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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

North Carolina students give moot court argument before US Supreme Court Chief Justice Roberts

Posted on April 15, 2009
If you think your students get the jitters before their moot court arguments, think of the pressure on these students at North Carolina Central University who yesterday argued their case before Chief Justice John Roberts. One student revealed her secret...

USNWR ranks part-time legal programs for first time - top 5 available online now.

Posted on April 15, 2009
The official USNWR rankings are just around the corner. To whet your appetite in the meantime, below is a video report from the U.S. News Editor Brian Kelly announcing the first ever rankings of part-time legal programs. Who made the...

Number of unemployed lawyers hits 20,000, BigLaw losses hit 10k mark

Posted on April 15, 2009
The Department of Labor reported on Monday that the number of unemployed lawyers jumped to 20,000 last year - a 66% increase from the previous year and the highest figure in ten years. Over at LawShucks.com, which has been keeping...

ABA Journal online announces top "Peep" awards!

Posted on April 14, 2009
We reported over the weekend that the online ABA Journal has been holding a contest to select the best law related diorama(s) featuring those Easter marshmallow treats from yore, "Peeps." The reader votes have now been tallied and the winning...

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Another trend of the new legal economy - clients ban 1Ls from work

Posted on April 14, 2009
The ABA Journal Blog is reporting today that a new trend is emerging in the legal marketplace - clients are requesting, or outright banning, 1Ls from working on their matters. It's all about clients wanting "value" according to one large...

Parts I & III of the Chronicle of Higher Ed series on student plagiarism

Posted on April 14, 2009
A few days ago, we told you about a story in the Chronicle of Higher Ed called Colleges Sharpen Tactics for Resolving Academic-Integrity Cases. It was the second part of a three part series on student plagiarism at the university...

Bluebook - the movie! "The bloody tale of one BB's revenge!" and other coming attractions

Posted on April 14, 2009
This is really funny. A trailer for a Bluebook-slasher film. You'll never want to look up cites in the dark again! Brought to you by the good students at Cardozo Law School. Below is a link to another student talent...

debunking Strunk & White

Posted on April 13, 2009
If you are of a certain age, you may have a well-thumbed edition of Strunk & White's Elements of Style on your book shelf. And perhaps, after filing your taxes on April 15th, you were planning to celebrate the 50th...

international legal citations

Posted on April 13, 2009
Aspen Publishing has announced the publication of the second edition of its Guide to Foreign and International Legal Citations. This book is a lifesaver for lawyers and scholars citing non-U.S. legal sources. The ALWD Citation Manual focuses on citation of...

ALWD - LWI summer scholarship grants awarded

Posted on April 13, 2009
Here's news of scholarship that hasn't even been created yet: The Association of Legal Writing Directors and the Legal Writing Institute have announced the recipients of their summer 2009 scholarship grants: Carrie Sperling Shooting Ourselves in the Foot: Are Lawyers'...

job opening in Chicago

Posted on April 13, 2009
The DePaul University College of Law is taking applications for the full-time position of Instructor of Legal Analysis, Research, and Communication beginning August 2009. DePaul's LARC program includes some specialized sections in which students with an interest in Family Law,...

The professionalism door swings both ways, Judge gets sanctioned for yelling at attorneys

Posted on April 13, 2009
Turnabout is fair play, is it not? Last week we told you about the attorney who was disbarred for a year because he spoke harshly over the phone to a judicial clerk. Today comes a story that a Washington state...

Five legal job trends emerging from current recession that might become permanent

Posted on April 13, 2009
LawJobs.com is predicting that five trends to emerge from the present legal job market might become permanent after the current woes are behind us- and some of them are not good news for law grads. Here are the predictions: 1....

Researchers find students who spend a lot of time on Facebook have significantly lower grades, or not.

Posted on April 13, 2009
The London Times, oddly enough, is reporting on a new studyby U.S. researchers who polled 219 undergraduate and graduate students about their Facebook habits. Not so surprisingly, the study found that the more time students spend on Facebook, the less...

In honor of Easter - ABA Journal runs "Peeps in Law" contest

Posted on April 12, 2009
On the lighter side, the ABA Journal blog has been holding a contest that invites readers to create law related dioramas using Peeps. What are "Peeps" you ask? You remember, you really do - they're those brightly colored marshmallow treats...

