Legal Writing Prof Blog

bibliography on converting to tenure track

The following bibliography was compiled for a law school faculty committee looking at the possibility of turning contract-term legal writing jobs into tenure-line positions. These publications contain information, data, and ideas that may help others working on the same issue. Most of these publications are available free via SSRN.  Just click on "search" and then type in the author's name.

• ABA, Sourcebook on Legal Writing Programs 81-98 (Eric Easton, ed., 2d ed., 2006).

• ALWD-LWI 2007 Survey Report, 5-7, available at http://alwd.org/surveys.html.

• Marina Angel, The Glass Ceiling For Women In Legal Education: Contract Positions And The Death Of Tenure, 50 J. Leg. Educ. 1 (2000).

• Maureen J. Arrigo, Hierarchy Maintained: Status and Gender Issues in Legal Writing Programs, 70 Temp. L. Rev. 117 (1997).

• Peter Brandon Bayer, A Plea for Rationality and Decency: The Disparate Treatment of Legal Writing Faculties as a Violation of Both Equal Protection and Professional Ethics, 39 Duq. L. Rev. 329 (2001).

• Mary Beth Beazley, “Riddikulus!” Tenure-Track Legal-Writing Faculty and the Boggart in the Wardrobe, 7 Scribes J. Leg. Writing 79 (2000).

• Jo Anne Durako, Dismantling Hierarchies: Occupational Segregation of Legal Writing Faculty in Law Schools: Separate and Unequal, 73 UMKC L. Rev. 253 (2004).

• James J. Fishman, Tenure: Endangered or Evolutionary Species, 38 Akron L. Rev. 771 (2005).

• Marjorie E. Kornhauser, Rooms of Their Own: An Empirical Study of Occupation Segregation by Gender Among Law School Professors, 73 UMKC L. Rev. 293 (2004).

• Jan M. Levine, Voices in the Wilderness: Tenured and Tenure-Track Directors and Teachers in Legal Research and Writing Programs, 45 J. Leg. Educ. 530 (1995).

• Jan M. Levine & Kathryn M. Stanchi, Women, Writing, & Wages: Breaking The Last Taboo, 7 Wm. & Mary J. Women & L. 551 (2001).

• Nancy Levit, Keeping Feminism in Its Place: Sex Segregation and the Domestication of Female Academics, 49 U. Kan. L. Rev. 775 (2001).

• Susan P. Liemer & Hollee Temple, Did Your Legal Writing Professor Go to Harvard?: Credentials of Legal Writing Faculty at Hiring Time, 46 Louisville L.J. __ (forthcoming 2008), available at http://ssrn.com/abstract=1033477.

• Susan P. Liemer & Jan M. Levine, Legal Research And Writing: What Schools Are Doing, And Who Is Doing The Teaching (Three Years Later), 9 Scribes J. Leg. Writing 113 (2003-2004).

• Kathi Miner-Rubino, Some Preliminary Statistical, Qualitative, and Anecdotal Findings of an Empirical Study of Collegiality Among Law Professors, 13 Widener L. Rev. 1 (2006).

• Richard K. Neumann, Jr., Women in Legal Education: A Statistical Update, 73 UMKC L. Rev. 419, 425-442 (2004).

• Kathryn M. Stanchi, Who Next, the Janitors? A Socio-Feminist Critique of the Status Hierarchy of Law Professors, 73 UMKC L. Rev. 467 (2004).

• Kathryn M. Stanchi and Jan M. Levine, Gender and Legal Writing: Law Schools' Dirty Little Secrets, 7 Berkeley Women's L.J. 3 (2001).

• Kent D. Syverud, The Caste System and Best Practices In Legal Education, 1 J. ALWD 12 (2001).

• Nina Tarr, In Support of a Unitary Tenure System for Law Faculty, 30 Wm. Mitchell L. Rev. 57 (2003).

