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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

Guide to low-cost and free online legal research tools

Posted on March 27, 2009
This one comes to us from our good buddies at the Law Librarian Blog. Georgetown has compiled an excellent and seemingly comprehensive list of free (or low-cost) online legal research tools and databases. Given that the economy nowadays has every...

Scholarship alert: "Training Independent Learners: Student Self-Editing Checklist for Law School Papers, Notes and Comments"

Posted on March 27, 2009
UMKC is on fire these days (see below). This article was authored by three of their faculty, Professors Wanda Temm, Allen Rostron and Nancy Levit. It is available from SSRN here. From the abstract: Too often, professors offer exemplar edits...

Scholarship alert: "Legal Storytelling: The Theory and the Practice - Reflective Writing Across the Curriculum"

Posted on March 27, 2009
The above article is by Professor Nancy Levit of U. Missouri at Kansas City. It's available on SSRN here. From the abstract: This article concentrates on the theory of narrative or storytelling and addresses the reasons it is vital to...

Another blogger critical of Koppen's ranking of moot court programs.

Posted on March 26, 2009
Professor Robert Sherwin, the Director of Advocacy at Texas Tech University School of Law, has a blog called The Bench Brief in which he offers some critical commentary about Brian Koppen's ranking of moot court programs found at lawschooladvocacy.com which...

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The cost-benefit analysis of attending law school in the new legal marketplace

Posted on March 25, 2009
Given housing prices these days, the cost of attending grad school may now be the single biggest expenditure people make. With private (and some public) law school degrees weighing in at $100k to $150k a pop, and a legal marketplace...

Breaking news - LSAC reports a last minute surge in law school apps

Posted on March 25, 2009
We had previously reported here that as of late February, the Law School Admissions Council ("LSAC") released data showing that although the number of law school applications was up, the number of applicants remained flat. That meant that the same...

clearly, obviously

Posted on March 25, 2009
I tell my students to remember the words of Jean Luc Picard on the bridge of the Starship Enterprise. Instead of saying "clearly, ..." or "obviously, ...," just "make it so." Now after years of steering my students away from...

reading and writing opinions -- a working paper

Posted on March 25, 2009
Third Circuit Senior Judge Ruggero Aldisert and two of his clerks, Meehan Rasch and Matthew P. Bartlett, have posted their new working paper, Opinion Writing and Opinion Readers, on SSRN. From the abstract: The authors-a federal appellate judge and his...

Adjuncts fight back!

Posted on March 25, 2009
Little 'ol Weber State University in Ogden, Utah didn't know who they were messin' with when, for budgetary reasons, they decided to cut adjunct pay by 7% while leaving full time faculty pay unscathed. Like Tony Montana said: "When you...

Law firm websites that work - it's all about effective communication

Posted on March 25, 2009
There's an interesting article in the April issue of the ABA Journal called Law Firm Websites that Work that gathers opinions from several experts about what makes a law firm's website effective. The experts opine on the following categories: Law...

Strunk & White's Elements of Style celebrates 50th B-day

Posted on March 25, 2009
It's considered a classic, perhaps the classic usage and grammar guide and next week it turns 50. Where have the years gone? To celebrate, the publisher has issued a special leather-bound, gold-embossed edition. Why has this little guide that came...

Trouble with the links - working on it

Posted on March 24, 2009
Thanks to those who let me know some of the blog links are not working. They changed the platform on us last week and I have to work out some of the bugs. I'll get the links working ASAP. Thanks...

What makes a great lawyer?

Posted on March 24, 2009
The answer, according to an informal survey of Philadelphia lawyers, includes being an excellent listener, relentless dedication to enhancing one's knowledge and skill-set, being extremely detail oriented, possessing a great intuition, and having a tremendous passion for the law...

The Mercer Law Review has again

Posted on March 24, 2009
The Mercer Law Review has again reserved a spot in one of its upcoming issues for an article on a legal writing subject. The newly appointed law review editors are on a fairly tight schedule; they want to complete article...

Holidays We Really Like

Posted on March 23, 2009
Another date to save! April 23 is the Giornata Mondiale del Libro e del Diritto d'Autore -- the International Day of Books and the Rights of Authors. Celebrate with a good book . . . or at least a good...

