Conference Materials
Friday, March 22 | |
Web-based version with hyperlinks to submitted presentation materials | |
11:30 am–12:45 pm | |
Main Lobby (First floor) | |
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12:45–1:55 pm | |
Courtroom 101 (First Floor) | |
Dean Phil Weiser | Opening Remarks |
Mary Beth Beazley, Pamela Lysaght, J. Lyn Entrikin, Richard K. Neumann | Emerging Theories in Normative Transgression, Etymology of Narcissistic Phenotypes and Infantilism, and the Psychopathology of Thuggery and Authoritarianism Within Scholarly Discourse Communities This presentation continues the Emerging Theories series that began at the 2011 Rocky Mountain Conference and continued at the 2012 Conference. Don’t pay any attention to the panel title. We don’t know what it means, or at least we say we don’t. We’ll talk about subjects that have never previously been discussed in any panel presentation and are too incendiary to publish in the conference program. No handouts will be distributed. If any other evidence is found during the presentation, it’ll be destroyed in a controlled explosion. Everyone in the room will take the cone-of-silence oath. |
Ken Chestek | Survey What is an effective Preliminary Statement to open a brief? Help Prof. Ken Chestek design an empirical study to help answer that question by participating in a 15-minute experiment. |
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2:00–2:25 pm | |
Mark K. Osbeck (Michigan)
Room 205 | The Predictive Legal Memorandum: Striking the Proper Balance Between Usefulness and Caution Traditionally, students writing legal memoranda learn to apply the law to the facts in a fairly mechanical manner in order to predict what a court will do when confronted with a hypothetical factual scenario. However, for a number of reasons, predictions of this sort are often quite unreliable. Dealing with this uncertainty can be difficult for students, and pedagogically it can be difficult for instructors to teach students how to strike an appropriate balance between unwarranted predictions, on the one hand, and indecisiveness on the other. This presentation will encourage participants to think about how best to help our students avoid the horns of this dilemma. |
Barbara E. Wilson (UMKC) Room 206 | Secrets from the Crayon Box: Using Colors and Blocks to Connect Students to IRAC A new twist on IRAC/CRAC that provides a visual foundation for students to use as they develop their legal analysis skills. This presentation will provide the color charts that set out the foundation, and discuss how the foundation can be used by students to self-evaluate the organization and content of their legal analyses. |
Tracy Turner (Southwestern) Room 207 | Adapting IRAC to Meet the Challenges of Practice IRAC is a great tool but is not always the best organizational choice for every type of analysis. This presentation will provide some alternative organizational models that hope to balance flexibility with the structural guidance that novice legal writers need. The alternatives include, for example, the strategic deconstruction of large “R” blocks, the use of narratives to make an analysis more engaging, and an abbreviated form of proof appropriate for uncontested points of law. |
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2:30–2:55 pm | |
Karen Mika (Cleveland Marshall) Room 204 | Memo Writing in Technicolor Visuals have become commonplace in the classroom, most prominently in Legal Writing and Research classes. This presentation will discuss the use of visuals, particularly color enhancement, in teaching the legal analytical format for a memo. Although highlighting various parts of a memo is not a new teaching methodology, the existence of word processors (and electronic highlighting tools) has enabled teachers to take this tool to a new level. The presentation would demonstrate how the use of color highlighting comparing well-constructed material to poorly-constructed material enhances the ability of students to recognize structural flaws in their own work, and, hopefully remedy the flaws. |
Maggie Tsavaris & Deborah McGregor (Indiana)
Room 205 | Bringing out Effective Storytellers in our Students by Teaching with Pathos Pathos applies not only to our writing and analysis but also to our pedagogy. This presentation focuses on introducing concepts and creating exercises that invite our students to be passionate about what they are learning. We willexploreavariety ofwaystoengageour students withspecialattentionto inspiringourstudentsthrough inspirational video and “Quotes of the Day” and establishing a deeper connection tothehypothetical clientthrough storytelling exercises. |
Leslie Culver (Cal. Western) Room 206 | De-mystifying Legal Research: Using strategic tools designed to create order from seeming chaos, maximizing skill retention and increasing confidence This practical presentation instructs professors on the creation and effective use of three research tools designed to de-mystify the process of legal research for first year law students: (1) Research Outline, (2) Legal Research 101: Flowcharts, and (3) Advanced Research Techniques. The Research Outline provides students perspective on how to capture their research in a manageable and flexible record, after which, the Flowcharts provide students strategic steps in performing their initial research. Finally, the Advanced Research Techniques provides students with opportunities to both refine their research skills and prepare their legal memorandums. |
Katrina June Lee (Ohio State) Room 207 | Beyond Memos and Briefs: Journaling and Reflection in the 1L Legal Writing Class This presentation explores the advantages and challenges of incorporating journaling into the 1L legal writing class, and offers best practices for doing so. Journaling can help reduce stress, jumpstart creative thinking, and give perspective and focus. Journal entry assignments help students learn to increase overall fulfillment and avoid burnout in their legal careers; give students space to write without the restrictions of citation form or IRAC; encourage reflection on issues of professionalism; and, as will be explained, promote the goals of a 1L legal writing class. Sample journal assignments will be provided and discussed. |
