. However, when combining a song with a video, the nature of the composition changes. …

The Legal Reader: An Exposé, Michael J. Higdon

Scholarly Works

John Steinbeck once said, “Your audience is one single reader. I have found that sometimes it helps to pick out the person — a real person you know, or an imagined person — and write to that one.” For legal writers, however, this advice is somewhat difficult to follow as their documents are likely to be read by many different kinds of audience members. In this Article, however, I mean to focus specifically on one particular kind of reader: the legally-trained reader or, more simply, the legal reader. After all, the majority of lawyers will find themselves communicating most often …

Rhetorical Judgments: Using Holistic Assessment To Improve The Quality Of Administrative Decisions, Roger J. Klurfeld, Steven Placek

Journal of the National Association of Administrative Law Judiciary

Federal, state, and local governments issue hundreds of thousands of administrative decisions annually. Considering the number of encounters the public has with administrative appeal agencies, administrative decisions may be the largest category of legal writing and reading interaction the public has with the legal system. Many of these agencies have identified writing quality - however they define it - as a priority in their strategic plans, but the overwhelming number of hearings and decisions, coupled with regulatory guidelines for timeliness, may subordinate this goal to other management priorities. Improving the quality of administrative decisions at these agencies presents a practical …

Summary Of Administrative Law Judge Responsibilities, Daniel F. Solomon

Journal of the National Association of Administrative Law Judiciary

No abstract provided.

125 Years Of Law Books, 1888-2013, Keith Ann Stiverson

125th Anniversary Materials

No abstract provided.

Motions In Motion: Teaching Advanced Legal Writing Through Collaboration, Elizabeth Shaver, Sarah Morath, Richard Strong

Akron Law Faculty Publications

Legal education is at a crossroads. Practitioners, academics, and students agree that more experiential learning opportunities are needed in law school.

In 2007, the Carnegie Foundation report, Educating Lawyers: Preparation for the Profession of Law (Carnegie Report), called for law schools to provide apprentice experiences to better prepare prospective attorneys for the world of practice. That same year, the Best Practices in Legal Education advocated for “experiential education” and “encourage[d] law school[s] to expand its use.” More recently, in August 2011, the American Bar Association adopted a resolution sponsored by the New York Bar Association summoning law schools to “focus …

Motions In Motions: Teaching Advanced Legal Writing Through Collaboration, Sarah J. Morath, Elizabeth Shaver, Richard Strong

Akron Law Faculty Publications

Legal education is at a crossroads. Practitioners, academics, and students agree that more experiential learning opportunities are needed in law school.

In 2007, the Carnegie Foundation report, Educating Lawyers: Preparation for the Profession of Law (Carnegie Report), called for law schools to provide apprentice experiences to better prepare prospective attorneys for the world of practice. That same year, the Best Practices in Legal Education advocated for “experiential education” and “encourage[d] law school[s] to expand its use.” More recently, in August 2011, the American Bar Association adopted a resolution sponsored by the New York Bar Association summoning law schools to “focus …

Motions In Motion: Teaching Advanced Legal Writing Through Collaboration, Richard Strong, Elizabeth Shaver, Sarah Morath

Akron Law Faculty Publications

Legal education is at a crossroads. Practitioners, academics, and students agree that more experiential learning opportunities are needed in law school.

In 2007, the Carnegie Foundation report, Educating Lawyers: Preparation for the Profession of Law (Carnegie Report), called for law schools to provide apprentice experiences to better prepare prospective attorneys for the world of practice. That same year, the Best Practices in Legal Education advocated for “experiential education” and “encourage[d] law school[s] to expand its use.” More recently, in August 2011, the American Bar Association adopted a resolution sponsored by the New York Bar Association summoning law schools to “focus …

Lrw's The Real World: Using Real Cases To Teach Persuasive Writing, Elizabeth Shaver

Akron Law Faculty Publications

Today’s law students approach their legal education with a clear focus on acquiring the skills needed to succeed in the “real world” of lawyering. Legal writing professors can leverage this focus on the real world by using real cases to teach the principles of persuasive writing. This article describes a “case-study” method in which students analyze materials from real cases to learn the most critical components of persuasive writing – development of a theme, organization of legal arguments, and best use of case authority. As part of this exercise, students step into the role of the practitioner and construct arguments …

