Legal Writing and Research Commons^™

Compelling Orthodoxy: Myth And Mystique In The Marketing Of Legal Education, Kenneth Lasson

All Faculty Scholarship

This article seeks to demonstrate the negative effects of law schools’ preoccupations with enhancing their image and marketing strategy, especially as they are reflected in both scholarship and academic freedom.

The Plural Of Anecdote Is Not Data: Teaching Law Students Basic Survey Methodology To Improve Access To Justice In Unemployment Insurance Appeals, Enrique S. Pumar, Faith Mullen

University of the District of Columbia Law Review

This project has its origins at the University of the District of Columbia David A. Clarke School of Law (UDC). In March 2008, UDC hosted a meeting between the Pro Bono Committee of the District of Columbia Office of Administrative Hearings, and clinical professors and pro bono coordinators from several law schools in the District of Columbia. At that meeting, the Pro Bono Committee initiated a dialogue about how to better meet the needs of self-represented individuals who appear before the Office of Administrative Hearings (OAH) and extended an invitation to attend some OAH hearings. Professor Mullen accepted that invitation …

What's Up, Dockets?, Virginia C. Thomas

Library Scholarly Publications

No abstract provided.

Review Of Writing For Dollars, Writing To Please, Susan David Demaine

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

Universal Citation In Sixty Seconds, Anne Burnett

Presentations

A large format infographic describing the system for citation which permits reference to legal or law-related information in any medium without requiring reference to proprietary products. Includes a timeline of the Universal Citation Guide from 1993 to 2012, citation elements, a list of states and territories that adopted the practice and an interactive QR code for accessing AALL's page on this citation format. The poster also encouraged viewers to advocate for adopting Universal citation with judges, attorneys and legislators.

Finding Legal, Factual, And Other Information In A Digital World, Timothy L. Coggins

Law Faculty Publications

This updated listing of Internet sites for legal, factual, and other research offers a combination of more established sites and newer sites developed since the publication of the previous listing. The article began as a comprehensive bibliography of research and other sites for an Advanced Legal Research course and a series of continuing education sessions for legal assistants and paralegals.1 The current version includes sites for primary authorities, both federal and state, as well as URLs for other types of information, such as sites that assist in finding expert witnesses and biographical and background information about individuals.

How Librarians Can Help Improve Law Journal Publishing, Benjamin J. Keele, Michelle Pearse

Library Staff Publications

Librarians are well positioned to improve law journal publishing and help it evolve in the ever-changing digital environment. They can provide student editors with advice on a variety of issues such as copyright, data preservation, and version control. Librarians can also help journals adopt technical standards and improve the discoverability and usability of journal content. While few libraries will be able to adopt all these suggestions, a checklist of ideas is provided to help librarians select those that are most suitable to their libraries and journals.

Erratum, Fred R. Shapiro, Michelle Pearse

Michigan Law Review First Impressions

Fred R. Shapiro and Michelle Pearse's essay The Most-Cited Law Review Articles of All Time, 110 MICH. L. REV. 1483 (2012), omitted an article: Owen M. Fiss, Groups and the Equal Protection Clause, 5 PHIL. & PUB. AFF. 107 (1976). Professor Fiss's article should have been listed in 72nd place (with 729 citations) in Table I, Most-Cited Law Review Articles of All Time. Professor Fiss's article fell into the category of articles published in nonlegal journals with over 50 percent of the citations to them occurring in legal journals. See Shapiro & Pearse, supra, at 1487-88. This category by its …

Introduction - Reading Modern Law: Critical Methodologies And Sovereign Formations, Sundhya Pahuja, Ruth Buchanan, Stewart J. Motha

Articles & Book Chapters

Reading Modern Law identifies and elaborates upon key critical methodologies for reading and writing about law in modernity. The force of law rests on determinate and localizable authorizations, as well as an expansive capacity to encompass what has not been pre-figured by an order of rules. The key question this dynamic of law raises is how legal forms might be deployed to confront and disrupt injustice. The urgency of this question must not eclipse the care its complexity demands. This book offers a critical methodology for addressing the many challenges thrown up by that question, whilst testifying to its complexity. …

The Most-Cited Law Review Articles Of All Time, Fred R. Shapiro, Michelle Pearse

Michigan Law Review

This Essay updates two well-known earlier studies (dated 1985 and 1996) by the first coauthor setting forth lists of the most-cited law review articles. New research tools from the HeinOnline and Web of Science databases now allow lists to be compiled that are more thorough and more accurate than anything previously possible. Tables printed here present the 100 most-cited legal articles of all time, the 100 most-cited articles of the last twenty years, and some additional rankings. Characteristics of the top-ranked publications, authors, and law schools are analyzed as are trends in schools of legal thought. Data from the all-time …

The Hunger Games, James S. Heller

Library Staff Publications

No abstract provided.

Fresh Ears, Fresh Eyes: Final Editing Through Reading Aloud, Sarah Gerwig-Moore

Mercer Law Review

I have always found the final editing process to be the most difficult. Each year in my clinic, The Habeas Project, my students and I may file as many as seven or eight court briefs. Belying the name "brief," these documents are not short. And after working on a project for three or six or even nine months, it is common for teachers and students alike to lose momentum and interest in a project along with the ability to find the typo in the haystack.