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3:00–3:50 pm | |
Deborah Gordon, Lisa McElroy & Emily Zimmerman (Drexel) Room 204 | Scholarship → Teaching → Scholarship: How Teaching and Scholarship Inform and Improve Each Other This panel presentation will explore how a legal writing professor’s scholarship can inform and enhance the teaching of legal writing and, conversely, how classroom experiences can contribute to a robust academic writing agenda. From three different perspectives (junior/pre-tenure, mid-level/pre-tenure, tenured), the presenters will describe various ways that the legal methods courses they teach have evolved as a result of their respective academic interests and writing projects. The presenters will then open discussion to attendees, focusing on the cyclical, symbiotic relationship between the legal writing classroom and scholarship. |
Deanne Lawrence, Nancy Costello & Jennifer Rosa (Michigan State) Room 205 | Taking it to the Streets: Bringing Legal Writing Problems to Life Legal writing professors at Michigan State University College of Law bring legal writing assignments to life by using techniques like staging the problem in a real setting or pulling their students out of the classroom and into the streets. Legal writing students study an accident scene that resulted in a claim of negligent infliction of emotional distress or view the scene of a burglary. They stroll the streets of Detroit retracing the steps of Eminem in a Chrysler automobile commercial to study copyright infringement. MSU professors will give tips on how to make legal writing real. |
Judith Popper & Wanda M. Temm (UMKC) Room 206 | Experiment Away! Cross-Curricular Professional Skills Training in the First Year This presentation describes a cross-curriculum innovation that emphasizes skills training. All first year faculty stop holding their regular classes and spend one week working their way through problems based on a core set of facts. Students experience how each topic area can spring from the same set of facts, how the doctrinal topics interrelate in order to effectively reach the client’s goals, and how various professional skills are needed. This presentation will demonstrate how this cross-curricular, professional skills training was developed and implemented. |
Corie Rosen Felder (Colorado) Room 207 | You Can Do That! Giving Motivational Feedback That Works Giving students motivational feedback without obscuring their writing problems presents significant challenges. Do only one, and students’ achievement will suffer. But doing both at the same time can be difficult. In this interactive presentation, participants will learn how to give students feedback that both addresses shortcomings and motivates students to succeed. Participants will leave with a new language for understanding and addressing the way students think about criticism, feedback, and success. |
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3:50–4:00 pm | |
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4:00–4:50 pm | |
Amy Langenfeld (ASU) Room 204 | Legislative Drafting Manuals: “America’s Test Kitchen” of Drafting Advice In-class exercise Link to PowerPoint Legislative drafting manuals have many uses in the law school classroom: as examples and explanations of how (and how not to draft), as free online style reference sources for novice drafters, and as entry points for the legal research that supports all good drafting. This presentation will introduce legislative drafting manuals as supplementary texts in upper-level courses and name the top five legislative drafting manuals nation-wide. |
Terry Jean Seligman & Karl Okamoto (Drexel) Room 205 | Vanilla, Chocolate, and Cherry Garcia -- Legal Research in 26 Flavors: Using LawMeets® Online Technology to Learn and Practice Legal Research and Communication Skills Within the First Year Curriculum Link to Handout 1 Link to Handout 2 In an integrated research and writing curriculum, it is a challenge to transfer learning and reinforce legal research and communications skills through multiple practice opportunities. Professor Seligmann and other Legal Methods Professors piloted a series of legal research problems using LawMeets® that engage students through video, and ask them to research efficiently, give clients practical advice, participate in peer review, and debrief with expert advice. By using LawMeets®, which is being developed by Professor Okamoto with funding from the National Science Foundation, this was done easily for large numbers of students, at low cost, and without demanding technical skills by the Professor. See how LawMeets work, and try one during the session. |
Suzanne Rabe (Arizona) & Terrill Pollman (UNLV) Room 206 | A Cold Wind Blows: Speech in the Legal Writing Community Let’s talk about what we’re not allowed to talk about. We will begin this presentation with a discussion of the top-ten things that may ruin your career if you dare say them on the legal writing listserv. We will then moderate a free-ranging discussion about whether there are unspoken norms in the legal writing community that chill speech on the listserv and elsewhere. |
Jacob M. Carpenter (Marquette) & Allison Ortlieb (DePaul) Room 207 | Podcasts, Videos, and Buzzer Beaters: Beating Bluebook Boredom This presentation will offer legal writing professors new ways to help overcome two common problems of teaching the Bluebook: (1) it takes up valuable class time, and (2) it bores students. First, Professor Ortlieb will show attendees how they can create their own Bluebook instructional videos and podcasts that students can access anytime, buying back precious in-class instructional time. Next, Professor Carpenter will demonstrate (and make available) a Bluebook tournament that engages tired students by providing a competitive, fun experience while serving as an effective, year-end Bluebook review. The tournament, which has been used in both small sections and across an entire 350 student 1L class, has a basketball theme (including three point shots, free throws, steals, a shot clock, etc., run through a sophisticated PowerPoint program) and runs simultaneously with the NCAA Basketball March Madness tournament, culminating in a championship game with prizes. Finally, both presenters will discuss how these techniques can be used for other topics in a legal writing class. |
