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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

advice on contract drafting

Posted on July 11, 2009
Ken Adams has it--advice, that is, and it's good to boot. I liked his response to a law student who opined that contract drafting is neither a creative nor an imaginative process. Her experiences inserting boilerplate into ready-made templates had...

resources for teaching ESL students

Posted on July 11, 2009
The Legal Writing Institute?s Global Legal Writing Skills/International Outreach Committee has posted helpful resources for professors teaching legal analysis, legal writing, legal research, and related topics to LL.M. students. At http://lwionline.org/, click on "Member Resources," then click on "Teaching International...

The worst and the shortest oral argument?

Posted on July 10, 2009
A few days ago in my summer legal writing class as we were practicing oral arguments, a student asked whether she had to use all of her allotted time. The answer is "no" and to illustrate the point, I showed...

USNWR ranks law firms. What next? Why not rank everyone?

Posted on July 10, 2009
Speaking for myself, the USNWR law school rankings are an eminently reasonable response to consumer demand for information about how to spend their educational dollars. One may quibble with USNWR's ranking formula and those ranked may argue about the results,...

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Scholarship alert: "Teaching transactional lawyering"

Posted on July 10, 2009
This article comes from Drexel Professor Karl Okamoto and can be found at 1 Drexel L. Rev. 69 (2009). From the introduction: Over the years I have developed a habit. Whenever I meet a ?deal lawyer? of some experience and...

more kudos!

Posted on July 10, 2009
Continuing to report on progress and prizes in the legal writing field: At the University of Maine, Angie Arey was appointed Associate Professor of Legal Writing, a nice step up from the "Legal Writing Instructor" title she held for the...

History Videos on Legal Writing . . . Before the Legal Writing Institute!

Posted on July 09, 2009
The Legal Writing Institute is currently celebrating its 25th Anniversary with a series of special events and commemorations. Upcoming events include special recognition for LWI at a conference on the future of legal education being sponsored by The John Marshall...

more promotions and special positions

Posted on July 08, 2009
At Indiana University School of Law in Indianapolis, Ken Chestek and Jim Dimitri have both been promoted from Association Clinical Professor of Law to full Clinicial Professor of Law. Also this spring, at the University of Arizona Rogers College of...

European Humanities University

Posted on July 07, 2009
The European Humanities University was previously located in Belarus, until the dictator running that country shut it down. Instead of closing up shop entirely, the university moved to neighboring Lithuania. A professor from that university has attended Legal Writing Institute...

A companion piece to the story below - what will the faculty of the future look like?

Posted on July 07, 2009
Here's an excerpt from the Chronicle of Higher Ed story: The faculty workplace has changed significantly in the last 20 years: More women, minority professors, and adjuncts have joined the professoriate. Information technology has led to new opportunities and expectations...

What will university students of the future expect from schools?

Posted on July 07, 2009
The Chronicle of Higher Ed is offering a paid report that describes what future college students will expect from their schools in the year 2020. Here's a portion of the abstract: More students will attend classes online, study part time,...

250,000 Visits to the Legal Writing Prof Blog!

Posted on July 06, 2009
We just had our 250,000th visitor to the Legal Writing Prof Blog! We're not sure WHO you are, but we know that you accessed us from beautiful Fremont, California. Please contact us to let us know who you are --...

Fox Business News story on the University of Miami School of Law 1L deferrals

Posted on July 06, 2009
As you may have heard, Above the Law last week broke the story that U of Miami School of Law had a historically high 1L yield and as a result the Dean was advising students to either defer their decision...

Scholarship alert: "A Preliminary Exploration of the Elements of Expert Performance in Legal Writing"

Posted on July 05, 2009
This is a working paper available on SSRN, here, by Shelley M. Kierstead and Erika Abner, both Canadian academics. From the abstract: This paper describes results of focus group research conducted with senior advocacy lawyers in relation to the lawyers'...

How our brains assess risk and possible lessons for more effective advocacy

Posted on July 05, 2009
Here's a very interesting NYT's editorial that discusses the work of University of Oregon psychology Professor Paul Slovic, an expert on how humans assess risk in connection with decision-making. Although the editorial is directed at Congress's tepid efforts to address...

