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Legal Writing

Legal Writing Prof Blog

By law professors Coleen M. Barger, Sue Liemer and Nancy Soonpaa

Post Frequency: 31.6/day

Last Entry: April 01, 2011 at 15:42:31

LexisNexis: free access to firm-deferred 09 grads in public service

Posted on May 05, 2009
LexisNexis has announced that it will provide free database access to qualifying 2009 graduates whose employers have deferred their employment start dates. LexisNexis access will include federal and state cases, codes, regulations, and law reviews. The ASPIRE (Associates Serving Public...

configuring Facebook for greater privacy

Posted on May 05, 2009
So you have a Facebook account, and your list of friends is growing. As much as you enjoy reading the news feed with their updates, do you ever worry that when you post what you're doing, you may be revealing...

Ward Churchill asks Colorado judge to reinstate him

Posted on May 05, 2009
This is a story we continue to follow - that of the Colorado ethnic studies professor whom a jury concluded was fired in retaliation for his controversial academic writings but whom the University of Colorado claims was terminated due to...

More on Amazon's plans to introduce larger format Kindle

Posted on May 05, 2009
Professor Barger reported on this yesterday but if she will indulge me, I think the story is so big, it deserves a second post. The New York Times reported on Monday that Amazon's new Kindle may be released later this...

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AALS solicitation for information about ways teachers are enriching their classrooms

Posted on May 05, 2009
The Best Practices for Legal Ed. blog is reporting that last Friday, deans received an email from the AALS Standing Committee on Curriculum asking about ways ?ways in which law teachers are enriching their classroom teaching by bringing in background...

Professionalism alert: Unethical for lawyer to use third party to "friend" witness on Facebook

Posted on May 05, 2009
This is an interesting "advisory opinion" from the Philadelphia Bar Association's Professional Guidance Committee concluding that it is unethical for a lawyer to hire a third party in order to "friend" the Facebook and/or MySpace profile(s) of a litigation witness...

Brewing controversy - how will law schools report to USNWR the employment status of deferred grads?

Posted on May 04, 2009
Thanks to Above the Law for bringing to our attention this story, which is sure to grow larger and more inflammed than, well . . . you can fill in your own metaphor. While this issue just happens to be...

Twitter quitters tried it, didn't like it

Posted on May 04, 2009
The Associated Press is reporting that more people are quitting Twitter than are posting messages on the microblogging service. A study shows that more than 60% of Twitter's users in the U.S. have left the service a month later. Why...

a Kindle-r, gentler way to carry law books?

Posted on May 04, 2009
So we hear that Amazon has scheduled a press event for Wednesday, April 6, and some say it's to announce the release of a new--and of course, improved--but more importantly, BIGGER Kindle. It's said the bigger format is ideal for...

The pros and cons of social media for lawyers

Posted on May 04, 2009
The Legal Blog Watch raises the question whether social media tools are good marketing devices for lawyers or not: After seeing this recent post at Larry Bodine's Lawyer Marketing Blog, I wonder whether we're wasting our time. Bodine points to...

LexisNexis reports security breach resulting in possible loss of personal data for 32,000 users

Posted on May 04, 2009
SiliconValley.com is reporting that LexisNexis notified 32,000 customers on Friday that their personal data - including names, birth dates, and social security numbers - may have been improperly accessed by scammers intent on setting up phony credit card accounts...

the demise of the apostrophe?

Posted on May 04, 2009
This www.msn.com article asks whether we are seeing the demise of the apostrophe, complete with photos of signs and plentiful examples. After reading a handful of appellate briefs, my answer would be . . . maybe. For some writers, definitely!!...

Professional ethics alert: Lawyers - be careful who you send those emails to.

Posted on May 03, 2009
This is an interesting and important post from the Lawyerist blog reminding lawyers of the pitfalls of communicating with clients through their private email accounts if clients access those accounts from their work computers. There has been a growing awareness?and...

send in your LWI conference proposals

Posted on May 01, 2009
The website at which you can submit proposals to speak at the 2010 LWI Biennial Conference is live as of today. At that site, you can review the Call for Proposals, see a sample proposal, read about poster presentations, and...

