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Full-Text Articles in Law

Transactional Law In The Required Legal Writing Curriculum: An Empirical Study Of The Forgotten Future Business Lawyer, Louis N. Schulze Jr. Jan 2007

Transactional Law In The Required Legal Writing Curriculum: An Empirical Study Of The Forgotten Future Business Lawyer, Louis N. Schulze Jr.

Faculty Publications

Legal Writing courses traditionally focus on litigation writing. The course usually includes assignments on writing interoffice memoranda, drafting trial or appellate briefs, and conducting oral arguments - all in the context of a lawsuit. But, how does this exclusive focus on litigation treat students with no interest in that subject? For future transactional lawyers, the dominance of litigation writing might seem to ignore their needs. Should they be learning how to draft contracts, create corporate documents, or write commercial leasing agreements? This Article examines whether legal writing courses, either in the first year of law school or later, sufficiently address …


Jethro Lieberman And The Litigious Society, Tom Goldstein Jan 2007

Jethro Lieberman And The Litigious Society, Tom Goldstein

NYLS Law Review

No abstract provided.


A Practical Guide To Legal Writing And Legal Method, John Dernbach, Richard Singleton, Cathleen Wharton, Joan Ruthenberg, Catherine Wasson Dec 2006

A Practical Guide To Legal Writing And Legal Method, John Dernbach, Richard Singleton, Cathleen Wharton, Joan Ruthenberg, Catherine Wasson

John C. Dernbach

No abstract provided.


Teaching Professional Responsibility And Ethics, Ronald D. Rotunda Dec 2006

Teaching Professional Responsibility And Ethics, Ronald D. Rotunda

Ronald D. Rotunda

This article discusses the development of teaching legal ethics in light of the changes in the ethics rules over the years. The thesis is that many ethics rules reflect the needs of a cartel (the legal profession) to protect itself, rather than the need to protect the clients of lawyers. The author uses stories and examples to illustrate this thesis.


Correlation Versus Causality: Further Thoughts On The Law Review/Law School Liaison, Ronen Perry Dec 2006

Correlation Versus Causality: Further Thoughts On The Law Review/Law School Liaison, Ronen Perry

Ronen Perry

This Essay is the third in a series of articles discussing the relative value of American law reviews, and a response to Professor Alfred Brophy's elaboration of my initial study of the high mathematical correlation between law review quality, as manifested in citation-based measures, and law school reputation. Given my prior interest in the relative value of American law reviews, I have used the abovementioned correlation as a means to explain some of the variance in quality among law reviews. Brophy's empirical findings overlap mine, yet the extent of his analysis, as well as his interpretation and utilization of the …


The Relative Value Of American Law Reviews: Refinement And Implementation, Ronen Perry Dec 2006

The Relative Value Of American Law Reviews: Refinement And Implementation, Ronen Perry

Ronen Perry

This Article complements a recently published paper in which I discussed the theoretical and methodological aspects of law review rankings. The purpose of this Article is twofold: refinement of the theoretical framework, and implementation. It proposes, defends, and implements a complex ranking method for general-interest student-edited law reviews, based on a judicious weighting of normalized citation frequency and normalized impact factor. It then analyzes the distribution of journals’ scores, and the diminishing marginal difference between them. Finally, it examines the correlation between law schools’ positions in the U.S. News & World Report 2006 ranking and their flagship law reviews’ positions …


Learn To Write “Like The Man On The Six O’Clock News”, K.K. Duvivier Nov 2006

Learn To Write “Like The Man On The Six O’Clock News”, K.K. Duvivier

Sturm College of Law: Faculty Scholarship

Because your writing involves words, it might seem difficult to make your writing "transparent." However, speaking involves words too, and broadcasters employ several techniques to make their words transparent. Consequently, legal writers can look for guidance from the men and women "on the six o'clock news."