My clinic students are tired (and sometimes both sick AND tired) from working long weeks …

Give Outlines Another Chance, Melissa N. Henke

Law Faculty Popular Media

Much has been written on the benefits of outlining for legal writing specifically and for other professional writing more generally. This commentary provides some of the more common benefits of outlining a legal document.

Organizational Alliances By U.S. Schools, Elizabeth Chambliss

Faculty Publications

U.S. law schools increasingly are forming organizational alliances with other training providers in the interests of market expansion and/or consolidation. At the top of the market, U.S. law schools are seeking to brand their positions within the global economy by forming alliances with elite foreign law schools, business schools, and corporate law firms and clients. Schools outside of this market are moving to establish alternative niches through alliances with solo and small firm practitioners, CLE providers, and other organizations serving low-and middle-income clients, as well as through the development of accelerated and/or specialty degrees. Schools at all levels are increasingly …

The Literacy Practices Of Law Enforcement, Leslie Eames Seawright

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation investigates police report writing at the Jackson Police Department in Northwest Arkansas. It presents three primary research questions which are addressed through qualitative methods of interview, observation, and discourse analysis.

1) In what ways does police training address report writing?

2) What audience awareness do police officers have when writing reports?

3)How do actual report audience members read and evaluate reports?

The police academy in this study fails to spend the necessary time discussing report writing. This is not rectified by the in-house training program, which pairs officers with Field Training Officers that are often reluctant or unqualified …

Public Sector Dispute Resolution In Local Governments: Lessons From The Scag Project , Alana Knaster, Gregory L. Ogden, Peter Robinson

Pepperdine Dispute Resolution Law Journal

This article seeks to share lessons from an ongoing six-year project to overcome the barriers to the use of facilitation and mediation (ADR) processes for addressing regional and interjurisdictional planning disputes throughout Southern California. The participants in this effort originally assumed that the successful use of mediation in high profile disputes would lead to greater acceptance of ADR processes by governmental officials. After several failed attempts, project leaders concluded that it would be appropriate to refocus the original methodology and strategy for promoting the use of ADR. The new strategy focuses on the establishment of mediation services for community-based disputes …

Making It Work At Work: Mediation's Impact On Employee/Employer Relationships And Mediator Neutrality , Allison Balc

Pepperdine Dispute Resolution Law Journal

This Comment discusses the ADR process of mediation in the employment setting, specifically addressing its benefits and effects on the employer/employee relationship and the potential for a non-neutral mediator who is paid by, or has some previous tie to, one of the parties. Section IA examines judicial and legislative views of ADR and mediation. IB discusses mediation's effectiveness in the workplace. Section II discusses the mediation process in an employment dispute. Section III discusses the effects of mediation on the employer and employee, empirical studies, the neutrality of mediators, and potential remedies. Section IV discusses neutrality in the mediation process. …

When Does Familiarity Breed Content? A Study Of The Role Of Different Forms Of Adr Education And Experience In Attorneys' Adr Recommendations , Roselle L. Wissler

Pepperdine Dispute Resolution Law Journal

This article first reviews proposed explanations for and solutions to the low rate of voluntary ADR use, as well as related empirical research. The article then reports the findings of a study that involved a survey of attorneys regarding their ADR education, experience with ADR as counsel or as a third-party neutral, and advice to clients about ADR. This study found that attorneys' direct experience with ADR, especially in their role as counsel but also as a neutral, was strongly related to whether they recommended ADR to clients. In contrast, ADR education had little or no relationship with attorneys' ADR …

What Works In Transformative Mediator Coaching: Field Test Findings , James R. Antes, Judith A. Saul

Pepperdine Dispute Resolution Law Journal

A process for the formative assessment (coaching) of mediators practicing from the transformative orientation was field tested at six different sites. Specifically varied were whether or not the mediator's original training was in the transformative orientation, the mediator's amount of experience practicing from the transformative orientation, and whether the role-play mediation sessions were live or videotaped. In addition to drawing conclusions about the qualifications necessary for a coach and the pros and cons of videotaped sessions versus live stop-action sessions, we developed guidelines for structuring the coaching process. We also identified a range of possible uses of the process.

Assimilative, Autonomous, Or Synergistic Visions: How Mediation Programs In Florida Address The Dilemma Of Court Connection , Dorothy J. Della Noce, Joseph P. Folger, James R. Antes

Pepperdine Dispute Resolution Law Journal

Over the past twenty-five years, the state of Florida has been recognized across the United States as a leader in the development of court-connected alternative dispute resolution programs. Mediation, in particular, has flourished across the state, with one hundred eleven programs in place in family, civil, community, and dependency sectors. Administrative support and oversight for court-connected mediation programs are provided by The Florida Dispute Resolution Center (DRC) - the administrative arm of the Florida Supreme Court - housed within the Office of the State Courts Administrator. In collaboration with the DRC, we designed and conducted a benchmarking study of seven …