Legal Writing Prof Blog

AALS Names New Executive Director

The Association of American Law Schools announced today that its next Executive Director will be Susan Westerberg Prager, a former dean of the University of California at Los Angeles.  Her appointment will become effective in September.  She will succeed Carl Monk of Washburn University, who has served as AALS Executive Director for 16 years.

When she became Dean of UCLA in 1982, she was one of only two female law deans in the United States.  She held that position for 16 years, making it the longest tenure of any dean at UCLA.  She served as President of AALS in 1986.

Her bio on the UCLA website notes that she is widely regarded as a leader in national legal education issues and as an advocate for intellectual and racial diversity.  Congratulations to her, to Carl, and to the AALS.

(mew)

the rest of the ranked LRW programs

11 Indiana University--Indianapolis

12 Ohio State University (Moritz)

13 University of Denver (Sturm)

University of Michigan--Ann Arbor

15 University of Baltimore

Villanova University

17 Southern Illinois University--Carbondale 

18 Arizona State University (O'Connor)

Lewis and Clark College (Northwestern)

20 Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey--Camden

University of Arkansas--Little Rock (Bowen)

22 Brigham Young University (Clark)

Nova Southeastern University (Broad)

University of Louisville (Brandeis)

25 Hofstra University

Illinois Institute of Technology (Chicago-Kent)

Texas Tech University

Thomas Jefferson School of Law

Washington University in St. Louis

30 Duquesne University

University of Detroit Mercy

Washburn University

33 Georgetown University

Marquette University

Suffolk University

36 Gonzaga University

South Texas College of Law

William Mitchell College of Law

39 American University (Washington)

Drake University

Emory University

St. John's University

(njs)

legal writing software

Want to transform your ordinary writing into legal writing?  This software will help!!  It "helps you write any legal document with the correct terminology. By adding legal-based terminology, WhiteSmoke Legal writing version makes your writing more precise, persuasive and credible.  You will improve your legal writing skills rapidly.

Legal writing can be a very complicated task.  Making sure that any word is in its correct place, any terminology refers to the right meaning, every punctuation is right where it should be, is not simple at all."

"Every punctuation is right where it should be."  Yup.  That's a good start.

hat tip:  Karin Mika

(njs)

Teach Law in Asia

Brady Coleman submitted this entry:

Beginning September 1, 2008, teach law at one of Asia's most elite graduate law schools, in Seoul, Korea. Expanding global campus in Seoul, Europe, China and the U.S. See www.tlbu.ac.kr Language of instruction (and all on - campus communication) English only; students mostly valedictorian or salutatorian law graduates from top Asian universities (in China, Vietnam, Cambodia, Myanmar, Japan, Indonesia, Korea, Laos, etc), all virtually fluent in English, obtaining their graduate (second) law degrees in international law (but more core American subjects needed); salary roughly equivalent to similar U.S. position; send resume & cover letter as attached documents by email to [email protected]; four months paid holiday/ year; free housing and food provided near campus; no teaching experience required for this position; hiring initially for a one year visitor with possibility of renewal. Looking for energetic, ambitious, adventurous and personable lawyer or current law professor. Person hired will have flexibility in choosing subjects for instruction. New or fairly recent law graduates to be considered for this junior position. Job likely will require some travel both in Asia and globally.

(njs)

U.S. News and World Report Rankings - The "Top 10" Legal Writing Programs

U.S. News and World Report lists a number of specialty areas in which faculty members who teach in that particular field list the "best" programs.  The fields include such ones as intellectual property law, international law, and legal writing.  We all recognize that there are problems with these law school rankings (in general and with the list of specialty programs), but we all also look to see who made the magazine's top ten list.  So, here's the list of schools ranked for Legal Writing.

1.  Mercer University (Macon, Georgia)

2.  Seattle University (Seattle, Washington)

3.  University of Nevada - Law Vegas (Boyd)

4.  Temple University (Beasley) (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania)

5.  The John Marshall Law School (Chicago, Illinois)

6.  Stetson University (Gulfport, Florida)

7.  Boston College (Newton, Massachusetts)

8.  Northwestern University (Chicago, Illinois)

9.  Brooklyn Law School (New York)

10.  University of Oregon (Eugene, Oregon)

We'll have another post here with more of the rankings.