Like A Glass Slipper On A Stepsister: How The One Ring Rules Them All At Trial, Cathren Koehlert-Page

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Motions In Motions: Teaching Advanced Legal Writing Through Collaboration, Sarah J. Morath, Elizabeth Shaver, Richard Strong

Sarah J Morath

Legal education is at a crossroads. Practitioners, academics, and students agree that more experiential learning opportunities are needed in law school. In 2007, the Carnegie Foundation report, Educating Lawyers: Preparation for the Profession of Law (Carnegie Report), called for law schools to provide apprentice experiences to better prepare prospective attorneys for the world of practice. That same year, the Best Practices in Legal Education advocated for “experiential education” and “encourage[d] law school[s] to expand its use.” More recently, in August 2011, the American Bar Association adopted a resolution sponsored by the New York Bar Association summoning law schools to “focus …

The Joy Of Collaboration: Reflections On Teaching With Others, Sarah J. Morath, Elizabeth A. Shaver, Richard Strong

Sarah J Morath

Three legal writing professors who have worked collaboratively for several years describe why their experience collaborating with one another worked so well. In particular, this essay outlines the many personal benefits that can be experienced as part of a collaborative process. This essay also describes several benefits that students and law schools can experience. For those interested in collaborating with others, the essay concludes with some useful tips.

The Genre Discovery Approach: Preparing Law Students To Write Any Legal Document, Katie Rose Guest Pryal

Katie Rose Guest Pryal

Employers bemoan that new lawyers cannot write. Professors teaching upper-level law school courses wonder why students cannot apply their first-year (1L) legal writing skills. Law students worry that their legal writing courses have not prepared them to write all of the document types they will encounter in practice. In response to these complaints and fears, law school administrators push legal writing professors to squeeze more and more different document types into first- year legal writing courses.

I argue that the “more documents” strategy does not adequately prepare practice-ready legal writers. We cannot inoculate our students against every conceivable genre that …

"When Numbers Get Serious:" A Study Of Plain English Usage In Briefs Filed Before The New York Court Of Appeals, Ian Gallacher

College of Law - Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Motions In Motion: Teaching Advanced Legal Writing Through Collaboration, Richard Strong, Elizabeth Shaver, Sarah Morath

Richard Strong

Legal education is at a crossroads. Practitioners, academics, and students agree that more experiential learning opportunities are needed in law school.

In 2007, the Carnegie Foundation report, Educating Lawyers: Preparation for the Profession of Law (Carnegie Report), called for law schools to provide apprentice experiences to better prepare prospective attorneys for the world of practice. That same year, the Best Practices in Legal Education advocated for “experiential education” and “encourage[d] law school[s] to expand its use.” More recently, in August 2011, the American Bar Association adopted a resolution sponsored by the New York Bar Association summoning law schools to “focus …

Motions In Motion: Teaching Advanced Legal Writing Through Collaboration, Elizabeth Shaver, Sarah Morath, Richard Strong

Elizabeth Shaver

Legal education is at a crossroads. Practitioners, academics, and students agree that more experiential learning opportunities are needed in law school.

In 2007, the Carnegie Foundation report, Educating Lawyers: Preparation for the Profession of Law (Carnegie Report), called for law schools to provide apprentice experiences to better prepare prospective attorneys for the world of practice. That same year, the Best Practices in Legal Education advocated for “experiential education” and “encourage[d] law school[s] to expand its use.” More recently, in August 2011, the American Bar Association adopted a resolution sponsored by the New York Bar Association summoning law schools to “focus …

The Joy Of Collaboration: Reflections On Teaching With Others, Elizabeth Shaver, Sarah Morath, Richard Strong

Elizabeth Shaver

Three legal writing professors who have worked collaboratively for several years describe why their experience collaborating with one another worked so well. In particular, this essay outlines the many personal benefits that can be experienced as part of a collaborative process. This essay also describes several benefits that students and law schools can experience. For those interested in collaborating with others, the essay concludes with some useful tips.