J. ALWD Call for Articles -- The Use of Metaphor and Narrative in Interpreting and Composing Legal Texts

Posted on May 01, 2009
The Journal of the Association of Legal Writing Directors (J. ALWD) invites submission of articles for its Fall 2010 Metaphor & Narrative issue. In addition to articles that address the theme, the Journal encourages authors to submit articles on any....

Blackwell Award--Call for Nominations

Posted on May 01, 2009
Colleagues and friends of legal writing are invited to submit nominations for one of the most prestigious awards in our field, the Thomas F. Blackwell Memorial Award for Outstanding Achievement in the Field of Legal Writing. The 2010 winner will...

Ode to the mediocre professor

Posted on May 01, 2009
This is an essay called the Mediocre Professor from the Chronicle of Higher Ed that I really like and, actually, find quite touching. In the essay, an English professor at a small, liberal arts college confesses his limitations as a...

The ways legal academics have contributed to tech innovations useful to the practice of law

Posted on May 01, 2009
Here's a story from Law.com describing a number of technological innovations originating in law school that have had impact on the practice of law such as a bankruptcy case tracking system begun by St. John's University School of Law and...

It's Law Day - did you forget?

Posted on May 01, 2009
I confess - I did. Fortunately, the President didn't as evidenced by this proclamation from the White House which begins: In 1958, President Eisenhower established Law Day as 'a day of national dedication to the principles of government under law.'...

More on USNWR rankings - the discussion continues

Posted on May 01, 2009
Thanks to Terri LeClercq and two others who contributed to the discussion we tried to start (here, here and here) about the wisdom and impact of the legal writing specialty program rankings. Four years has now passed since USNWR first...

Amazon offers free cloud computing services to educators

Posted on May 01, 2009
To the extent Westlaw's TWEN and Lexis' Blackboard (along with GoogleDocs, among others) are already forms of cloud computing, I'm not sure whether Amazon's service has any advantages that would cause law profs to forego those in favor of this....

job openings at University of San Diego

Posted on May 01, 2009
The University of San Diego School of Law will hire two Instructors to teach the legal research, writing, and analysis course--Lawyering Skills I--for the 2009-2010 academic year. These are full-time, non-tenure track faculty positions in a directorless program, whose faculty...

Friday video fun - how not to do a PowerPoint presentation

Posted on May 01, 2009
Under the rubric of Friday fun falls this YouTube video poking fun at the common mistakes and pitfalls more commonly known as "death by PowerPoint." Enjoy! Hat tip to Deborah McGovern - Nova law librarian extraordinaire. I am the scholarship...

Summer job tips to pass along to your students

Posted on May 01, 2009
The Young Lawyers Blog is offering up the following advice to summer law clerks: Communicate. This is probably the most important tip. If you have questions about a project, ask questions. You are not expected to know everything, but you...

Number of law school applicants up 3.8% according to LSAC

Posted on April 30, 2009
This is a story we've been reporting on here, here and here, through all its up and downs. While the number might change, yet again, as of today, this is where it stands. Five schools have reported increases of at...

More letter writing advice - this time it's how to write the killer cover letter

Posted on April 30, 2009
Students, especially, take note - these 5 tips come to us from the Let's Talk Turkey blog written by a former headhunter and present resume consultant. This is a good one to pass along to your students during the last...

The best and worst college rejection letters

Posted on April 30, 2009
This blog is devoted to effective writing, right? Well, the Wall Street Journal is running a story that collects the best and worst examples of college rejection letters. Read on to learn how to do it right, or wrong, as...

Ferris Bueller's crime spree

Posted on April 30, 2009
The film Ferris Bueller's Day Off (Paramount Pictures 1986) continues to provide inspiration for law professors' legal writing assignments and exams. Adjunct Prof David Dirgo contributed a great Bueller-inspired insurance-law memo problem to the Legal Writing Institute's Idea Bank in...

Have wikis, those paradigms of collaborative publishing, lost their mojo?

Posted on April 30, 2009
According to one commentator- yes they have. Although Wikipedia is well-established, some analysts argue that the use of wikis in general have lost steam: Just a few years ago, it seemed nearly everyone, in academe and out, was hailing the...

Reader comment(s) about USNWR rankings of legal writing programs

Posted on April 29, 2009
As mentioned in earlier posts, we invited your comments about the relatively recent decision by USNWR to include legal writing in its rankings of specialty programs (along with tax, environmental, trial advocacy, healthcare, and IP to name a few). When...

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