Legal Writing and Research Commons^™

An Autobiography Of A Digital Idea: From Waging War Against Laptops To Engaging Students With Laptops, Diana R. Donahoe

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

This is an autobiographical account of my attempt to bridge the digital divide to meet students' changing needs. When I first began teaching at Georgetown University Law Center in 1993, I employed many traditional teaching techniques and used printed textbooks. However, laptops soon began peppering my classroom; at first there were only a few, and then suddenly almost every student was hiding behind a laptop. I noticed that my students were looking down at their screens, typing furiously, instead of watching me while I discussed my material written on the blackboard or projected overhead. When I realized that I was …

Time To Blossom: An Inquiry Into Bloom’S Taxonomy As A Hierarchy And Means For Teaching Legal Research Skills, Paul D. Callister

Faculty Works

Within law librarianship and legal education, there has been far too little scholarly engagement on the underlying pedagogy at the heart of legal research instruction. To correct this deficiency, law librarianship needs to open a dialogue and should consider adapting Bloom’s Taxonomy as a common schema for a collaborative effort.

This paper was initially presented at the "Conference on Legal Information: Scholarship and Teaching," held at the University of Colorado Law School on June 21-22, 2009, as part of its Boulder Summer Conference Series. It follows the author's own recently published challenge to law librarianship and legal research instructors to …

Finding The Middle Ground In Collection Development: How Academic Law Libraries Can Shape Their Collections In Response To The Call For More Practice-Oriented Legal Education, Leslie A. Street, Amanda M. Runyon

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

To examine how academic law libraries can respond to the call for more practice-oriented legal education, the authors compared trends in collection management decisions regarding secondary sources at academic and law firm libraries along with law firm librarians’ perceptions of law school legal research training of new associates.

If I Had A Hammer: Can Shepardizing, Synthesis, And Other Tools Of Legal Writing Help Build Hope For Law Students?, Edward R. Becker

Articles

Are lawyers mechanics? In 1920, photographer Lewis Hines took a striking photo of a powerhouse mechanic sure-handedly wielding a large wrench to tighten bolts on a steam pump. This picture may bring to mind many things, but I suspect that many legal writing professors in our (past or present) incarnations as practicing attorneys would not look at this image and think, "My job is a lot like that." Similarly, I assume that many of our students do not think of a lawyer's role in this way. Indeed, many of our students might have chosen to pursue a career in law …

Keeping Up With Legal Technology: Five Easy Places, Jennifer L. Behrens

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Studying And Teaching “Law As Rhetoric”: A Place To Stand, Linda L. Berger

Scholarly Works

This article proposes that law students may find a better fit within the legal culture of argument if they are introduced to rhetorical alternatives to counter narrowly formalist and realist perspectives on how the law works and how judges decide cases. To support this proposal, the article describes and evaluates an upper-level elective course in Law & Rhetoric, which I have offered at two law schools since 2003.

The article makes a two-part argument: first, introducing law students to rhetorical alternatives allows them to envision their role as lawyers as constructive, effective, and imaginative while grounded in law, language, and …

The Legal Writing Institute: Celebrating 25 Years Of Teaching & Scholarship, Mary Beth Beazley

Scholarly Works

Professor Beazley joins a panel of the elite of legal writing professors at Mercer University, celebrating the 25th anniversary of the Legal Writing Institute in this transcript of the proceedings.

Where Have All The (Legal) Stories Gone?, Nancy B. Rapoport

Scholarly Works

This essay examines whether law schools are doing a good job of teaching the art of storytelling to law students.

From Imperial Scholar To Imperial Student: Minimizing Bias In Article Evaluation By Law Reviews, Rachel J. Anderson

Scholarly Works

This Article is intended to serve as a roadmap for law professors and law review editors alike in their efforts to find a better way for students to evaluate articles. Further, this Article aims to offer low-cost ways to improve the institution of student-run law reviews by strengthening editors' evaluation skills and processes. This Article is divided into three main parts. Part II of this Article, Manifestations of Systemic Bias, develops a theory of the safe-dissent continuum and employs this theory to determine whether there is empirical support for claims of bias in article evaluation and the legal discourse. Part …