(mew)

U.S. News and World Report Rankings

U.S. News and World Report released a free on-line version of its rankings.  Click here to see it.  As you might expect, the website will allow you to purchase the premium version of the rankings.  The free site does not include all of the information that you would get in the print version or in the premium version that they sell.

The Adjunct Law Prof Blog says that this year's free online version of the law school rankings provides more detail than in past years, and that it allows students to make limited comparisons between schools by the number of students enrolled and amount of tutition charged.

Hat tip to  Mitchell H. Rubinstein of the Adjunct Law Prof Law Blog.

(mew)

Thesis Paragraphs (Susan Hanley Duncan)

Here's a short bar journal article on thesis paragraphs written by Susan Hanley Duncan of the University of Louisville Louis D. Brandeis School of Law.  The article appeared in Kentucky Bench and Bar.  It might make a good handout for your students.  You can find the article by clicking here. 

(mew)

dressing for the occasion

On Tuesday, March 25, Attorney General Michael Mukasey made his first oral argument to the United States Supreme Court, in United States v. Ressam. According to reports, the Court was cold until he was five minutes into his argument, and the General sat down with 14 minutes still remaining from his allotted 30 minutes. I wonder, does it help or hurt one's feelings of confidence to wear the odd, but traditional get-up of morning coat and striped britches?

(cmb)

appellate lawyers on the light side

So many appellate blogs are dedicated to case summaries, but some also provide great entertainment. Take, for example, the Texas State Bar Appellate Blog, which has posted the results of past contests for lyrics, haiku, and limericks (these must be fun people to hang out with).

The 2007 song winner is If I Only Had a Case (or Lament for Lack of Precedent), cleverly penned by Neil C. McCabe, of The O'Quinn Law Firm, in Houston, Texas. You'll enjoy it, I think:

(to the tune of "If I Only Had a Brain," by Harold Arlen)

I'd hypothesize for hours,
Build footnotes into towers,
Appellate fame I'd chase.
My chops I'd be a-lickin',
And accounts I'd be enrichin',
If I only had a case.

With analogies I'd fiddle,
From left or right or middle,
With totally straight face.
Inductions I'd be makin',
I could be Sir Francis Bacon,
If I only had a case.

Oh, I can't tell a lie,
I'd like to have much more,
Legislation, facts, and policy galore,
And then I'd stand,
And still hold forth.

I would not be just a plaintiff,
My tune would be less plaintive,
My brief not just a waste.
And perhaps I'd surprise you
With the things that I'd apprise you
If I only had a case.

(cmb)

hottest show in town?

More proof that the public loves oral argument (and would love to watch broadcasts), even if the Supreme Court does not:

Rather than stand in line for hours for the mere chance to get inside, now people are offering money to lucky ticketholders to attend the arguments. As this blog post queries, is it scalping to sell your free ticket to the Supremes?

(cmb)

AALS Section on Legal Writing, Reasoning, and Research

How many professors are members of the Association of American Law Schools Section on Legal Writing, Reasoning, and Research?  The number may surprise you: 1,634, making it the third largest section within the AALS.  Only two AALS Sections have larger membership: the Section on Women in the Law (with 1,840 members) and the Section on Constitutional Law (with 1,693 members).

But here's another interesting fact: the Legal Writing, Reasoning and Research Section has only one member more than the AALS Section on Clinical Legal Education (which has 1,633 members).

The current chair of the AALS Section on Legal Writing, Reasoning, and Research is Lou Sirico of Villanova University School of Law.

(mew)

AALS Section on Legal Writing, Reasoning, and Research - Committees

The Section on Legal Writing, Reasoning, and Research is one of the largest sections in the Association of American Law Schools.  The Section does its work through six committees.

1. The Program Committee, which takes charge of the program at the AALS Annual Meeting.  [The members of the Program committee for the 2009 Annual Meeting are Mel Weresh (Chair), Joan Blum, Kirsten Dauphinais, Lara Gelbwasser, and Suzanne Rowe.  They have already selected the program for the next annual meeting.] 

