Law Commons^™

Michael Brown, Eric Garner, And Law Librarianship, Ronald E. Wheeler

Faculty Scholarship

Professor Wheeler discusses the police killings of Michael Brown and Eric Garner. He posits that racialized fear is part of what fuels such violence and discusses examples of how racialized fear have impacted his personal life. Wheeler then discusses how and why law librarians can and should be prepared to discuss such events with their law library patrons.

We All Do It: Unconscious Behavior, Bias, And Diversity, Ronald E. Wheeler

Faculty Scholarship

Mr. Wheeler suggests that many of our behaviors, in the workplace and elsewhere, are motivated by unconscious triggers and emotions, including racial biases. These behaviors, however, can be prevented by making conscious choices that enhance diversity.

Where Have All The Patent Lawyers Gone? Long Time Passing..., Kenneth L. Port, Molly R. Littman, Lucas Hjelle

Faculty Scholarship

This article pursues two distinct, but related hypotheses. First, as total LSAT takers decline, we expect to see a decline in the number of new attorneys admitted to the patent bar. Second, as the number of new patent attorneys shrinks and the number of women pursuing engineering degrees increases, we expect that the patent bar will become more female.

In order to test these hypotheses, we gathered and collated data from the Law School Admission Counsel (LSAC) regarding students taking the Law School Admissions Test (LSAT), the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), the Society of Women Engineers (SWE), …

The Codification Of Professionalism: Can You Sanction Lawyers Into Being Nice?, Debra M. Curtis

Faculty Scholarship

On October 31, 2013, the Florida Supreme Court in The Florida Bar v. Norkin made it clear that "it wants the trend of escalating incivility among lawyers to stop." With that decision, in which a lawyer was suspended and publicly reprimanded for his behavior, the court urged that "[m]embers of The Florida Bar, law professors, and law students should study" this case "as a glaring example of unprofessional behavior." This article heeds the court's directive to do so, but also places it in the context of the movement to enhance professionalism statewide.

Synergy And Tradition: The Unity Of Research, Service, And Teaching In Legal Education, Frank A. Pasquale

Faculty Scholarship

Most non-profit law schools generate public goods of enormous value: important research, service to disadvantaged communities, and instruction that both educates students about present legal practice and encourages them to improve it. Each of these missions informs and enriches the others. However, technocratic management practices menace law schools’ traditional missions of balancing theory and practice, advocacy and scholarly reflection, study of and service to communities. This article defends the unity and complementarity of law schools’ research, service, and teaching roles. (For those short on time, the chart on pages 45-46 encapsulates the conflicting critiques of law schools which this article …

The Influence Of Juridical Cant On Edificatory Approaches In 21st-Century America, David Pozen

Faculty Scholarship

This essay reframes the debate over the "growing disjunction" between legal scholarship and legal practice. Law review articles continue to make the world a better place, the essay stipulates. But are judicial opinions becoming less useful to students and scholars? A rigorous analysis and concrete prescriptions follow.