Legal Writing and Research Commons^™

Narrative Understanding: Revisiting The Stories Of Lay Lawyering, Ann Shalleck

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

This article examines the tentative beginnings of Gerald Lopez's decades-long project of using storytelling as a method to describe, understand, and analyze the work of lawyers. It evaluates his 1984 article, Lay Lawyering, for its contributions to the development of narrative as a descriptive, explanatory, and critical device for compre­hending the complex and fraught work of lawyers. It begins with a detailed critique of the four parts of Lay Lawyering. In the article, Lopez first identifies problem solving and stock stories as the key concepts defining the work of the lawyer and then tells three stories from three perspectives about …

"And/Or" And The Proper Use Of Legal Language, Ira P. Robbins

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

The use of the term and/or is pervasive in legal language. Lawyers use it in all types of legal contexts—including statutes, contracts, and pleadings. Beginning in the 1930s, however, many judges decided that the term and/or should never be used in legal drafting. Ardent attacks on the term included charges that it was vague, if not meaningless, with some authorities declaring it to be a “Janus-faced verbal monstrosity,” an “inexcusable barbarism,” a “mongrel expression,” an “abominable invention,” a “crutch of sloppy thinkers,” and “senseless jargon.” Still today, critics maintain that the construct and/or is inherently ambiguous and should be avoided …

Best Practices For Teaching Advanced Legal Research Asynchronously Online, Khelani Clay, Shannon M. Roddy

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

No abstract provided.

The Continuing Duty In Reality: A Preliminary Empirical Look, David M. Siegel, Tigran W. Eldred

Faculty Scholarship

The continuing duty of criminal defense counsel to their former clients, even when those former clients bring post-conviction actions alleging ineffective assistance of counsel, has existed as a national practice standard in capital cases since at least 1987. In addition to its inclusion in the ABA’s Guidelines for the Appointment and Performance of Counsel in Death Penalty Cases since 1989, duties to former clients exist in state ethics rules as well as the ABA Model Rules of Professional Conduct. The duty has been further operationalized in non-capital litigation through a 2010 ABA formal ethics opinion concerning disclosures by trial counsel …

The Life Of The Law Cannot Be Coded, Rebecca Roiphe

Other Publications

No abstract provided.

The Public Speaks, Again: An International Study Of Legal Communication, Christopher R. Trudeau, Christine Cawthorne

University of Arkansas at Little Rock Law Review

No abstract provided.

Law Library Blog (December 2017): Legal Beagle's Blog Archive, Roger Williams University School Of Law

Law Library Newsletters/Blog

No abstract provided.

Irlafarc! Surveying The Language Of Legal Writing, Terrill Pollman, Judith M. Stinson

Maine Law Review

Language, like law, is a living thing. It grows and changes. It both reflects and shapes the communities that use it. The language of the community of legal writing professors demonstrates this process. Legal writing professors, who stand at the heart of an emerging discipline in the legal academy, are creating new terms, or neologisms, as they struggle to articulate principles of legal analysis, organizational paradigms conventional to legal writing, and other legal writing concepts. This new vocabulary can be both beneficial and detrimental. It can be beneficial because it expands the substance of an emerging discipline. It also can …

Language Changes, But Should Legal Writing Change With It?, Diane B. Kraft

Law Faculty Popular Media

No abstract provided.

Allstar Benchmarking: How Collaborating On Collecting And Sharing Data Is A Win-Win, Christine I. Dulac

Faculty Publications

We all know it’s hard to tell a library’s story to its stakeholders. Academic law libraries are expensive enterprises, and it’s challenging to capture the complete picture of the value that their resources, activities, and services provide. Consider as well the ever-increasing demands to augment services, while at the same time having to justify the need for new services and prove their cost-effectiveness In this environment, decision-makers need a clear understanding of what the library wants to accomplish, how it intends to meet its goals, and how it will measure success. What are the most important operations and services? Why …

Sanctions For Evading Maximum Page Limits On Court Filings, Douglas E. Abrams

Faculty Publications

Judge Marrero joins a growing lineup of judges who have imposed or threatened sanctions on counsel for attempting to evade court rules that set maximum page limits on briefs, memoranda, and other filings. Orders and reported opinions catalogue various strategies, including these: presenting the main text in a font smaller than the court's required font; presenting the main text with spacing less than required double spacing; using excessive footnotes, often single-spaced or in small fonts; or narrowing required margins on the sides, the top, or the bottom of pages.

Cultivating Legal Research Skills, Jan B. Bissett, Margi Heinen

Library Scholarly Publications

No abstract provided.

Law Library Blog (November 2017): Legal Beagle's Blog Archive, Roger Williams University School Of Law

Law Library Newsletters/Blog

No abstract provided.

Access To Justice Starts In The Library: The Importance Of Competent Research Skills And Free/Low-Cost Research Resources, Deborah K. Hackerson

Maine Law Review

Access to justice is an important aspirational goal for everyone in the legal profession. Lawyers, however, cannot provide access to justice without adequate practical skills and the tools necessary to complete their work. Lawyers and law students provide many hours of public and pro bono service every year. With the current state of the economy and the record jobless rate, it is likely that the need for low cost and free legal services will continue to grow. In order to carry out the mission of continuing to provide services to those in need, law students must prepare learn the practical …

The Cuban Missile Crisis, Historian Barbara W. Tuchman, And The Art Of Writing, Douglas E. Abrams

Faculty Publications

From behind-the-scenes accounts, we know that an articulate best-selling book published just a few months earlier by historian Barbara W. Tuchman, a private citizen who held no government position, contributed directly to the delicate negotiated resolution of the Cuban Missile Crisis.

After chronicling Tuchman's contribution to world peace. this article discusses her later Public Douglas commentary about what she called the "art of writing," commentary that remains instructive for lawyers who write as representatives of clients or causes in the private or public sector.

Disrespectful Dissent: Justice Scalia's Regrettable Legacy Of Incivility, J. Lyn Entrikin

The Journal of Appellate Practice and Process

No abstract provided.

Cleaning Up Quotations, Jack Metzler

The Journal of Appellate Practice and Process

No abstract provided.

New Beginnings: Embracing The Tradition And Innovation Of “Practice Greatness”, Gary Gildin

Dickinson Law Review (2017-Present)

No abstract provided.

Do We Need A Global Commercial Code?, Michael Joachim Bonell

Dickinson Law Review (2017-Present)

The International Institute for the Unification of Private Law (UNIDROIT) first launched the idea of preparing a code of inter- national trade law. In 1970, the Secretariat of UNIDROIT submitted a note to the newly established United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) in justification of such an initiative and indicated some of the salient features of the project. What was proposed was a veritable code in the continental sense. The proposed code included two parts: part one dealing with the law of obligations generally, and part two relating to specific kinds of commercial transactions. However, the “Progressive codification …

Rat Race: Insider Advice On Landing Judicial Clerkships, Ruggero J. Aldisert, Ryan C. Kirkpatrick, James R. Stevens Iii

Dickinson Law Review (2017-Present)

For many, the judicial clerkship application process is, to quote Sir Winston Churchill, a “riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma.” It is a frenzied “Pamplona-like” atmosphere that begins on Labor Day +1 and continues unabated for several weeks. The initial week is the make or break point in the application review process because it is then that the judge starts to read each application and makes a “yes” or “no” evaluation. If his vote is a “no,” then no further action is taken. If it is a “yes,” the application passes to the law clerks, who then begin …