Global Legal Skills Conference IV - Georgetown University Law Center

Posted on March 23, 2009
Save the date. The fourth Global Legal Skills Conference will be held at Georgetown University Law Center in Washington D.C. for those who teach legal writing and skills to lawyers and law students in other countries or who speak English...

Scholarship alert: "Promoting In-Depth Analysis: A Three-Part Approach to Teaching Analogical Reasoning to Novice Legal Writers"

Posted on March 23, 2009
Professors Stephanie Roberts Hartung and George of Suffolk University School of law have just published Promoting In-Depth Analysis: A Three-Part Approach to Teaching Analogical Reasoning to Novice Legal Writers From the abstract on SSRN: Analogical reasoning is ubiquitous in every...

To make the scene with the long green, U. Michigan Press bids adieu to print

Posted on March 23, 2009
Although many university presses are currently experimenting with a digital format, Inside Higher Ed. reports today that the U. of Michigan Press may be going the farthest in terms of altogether phasing out the print format. As it reports: "Within...

40 years later - Dictionary of American Regional English nears completion

Posted on March 23, 2009
e than 40 years in the making, the multi-volume dictionary project that seeks to catalog the breadth and depth of regional English in the U.S. is nearing completion according to the University of Wisconsin's News. Known as "DARE," the five...

U.N. Convention on Contracts for the International Carriage of Goods Wholly or Partly by Sea

Posted on March 22, 2009
The Contracts Law Prof Blog has a new posting on the United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Carriage of Goods Wholly or Partly by Sea, which will be open for signature on September 23, 2009. Click here to...

ALWD best papers award

Posted on March 22, 2009
To showcase outstanding legal writing scholarship, the Association of Legal Writing Directors will sponsor its first ?Best Papers? panel at its national conference this July. As many as three papers will be selected by judges? blind review for presentation by...

learning from other outsiders

Posted on March 22, 2009
As recently as fifteen years ago, there was little scholarship on the status issues plaguing legal writing professors in the United States . Scholarship by and about other ?outsider? groups in the legal academy has been -- and continues to...

Stetson University College of Law

Posted on March 20, 2009
Stetson University College of Law will host the 2009 Southeast Regional Legal Writing Conference on September 11 and 12, 2009, along with an ALWD Scholars? Forum/Workshop on September 13, 2009. The Program Committee encourages proposals for 25 minute conference presentations...

Scholarship Alert: "Step Right Up: Using Consumer Decision Making Theory to Teach Research Process in the Electronic Age"

Posted on March 20, 2009
Professor Amy Sloan of University of Baltimore School of Law has just published Step Right Up: Using Consumer Decision Making Theory to Teach Research Process in the Electronic Age in 60 S.C.L.Rev. 123 (2008). Sounds like a good 'un: The...

Here's another list for you - the top 50 moot court rankings

Posted on March 20, 2009
These are the top 50 law school appellate advocacy rankings according to Brian Koppen's Law Advocacy website (with a big 'ol hat tip to the TaxProf Blog): 1. South Texas 2. UC-Hastings 3. Georgetown 4. Washington University 5. Mississippi College...

The Ten Commandments of good lecturing

Posted on March 20, 2009
Advice on what to do and what not to do from Inside Higher Ed.: 1. Thou shalt connect new lectures to previous ones. 2. Thou shalt move beyond chalk and talk. 3. Thou Shalt Not Lecture Like a Caffeinated Hummingbird...

Law prof writing about his experience as juror results in new trial

Posted on March 20, 2009
The ABA Journal is reporting today that a New Jersey appeals court overturned yesterday a jury verdict in a civil case because a Seton Hall law professor who was a member of that jury wrote an article about the experience...

Yet another article about Twitter

Posted on March 19, 2009
What does the NBA and the judicial system have in common? Both are upset about the inappropriate use of Twitter in court and on the court according to this article on CNET. Hat tip to Above the Law. I am...

What are lawyers looking for in CLE courses?

Posted on March 19, 2009
For those legal writing profs who presently teach a CLE class or are contemplating doing so in the near future, Above the Law ran an informal survey last month asking its readers to share their thoughts about what works and...

The Legal Writing Institute has

Posted on March 19, 2009
The Legal Writing Institute has issued its Call for Proposals for the 2010 Biennial Conference. Read on! Dear Colleagues ? As many of you already know, the 2010 LWI Biennial Conference will be held in Marco Island, Florida, in June...

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