• Melissa H. Weresh, Form and Substance: Standards for Promotion and Retention of Legal Writing Faculty on Clinical Tenure Track, 282 Golden Gate U. L. Rev. 281 (2007).

(spl)

Yoknapatawpha law

We know that some of you writing types are also literature buffs (i.e., former English majors) or film buffs. You may enjoy reading this new article by Michael Allan Wolf: William Faulkner, Legal Commentator: Humanity and Endurance in Hollywood's Yoknapatawpha, published at 77 Mississippi Law Journal 957 (2008).

(cmb)

LWI Conference Preview - Thursday Session 2

This post continues the preview of the upcoming Legal Writing Institute Conference.  The second session on Thursday, July 17, 2008 will be from 10:30 a.m. to 11:15 a.m.

R2A
Steve Johansen (Director of Legal Writing and Professor of Law at Lewis & Clark) will present on This is Not the Whole Truth: The Ethical Limits of Storytelling.  Fresh from a storytelling conference in London, Steve will explore whether truth and justice are incompatible.  (I'm here with Steve in Philadelphia, and he tell's me that he's been on the Legal Writing Institute Board for 12 years now.  Wow.  Steve, is that just a story?)  Steve has been the driving force behind many good things in the legal writing community -- and that's the truth!  Come to this presentation to learn where the boundary is between legitimate persuasion and improper deception.  (Quick quiz -- true or false?  Steve is the author of Juridiska Analize Un Tekstu Rakstisana, the first legal writing textbook to be published in Latvia).

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R2B
Danton Asher Berube (Assistant Professor in the Applied Legal Theory and Analysis Program at the University of Detroit Mercy) will present on Effective Presentation of Statistics in Legal Writing.  As the use of statistics continues to increase, we have a greater need to teach our students how to incorporate statistics into their legal writing.  If statistics is an area that you want to strengthen, you might consider coming to this presentation even if you would otherwise be afraid of numbers.  It's a very useful topic for many of us.

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R2C
You Had Me at "Hello" -- Structuring the Classroom Experience to Optimize Learning is the title of a presentation by Wanda M. Temm (Director of the Legal Writing Program and Clinical Professor of Law at the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law, pictured here on the left), Barbara E. Wilson (Associate Clinical Professor of Law, also at UMKC, pictured here with the books), and Judith Popper (Assistant Clinical Professor, also at UMKC, but whose photo I could not find).  They'll discuss how the learning environment (both verbal and non-verbal) impacts students.  They'll discuss specific teaching techniques through a brief presentation and a mock class with participants modeling the techniques.

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R2D
Deanne Lawrence Andrews (Associate Clinical Professor of Law at Michigan State University College of Law in East Lansing, Michigan) will present on Goodbye to Kingsfield? Increasing Student Autonomy in the Legal Writing Classroom.  She'll discuss research by Kennon Sheldon and Lawrence Kreiger that documents the ill effects that law school has on the emotional well-being of students.  She'll explore concrete teaching tips designed to increase stduent autonomy in the legal writing classroom.

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R2D2 -- R2D2 isn't a session, it's a robot from the Star Wars Movie.  Just keeping you on your toes here.

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R2E
Kathryn Mercer (Associate Professor of Lawyering Skills at Case Western Reserve School of Law in Cleveland, Ohio) will discuss Dealing with Race, Culture, and Gender in the Classroom.  She'll discuss diversity and non-traditional law students, including video of students commenting on the law school environment and the critical learning moments in law school.  In the second part of the presentation, Christine M. Ventner (Director of the Legal Writing Program at the University of Notre Dame in Notre Dame, Indiana) will discuss Gender and Law School Performance: How Legal Writing Professors Can Bolster the Peformance of Women Law Students.  Her presentation will develop specific strategies that legal writing professors can implement to help women students in law school, and to create a more positive learning experience for students.  Christine is also an international law fan (like me).  She was raised in Zimbabwe and earned her law degree in South Africa.  Click here to learn more about her.

