Legal Profession Commons^™

Even Laypeople Use Legalese, Eric H. Martinez, Francis Mollica, Edward Gibson

Faculty Scholarship

Whereas principles of communicative efficiency and legal doctrine dictate that laws be comprehensible to the common world, empirical evidence suggests legal documents are largely incomprehensible to lawyers and laypeople alike. Here, a corpus analysis (n=59 million words) first replicated and extended prior work revealing laws to contain strikingly higher rates of complex syntactic structures relative to six baseline genres of English.

Next, two pre-registered text generation experiments (n=286) tested two leading hypotheses regarding how these complex structures enter into legal documents in the first place. In line with the magic spell hypothesis, we found people tasked with writing official laws …

Law School News: If There's Life, There's Hope (August 2024), Roger Williams University School Of Law

Life of the Law School (1993- )

No abstract provided.

26th Annual Open Government Summit: Your Guide To The Access To Public Records Act & Open Meetings Act, Peter F. Neronha, Roger Williams University School Of Law

School of Law Conferences, Lectures & Events

No abstract provided.

Office Of Attorney General: Peter F. Neronha, Attorney General: Access To Public Records Act ; Open Meetings Act (Powerpoint Presentation), Office Of The Attorney General Of Rhode Island, Roger Williams University School Of Law

School of Law Conferences, Lectures & Events

No abstract provided.

Law School News: Mandell-Boisclair Justice Camp Prepares Young Scholars To Become Future Lawyers, Social Justice Advocates 7-26-2024, Jordan J. Phelan, Roger Williams University School Of Law

Life of the Law School (1993- )

No abstract provided.

Rwu School Of Law Social Justice Camp, Roger Williams University School Of Law

School of Law Conferences, Lectures & Events

No abstract provided.

First Amendment And Media Law Diversity Moot Court Competition, Roger Williams University School Of Law, Michelle Choate

School of Law Conferences, Lectures & Events

No abstract provided.

Dean Christiana Ochoa And 12 Maurer Alumni Named Indiana 250 Honorees, James Owsley Boyd

Keep Up With the Latest News from the Law School (blog)

What do Indiana Fever star Caitlin Clark, record-setting racecar driver and team owner Michael Andretti, Indianapolis Colts owner Jim Irsay, broadcasting icon Pat McAfee, and Indiana Law Dean Christiana Ochoa have in common?

All are among this year’s list of Indiana 250 honorees, recognizing some of the most influential and impactful leaders across the state, a list that also includes a number of Maurer School of Law alumni.

“The evolution of the Indiana 250 over time is one of our favorite things about it—and the reason we update the list annually,” said Nate Feltman, CEO and owner of IBJ Media. …

Law School News: Rwu Alumni Honored In Pbn's 2024 40 Under Forty Awards 7-16-2024, Triniti Brown, Roger Williams University School Of Law

Life of the Law School (1993- )

No abstract provided.

Changemakers: Juris Doctorate: Peter Sabian L'17: Practice With A Purpose 7-15-24, Jane Lee, Roger Williams University School Of Law

Life of the Law School (1993- )

No abstract provided.

Sotomayor Cites Maurer Faculty Member In Scotus’ Decline To Hear Alabama Bite Mark Case, James Owsley Boyd

Keep Up With the Latest News from the Law School (blog)

The case of an Alabama man convicted of murdering his wife in 1985 will not be reviewed by the U.S. Supreme Court, despite evidence that, nearly 40 years later, has been “wholly discredited.”

The Supreme Court denied certiorari in the case of McCrory v. Alabama, but Justice Sonia Sotomayor cited research from Indiana University Maurer School of Law Professor Valena Beety in her concurring agreement with the court’s decision.

Charles M. McCrory was convicted for the murder of his wife, Julie Bonds, based in large part on expert testimony from an odontologist who matched McCrory’s teeth to two bite marks …

The Motherhood Myth, Traditional Firms, And The Underrepresentation Of Women, Paula Schaefer

Scholarly Works

This Article makes the case that the motherhood narrative—that women are underrepresented in partnership and leadership ranks of law firms because they are their children’s primary caregivers—is a myth. After detailing how the motherhood myth has been used as an excuse for a lack of meaningful change, the Article provides evidence of an alternative narrative: “traditional firms” are structurally and culturally antagonistic to women. These firms are characterized by extreme work expectations and heavy reliance on the unpaid labor of stay-at-home spouses (SAHSs). Traditional firms’ dependence upon SAHSs is central to maintaining the firm status quo and driving out women. …

Room To Grow: Exorcising The Curse Of Coverage To Make Room For Professional Identity Formation, Barbara Glesner Fines

Faculty Works

In any conversation about integrating opportunities for professional identity formation into the curriculum, particularly when suggesting that these opportunities be integrated into required doctrinal courses, one will hear an objection that there is no room for these learning activities. Many doctrinal teachers worry that incorporating professional identity formation opportunities or focus into classes would require sacrificing the critical time, doctrinal content, and analytical skills that are the “signature pedagogy” of law schools. Lawyering skills faculty, already managing a broad, feedback-intensive range of learning objectives, may object that their courses are the last place one can find room for one more …

College Scorecard J.D. Debt And Earnings Data, Accesslex Institute

Tuition and Financial Aid

The U.S. Department of Education publishes a range of debt and earnings data by field of study on an annual basis via the College Scorecard. This data file features selected College Scorecard debt and earnings information for JD programs. The file also links College Scorecard JD programs to their school names and ID numbers as they appear in Analytix by AccessLex.

A Time Keeping Exercise For Law Students Using Excel, Jennifer L. Dubetz

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

John Lennon sang, “Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans”. How do Law students plan and spend their time? The Time Keeping Exercise was created to help our Lawyers as Leaders students find out. This poster will discuss how the Library got involved to bring to life the professor’s vision of a standardized time keeping system complete with data analysis and a respect for student privacy. Learn how we created our Excel Spreadsheet, the problems encountered, solutions discovered, and the improvements made though five years of the Time Keeping Exercise. Additionally, the Time Keeping Exercise …

What's Success? And What Is It That Gives Meaning To Our Lives?, Seow Hon Tan

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

This op-ed examines how the narrow mindset of success can hinder one from flourishing and leading an examined life. It looks at Prime Minister Lawrence Wong's call for Singaporeans to change their mindset of success, and calls for a national reset.

Stevens Foundation Selects Four Law Students As 2024 Fellows, James Owsley Boyd

Keep Up With the Latest News from the Law School (blog)

The John Paul Stevens Foundation has chosen four Indiana University Maurer School of Law students to serve as 2024 Stevens Fellows this summer. The Foundation made the announcement today (June 26).

Selection as a Stevens Fellow comes with $12,000—half from the Foundation, half from the Law School—to help offset the cost of unpaid public interest work over the summer. This year’s Stevens Fellows are Kristal Davis ’25, from Lansing, Michigan; Allegra Maldonado ’25, from Indianapolis; James Monroe ’25, from Naperville, Illinois; and Niara Wakaba ’26, from Louisville.

20th Annual Diversity Symposium Dinner 3-26-2024, Roger Williams University School Of Law

School of Law Conferences, Lectures & Events

No abstract provided.

Annual Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Celebration Lecture 1-26-24, Roger Williams University School Of Law

School of Law Conferences, Lectures & Events

No abstract provided.

Dol Fiduciary Rule 3.0 Strikeout, Base Knock, Or Home Run?, Antolin Reiber

DePaul Business & Commercial Law Journal

No abstract provided.