Legal Writing Prof Blog: Legal Writing

Home -> Law Blog Directory -> Legal Writing Blogs

OR PHONE (866) 635-1838 for Bankruptcy Help, (866) 635-6190 for Divorce,
(866) 635-2689 for Personal Injury or (866) 635-9402 for Criminal Defense

Find a Local Lawyer

Bankruptcy (866) 635-1838
Divorce (866) 635-6190
Personal Injury (866) 635-2689
Criminal Defense (866) 635-9402

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

Voir Dire as the Lawyer's First Chance to Communicate with the Jury

Posted on December 25, 2008
Voir dire is more than merely the procedure used to select a fair and impartial jury; it also represents the attorney's first chance to communicate with the jury. Click here to read more in an article by Professor David Sorkin...

The "Mac" is back! More good legal writing advice from Professor James McElhaney.

Posted on December 24, 2008
Blogging is heck. Endless hours in front of the screen, the intense pressure to scoop the competition, sleepless nights, weight gain, declining health. It has sent lesser men (and women) to an early grave. But here at the Legal Writing...

NORAD tracks Santa

Posted on December 24, 2008
Sure, it's OT. But you're at your computer, so you might as well click on NORAD tracks Santa and see where in the world he is right now. At the time of this typing (about 1:00 p.m. EST), he had...

effective conferencing on students' papers

Posted on December 24, 2008
From Ben Opipari comes a list of sources for legal writing professors who want to increase their skill at holding effective student conferences: Thomas Flynn & Mary King, Dynamics of the Writing Conference: Social and Cognitive Interaction (NCTE 1999)...

To access this complete feed in the blog feed reader login or register for free.

the new legal writing: e-mail

Posted on December 24, 2008
In many instances where lawyers used to pick up the phone or write a brief memo or letter, e-mail has now taken over. And often e-mail written by lawyers is "legal writing." More and more legal writing professors are addressing...

egalwriting from Santa's Lawyers

Posted on December 23, 2008
In the form of a holiday greeting card, the ABA Journal is offering an exemplar of the legalwriting produced by Santa's lawyers. (spl)

Clarity

Posted on December 23, 2008
Clarity is an international organization promoting plain legal language. There are more than 1,000 members in 52 countries and jurisdictions. Membership is only US $35 a year if you're living in the United States (with similar fees in local currencies...

Yet another book recommendation - this time from Chris Wren

Posted on December 22, 2008
You know this blog is being read by the right people when Chris Wren, the man who parented the process-oriented approach to legal research instruction (in use by virtually every legal writing professor today), writes in response to a post...

New book on teaching writing to the Wikipedia generation.

Posted on December 22, 2008
Geared primarily towards college writing professors, a new book by Professor Robert E. Cummings of Columbus State University in Georgia on how to teach writing to the "Wikipedia generation" will undoubtedly be of interest to some legal writing professors...

on puncutation

Posted on December 21, 2008
Judge and Professor Gerald Lebovits writes a regular column on legal writing in the New York State Bar Association Journal. His two-part essay on punctuation provides a helpful review and lots of helpful tips, all specifically geared to legal writers:...

A new book to look for in 2009 - "How We Decide" by Jonah Lehrer.

Posted on December 19, 2008
Wunderkind Jonah Lehrer is scheduled to release a new book on February 9, 2009 that examines the science of decision-making and thus should be of interest to many readers of this blog who want to know more about the neuroscience...

What does Lexis and ALR have in common with "the singing cowboy" Gene Autry?

Posted on December 19, 2008
They're "back in the saddle again!" Although the similarity pretty much ends there. LexisNexis is a online commercial information and research services provider while Gene Autry was a much beloved, but now deceased, performing cowboy. Nevertheless, Lexis has announced that...

a high-school writing assignment that gives me hope . . .

Posted on December 19, 2008
I was visiting my cousins in CA this past weekend, and my 14-year-old cousin showed me an assignment in his English class (in the work documents category): to revise a grading rubric to make it more effective pedagogically. His teacher...

Amy Sloan's Pragmatic Approach to Nonprecedential Opinions in the Federal Appellate Courts

Posted on December 19, 2008
Professor Amy E. Sloan of the University of Baltimore School of Law has published a new article in the Nebraska Law Review, advocating for a new category of "overrulable" legal authority to give non-precedential opinions some weight without giving them...

Google announces magazines to be added to it searchable database.

Posted on December 18, 2008
On Tuesday, Google announced a deal with several publishers to bring a back catalog of magazines including New York Magazine, The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, Log Home Living, and Jet, among many others, to its searchable database of print resources...