R2F
Teresa Brostoff ( Professor of Legal Writing and Diretor of the Legal Writing Program at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law) and Ann Sinsheimer (Associate Professor of Legal Writing, also at the University of Pittsburgh) will present on a subject they know well, Using Comparative Legal Principals to Teach International Students in U.S. Law.  They will demonstrate their use of comparative case reading and briefing to help international students draw upon their prior knowledge of civil law reasoning to master U.S. common law reasoning.  They will illustrate this using decisions from the U.S. Supreme Court and the European Court of Justice. 

Marilyn Walter (Professor and Director of th e Legal Writing Program at Brooklyn Law School) will then share her experiences from teaching at the University of Delhi Law School in Spring 2008.  Her presentation is called Expanding Your Horizons: Going Global.

That's it for session 2 on Thursday!

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

For descriptions of the reception on Monday evening and the opening plenary on Tuesday morning, click here.

For information about the law professors who will be visiting from Africa, click here.

For descriptions of session 2 on Tuesday, click here.

For information on the Tuesday diversity lunch, click here.

For information on the Tuesday Pink Ink lunch, click here.

For descriptions of session 3 on Tuesday, click here.

For descriptions of session 4 on Tuesday, click here.

For information on the Tuesday evening dinners for new legal writing professors, click here.

For descriptions of the not-to-be missed (because that's when I'm presenting) Tuesday evening Popcorn sessions, click here.

For descriptions of session 1 on Wednesday, click here.

For descriptions of session 2 on Wednesday, click here.

For descriptions of session 3 on Wednesday, click here.

For descriptions of session 4 on Wednesday, click here.

For descriptions of session 5 on Wednesday, click here.

For information on the Wednesday evening museum gala, click here.

For descriptions of session 1 on Thursday, click here.

For more information about the conference (including registration information, in case you still haven't done that), click here.

Laptops in Classrooms

A question posted on the Legal Writing Professor listserve asked about writings on computers in classrooms.  A number of helpful answers appeared, so we're collecting them here.

1. University of Chicago bans internet from most of its classrooms
2. Coopting the Laptop (with a link to a bibliography)
3. Research showing that laptop use did not necessarily increase student learning
4. Banning Laptops in the Classroom: Is it Worth the Hassles?
5. Nancy Maxwell, From Facebook to Folsom Prison Blues: How Banning Laptops in the Classroom Made Me a Better Law School Teacher, 14 Rich. J.L. & Tech. 4 (2007).

If you have other resources to add, please leave a comment.

(mew)

International Students in U.S. Law Schools

How are U.S. law schools meeting the needs of students from other countries?  Click here to download an article by Julie Spanbauer, who surveyed LL.M. programs in the United States and how they handle students who speak English as a second language. 

Julie received a Fulbright grant and will be teaching this summer in China -- she will return from abroad during the LWI Conference.  (Yes, that's how good this LWI Conference is going to be -- you come all the way from China to attend it!  And remember others are coming from various countries in Africa, and one teacher is coming from Belarus).

(mew)

Favorable Attention for the ALWD Manual

Professor Judy Fischer at the University of Louisville sends this heads-up:

The ALWD Citation Manual, authored by the Association of Legal Writing Directors and Darby Dickerson, is mentioned favorably in Justice Antonin Scalia and Bryan Garner’s new book.  Making Your Case: The Art of Persuading Judges 123 (Thomson/West 2008).  Scalia and Garner cite the manual as a standard reference, urging correct use of introductory signals “as set forth in the Bluebook or the ALWD Citation Manual—one of which should always be on your desk.”

