Legal Writing and Research Commons^™

Wanting To Do More But Bound To Do Less: A Law Librarian's Dilemna, Paul Mclaughlin

Law Library Faculty Scholarship

The role of the law librarian has changed from managing the contents of a library’s collection of books to knowing how to find information sources located around the world contained in a variety of formats, taking part in instruction, and participating in networking activities. Law librarians are constrained by legal and professional codes. If they are cautious, law librarians can assist, instruct, and reach out to public patrons and students while operating within the professional guidelines that govern them.

Understanding The Tethered Generation: Next Gens Come To Law School, Mary Ann Becker

Duquesne Law Review

No abstract provided.

Wanting To Do More But Bound To Do Less: A Law Librarian’S Dilemma, Paul Mclaughlin

Scholarly Works

The role of the law librarian has changed from managing the contents of a library’s collection of books to knowing how to find information sources located around the world contained in a variety of formats, taking part in instruction, and participating in networking activities. Law librarians are constrained by legal and professional codes. If they are cautious, law librarians can assist, instruct, and reach out to public patrons and students while operating within the professional guidelines that govern them.

Not Your Mother's Will: Gender, Language, And Wills, Karen J. Sneddon

Articles

“Boys will be boys, but girls must be young ladies” is an echoing patriarchal refrain from the past. Formal equality has not produced equality in all areas, as demonstrated by the continuing wage gap. Gender bias lingers and can be identified in language. This Article focuses on Wills, one of the oldest forms of legal documents, to explore the intersection of gender and language. With conceptual antecedents in pre-history, written Wills found in Ancient Egyptian tombs embody the core characteristics of modern Wills. The past endows the drafting and implementation of Wills with a wealth of traditions and experiences. The …

Enigma: A Variation On The Theme Of Legal Writing’S Place In Contemporary Legal Education, Ian Gallacher

College of Law - Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

For Patients And Profits: Ethical Astuteness And The Business Of Dialysis, Joshua E. Perry

Belmont Law Review

The view of ethical astuteness introduced and outlined in this paper aims to add value for a firm in the healthcare business – with a particular application to a for-profit organization providing dialysis services – by addressing two chief concerns: A.) The competing priorities between the patient’s interest in the healthcare encounter and the investor’s interest in generating a return on profits; and B.) The vulnerabilities of a financially-conflicted, for-profit healthcare provider to an allegation of medical malpractice.

The Great Tactician: The Chief Justice, Obamacare, And Walking The Tightrope Of Partisan Politics, Katherine H. Blankenship

Belmont Law Review

This note argues that true judicial restraint is a fictional impossibility. Any practice of judicial restraint is at the very same moment an exercise of judicial activism because a judge cannot approach the law from a truly objective, mechanical position. Every judicial opinion is influenced not only by the political and moral vantage point of the judge, but also the judge’s policy and societal concerns. This thesis is illustrated by a case study of National Federation of Independent Business v. Sebelius, and, specifically, Chief Justice Roberts’s opinion regarding the individual mandate and the Medicaid provision of the Affordable Care Act. …

Our Patient System And Health Care Information Technology: Valuable Incentive Or Impediment To Innovation?, Gary Montle, Ryan Levy, Margaret Rowland

Belmont Law Review

Patentable inventions have often been transformative, but the pace of such innovation has changed exponentially in the last thirty years. The patent law still seeks to reward ingenuity and nowhere should this maxim be truer than in the area of health information technology. But the pace and scope of changes in that arena have made rewarding that ingenuity with a patent increasingly difficult. The courts have struggled to apply patent laws to technology that is new and novel to a fault. This Article seeks to address how it is possible to continue to reward ingenuity in a field where progress …

Gestational Surrogacy Contracts In Tennessee: Freedom Of Contract Concerns & Feminist Principles In The Balance, Jennifer S. White

Belmont Law Review

Drawing upon feminist theory and principles of freedom of contract, this Note proposes a new statutory framework for addressing surrogacy in the state of Tennessee. Part I provides a balanced discussion of why couples choose surrogacy as well as varying types of surrogacy available to individuals. Part II explores the judicial and legislative responses toward surrogacy contracts in the United States and discusses significant surrogacy litigation that continues to shape the public policy arguments surrounding this issue. Part III provides background on Tennessee’s approach to the right to privacy as well as recent surrogacy case law and legislation. Part IV …

Defining Experiential Legal Education, David I.C. Thomson

Sturm College of Law: Faculty Scholarship

This article offers in Part I the major sources for a possible new definition of experiential learning, and describes the limitations of the definitional elements that we currently have. Part II argues that the definitions we currently have are not only limited but their limitations are being further exposed by the growth and variety in experiential learning opportunities currently being offered in many law schools. Part III offers a new definition for experiential learning in law, together with a series of questions that can be used in applying the definition. Finally, Part IV offers application of the new definition to …

"Teaching" Formation Of Professional Identity, David I.C. Thomson

Sturm College of Law: Faculty Scholarship

This Article is my attempt to provide a guide to what professional identity formation is—as distinct from more familiar concepts of professionalism and ethics—and what legal educators are doing, and could do in the future, to foster this sort of professional formation in their courses and curricula. In Part I, I offer some background and history of the topic, which supports a new definition provided in the Article for lawyer professional identity formation. I describe in Part II what some schools are doing to “teach” formation of professional identity and argue that those efforts have some significant limitations. I argue …

Fourth Colonial Frontier Legal Writing Conference: Teaching The Academically Underprepared Law Student [Foreword], Jan M. Levine

Duquesne Law Review

No abstract provided.

Foreward, Kirsha Trychta

Duquesne Law Review

No abstract provided.

Changing Gears To Meet The "New Normal" In Legal Education, Courtney G. Lee

Duquesne Law Review

No abstract provided.

Do Med Schools Do It Better?: Improving Law School Admissions By Adopting A Medical School Admissions Model, Rebecca C. Flanagan

Duquesne Law Review

No abstract provided.

Are We There Yet?: Aligning The Expectations And Realities Of Gaining Competency In Legal Writing, Sherri Lee Keene

Duquesne Law Review

No abstract provided.

Of Moby Dick And Tartar Sauce: The Academically Underprepared Law Student And The Curse Of Overconfidence, Ruth Vance, Susan Stuart

Duquesne Law Review

No abstract provided.

Eye Of The Beholder: How Perception Management Can Counter Stereotype Threat Among Struggling Law Students, Catherine Christopher

Duquesne Law Review

When individuals belong to a group about which there is a negative stereotype, their fear of confirming that stereotype will often suppress their performance ability. This phenomenon is known as "stereotype threat," and it has been documented with regard to gender, race, age, social class, athletic ability, and any number of other classifications, so long as a negative stereotype exists about that group.

Law students with low grade point averages (GPAs) are at greater risk than their higher-GPA peers of failing the bar exam, and they know it. Left unchecked, the pressure of this correlation the stereotype threat-may itself depress …

Empowering Law Students To Overcome Extreme Public Speaking Anxiety: Why "Just Be It" Works And "Just Do It" Doesn't, Heidi K. Brown

Duquesne Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Cure For The Distracted Mind: Why Law Schools Should Teach Mindfulness, Shailini Jandial George

Duquesne Law Review

No abstract provided.