The Relative Value Of American Law Reviews: A Critical Appraisal Of Ranking Methods, Ronen Perry Nov 2006

The Relative Value Of American Law Reviews: A Critical Appraisal Of Ranking Methods, Ronen Perry

Ronen Perry

Ranking law reviews is not a novel initiative. Data regarding the relative value of legal periodicals was first published in 1930, in an article primarily concerned with the overall contribution of legal periodicals to the development of positive law. Since then many attempts have been made to rank American law reviews by various criteria. This Article, however, focuses not on actual rankings but on ranking theory and methodology. It offers an introductory discussion of the goals of law review rating, and the essential attributes of reliable and beneficial ranking methods, followed by a systematic and comprehensive analysis of the advantages …


Harry Potter, Ruby Slippers And Merlin: Telling The Client's Story Using The Characters And Paradigm Of The Archetypal Hero's Journey, Ruth Anne Robbins Nov 2006

Harry Potter, Ruby Slippers And Merlin: Telling The Client's Story Using The Characters And Paradigm Of The Archetypal Hero's Journey, Ruth Anne Robbins

Ruth Anne Robbins

This article hypothesizes that lawyers should consider heroic archetype when strategizing the client's story. The article speaks more to storytelling for a judge as factfinder rather than a jury.


Using Dvd Covers To Teach Weight Of Authority, Michael J. Higdon Oct 2006

Using Dvd Covers To Teach Weight Of Authority, Michael J. Higdon

Scholarly Works

Using various examples, this essay explores how the movie critic quotes that companies select to grace the cover of DVDs (and ultimately help sell the product) can actually be used to teach students about weight of authority.


Imagining The Law-Trained Reader: The Faulty Description Of The Audience In Legal Writing Textbooks., Jessica E. Price Sep 2006

Imagining The Law-Trained Reader: The Faulty Description Of The Audience In Legal Writing Textbooks., Jessica E. Price

ExpressO

In law schools today, first-year legal writing courses play a crucial role in helping students learn to communicate about the law. Many legal writing teachers approach legal writing education in a practical way, attempting to pass on their own experiences in law practice settings to students. Unfortunately, as other writers have observed, such reliance on personal knowledge about “what lawyers are like” may lead legal writing teachers to oversimplify a complicated matter – the needs and preferences of the audience for legal writing – and may even amount to indoctrination in stereotypes about law practice. This article offers a closer …


“Beholder” Reflections—Part Iii, K.K. Duvivier Sep 2006

“Beholder” Reflections—Part Iii, K.K. Duvivier

Sturm College of Law: Faculty Scholarship

This is the final column in a series addressing reader expectations for objective legal writing. In the January 2006 Scrivener, I posted three samples of objective legal writing and asked readers to give me feedback through an online survey about which they preferreda nd why. The May and July columns provided analysis of reader responses to introductory and rule explanation paragraphs. This column reports on reader reactions as to what many lawyers would argue is the most important part of a legal analysis: application of the legal rule to a client's facts.


The Clinical Divide: Overcoming Barriers To Collaboration Between Clinics And Legal Writing Programs, Sarah O. Schrup Aug 2006

The Clinical Divide: Overcoming Barriers To Collaboration Between Clinics And Legal Writing Programs, Sarah O. Schrup

ExpressO

Increased communication between legal research and writing (“LRW”) programs and clinical programs is desirable because it provides students with a seamless learning experience, enhances faculty teaching in both departments, and creates opportunities for collaboration that benefits a law-school community generally. But barriers presently exist that hinder collaboration. Specifically, barriers that impact collaboration and integrated learning between LRW and clinical programs stem from: (1) differences in the development of the two disciplines and the resultant differences in teaching methodologies; and (2) other practical barriers including physical separation, status issues, lack of communication, competing demands within the law school and the reality …


“Beholder” Reflections—Part Ii, K.K. Duvivier Jul 2006

“Beholder” Reflections—Part Ii, K.K. Duvivier

Sturm College of Law: Faculty Scholarship

This column is the second in a series analyzing feedback from readers about what they believe is good legal writing. In the January 2006 Scrivener, I provided a survey containing writing samples for three parts of an objective legal analysis. The survey questions asked readers to indicate which samples they preferred and why, and to comment on specific devices used in the samples.