(spl) 

COCAL VIII

Some legal writing professors may be interested in the Coalition of Contingent Academic Labor’s eighth annual conference, COCAL VIII. The conference takes place August 8 - 10, 2008, at San Diego State University in California. The many session topics include:

• Contingent Faculty in Academic Governance

• Academic Freedom: Problems and Solutions

• Contract Negotiations

• Legal Decisions Affecting Contingent Faculty

• Strategies for Achieving Job Security

The term "contingent faculty" generally refers to all non-tenure line faculty. Information and registration details are available at http://www.cocal-ca.org/viii/confhome.htm (spl)

And yet another fact pattern for a legal writing problem?

Here's another fact patter for a legal writing problem.  An LGBT group in Idaho has been allowed to march in a parade, as long as they don't use their name or distribute literature on HIV prevention.

Here's the press release from the group -- you should be able to find more information through google.  A legal writing problem based on this fact pattern would involve the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Hurley that allowed the parade organizers in Boston to exclude a gay group from the St. Patrick's Day Parade.  Where the parade is organized by a private group, it can pick the message.  Where the parade is organized by the government, it cannot discriminate on the message. 

The Southern Idaho Gay Lesbian Bisexual and Transgender Community Center
MEDIA ADVISORY
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 29, 2008

Contact: Kelly Dickard, Vice President, 208.731.5313

Gay Organization Forced to Hide Identity in Twin Falls Parade

Parade committee allows gay organization to march in parade on condition
that the group makes no reference to sexual orientation or gender identity

Twin Falls, ID -- The Southern Idaho Gay Lesbian Bisexual and Transgender
Community Center (The Center) today decried the "Western Days" Parade
Committee's decision to allow gay people to participate in the community
celebration under a cloud of secrecy.

The Western Days Parade Committee has told The Center that it can enter
the parade, but the group can't make any reference -- on the parade entry,
in literature, t-shirts, or signs -- to sexual orientation or gender
identity.  The parade committee gave strict instructions to The Center
that the words, "gay," "lesbian," "bisexual," and "transgender" or any
words similar may not be used anywhere during the parade. Rainbow imagery,
symbolic of the gay community, is also prohibited.  Parade Organizer Mary
Anne Taylor, has stated that the float must match the description on the
parade application, but when questioned by the media what that description
was, organizers have been unable to answer what that description was.

"Gay and Lesbian people live in Twin Falls, Idaho; we work here, we have
families and participate in our communities," said The Center President
Brandi Jones. "We are part of our community every other day of the year,
and we shouldn't be excluded from being part of our community on this one
day."

For the first time in its 26-year history, the parade committee rejected
The Center's request to participate in the event last year.

This year, in accepting the parade entry, the committee also forbade The
Center from talking about HIV/AIDS or any sexually transmitted infection
prevention.  Additionally, ignoring alarming rates of drug abuse in
Idaho's Magic Valley, the parade committee is prohibiting The Center from
mentioning any type of drug prevention as a condition of participating in
the parade.

"When Idaho faces rising rates of HIV/AIDS infections and epidemic
increases in drug use, specifically crystal methamphetamine, we are
proactively trying to educate the community to help people remain healthy
and strong," Jones said. "Silencing conversation about these issues
weakens our community because it leaves people uninformed and vulnerable."

The Center has chosen to join the parade but will make a statement about
the censorship with its entry.  The Center's float will be black and
white, and "?" will appear in place of words that might have denoted
sexual orientation or gender.

The Western Days Parade will be held on Saturday May 31, 2008 in Twin
Falls, Idaho.

The Southern Idaho Gay Lesbian Bisexual and Transgender Community Center
is active in the Twin Falls Community year round, doing volunteer work for
"Paint Magic," painting the homes of the elderly and donating money to
charitable causes.

The Southern Idaho GLBT Community Center will be participating in the
Parade on Saturday May 31, 2008 in accordance with all of the restrictions
set forth by the Western Days Committee.  However, the Western Days
Committee has expressed that they can pull the float from the parade at
anytime, for whatever reason they feel families could be affected poorly
based on the Committee's arbitrary standards.

