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Articles 1 - 30 of 32
Full-Text Articles in Law
Mandatory Anti-Bias Cle: A Serious Problem Deserves A More Meaningful Response, Rima Sirota
Mandatory Anti-Bias Cle: A Serious Problem Deserves A More Meaningful Response, Rima Sirota
Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works
This essay addresses the problematic convergence of two recent trends: (1) the expansion of jurisdictions requiring anti-bias training (ABT) as part of mandatory continuing legal education (CLE), and (2) the growing recognition among social scientists that such training, at least as currently practiced, is of limited effectiveness.
Forty-six American states require continuing legal education (CLE), and eleven of these states now require lawyer ABT as one facet of CLE requirements. I have previously criticized the mandatory CLE system because so little evidence supports the conclusion that it results in more competent lawyers. The central question tackled by this essay is …
40 More Writing Hacks For Appellate Attorneys, Brian C. Potts
40 More Writing Hacks For Appellate Attorneys, Brian C. Potts
Faculty Articles
Script for Trailer: “40 More Writing Hacks for Appellate Attorneys”
Fade in on aerial view of Washington, D.C.
Zoom in on Supreme Court Building. Chopper sounds. Enter helicopter fleet flying by.
Cut to Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr., sitting at his desk, reading. He rubs his forehead. Tired. Anxious. Distraught.
Chief: “What a mess! This brief could have been 10 pages shorter!”
Phone rings. Chief answers on speaker.
Law clerk’s voice through phone: “Chief, turn to Appellee’s brief. You’ve got to see this!”
Chief picks up different brief. Flips it open. Zoom in on face. Eyes widen. Jaw drops. …
Disrupting Data Cartels By Editing Wikipedia, Eun Hee Han, Amanda Levendowski, Jonah Perlin
Disrupting Data Cartels By Editing Wikipedia, Eun Hee Han, Amanda Levendowski, Jonah Perlin
Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works
Legal discourse in the digital public square is driven by memoranda, motions, briefs, contracts, legislation, testimony, and judicial opinions. And as lawyers are taught from their first day of law school, the strength of these genres of legal communication is built on authority. But finding that authority often depends on a duopoly of for-profit legal research resources: Westlaw and Lexis. Although contemporary legal practice relies on these databases, they are far from ethically neutral. Not only are these “data cartels” expensive-- creating significant access to justice challenges--they also are controlled by parent companies that profit by providing information to Immigration …
Listening To Our Students: Fostering Resilience And Engagement To Promote Culture Change In Legal Education, Ann N. Sinsheimer, Omid Fotuhi
Listening To Our Students: Fostering Resilience And Engagement To Promote Culture Change In Legal Education, Ann N. Sinsheimer, Omid Fotuhi
Articles
In this Article, we describe a dynamic program of research at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law that uses mindset to promote resilience and engagement in law students. For the last three years, we have used tailored, well-timed, psychological interventions to help students bring adaptive mindsets to the challenges they face in law school. The act of listening to our students has been the first step in designing interventions to improve their experience, and it has become a kind of intervention in itself. Through this work, we have learned that simply asking our law students about their experiences and …
Feedback Loops: Surviving The Feedback Desert, Patrick Barry
Feedback Loops: Surviving The Feedback Desert, Patrick Barry
Articles
I ask my law students the following set of parallel questions on the very first day of “Feedback Loops,” a course I have been teaching for the past couple of years: What did you get better at last year? How do you know? What should you get better at this year? How do you know?