2. The Election Committee, which proposes nominees for Section officers.

3. The Awards Committee, which selects the recipients of Section awards

4. The Poster Committee, which selects posters for display and the January AALS meeting.

5. The Welcoming Committee, which welcomes new members of the Section (particularly at the January AALS meeting).

6. The Website Committee, which runs the AALS Section website.

If you have ideas for a new committee (or suggestions on section activities or programs), the Section Chair, Lou Sirico of Villanova University School of Law, would be happy to hear from you. 

Hat tip (and hat's off!) to Lou Sirico

(mew)

U.S. Professors of the Year

Nominate an outstanding professor for the U.S. Professor of the Year Award.  Get details on the award and nomination process at www.usprofessorsoftheyear.org.  The deadline for the 2008 awards is April 18, 2008.

(mew)

AALS Invites Proposals on Race and Gender in the Legal Profession

The Association of American Law Schools invites proprosals from law faculty who want to present on the topic "Progress? The Academy, The Profession, Race and Gender: Empirical Findings, Research Issues, Potential Projects, and Funding Opporuntunities."  Those selected will participate in a workshop on January 7, 2009 on the first day of the AALS Annual Meeting (which will be held for the first time in San Diego, California).  The program committee is especially soliciting proposals on empirical research on minorities in the legal profession, with particular emphasis on Asian-Americans, Latinos(as), Americans of Middle Eastern ancestry, and Native Americans.

To submit a proposal, send a 300-500 word description of the research and proposed presentation to [email protected] by April 30, 2008.  If you have questions about the program or what to submit, contact Beverly Moran at Vanderbilt University.

(mew)

The Syllabus as a Student-Teacher Contract, Now Including Legalese

A front-page story in the March 14 edition of the Chronicle of Higher Education laments that "the contemporary syllabus is becoming more like a legal document, full of all manor of exhortations, proscriptions, and enunciations of class and institutional policy--often in minute detail that seems more appropriate for a courtroom than a classroom."  The article, by Paula Wasley, provides several examples, including this one from an introductory-religion syllabus at Wartburg College in Waverly, Iowa: "Keep your e-mail 'inbox' tidy so that you may receive timely notices from your professor."

The article speculates that the syllabus has become an implied student-teacher contract.  In some cases, notes Ms Wasley, the students must sign and attest that they have read the syllabus (and its proliferation of fine print) and that they understand it (and presumably agree to its terms).

Some syllabi also explain laws, such as the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act.  Other syllabi are now including provisions that reserve intellectual property rights, and that prohibit the taping and posting of class sessions on YouTube.

The article is worth a read, and I'd recommend asking your library to get you the paper edition of the March 14, 2008 issue of the Chronicle of Higher Education.  There is a sidebar article on page A11 on "Research Tips on Crafting a Better Syllabi" and an unrelated (but still very interesting) article on page A10 finding that the highest paid professors are those who teach law, business, and engineering.

Mark E. Wojcik, The John Marshall Law School-Chicago

more on conference: Rocky Mountain Conference Tackles Flow Charts

Hillary Burgess, an adjunct professor at Rowan and Rutgers Universities, presented "Using Flow Charts Strategically to To Reach Multiple Learning Styles." 

In the presentation, she gave an overview of both Visual, Aural, Kinesthetic (VAK)-based learning style theories and Myers-Briggs (MBTI)-based learning theories.  She discussed how research demonstrates that all learners, regardless of learning preference benefit from visual reinforcements of learning material.  She also discussed how flow chart exercises could be strategically employed to target specific styles of learning. 

For example, professors could use a fill in the blank method to reach visual, aural, kinesthetic, intuitive, and perceiving learners by creating a flow chart to outline a rule of law, then removing one or more of the crucial decision points, and having students deduce the element that belongs in that decision point.  The flow chart reaches visual pictorial and visual read/write learners by virtue of being a diagram with text.  The active learning process of filling in the blank appeals to kinesthetic experiential learners.  The novelty of the approach appeals to perceiving learners.  To reach aural listening learners, professors could walk through the flow chart in class.  To reach aural listening and aural verbal learners, professors could have students work in pairs.  To reach kinesthetic tactile learners, professors could provide a handout in addition to projecting the flow chart on the screen.  To reach intuitive learners, let them take the fill-in-the-blank flow chart home and reflect upon it. 