Southern Idaho GLBT Community Center's mission is to promote the health
and well-being of lesbian, gay, bisexual, intersex, and transgender
persons, their families and friends through: support, to cope with an
adverse society; education, to enlighten an ill-informed public; and
advocacy, to end discrimination and to secure equal rights. Southern Idaho
LGBT Community Center provides opportunity for dialogue about sexual
orientation and gender identity, and acts to create a society that is
healthy and respectful of human diversity.

(mew)

A Good Fact Pattern for a Legal Writing Problem?

A lawyer was suspended for two years for reading his wife's emails and the email messages of seven other lawyers in his law firm.  Although there was no harm done (other than reading the messages), the court found that behavior warranted suspension from the practice of law.  Click here to read more.  This might make a good fact pattern for a legal writing problem.  Possible legal issues for students to discuss could include federal statutes or perhaps a tort action for invasion of privacy (intrusion upon seclusion).  The story was reported in the ABA Journal based on a posting from the Legal Profession Blog.

(mew)

Another fact pattern for a legal writing problem?

Should there be a wrongful incarceration exception to attorney-client confidentiality?  Click here to download a forthcoming article that might give you some ideas for a legal writing problem.  It is based on the case of a man who was wrongfully convicted for murder -- the real killer had confessed to his attorneys, who were bound to keep that confession a secret by the rules of professional responsibility.  If you download the article you will see a list of rules applicable for various jurisdictions where you might want to set a legal writing problem.  If nothing else, the article itself is a good read on an interesting ethical problem.  The article is by Colin Miller, and it will appear in the Northwestern University Law Review.

Hat tips to Jason Kilborn and Colin Miller.

(mew)

LWI Conference Preview - Thursday Session 1

This post continues the preview of this summer's Legal Writing Institute Conference in Indianapolis.  We've made up it to the last day of the conference in these previews.  The Thursday morning sessions on Thursday, July 17, 2008 wisely start at 9:30 instead of 9:00 a.m. They go until 10:15 a.m.

R1A
Mitchell J. Nathanson (Associate Professor of Legal Writing at Villanova University School of Law in Villanova, Pennsylvania), Kristen Tiscione (Professor of Legal Research and Writing at the Georgetown University Law Center in Washington DC) and Linda L. Berger (Professor at Thomas Jefferson School of Law; moving to Mercer University School of Law in Macon, Georgia), will present Defining the Purpose and Parameters of Scholarship for Legal Writing Professors.  Three professors from three different law schools will discuss why legal research and writing faculty should publish even in the absence of a scholarship requirement.  They'll also discuss a working definition of good scholarship (hey, does that include blogging?)  They will also discuss whether there is an identifiable field of legal research and writing for us to write about and whether we should publish in that field or in other fields of interest.  They hope to engage in a larger group discussion on how professors can make the best image possible in the legal academy.  Here's a link to an article by Mitchell Nathanson that you might find to be of interest.  And do you see how closely these panelists work together?  He's thanked one of his co-presenters in the footnote!

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R1B
The Real World: L aw School: Professionalism in Electronic Communication will be the subject of this presentation by Melissa H. Weresh (Assistant Director and Professor of Legal Writing at Drake University School of Law in Des Moines, Iowa, who happens to be training for a marathon) and Lisa A. Penland (Associate Professor at Drake University School of Law and the mayor of Steamboat Rock, Iowa).  They will examine elements of electronic communication and professionalism, in law school and in practice.  They will illustrate an interactive workshop for students designed to help them be more thoughtful, deliberate, and professional in electronic communication.  I had a chance to visit both of them last week in Des Moines while I was teaching a bar review course.  They are wonderful hosts.  Their presentation will be a good one, with lots of practical tips that may save our students in the future. 