Access To Law Or Access To Lawyers? Master's Programs In The Public Educational Mission Of Law Schools, Mark Burge
Access To Law Or Access To Lawyers? Master's Programs In The Public Educational Mission Of Law Schools, Mark Burge
Faculty Scholarship
The general decline in juris doctor (“J.D.”) law school applicants and enrollment over the last decade has coincided with the rise of a new breed of law degree. Whether known as a master of jurisprudence, juris master, master of legal studies, or other names, these graduate degrees all have a target audience in common: adult professionals who neither are nor seek to become practicing attorneys. Inside legal academia and among the practicing bar, these degrees have been accompanied by expressed concerns that they detract from the traditional core public mission of law schools—educating lawyers. This Article argues that non-lawyer master’s …
Ok, Google, Will Artificial Intelligence Replace Human Lawyering?, Amy Vorenberg, Julie A. Oseid, Melissa Love Koenig
Ok, Google, Will Artificial Intelligence Replace Human Lawyering?, Amy Vorenberg, Julie A. Oseid, Melissa Love Koenig
Law Faculty Scholarship
Will Artificial Intelligence (AI) replace human lawyering? The answer is no. Despite worries that AI is getting so sophisticated that it could take over the profession, there is little cause for concern. Indeed, the surge of AI in the legal field has crystalized the real essence of effective lawyering. The lawyer’s craft goes beyond what AI can do because we listen with empathy to clients’ stories, strategize to find that story that might not be obvious, thoughtfully use our imagination and judgment to decide which story will appeal to an audience, and creatively tell those winning stories.
This article reviews …
The Architecture Of Drama: How Lawyers Can Use Screenwriting Techniques To Tell More Compelling Stories, Teresa M. Bruce
The Architecture Of Drama: How Lawyers Can Use Screenwriting Techniques To Tell More Compelling Stories, Teresa M. Bruce
Publications
Hollywood writers have a secret. They know how to tell a compelling story—so compelling that the top-grossing motion pictures rake in millions, and sometimes billions, of dollars. How do they do it? They use a simple formula involving three acts that propel the story forward, three "plot points" that focus on the protagonist, and two "pinch points" that focus on the adversary. The attached Article argues that lawyers should build their stories in the same way Hollywood writers do. It deconstructs the storytelling formula used in movies and translates it into an IRAC-like acronym, SCOR. Attorneys who use SCOR will …
From The Editor, Susan Nevelow Mart
Writing For A Mind At Work: Appellate Advocacy And The Science Of Digital Reading, Mary Beth Beazley
Writing For A Mind At Work: Appellate Advocacy And The Science Of Digital Reading, Mary Beth Beazley
Scholarly Works
Professor Beazley explores the future implications to appellate advocacy as we move into the digital age. Understanding how that digital world affects legal reading is vital to understanding the future of appellate advocacy. Lawyers need to understand some of the science of how people read and interact with the written word; unfortunately, we have been slow to grasp the importance of this science. She defines and explains the concepts of "Active Readers" and "Knowledge Work." She then addresses some of the issues that arise as active readers transition from paper to digital platforms. Professor Beazley concludes by describing some of …
Toward A Writing-Centered Legal Education, Adam Lamparello
Toward A Writing-Centered Legal Education, Adam Lamparello
Res Gestae
The future of legal education—and experiential learning—should be grounded in a curriculum that requires students to take writing courses throughout law school. Additionally, the curriculum should be one that collapses the distinction between doctrinal, legal writing, and clinical faculty, as well as merges analytical, practical, and clinical instruction into a real world curriculum.
The justification for a writing-intensive program of legal education is driven by the reality that persuasive writing ability is among the most important skills a lawyer must possess and a skill that many lawyers and judges claim graduates lack. Part of the problem is that law schools …
Enigma: A Variation On The Theme Of Legal Writing’S Place In Contemporary Legal Education, Ian Gallacher
Enigma: A Variation On The Theme Of Legal Writing’S Place In Contemporary Legal Education, Ian Gallacher
College of Law - Faculty Scholarship
No abstract provided.
Something Bad In Your Briefs, Richard H. Underwood
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.
Judicial Opinion Writing: An Annotated Bibliography, Ruth C. Vance
Judicial Opinion Writing: An Annotated Bibliography, Ruth C. Vance
Law Faculty Publications
No abstract provided.