Additional strategies as well as her slide presentation can be found at http://prof.hillaryburgess.com/presentations/talkflowchartsforls.ppt .

(njs)

searching for the best law professors in the country

This is a request from Michael Hunter Schwartz of Washburn University School of Law.

**********

Dear Colleagues,

I am in search of the best law teachers in this country, and I could use your help.  I have the extraordinary opportunity to conduct a law professor-focused, follow-up study to Ken Bain's wonderful What the Best College Teachers Do (Harvard University Press, 2004).

Thus, I am writing to solicit your nominations.  In particular, I am looking for teachers who consistently produce extraordinary learning, who change their students' lives and whose instruction stays with students long after they graduate from law school.

I hope what I produce inspires you as much as Professor Bain's work has inspired me. Over the next three years, I will be:

§  soliciting nominations;

§  gathering evidence of nominees' excellence;

§  paring the list of nominees to the most extraordinary law teachers;

§  visiting law schools around the country, sitting in on classes, interviewing the nominees, and talking to focus groups of students and alumni; and then publishing what I have found in a book: What the Best Law Teachers Do (Harvard University Press, forthcoming 2011).

I have set up a web nomination process (although I will also accept nominations by phone, by e-mail, by regular mail, or in person).  To nominate a candidate or learn more about this project, please go to http://washburnlaw.edu/bestlawteachers. Click on the link on the right side of the page to get to the nomination form.

To honor those who have been nominated, I have set up a website on which I will report the name of each nominee, the nominee's institutional affiliation, and a few comments from the nominator.  Here's a link to that website: http://washburnlaw.edu/bestlawteachers/nominees/index.php. 

I hope to gather as many nominations as possible, so I would appreciate any efforts to forward this message to your colleagues, listservs, students, and alumni.  If you are a blogger, please post this information on your blog.

Feel free to e-mail me at [email protected] if you have any questions. The names of nominators and nominees will be withheld upon request.

************

(njs)

Law Student Video Contest -$10,000 for up to 4 Minutes Showing Law Student Angst

Access Group, a non-profit student loan company, is sponsoring a contest for law students to create the best law student vidieo of their worries in law school.  Access Group will pick the top ten videos and then open up public voting on July 1.  Whoever gets the most votes by July 31 will win a $10,000 scholarship for the 2008-2009 academic year. 

The contest is limited to those who are enrolled as law students as of August 1, 2008. Videos must be 4 minutes or less, and will be judged (to make it into the group of 10 finalists) on creativity, humor, realism, quality and overall appeal. Entries will be posted on YouTube.

Now, how many of those finalist videos will mention their legal writing courses as a source of angst?

Hat tip to

Eagleionline and the Law.com Legal Blog Watch

(mew)

SALT Seeks Nominees for "Great Teacher" Award

The Society of American Law Teachers (SALT) is seeking nominees for its “Great Teacher” award, which will be presented at the SALT Annual Dinner on January 9, 2009 in San Diego (in conjunction with the AALS Annual Meeting).  Email nominations to Jane Dolkart or Ruben Garcia.

Hat tip to Hazel Weiser at Touro Law Center, Executive Director of SALT

(mew)

AALS Invites Open Source Proposals

The Association of American Law Schools invites all law professors to propose "open source" programs for the 2009 Annual Meeting in San Diego.

Open source programs are those that are not sponsored by any AALS Section.  It is meant to provide presentation opportunities for faculty members who have an innovative topic that they would like to present at the AALS Annual Meeting.

The deadline for submitting a proposal is April 10, 2008.  To do so, send an email to [email protected] stating the program title, the names of the program planners, the process of how the program idea was generated, a description of what the program is trying to accomplish, a list of proposed speakers, and if the program will be published.  You can also include any other pertinent information that may be helpful to the reviewing committee.  The AALS will also consider whether there is a diversity of presenters and a multiplicity of planners and whether the proposed program includes both junior and senior teachers.

The deadline is approaching, but you still have time to gather some colleagues to put together a proposal for possible presentation.

(mew)