Universities employ a variety of methods to deal with student plagiarism

Posted on April 12, 2009
This is an interesting article from the Chronicle of Higher Ed, entitled Colleges Sharpen Tactics for Resolving Academic-Integrity Cases that discusses various models schools use to handle student plagiarism cases including the traditional honor court (usually comprised of students and...

Problems with PACER - public must still pay for public domain dox

Posted on April 12, 2009
Although PACER (Public Access to Electronic Court Records) is supposed to provide easy access to court documents, several critics have argued that the fee schedule not only defeats Congressional intent to make such documents available to the public, but is...

Global Legal Skills IV Conference at Georgetown University Law Center

Posted on April 11, 2009
Click here to see the program and speakers at the fourth Global Legal Skills Conference, which will be held June 4-6, 2009 at Georgetown University Law Center. You'll also find links with information on registration, hotels, and photos from the...

Harvard researchers find academics "game" SSRN downloads - envy, not money, is the motive

Posted on April 11, 2009
This is a really interesting "working paper" called Demographics, Career Concerns or Social Comparison: Who Games SSRN Download Counts? in which two Harvard B-school profs, Benjamin Edelman and Ira Larkin, seek to determine whether academics "game" their download counts on...

It's tough writing for student newspapers these days - dead deer left at editor's door

Posted on April 10, 2009
Two days ago we told you about the unfortunate editor of the BYU student newspaper who made a typo that he described as "the worst mistake" of his life resulting in the recall of almost 20,000 papers. Today comes an...

Organization of university profs supports Ward Churchill's reinstatement

Posted on April 10, 2009
Inside Higher Ed is reporting that the American Association of University Professors ("AAUP") has issued a statement on April 7, 2009 requesting that the University of Colorado reinstate Ward Churchill following last week's successful jury verdict. The statement reads as...

good news from Texas Tech

Posted on April 10, 2009
Texas Tech Legal Practice Professors Rosemary Dillon and Kim Phillips were approved by the law faculty for long-term retention and promotion last fall; now it's official! Their paperwork has made its way through the main-campus approval process, and the provost...

lawyers: follow the rules and proofread!

Posted on April 10, 2009
To pique your interest, an excerpt from a recent opinion from the Wisconsin Court of Appeals--the bold is the court's language: �13 Hudec?s problems in this court do not stop with his ignoring the rules of appellate practice. In the...

How about putting together unemployed lawyers with broke clients who need legal help?

Posted on April 10, 2009
This story from today's New York Times called "In a Downturn, More Act as Their Own Lawyer" is a telling sign of how messed up the legal marketplace, and the economy in general, is right now. Because of home foreclosures...

Pointers to help students overcome their fear of public speaking

Posted on April 10, 2009
This might make a good hand-out around oral argument season which, if I'm not mistaken, is in full swing right now. The advice comes from Joey Asher, a self-described "communication and selling skills coach," who maintains a website called "Speechworks...

Author of "Best Practices for Legal Education" endorses innovative 3L practicum

Posted on April 10, 2009
This item by Roy Stuckey posted on the Best Practices for Legal Education blog describes how Washington and Lee is attracting lots of cash, students and top practicum faculty as the result of an innovative curriculum change that turns the...

Professionalism alert: Louisiana attorney disbarred for one year for yelling at law clerk

Posted on April 10, 2009
The Fifth Circuit in an unpublished decision just affirmed a federal district court's decision to disbar an attorney for one year because he spoke harshly to a law clerk during a telephone call. Other contributing factors were the attorney's "misrepresentations...

For those who like crossword puzzles

Posted on April 10, 2009
I bet these are tough - but a good exercise if you need to bone up on arcane Latin phrases and such. It's a weekly Legal Crossword Puzzle hosted by the Daily Report blog. A new one appears each Friday...

Scholarship alert: "Moving from first to final draft: offering autonomy- supportive choices to motivate students to internalize the writing process"

Posted on April 10, 2009
The above article, authored by Professor Carol Wallinger of Rutger-Camden, appears in 54 Loy. L. Rev. 820 (2008). From the introduction: This [a]rticle discusses a year-long project I conducted during the 2006-2007 school year of nineteen first-year law students...

Check this video Holmes! - scientists raise the bar again on innovative teaching

Posted on April 10, 2009
A few days ago, we blogged about a really interesting teaching idea pioneered by science professors seeking to help their students learn a difficult concept by having them draw it. The technique is called "Picturing to Learn." The post resulted...

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