“Beholder” Reflections—Part I, K.K. Duvivier May 2006

“Beholder” Reflections—Part I, K.K. Duvivier

Sturm College of Law: Faculty Scholarship

In the January 2006 Scrivener, I sought advice from my readers: Is the perception of what constitutes good legal writing in the eye of the beholder? By measuring reader reflections of the samples I posted in a survey online, I am attempting to answer this question.


Teaching Legal Research And Writing With Actual Legal Work: Extending Clinical Education Into The First Year, Michael A. Millemann, Steven D. Schwinn Apr 2006

Teaching Legal Research And Writing With Actual Legal Work: Extending Clinical Education Into The First Year, Michael A. Millemann, Steven D. Schwinn

Faculty Scholarship

In this article, the co-authors argue that legal research and writing (LRW) teachers should use actual legal work to generate assignments. They recommend that clinical and LRW teachers work together to design, co-teach, and evaluate such courses. They describe two experimental courses they developed together and co-taught to support and clarify their arguments. They contend that actual legal work motivates students to learn the basic skills of research, analysis and writing, and thus helps to accomplish the primary goals of LRW courses. It also helps students to explore new dimensions of basic skills, including those related to the development and …


Maccrate (In)Action: The Case For Enhancing The Upper-Level Writing Requirement In Law Schools, Kenneth D. Chestek Mar 2006

Maccrate (In)Action: The Case For Enhancing The Upper-Level Writing Requirement In Law Schools, Kenneth D. Chestek

ExpressO

In 2001, the American Bar Association amended the Standards for Accreditation of Law Schools to require, for the first time, a “rigorous writing experience after the first year.” During the summer of 2004 the author conducted a nationwide survey to determine how law schools responded to this change. The author found that most schools did little more than to require students to take at least one course which was evaluated by means of an academic paper rather than an examination. The author concludes that this is probably not the response the ABA had hoped for, but suggests that a 2005 …


Eye Of The Beholder, K.K. Duvivier Jan 2006

Eye Of The Beholder, K.K. Duvivier

Sturm College of Law: Faculty Scholarship

Fortunately, some universals about legal audiences help make the task of defining good legal writing easier than defining good fiction writing. Legal writing must be utilitarian, so the emphasis should be on the message rather than on the writing itself. Consequently, to avoid distracting or turning off readers, my students must concentrate as much on what they should not write as on what they actually do write.


When A Rose Isn’T “Arose” Isn’T Arroz: A Guide To Footnoting For Informational Clarity And Scholarly Discourse, William B.T. Mock Jan 2006

When A Rose Isn’T “Arose” Isn’T Arroz: A Guide To Footnoting For Informational Clarity And Scholarly Discourse, William B.T. Mock

International Journal of Legal Information

The essence of footnoting is communication with the reader, but footnote communication that is literally subordinate to the primary text. What a footnote communicates therefore depends upon and extends what the primary text communicates, from telling the reader where to find the source of a reference made in the text through guiding the reader to the different ideas of other members of the invisible college of scholars in the field. By remaining sensitive to the purposes of different footnotes and the needs of the reader, effective footnoting can make a valuable contribution to scholarship.


Blogging And The Transformation Of Legal Scholarship, Lawrence B. Solum Jan 2006

Blogging And The Transformation Of Legal Scholarship, Lawrence B. Solum

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

Does blogging have anything to do with legal scholarship? Could blogging transform the legal academy? This paper suggests that these are the wrong questions. Blogs have plenty to do with legal scholarship--that's obvious. But what blogs have to do with legal scholarship isn't driven by anything special about blogs qua weblogs, qua collections of web pages that share the form of a journal or log. The relationship between blogging and the future of legal scholarship is a product of other forces--the emergence of the short form, the obsolesce of exclusive rights, and the trend towards the disintermediation of legal scholarship. …


Bluebook No. 18—“Thank God For Competition….”, K.K. Duvivier Nov 2005

Bluebook No. 18—“Thank God For Competition….”, K.K. Duvivier

Sturm College of Law: Faculty Scholarship

The Eighteenth Edition of The Bluebook' is now available, and thanks to competition from the ALWD Citation Manual ("ALWD Manual"), this version is better than ever for practitioners. In the words of Gil Atkinson, '"thank God for competition. When our competitors upset our plans or outdo our designs, they open infinite possibilities of our own work to us."