A Synergistic Pedagogical Approach To First-Year Teaching, Jamie Abrams
A Synergistic Pedagogical Approach To First-Year Teaching, Jamie Abrams
Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals
The First “Colonial Frontier” Legal Writing Conference, held at Duquesne University School of Law, focused on Engendering Hope in the Legal Writing Classroom: Pedagogy, Curriculum, and Attitude. This conference built on the foundational work of Allison Martin and Kevin Rand in which these scholars call for educators to engender hope in law students to prepare them for practice. Martin and Rand conclude that hope is a predictor of students’ academic performance and psychological health during the first semester of law school and recommend that law professors “maintain and creat[e] hope in law students” by embracing five core principles. Martin and …
Who Wants To Be A Muggle? The Diminished Legitimacy Of Law As Magic, Mark Edwin Burge
Who Wants To Be A Muggle? The Diminished Legitimacy Of Law As Magic, Mark Edwin Burge
Faculty Scholarship
In the Harry Potter world, the magical population lives among the non-magical Muggle population, but we Muggles are largely unaware of them. This secrecy is by elaborate design and is necessitated by centuries-old hostility to wizards by the non-magical majority. The reasons behind this hostility, when combined with the similarities between Harry Potter-stylemagic and American law, make Rowling’s novels into a cautionary tale for the legal profession that it not treat law as a magic unknowable to non-lawyers. Comprehensibility — as a self-contained, normative value in the enactment interpretation, and practice of law — is given short-shrift by the legal …
More Than Just Law School: Global Perspectives On The Place Of The Practical In Legal Education, James Maxeiner
More Than Just Law School: Global Perspectives On The Place Of The Practical In Legal Education, James Maxeiner
All Faculty Scholarship
Foreign experiences remind us that legal education is not just law school. They inform us that we should seek for ways not just to integrate theoretical and practical teaching, but to assure that our students or our graduates get real experience with practice. The assumption that law schools are the exclusive place for preparation for the profession of law is bad for students, bad for bar, bad for law schools, bad for the legal system and bad for society. We should look to see what we can do best and should encourage other institutions to do what they can do …
See Erie: Critical Study Of Legal Authority, Kris Franklin
See Erie: Critical Study Of Legal Authority, Kris Franklin
Articles & Chapters
No abstract provided.
Writing To Learn Law And Writing In Law: An Intellectual Property Illustration, Michael J. Madison
Writing To Learn Law And Writing In Law: An Intellectual Property Illustration, Michael J. Madison
Articles
This essay, prepared as part of a Symposium on teaching intellectual property law, describes a method of combining substantive law teaching with a species of what is commonly called "skills" training. The method involves assessing students not via traditional final exams but instead via research memos patterned after assignments that junior lawyers might encounter in actual legal practice. The essay grounds the method in the theoretical disposition known generally as "writing to learn." It argues that students are likely to learn intellectual property law effectively if they learn to practice as intellectual property lawyers, and specifically to write as intellectual …
"In A Case, In A Book, They Will Not Take A Second Look!" Critical Reading In The Legal Writing Classroom, Debra Curtis, Judith Karp
"In A Case, In A Book, They Will Not Take A Second Look!" Critical Reading In The Legal Writing Classroom, Debra Curtis, Judith Karp
Faculty Scholarship
This article is based on a presentation that was first assembled for the Southeastern Regional Legal Writing Conference in September 2003. The theme of that conference was "The Basics and Beyond: Building Solid Skills on Flawed Foundations." As legal writing professions with nine years of teaching experience between us, we immediately honed in on "reading" as a core lawyering skill--though it is the one that seemed most flawed in the first-year legal writing class. We determined that case analysis, statute analysis, synthesis, and application were not possible unless students critically read the material with which they were working. Many students …
Rhetoric, Advocacy And Ethics: Reflections On Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, Stephen A. Newman
Rhetoric, Advocacy And Ethics: Reflections On Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, Stephen A. Newman
Articles & Chapters
The rhetorical skill necessary to speaking and writing persuasively may be studied with great profit by exploring realms of knowledge far from the courtroom and the law office. Literature naturally comes to mind as a rich resource for the study of persuasion. For this essay, I have chosen a well-known set of speeches that appear in William Shakespeare's Julius Caesar to illustrate various aspects of persuasion.
