Legal Writing Prof Blog

Global Legal Skills Conference in Costa Rica -- Link to Conference Schedule

The 8th Global Legal Skills Conference is being held next week at the Holiday Inn Aurola in Downtown San José, Costa Rica (Central America).  Participants are expected from Australia, Canada, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Italy, Japan, Mexico, and from across the United States. The conference is organized through The John Marshall Law School in Chicago, where it first originated.  

This year's Global Legal Skills conference (the second to be held in Costa Rica) includes a "legal field trip" with visits to:

• the Supreme Court of Costa Rica (Corte Suprema de Justicia de Costa Rica),
• the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, and
• the U.S. Embassy in Costa RIca.  

Other special features of this year's conference include a plenary session to introduce law and legal education in Costa Rica and Central America and two contract negotiations workshops (one in Spanish for English speakers and one in English for Spanish speakers).  

The conference is being held during the week of the Central American Games, so it will be an especially exciting time to be in Costa Rica.

Click here to Download the latest version of the Conference Program.    Download GLS-8 Program Version 2.2

Conference registration information is available by clicking here.

The 2014 Global Legal Skills Conference will be held in Verona, Italy.

Mark E. Wojcik

Related articles

Program for Global Legal Skills Conference in Costa Rica

The Third Circuit decries poorly-written documents

Once again, a court has chastised a lawyer for poor writing. The Third Circuit in Morris v. Kesselring decried “The unnecessarily prolix and disorganized nature” of a complaint and appellate brief. Noting that both documents were “disorganized, rambling, and largely incoherent,” the court upheld the trial court's dismissal of the case and its award of attorney’s fees to the opposing party.

(jdf)

Top 10 Legal Writing Blogs

I was pleased to see the Legal Writing Prof Blog has been included in Legal Productivity's list of the top ten legal writing blogs!

Check out the full list for some other great legal writing sites.

(kem)

Recap: Capital Area Legal Writing Conference

I'm just back from DC (my old stomping grounds!) where I attended the Third Annual Capital Area Legal Writing Conference at American University, Washington College of Law.

The faculty at AU put together a great conference with lots of interesting speakers and presentations. Pictured here are Ruth Anne Robbins and Victoria Chase (both of Rutgers-Camden) after their presentation entitled "Iron Chefs' Lawyering Kitchen."

 

 

Mary Beth Beazley (Ohio State) gave Friday night's keynote speech (pictured at right), entitled "Behavioral Legal Writing and the Law." And the conference closed on Saturday with a plenary presentation from The Honorable Patricia Wald of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.

There was much more on the conference agenda--you can check out what you missed here. Thanks to everyone at AU for a great conference!

(kem)

Law Students Helping in the Tax Clinic

Many legal writing professors are also involved in clinical legal education directly, and all (or almost all) legal writing professors strongly support expanded clinical opportunities for law students (even when it doesn't always involve a lot of writing!).  Here's a short video from The John Marshall Law School in Chicago about law students in its Voluntary Income Tax Assistance ("VITA") program for low income tax payers, a program being offered now through April.  I love the spirit of the woman who says that she's now thinking about going to law school herself!

 

Mark E. Wojcik (mew)

Congratulations to Catherine Wasson

We've just learned that Catherine Wasson has been granted tenure at Elon University School of Law in Greensboro, North Carolina.  Catherine is the Director of Legal Method and Communication at Elon.  She also teaches Family Law.  She previously taught at Widener University School of Law in Harrisburg and had also been an adjunct professor at William Mitchell College of Law, from which she also received her law degree.  

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She is a frequent presenter and has presented across the United States, in Kenya, and in South Africa.

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She is the author of many articles.  She is a co-author of "A Practical Guide to Legal Writing and Legal Method," a book published by Aspen Publishing. 

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She served on the Board of Directors of the Association of Legal Writing Directors (ALWD) and is a member of the Legal Writing Institute and of Scribes -- The American Society of Legal Writers.

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Catherine is a great colleague and a wonderful person -- we extend our congratulations to her and to Elon University. 

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Secret facts about her?  She was an English and Theatre major in college and also got an M.A. in Speech and Theatre Arts from Kent State University.  She also co-founded the Minnesota Judicial Center Choir in 1994 with Judge Doris Huspeni.  

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Hat tip to Legal Writing Cheerleader Suzanne E. Rowe (University of Oregon School of Law).  And congratulations Catherine!

Mark E. Wojcik (mew)

A Roundup of Free Caselaw Research (from the Law Library of Congress Blog)

The Blog for the Law Library of Congress ("In Custodia Legis") has a useful post on "How to Locate Free Caselaw on the Internet."  Click here.

Mark E. Wojcik (mew)