Scholarship alert: "Putting it All Together: Law Schools' Role in Improving Appellate Practice"

Posted on July 05, 2009
This one comes to us from Professor Coleen Barger's former student and protege Stella J. Phillips (they grow up so fast, don't they?) and is available at 31 U. Ark. Little Rock L. Rev. 135 (2008). Here's the abstract for...

promotions for legal writing professors

Posted on July 05, 2009
This spring, Danielle Shelton and Lisa Penland, both legal writing professors at Drake University Law School, were promoted to the rank of Professor of Law. Nancy Oliver, at the University of Cincinnati College of Law, has been promoted to the...

Hey baby, "It's the 4th of July"

Posted on July 04, 2009
Here's a little seasonal music courtesy of Dave Alvin. This one goes out to a very special person in Palm City. If the embedded video isn't working (even though I clicked "enabled" :-), go here. Have yourself a very happy...

American Association of Law Libraries

Posted on July 04, 2009
Here's a little something special for all of our citation junkie readers. It's a link to the Citations Committee Page of the American Association of Law Libraries. Enjoy. (mew)

"Forthwith" versus "promptly" - you decide!

Posted on July 03, 2009
Here's an interesting post from AdamsDrafting in which contract drafting expert Ken Adams questions why lawyers continue to use archaic terms in their contracts like "forthwith" rather than "promptly" or "immediately." But progress is being made. To wit, blogmeister Adams...

Michigan bans electronic communication devices during jury trials

Posted on July 03, 2009
In response to complaints from prosecutors that jurors are distracted during trials by their cell phones, PDA's and similar devices, the Michigan Supreme Court has banned jurors from engaging in electronic communication during trials. As the blog Law...

Are academic listservs, including LWI's, losing their appeal?

Posted on July 03, 2009
That's the question raised by this columnfrom the Chronicle of Higher Ed which questions whether academic listservs are losing relevance in light of blogs, wikis, Facebook, Twitter and the like which arguably do a better job facilitating exchange and debate...

Westlaw goes "green"

Posted on July 02, 2009
In this YouTube video, Westlaw representatives talk about the steps they are taking to be more environmentally-conscious in their dealings with summer law clerks. If the embedded video doesn't work (there have been some problems lately with the blog), try...

"Excellent communication skills": bad boilerplate?

Posted on July 02, 2009
Among the "worst 10 boilerplate phrases" one should "seek out and destroy" in professional resumes is this standard reference to communications skills, says Liz Ryan of The Savvy Networker (posted in Yahoo! hotjobs). Another "stodgy boilerplate" phrase is "team player...

Still more on the "apprenticeship" model of law firm employment

Posted on July 01, 2009
We reported earlier that several law firms are slashing starting associate pay and instead placing new grads on an apprenticeship track that will provide supplemental skills training that law schools, at least according to these employers, are not offering...

The online ABA Journal's "Question of the Week": The worst briefs and oral arguments.

Posted on July 01, 2009
There should be good lessons to pass along to students based on this week's question to readers posed by the online ABA Journal. Specifically, the Journal is asking its readers: What kind of words and phrasing do you see in...

Another sign 'o the economic times - Lexis and Westlaw offer free online services for unemployed lawyers

Posted on July 01, 2009
Westlaw has started a website called Between Cases which is intended to serve as an information clearinghouse for displaced attorneys looking for work. In addition, as the Legal Blog Watch reports, Westlaw is donating $12 million in free research services...

Details on the Scribes Luncheon in Chicago on August 1st

Posted on July 01, 2009
We have the details now about the Scribes Luncheon that will be held in Chicago on August 1, 2009 during the annual meeting of the American Bar Association. Click here for details on the program and information on how to...

student bloopers

Posted on July 01, 2009
Sometimes a writing teacher just can't help it. A typo or grammar error in a student paper creates such an amusing sentence, the teacher just has to share it with somebody. So as a law student, how would you feel...

It was a dark and stormy night when the 2009 Bulwer Lytton awards were announced

Posted on June 30, 2009
It was David McKenzie of Federal Way, Washington, who penned this year's winning entry in the Bulwer Lytton Fiction Contest, that annual extravaganza that looks for clever, but awful (in a clever way) renditions of prose that will make you...

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