The kind of Facebook "friend request" you don't want to receive - service of process.

Posted on December 18, 2008
In a story that many legal blogs have reported, an Australian judge, possibly for the first time anywhere, approved the serving of a default judgment to a non-appearing defendant via Facebook. As reported by Yahoo Tech and the Associated Press:...

Beyond Lexis and Westlaw

Posted on December 17, 2008
Do any of you teach your students about electronic search services such as Fastcase, Loislaw or the National Law Library? If the answer is yes, please leave a comment about your experience or send me an email. Thanks. If you...

LWI and ALWD Awards in San Diego at the AALS Annual Meeting

Posted on December 16, 2008
The Legal Writing Institute and the Association of Legal Writing Directors will present the Golden Pen Award honoring the National Association of Attorneys General and the Thomas F. Blackwell Memorial Award honoring Linda H. Edwards on Friday, January 9, 2009,...

Duquesne Law School Dean Gets Fired. What's Up?

Posted on December 16, 2008
Duquesne Law School in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania increased its bar pass rate from 68 to 97 percent. So many are wondering why the law school's dean, Donald J. Guter, suddenly got fired last week. Click here to read more on Law.com...

LWI and ALWD Awards in San Diego at the AALS Annual Meeting

Posted on December 14, 2008
The Legal Writing Institute and the Association of Legal Writing Directors will present the Golden Pen Award honoring the National Association of Attorneys General and the Thomas F. Blackwell Memorial Award honoring Linda H. Edwards on Friday, January 9, 2009,...

LWI and ALWD Awards in San Diego at the AALS Annual Meeting

2009 Legal Writing Scholarship Grants

Posted on December 13, 2008
The Association of Legal Writing Directors (ALWD) and the Legal Writing Institute (LWI) announced the 2009 Legal Writing Scholarship Grants for teachers of legal research and writing. Applications are due February 3, 2009. These grants reflect the two organizations? commitment...

undergraduate comp teachers

Posted on December 12, 2008
An interesting article on "The Adjunctification of English" appears in the December 11 newsletter, Inside Higher Ed. As has been previously observed, parallels exist between the frequent second-class status of those teaching undergraduate composition and those teaching legal writing...

kudos to St. John's!

Posted on December 11, 2008
Last Friday, St. John's University School of Law held a conference on Practice Meets Pedagogy: Views from the Bench, Bar and Academy on Law School Graduates' Legal Research and Writing Skills. By all accounts, it was a highly successful --...

an interesting choice of words. . .

Posted on December 10, 2008
In the lavatory on a KLM flight: Please report any irregularities to the flight attendant. :) (njs)

Keyboard Shortcuts and Technology Tips to Make You More Productive

Posted on December 10, 2008
The (new) legal writer blog has a useful post today that links to an article by Dan Pinnington on 10 technology tips to make you more productive, including some extremely useful keyboard shortcuts. Really, have a look at this article....

quotable

Posted on December 09, 2008
"No stile of writing is so delightful as that which is all pith, which never omits a necessary word, nor uses an unnecessary one." ~ Thomas Jefferson (in a letter to his grandson) (spl)

the Milani award

Posted on December 08, 2008
Professor Suzanne Painter-Thorne sends this announcement: Mercer University School of Law and the ABA host an annual writing competition in honor of Mercer?s former legal writing professor, Adam Milani. It is one of the few competitions for student-written briefs ?...

Three Section Posters Selected for Display at the AALS Annual Meeting

Posted on December 06, 2008
The Association of American Law Schools (AALS) Section on Legal Writing, Reasoning, and Research announced the names of the section's poster presenters at AALS Annual Meeting in San Diego this January. The AALS started doing posters a couple of years...

ALWD Also Opposes Abolishing Interpretations 402-1 and 402-2

Posted on December 03, 2008
The Association of Legal Writing Directors (ALWD) has also submitted comments on the proposed elimination of Interpretations 402-1 and 402-2 of the ABA Standards for the Accreditation of Law Schools. Click here to read the ALWD Letter to the ABA....

Previous | Next

Related Law Bulletins

Update on AILF's Legal Action Center Visa Bulletin Litigation (Updated 7/10/07)
The following is the latest update from AILF regarding its pening ...

The Immigrant Legal Resource Center Legislative Forecast
The ILRC Forecast on Immigration ReformJudith Golub, Executive Dir...

The Christian Legal Society and "discrimation": Response to Susan
In response to Susan's post, I'm inclined to think that, yes, the ...

Stacy Scnheider Legal Commentator Apprentice

Catholic Legal Theory and life and death
Tom Berg’s question regarding the propriety or not of capital pu...