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R1C
Laurie C. Kadoch (Professor at Vermont Law School in South Royalton, Vermont) will present on Mapping Thoughts and Deepening Student Analysis Via Diagramming.  Teaching involves much more than imparting knowledge.  We teach our students to absorb and integrate new knowledge and how to apply and communicate that knowledge with critical thought.  The learning needs unique to the current generation of law students support the notion that we must be open to the development of new approaches to the teaching and learning of legal writing.  The diagram can be used to provide an evolving visual representation for student understanding at each stage of research, analysis, and writing.  The diagram also provides a tool for self-assessment for each student.  Should be some useful information here, with some tools that are certainly new to me in the teaching context.

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R1D
Allison D. Ortlieb (Legal Writing Instructor at DePaul University College of Law in Chicago, across the street from me) and Susan Thrower (Associate Professor of Law and Director of the Legal Analysis, Research, and Communication Program at DePaul) will present They're Not Enemies, They're Untapped Allies: Strategies for Handling Disruptive, Disaffected, and Plain-Old Bad Students.  They explore why some students behave so badly and provide some strategies for turning those problematic students into solid LRW citizens.  I'm tempted to post a picture of Bart Simpson here going to law school . . . .

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R1E
Lisa A. Eichorn (Professor of Law and Director of the Legal Writing Program at the University of South Carolina School of Law, pictured here on the left) and Janice M. Baker (Legal Writing Instructor at South Carolina) will present on the subject Co-Dependent No More?  When Teaching Becomes Enabling.  In this session, they will ask attendees to discuss scenarios concerning particularly needy or demanding students and the amount of time, effort, and explicit assistance a teacher should offer in response to their demands.  They will also discuss suggestions to allow teachers to put reasonable time limits on their availability to students to avoid teacher burnout and foster student responsibility (without sacrificing student evaluation ratings).

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R1F
There's a feast of presentations here in this session.  Dorothy Bisbee (Assistant Professor of Legal Writing at Suffolk University Law School in Boston, Massachusetts) will speak on Finding Time for Scholarship.  She'll provide tips for optimal time management, finding time for scholarship and a balanced life.  (You can also be pretty sure that with three other presenters, she won't go over her time during this presentation!)

Timothy D. Blevins (Visiting Assistant Professor at Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University -- better known as Florida A&M -- in Orlando, Florida) and Brenda Gibson (Director of Legal Writing at North Carolina Central School of Law in Durham, North Carolina) will speak on Grading: Using Spreadsheets and Rubrics.  They will discuss two tools that make grading more objective and less subject to criticism as the whims of the professor. 

And Christine E. Rollins (Director of Legal Research and Writing at St. Louis University School of Law) will wrap it all up with Effective and Efficient Electronic Commenting, including a discussion of bubble comments, highlighting text, inserting text, and pasting comments from a scoring rubric.

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R1G Posters
Gail S. Stephenson (Director of Legal Writing and Assistant Professor of Law at the Southern University Law Center in Baton Rouge, Louisiana) will have a poster on Student Body Diversity: A View from the Trenches.  She'll examine ABA Standard 212, which requires law schools to "demonstrate by concrete action a commitment to diversity."  She'll also discuss her scholarship on the issue.  Look for a poster with a large scale -- on one side will be the benefits of diverse student body and the other side will be the challenges.  What is your prediction as to which side the scales will favor?

Carol Lynn Wallinger (Clinical Associate Professor at Rutgers School of Law in Camden, New Jersey) will have a poster on Moving from First to Final Draft -- An Empirical Study on Motivating Students to Move Through the Writing Process.  Her research is the result of a 2007 ALWD Scholarship Grant.  She measured the participation of 20 first-year legal writing students in two "interventions" during their final exam projects.  The interventions were (1) unlimited and self-scheduled "live critiquing" conferences and (2) the self-selected opportunity to obtain a provisional grade before the final exam submission.  Come see what she learned from that research.