Southeastern Association Of Law Libraries Annual Meeting, University Of Georgia Alexander Campbell King Law Library, Beth Adelman, Constance Ard, Jan Baker, John Beatty, Erika Beck, Jennifer Behrens, Billie J. Blaine, Pamela Bluh, Elizabeth D. Bradsher, Pam Brannon, Kevin Butterfield, Charlene Cain, Sean Chen, Terrye Conroy, Jessica De Perio Wittman, Marin Dell, James M. Donovan, Maureen A. Eggert, Robb Farmer, Elizabeth Farrell, Vicen Feliu, Sarah Glassmeyer, Suzanne R. Graham, Ismael Gullon, Edward T. Harte, Christine Heaton, James Heller, Sally Irvin, Kate Irwin-Smiler, Faye Jones, David Lehmann, Andrew Lentini, Terry Long, Shannon L. Malcolm, Terrance Manion, Roxanne Marmion, Katherine Marsh, Sarah Mauldin, Rebekah Maxwell, Pamela R. Melton, Marian Parker, Merryl Penson, Gordon Russell, James C. Smith, Dick Spinelli, Kay Todd, Robert T. Trotter, Carol A. Watson, Julie Webster-Matthews, Laura Weidig, Sarah K. Wiant, Patrick Wiseman

Conferences and Symposia to 2010

The 2009 SEAALL Annual Meeting was held in Athens Georgia, April 16-18, 2009.

Developing A Comprehensive Approach To Teaching Lawyering Skills: A Response To The Maccrate Report Fifteen Years Later, Scott E. Thompson

Faculty Publications and Presentations

No abstract provided.

Why Write?, Erwin Chemerinsky

Michigan Law Review

This wonderful collection of reviews of leading recent books about law provides the occasion to ask a basic question: why should law professors write? There are many things that law professors could do with the time they spend writing books and law review articles. More time and attention could be paid to students and to instructional materials. More professors could do pro bono legal work of all sorts. In fact, if law professors wrote much less, teaching loads could increase, faculties could decrease in size, and tuition could decrease substantially. The answer to the question "why write" is neither intuitive …

Not Just Key Numbers And Keywords Anymore: How User Interface Design Affects Legal Research, Julie M. Jones

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

Legal research is one of the foundational skills for the practice of law. Yet law school graduates are frequently admitted to the bar without adequate competence in this area. Applying both information-foraging theory and current standards for optimal web design, Ms. Jones considers, through a heuristic analysis, whether the user interfaces of Westlaw and LexisNexis help or hinder the process of legal research and the development of effective research skills.

Boulder Statement On Legal Research Education, Legal Information Conference Attendees

2009 Conference (Boulder)

The Conference on Legal Information: Scholarship and Teaching was attended by legal research professionals who gathered at the University of Colorado Law School in Boulder, Colorado on June 21-22, 2009, to discuss legal information scholarship and instruction. The following Boulder Statement on Legal Research Education was developed at that Conference and reflects the consensus of the conference participants on the theoretical foundation of a signature pedagogy for legal research education.

Practice Writing: Responding To The Needs Of The Bench And Bar In First-Year Writing Programs, Amy Vorenberg, Margaret Sova Mccabe

Law Faculty Scholarship

Do first year legal writing programs really prepare law students for the rigors of practice writing? This article begins to answer this question based on attorney and judge survey results, as well as interviews with judges who had also read student work in preparation for their interview. We found that while legal writing programs do provide a good foundation for legal writing skills, improvement can be made. Important changes that we have made at Pierce Law include shorter, more frequent assignments, variation/flexibility in choice of organizational paradigm, understanding the difference between settled and unsettled areas of law, and increased emphasis …

"The Real World": Creating A Compelling Appellate Brief Assignment Based On A Real-World Case, Elizabeth Inglehart, Martha Kanter

Faculty Working Papers

Creating an appellate brief problem that is realistic, balanced, and interesting for students to work on is one of the most challenging opportunities facing a legal analysis and writing professor. Developing such a problem is particularly important because many legal writing courses use an appellate brief problem throughout an entire law school semester, usually requiring students to write at least one, and often two, appellate briefs based on the problem, and to argue that case in a moot court. This article provides advice, drawn from the authors' experience as professor of legal analysis and writing, as to how to develop …

Law School 2.0: Legal Education For A Digital Age, David I.C. Thomson

Sturm College of Law: Faculty Scholarship

Legal education is at a crossroads. As today's media-saturated students enter law school, they find themselves thrust into old style lecture-orientated, casebook modes of instruction, much of which is over 100 years old. Over those years legal education has resisted many studies recommending change, most recently from the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and the Clinical Legal Education Association. . .

