Legal Writing and Research Commons^™

Black And Barred: The Bar Examination's History Of Exclusivity And The Threat Of Further Exclusion Posed By Aba Standard 316, Nicola A. Boothe

South Carolina Law Review

No abstract provided.

Let's All Be..Georgia? Expanding Access To Justice For Incarcerated Litigants By Rewriting The Rules For Writing The Law, Ashley Krenelka Chase

South Carolina Law Review

No abstract provided.

The "Other" Market, Cody Jacobs

Faculty Scholarship

The hiring market for tenure-track non–legal writing positions is a world unto itself with its own lingo (i.e., “meat market” and “FAR form”), its own unwritten rules (i.e., “Do not have two first-year courses in your preferred teaching package.”), and carefully calibrated expectations for candidates and schools with respect to the process and timing of hiring. These norms and expectations are disseminated to the participants in this market through a relatively well-established set of feeder fellowships, visiting assistant professor programs, elite law schools, blogs, and academic literature on the subject.

But there is another market that goes on every year …

Practice And Fitness Making Writing Perfection More Nearly Attainable, Heather Ridenour, David Spratt

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

No abstract provided.

Collaborative Relationships Between Law Librarians And Legal Writing Faculty, Susan Azyndar, Ingrid Mattson

Journal Articles

From the Introduction

How would you characterize the professional relationship between law librarians and legal writing faculty in your law school? Satisfying? Productive? Fraught? Nonexistent? Given law schools’ great demands on these groups’ time and talents and the ABA’s increased emphasis on experiential skills, law librarians and legal writing faculty should strive to develop a meaningful dialog. In this way, each group will better understand what the other can provide in terms of expertise, and the two groups can develop a mutually beneficial work dynamic.

The Fact Of The Matter, David Spratt

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

No abstract provided.

Can't Get There From Here: Recalculate Into Better Legal Writing, Heather Ridenour

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

No abstract provided.

Justice Scalia's Bottom-Up Approach To Shaping The Law, Meghan J. Ryan

Faculty Journal Articles and Book Chapters

Justice Antonin Scalia is among the most famous Supreme Court Justices in history. He is known for his originalism and conservative positions, as well as his witty and acerbic legal opinions. One of the reasons Justice Scalia's opinions are so memorable is his effective use of rhetorical devices, which convey colorful images and understandable ideas. One might expect that such powerful opinions would be effective in shaping the law, but Justice Scalia's judicial philosophy was often too conservative to persuade a majority of his fellow Justices on the Supreme Court. Further, his regular criticisms of his Supreme Court colleagues were …

Playing To The Audience, David Spratt

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

No abstract provided.

A Tale Of Three Hoaxes: When Literature Offends The Law, Molly Guptill Manning

Articles & Chapters

No abstract provided.

Sometimes Putting Pen To Paper Is Tougher Than It Seems, Heather Ridenour, David Spratt

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

No abstract provided.

Making A Case For Legal Writing Instruction … Worldwide, Diane Edelman

Working Paper Series

This article discusses the merits of teaching legal analysis and writing and of developing a legal writing program at a faculty of law, and recommends that law faculties around the world incorporate this subject. Once absent from the American law school curriculum, this subject has become a required subject in all American law schools over the past 25+ years. The article suggests steps for implementing a legal writing course or program, and offers a variety of resources for doing so.

Writer's Block: Why Punctuation Matters, Part Two, David Spratt

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

No abstract provided.

Writer's Block: The "Ins And Outs" Of Good Legal Writing, Part One, David Spratt

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

No abstract provided.

Grooming Good Legal Writers Through Tailored, Constructive Feedback, David Spratt

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

No abstract provided.

Why Punctuation Matters; Part One, David Spratt

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

No abstract provided.

Readability Studies: How Technocentrism Can Compromise Research And Legal Determinations, Louis J. Sirico Jr.

Working Paper Series

One way to determine whether consumers understand a document is to use a readability formula to assign it a score. These formulas calculate readability by counting such variables as the number of words and syllables in a passage or document. The idea of readability formulas has been defined as “an equation which combines those text features that best predict text difficulty. The equation is usually developed by studying the relationship between text features (e.g., words, sentences) and text difficulty (e.g., reading comprehension, reading rate, and expert judgment of difficulty).” Even though readability formulas are mechanical and imperfect, they are easy …

Writer's Block, David Spratt

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

No abstract provided.