Teaching Legal Research And Writing With Actual Legal Work: Extending Clinical Education Into The First Year, Steven D. Schwinn Sep 2005

Teaching Legal Research And Writing With Actual Legal Work: Extending Clinical Education Into The First Year, Steven D. Schwinn

ExpressO

In this article, we advocate using actual legal work to teach legal research and writing courses, including first year courses. By “actual legal work,” we mean work that is part of an ongoing or planned lawsuit, transaction, negotiation or other form of legal representation. We offer an overview and critique of the traditional legal writing curriculum, and we describe our initiatives to build upon and enhance that curriculum with the use of actual legal work. We conclude with some thoughts on the relative merits of our approach and ideas for following our model.


Analyze This: Using Taxonomies To Scaffold Students' Legal Thinking And Writing Skills, Christine Mary Venter Sep 2005

Analyze This: Using Taxonomies To Scaffold Students' Legal Thinking And Writing Skills, Christine Mary Venter

ExpressO

This Article describes the deficiencies in current pedagogies used in many law schools. It suggests refocussing attention on the development of students' analytical skills, and describes the use of learning theory and taxonomies to achieve that goal. The argument is made that by specifically developing students' analytical skills, students can become more effective writers and lawyers.


Two Rules For Better Writing, Amy E. Sloan Sep 2005

Two Rules For Better Writing, Amy E. Sloan

All Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.


Colorado Citations, K.K. Duvivier Sep 2005

Colorado Citations, K.K. Duvivier

Sturm College of Law: Faculty Scholarship

More than ten years ago, I wrote a column addressing special citation forms used by Colorado courts. Readers have clamored for an update, so here it is. . .


Proofreading Tips, K.K. Duvivier Sep 2005

Proofreading Tips, K.K. Duvivier

Sturm College of Law: Faculty Scholarship

Typos get attention--negative attention--like a blemish on the tip of your nose on prom night. But there is a difference between our blemishes and our typos: while our blemishes may seem more prominent to us than to others, our eyes usually slip right past our own typos. This column presents some techniques for detecting and correcting these errors.


Taking The Road Less Traveled: Why Practical Scholarship Makes Sense For The Legal Writing Professor, Mitchell J. Nathanson Aug 2005

Taking The Road Less Traveled: Why Practical Scholarship Makes Sense For The Legal Writing Professor, Mitchell J. Nathanson

Mitchell J Nathanson

This article examines the issue of scholarship as it pertains to the legal writing professor. While the old adage that you should “write what you know” applies universally – to fiction as well as non-fiction and to scholarship written by the legal writing professor as much as it does to the doctrinal professor, the question this article attempts to answer is this: given that legal writing is a “skills” rather than “substantive” course, just what is it that legal writing professors, at least as compared to their doctrinal counterparts, know? Through the analysis of an original professional background survey of …


Keeping Students Interested While Teaching Citation, Anna P. Hemingway Jul 2005

Keeping Students Interested While Teaching Citation, Anna P. Hemingway

Anna P. Hemingway

No abstract provided.


Sorting Things Out—Which, That, Then, Than, When, Where, K.K. Duvivier Jul 2005

Sorting Things Out—Which, That, Then, Than, When, Where, K.K. Duvivier

Sturm College of Law: Faculty Scholarship

The May 2005 column addressing "which" and "that" evoked a flurry of comments about additional issues. This column responds to the reader questions that column spawned.


How To Make Your Appellate Brief More Readable, Jonathon S. Byington Jul 2005

How To Make Your Appellate Brief More Readable, Jonathon S. Byington

Faculty Journal Articles & Other Writings

This article discusses ways to improve the readability of appellate briefs. It is a synthesis of suggestions from several state appellate judges, numerous articles on appellate practice, and the author's own observations.