Jennifer B. Horn (Assistant Professor of Legal Practice at Texas Tech University School of Law in Lubbock, Texas) will have a poster on Not-So-Magnificent Obsession: Performance v. Professionalism.  She'll present strategies to help students understand that professionals much constantly work to improve their mastery of legal skills.  Her poster will include information on

• Designing assignments that simulate work-related matters
• Demonstrating how professionals use legal resources
• Using grading rubrics
• Clarifying how students will use knowledge in practice
• Providing frequent specific feedback that encourages change
• Providing assignments that show students they can incrementally improve their performance if they are willing to work

Well gang, that's it for the first session of the last day of the conference.  What keeps coming back to me is the overwhelming richness of the presentations -- there is a LOT of information to be had here.

For descriptions of the reception on Monday evening and the opening plenary on Tuesday morning, click here.

For descriptions of session 2 on Tuesday, click here.

For information on the Tuesday diversity lunch, click here.

For information on the Tuesday Pink Ink lunch, click here.

For descriptions of session 3 on Tuesday, click here.

For descriptions of session 4 on Tuesday, click here.

For information on the Tuesday evening dinners for new legal writing professors, click here.

For descriptions of the not-to-be missed (because that's when I'm presenting) Tuesday evening Popcorn sessions, click here.

For descriptions of session 1 on Wednesday, click here.

For descriptions of session 2 on Wednesday, click here.

For descriptions of session 3 on Wednesday, click here.

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

Who proofreads these things?

I was on the phone yesterday with an insurance company, asking questions about my homeowners' insurance renewal. In front of me I had the Declarations page that the company had sent, with its summary of coverage and costs. Among the legalese at the bottom of the page was the name of the mortgagee and the phrase "it’s successors and/or assigns." That apostrophe practically leapt off the page at me. When the insurance company rep finished answering my questions, she asked if there was anything else she could help me with. I just had to point out the apostrophe error. To her credit, she understood immediately and said she would correct it for me. I encouraged her to have it corrected for all their customers. I decided to wait until next year’s renewal to address the "and/or" issue.

Has anyone else noticed editing habits spilling over into daily life?

(spl)

regional LRW conference in December

St. John’s University School of Law will host a Legal Research and Writing Conference on Friday, December 5, 2008 in New York City.  Titled “Practice Meets Pedagogy,” the conference will explore how legal research and writing as taught in law school can best prepare new lawyers for practice in today’s workplace.  Topics will include developments in the workplace affecting the skills expected of beginning lawyers; how legal employers assess applicants’ legal writing skills; changes in the nature of writing tasks assigned to beginning lawyers; and the advanced training in legal writing now made available by many legal employers. 

Speakers and panelists will be primarily from the world of practice, and will include judges, lawyers in private firms and public interest organizations, law librarians, and others.  In the afternoon, a panel of legal writing professors will address the interface between the academy and the world of practice, innovations in the legal writing curriculum, and related topics. 

The conference will be held at the Manhattan campus of St. John’s University, located at 101 Murray Street, between West and Greenwich Streets in lower Manhattan.  Registration will begin at 8:00 a.m., and the conference will conclude in the mid-afternoon.  There will be ample time to enjoy New York Cityat the best time of the holiday season.  Registration is free.  For information, please go to http://www.stjohns.edu/academics/graduate/law/news/ev_law_081205.stj.

hat tip:  Jane Scott, Assistant Professor of Legal Writing, St. John's University School of Law

(njs)

David Sorkin - Not the Same Old Complaint

A complaint is the document that initiates a legal action by providing the defendant and the court with notice of the nature of the plaintiff's case. But an effective complaint also identifies the legal issues for the court, clarifies the facts and law for the plaintiff and the attorney, and sometimes even encourages the defendant to come forward with a settlement offer.  Click here to read the full article by David Sorkin of The John Marshall Law School in Chicago.

(mew)

LWI Conference Preview - Wednesday Evening Gala

The Wednesday evening event at the Legal Writing Institute Conference will be a Gala Celebration at the Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art.  The museum, which opened in 1989, showcases Western and Native American art and cultural objects.  The Gala is sponsored by by Aspen Publishers, and it will run from 6:00 to 11:00 p.m.  Wow.  Click here for more information about the museum.   And click here for a preview of some of the things you'll see.