Third Best Brief, 2007 Aba National Appellate Advocacy Competition, Shunta R. Harmon, Leslie B. Horne, Rebecca M. Thornhill

Competition Materials

The ABA Law Student Division's National Appellate Advocacy Competition (NAAC) emphasizes the development of oral advocacy skills through a realistic appellate advocacy experience. Competitors participate in a hypothetical appeal to the United States Supreme Court. The competition involves writing a 40-page brief as either respondent or petitioner and then arguing the case in front of the mock court. This year the teams argued the case McCarthy v. United States, a fictional appeal, to the Supreme Court.

Second-year students Shunta R. Harmon, Leslie B. Horne and Rebecca captured the regional championship and third best brief. Third-year student Stephen A. Shea and …

Best Brief, 17th Annual National First Amendment Moot Court Competition, Bret Hobson, Lauren Mock

Competition Materials

From First Amendment Center News Release:

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — The team from George Mason University School of Law won the 17th Annual National First Amendment Moot Court Competition today at the First Amendment Center at Vanderbilt University.

Recognized for “best brief” in the competition were Bret Hobson and Lauren Mock of the University of Georgia School of Law; and for “best oralist,” Ryan Faulconer of the University of Virginia School of Law.

The competition this year focused on a hypothetical case involving commercial speech, specifically attorney advertising. Teams of student advocates from 35 law schools argued both sides of complex …

The Catch-22 In Prison Privatization: The Problem With The Solution, Ahmed M.T. Riaz

ExpressO

A step into just about any state prison in the United States reveals an institution plagued by over-population, with just about every prison running at more than 100% capacity. The problem, of course, is not new but one that has received great attention. In the past decade or so the solution has been privatization of state prisons. Proponents of privatization have pushed forth the idea that private institutions are the solution to prison overcrowding. However, by looking to for-profit private institutions as a means to resolving the problems of the penal system, are legislators in fact ensuring that the problems …

At War With The Eclectics: Mapping Pragmatism In Contemporary Legal Analysis, Justin Desautels-Stein

ExpressO

This article has two primary goals. The first is descriptive, and seeks to respond to what appears to be an increasing degree of confusion over the word “pragmatism,” especially as it is used in a good deal of legal literature. This descriptive aim begins by separating out three general categories of pragmatism: (1) the so-called “everyday” pragmatism familiar to the American vernacular, (2) the classical philosophy of the early pragmatist authors like William James and John Dewey, and (3) pragmatism as understood in the context of law. The majority of the article is subsequently concerned with exploring this last category, …

2006 Talmadge Moot Court Competition Winning Brief, Tully Blalock, Emily Shingler

Competition Materials

No abstract provided.

A Complete Property Right Amendment, John H. Ryskamp

ExpressO

The trend of the eminent domain reform and "Kelo plus" initiatives is toward a comprehensive Constitutional property right incorporating the elements of level of review, nature of government action, and extent of compensation. This article contains a draft amendment which reflects these concerns.

Form And Substance: Standards For Promotion And Retention Of Legal Writing Faculty On Clinical Tenure Track, Melissa H. Weresh

ExpressO

This article compares standards for promotion and retention of legal writing faculty on a clinical tenure track. The article provides a brief history of legal writing professionals and examines specific employment criteria such as teaching, service, and scholarship. The article makes recommendations regarding those criteria based upon an assessment of institutional realities and the historical development of the profession.

Teaching In Reverse: A Positive Approach To Analytical Errors In 1l Writing, Lesley S. Kagan, Susan E. Provenzano

ExpressO

No abstract provided.

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 …

Learning To Writing In Code: The Value Of Using Legal Writing Exercises To Teach Tax Law, Scott A. Schumacher

ExpressO

Traditionally, law school tax courses have been taught using a mix of problems, class discussion, the Socratic method, and one end-of-term exam. The goal of these courses is to introduce students to key concepts of tax law and to teach them the essential skill of reading and interpreting the Internal Revenue Code and Treasury Regulations. This traditional method of instruction is an efficient and cost-effective way of transmitting a great deal of complex information to a large number of students. It is also a good vehicle to teach the essential skill of reading and interpreting the Code. However, the time …

[Insert Song Lyrics Here]: The Uses And Misuses Of Popular Music Lyrics In Legal Writing, Alex B. Long

ExpressO

Legal writers frequently utilize the lyrics of popular music artists to help advance a particular theme or argument in legal writing. And if the music we listen to says something about us as individuals, then the music we, the legal profession as a whole, write about may something about who we are as a profession. A study of citations to popular artists in law journals reveals that, not surprisingly, Bob Dylan is the most popular artist in legal scholarship. The list of names of the other artists rounding out the Top Ten essentially reads like a Who’s Who of baby …

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 …