In the play's most riveting scene, Marcus Brutus and Mark Antony speak before a crowd of Romans, giving their opposing views of the assassination of Caesar. Brutus claims justification for his and his co-conspirators' …
Competent Legal Writing - A Lawyer's Professional Responsibility, Debra R. Cohen
Competent Legal Writing - A Lawyer's Professional Responsibility, Debra R. Cohen
Journal Articles
The legal profession is constantly evolving to keep pace with our increasingly complex society.' Today, the legal profession "is larger and more diverse than ever before." Despite this transformation, "the law has remained a single profession identified with a perceived common body of learning, skills and values." This common body of learning, skills, and values constitutes the fundamental elements of competent representation. Writing is one of the essential skills of competent representation.
"Law is a profession of words." Lawyers use words, both written and oral, in a wide array of contexts-to advise, to advocate, to elicit information, to establish legal …
How To Write And Speak More Effectively As Advocate, Negotiator, Or Counselor -- Suggestions To The Budding Lawyer, Arthur R. Landever
How To Write And Speak More Effectively As Advocate, Negotiator, Or Counselor -- Suggestions To The Budding Lawyer, Arthur R. Landever
Law Faculty Articles and Essays
How best to give you some ideas about legal communication? The traditional approach is to focus narrowly upon a particular type, for example, appellate oral argument. My approach is different. I view communication in its total aspect -- whatever its general nature (e.g. writing or speech), degree of formality (e.g. brief or office negotiation), or audience (e.g. lawyer or layman). My ideas proceed from a fundamental assumption: As a student you can gain insights about the subject, by first studying the broad canvas. As you then reflect upon any particular mode, it can be set against that background. The suggestions …
Clear Legal Drafting: What's Holding Us Back?, F. Reed Dickerson
Clear Legal Drafting: What's Holding Us Back?, F. Reed Dickerson
Articles by Maurer Faculty
No abstract provided.
If We Can't Teach Our Students To Write... Let's Examine Some Alternatives That May Have A Chance To Work, Michael Botein
If We Can't Teach Our Students To Write... Let's Examine Some Alternatives That May Have A Chance To Work, Michael Botein
Articles & Chapters
No abstract provided.
Professionalizing Legislative Drafting: A Realistic Goal?, Reed Dickerson
Professionalizing Legislative Drafting: A Realistic Goal?, Reed Dickerson
Articles by Maurer Faculty
The teaching of skills that result in sound legislative drafting is neglected in law schools, and professionalism in legislative drafting is lacking on both the federal and state fronts. With the adoption by the American Bar Association of seven major principles relating to the drafting of federal legislation, perhaps there is more hope now that there will be a move toward professionalism.
General Considerations In Legal Drafting, Reed Dickerson
General Considerations In Legal Drafting, Reed Dickerson
Articles by Maurer Faculty
No abstract provided.
Symbolic Logic: A Razor-Edged Tool For Drafting And Interpreting Legal Documents, Layman E. Allen
Symbolic Logic: A Razor-Edged Tool For Drafting And Interpreting Legal Documents, Layman E. Allen
Articles
A large amount of the litigation based on written instruments-whether statute, contract, will, conveyance or regulation-can be traced to the draftsman's failure to convey his meaning clearly. Frequently, of course, certain items may purposely be left ambiguous, but often the question in issue is due to an inadvertent ambiguity that could have been avoided had the draftsman clearly expressed what he intended to say. In this Article it is suggested that a new approach to drafting, using certain elementary notions of symbolic logic, can go a long way towards eliminating such inadvertent ambiguity. This new approach makes available to draftsmen …
How To Write A Law, Reed Dickerson
Legislative Drafting: A Challenge To The Legal Profession, Reed Dickerson
Legislative Drafting: A Challenge To The Legal Profession, Reed Dickerson
Articles by Maurer Faculty
No abstract provided.