(mew)

A New Blog

There's a new blog for those who teach international law, coach international law moot court teams, or have students from other countries.  Click here for a quick look.

(mew)

Congratulations to Jane Kent Gionfriddo!

In my stack of mail I've just come across a reprint sent to me by Jane Kent Gionfriddo, an Associate Professor of Legal Reasoning, Research and Writing at Boston College Law School in Newton, Massachusetts.  The reprint was of her article on Thinking Like a Lawyer: The Heuristics of Case Synthesis published in 40 Texas Tech Law Review 1 (2007).  In her cover letter to me, Jane wrote that she did this article because she believes that legal "writing" faculty must continue to get the message out about our sophisticated approach to teaching legal writing -- one that is complementary to, yet different from, what goes on inside the doctrinal classroom.

Her article concludes that synthesizing groups of cases is a complex analytical skill, one critical to a lawyer's ability to work with the law in a sophisticated way.  Lawyers must see what a group of cases explicitly says and determine what they reasonably support inferentially.  Using a sound methodology to achieve that understanding of the caselaw, the lawyer will develop the depth of analysis necessary for high caliber law practice. 

Congratulations on the publication, Jane!

(mew)

subtle persuasion

On the legal writing professors' listserve, there's a discussion going on about using advanced persuasive writing techniques so subtly and effectively that readers don't realize what you're doing.  Some listserve participants have offered such excellent quotes, I'm forwarding them here for our blog readers:

"These things must be done delicately!
- the Wicked Witch of the West, in The Wizard of Oz
hat tip: Professor Mary Beth Beazley, Ohio State Unviersity

John Marshall, comparing the speaking styles of Patrick Henry and James Madison, at the Virginia convention to ratify the Constitution:  "Mr. Henry had without doubt the greatest power to persuade" while "Mr. Madison had the greatest power to convince."
- Joseph Ellis, American Creation: Triumphs and Tragedies at the Founding of the Republic 120 (2007).
hat tip:  Professor Jan Levine, Duquesne University

An oft-repeated quote about Greek oratory: "When Aeschines speaks, the people say 'How well he speaks.' When Demosthenes speaks, they say 'Let us march.'"
hat tip: Professor Bruce Ching, Northern Kentucky University

(spl)

holding or dictum?

A post on Prawfsblog about yesterday's age-discrimination-employment-retaliation case, Gomez-Perez v. Potter, makes an interesting observation about Justice Alito's rather casual use of the word "holding" to refer to a point that most of us would classify as dictum.

(cmb)

Blawgs

The Illinois Bar Journal (the monthly magazine published the Illiniois State Bar Association) has an article on "Keeping Up with the Bloggers."  It's by Tom Gaylord, a law librarian at Chicago-Kent College of Law.  He notes that blawgs have become a great place to keep track of recent legal developments.  He surveys some of the blogs (forgetting to include the Legal Writing Prof Blog unfortunately, and the new International Law Prof Blog as well).  Here are some from the sites he does include:

• The "cleanup hitter in any murderer's row of legal blogs" is SCOTUSblog, devoted to goings on in the U.S. Supreme Court
• A similar blog devoted to the federal circuit courts, called How Appealing
• A blog from a former correspondent assigned to report on the U.S. Supreme Court, who now covers "Life and the Law" in her Legalities blog.
• A directory of law blogs in the ABA Journal
• Blawg, a directory of blogs by topic and jurisdiction
• An extensive blog directory on Justia

By the way, the Illinois State Bar Association offers free student memberships.  Students do not have to live in Illinois or go to school here.  Memberships are electronic, so students can live anywhere.  They can also join a couple of the sections for free.  Go to www.isba.org for more information.

(mew, a member of the Board of Governors of the Illinois State Bar Association)