Foreword - Alinsky Conference, 42 J. Marshall L. Rev. Xxv (2009), Walter J. Kendall Iii

UIC Law Review

No abstract provided.

Cognition And Star Trek™: Learning And Legal Education, 42 J. Marshall L. Rev. 959 (2009), Kate E. Bloch

UIC Law Review

No abstract provided.

Why Punctuation Matters; Part One, David Spratt

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

No abstract provided.

Grammar Confidential: Dispelling Common Writing Myths, David Spratt

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

No abstract provided.

Interactive Group Learning In The Legal Writing Classroom: An International Primer On Student Collaboration And Cooperation In Large Classrooms, Roberta K. Thyfault, Kathryn Fehrman

Faculty Scholarship

Research has long shown that students who work in small groups learn and retain more than students who are taught by other techniques. This crucial bit of information has led many scholars and educators to explore a variety of models for supporting and involving students in group learning. Part II of this article will provide an overview of the scholarship of collaborative and cooperative learning and the associated definitions and techniques. Part III discusses the application of collaborative and cooperative learning techniques in the law school classroom and special considerations and suggestions for international and large law school classrooms. Finally, …

Feature: The Father Of Miranda, James Tobin

Law Quadrangle (formerly Law Quad Notes)

This is the first in a series of articles about the intellectual history of the Law School, and the impact our scholars have had, from the classroom to the Supreme Court.

Yale Kamisar's transformative impact on the law began with a humble hunch in the early 1960s, when he was a young professor at the University of Minnesota.

Feature: The Roots Of The Executive Branch

Law Quadrangle (formerly Law Quad Notes)

When President Barack Obama needed a top adviser and steadfast sounding board, he turned to a Michigan Law alumna who has been called the "First Friend" and "the other half of Obama's brain." When he considered appointees for the role of Secretary of the Interior, he chose and alumnus he called a "champion for farmers, ranchers, and rural communities." Here, we profile some of Obama's aides, advisers, and appointees who have ties to Michigan Law, and who began their jobs by our press time. We highlight how their experiences in Law School helped to shape their journey from the gothic …

Feature: Teaching The Teachers, Nicole Fawcett

Law Quadrangle (formerly Law Quad Notes)

A new ranking system explores 'intellectual super-spreaders'. A new model for determining the influence of law schools looks at the links between where law professors received their J.D. and where they go on to teach law. The model, which uses a mixture of social network analysis and computer simulation, shows how a handful of elite institutions are likely influencing legal principles and attitudes across the country. Michigan Law ranks third in the study.

Feature: Anatomy Of An Alumnus, Katie Vloet

Law Quadrangle (formerly Law Quad Notes)

50 years later, remembring Anatomy of a Murder and the fly-fishing, U.P.-loving, mushroom-hunting state Supreme Court justice who wrote it.

The Theory And The Practice Reflective Writing Across The Curriculum, Nancy Levit

Faculty Works

No abstract provided.

A Derivatives Market In Legal Academia, Paul H. Edelman

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

Building on the success of derivatives markets in the financial arena, I show how similar markets can be used to hedge risk in legal academia. Prudent use of these markets will generate cash, mitigate errors in hiring, and increase the academic prestige of law schools. In short, they can do for legal academia what they have already done to the financial world.

Teaching Multiple Skills In Drafting & Simulation Courses, Karen J. Sneddon

Articles

Good morning. I am really excited to be at this conference as a transactional lawyer who never drafted anything before she went into practice and had very, very little experience with any of the other transactional skills that I would be using on a daily basis. I am really excited to hear about the number of courses and opportunities that students have now. Of course, I am thrilled to speak about the opportunities that I offer the students in my courses.

What I do is provide two opportunities to learn about counseling. Every student at Mercer University School of Law …

Legal Research Assessment, Simon Canick

Faculty Scholarship

Legal research instructors seek to provide their students with a working knowledge of important research tools, strategies with which to develop a rational research plan, and the skill to conduct research efficiently, among other things. A well-conceived legal research class may utilize short-answer assignments, quizzes, and scavenger hunt exercises as a means to establish a baseline of knowledge with critical sources; a series of research problems, with grading based upon students' ability to describe a coherent and logical progression; and a pathfinder or process-oriented final exam, all depending on the instructor's goals. Ultimately, the variety of available assessment tools suggests …