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4:50–5:00 pm | |
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5:00–5:25 pm | |
Judy Stinson & Susan Chesler (ASU) Room 204 | Developing Cohesive Outcomes for Upper-Level Writing Courses In light of the move toward outcome measures and curricular improvement in general, many writing faculty and writing programs have developed expected outcomes for the first-year, mandatory writing course or courses. Developing outcomes for upper-level writing courses can also be beneficial; it helps identify both student and institutional goals and provides a means of evaluating the effectiveness of the courses in achieving these goals. However, generating these outcomes for diverse upper-level courses can present significant challenges. This session will: 1) discuss the reasons to develop outcomes for upper-level writing courses and the difficulties with doing so; and 2) explore some methods to successfully develop cohesive upper-level outcomes. |
Christine Kelton (Whittier) Room 205 | Internalizing the Rubric: Teaching Students to Effectively Self-Assess Some students become so dependent on a rubric that it is difficult for them to evaluate their own work independent of the rubric. Instead of relying on a rubric created by someone else, students need to develop the skill of “internalizing” their own rubric. This presentation suggests techniques to teach students to effectively self-assess. |
Nantiya Ruan (Denver) Room 206 | First Year “Malpractice”: Unauthorized Practice of Law in the First Year Hybrid Classroom As part of the most recent legal education reforms, faculty across the law school are leaving their silos and collaborating with one another to provide experiential learning opportunities that incorporate real clients into the learning of the class.This includes legal research and writing faculty, clinical faculty, and non-profit lawyers working together to offer students exposure to “real life” clients in the first year of law school, as well as advanced courses in particular substantive area. This presentation addresses one of the ethical risks associated with implementing these “collaborative classrooms”: the rules surrounding the unauthorized practice of law. |
Hether C. Macfarlane (McGeorge) Room 207 | Learning How Civil Law Students Reason to Help Them Reason Differently The biggest challenge in teaching international LL.M. students is helping them move from civil law reasoning to common law reasoning. Because my only “legal” language is English, I have begun studying translated cases involving the U.N. Convention on the International Sale of Goods in order to gain a better understanding of civil law legal reasoning so I can better help my international students learn common law reasoning. This presentation is a preliminary report on what I have learned from analyzing those cases. |
Andrew Crouse (Hamline) Room 202
| Teaching CREAC for Macro-Organization CREAC is a useful device for teaching students how to organize individual arguments. Many students, however, struggle with how to organize the argument section as a whole, especially when there are several issues and sub-issues. With a few adaptations, CREAC can also serve as a useful device for teaching students how to approach overall organization. Learn how to adapt CREAC to overall organization, and see examples of in-class activities that reinforce this new skill. |
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5:45 pm | |
Student Commons (Second Floor) Sponsored by Westlaw | |
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Saturday, March 23
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8:30–9:00 am | |
Student Commons (Second Floor) Sponsored by Aspen | |
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9:00–9:25 am | |
Robert Anderson (Denver) Room 204 | How to use a Flipped Classroom to Teach Legal Writing This presentation will offer how-tos and share lessons learned from “flipping” a first year legal research and writing class.In the “flipped classroom,” what is traditionally done outside the class is flipped with what is traditionally done in class. Students absorb skill-building concepts outside of class via short instructor-created video lectures, and work in class on instructor-guided exercises or class assignments through which they apply the skill-building concepts learned. http://www.knewton.com/flipped-classroom/ |
Nancy Soonpaa (Texas Tech) Room 205 | Cutting the Apron Strings and Pushing the Baby Bird from the Nest: How Parenting Philosophies Support a Pedagogically Sound Sequence of Developmental Exercises and Structured Assignments Just as students come to our classrooms with many of the tools they need to succeed in law school based on their life experiences, many of their law professors similarly come to the classroom with the tools they need to teach successfully and effectively. The aphorisms we grew up with (and, perhaps, parent with) can guide an effective and pedagogically sound teaching approach as we “grow” novice law students into something closer to expert. Developmental exercises and structured assignments can encourage an awareness of the learning and writing process, develop self-directed learning, and build confidence in our student learners. This presentation will offer pedagogical theories that support this approach and specific examples and exercises that demonstrate how to apply it. |
Jeremy Francis (Michigan State) Room 206 | Conducting Informal Educational Inquiry in the Legal Writing Classroom Some legal writing professors might be intimidated by the prospect of conducting formal educational research. This presentation aims to re-frame the idea of inquiry as a less formal, but equally valuable, tool to help improve our practice and pedagogy. This presentation will survey informal educational inquiry methods, including question formation, data collection, data analysis, ethical and human subjects considerations, and publication or presentation of findings. The presenter will also discuss past inquiry projects conducted at his home institution. |
Carolyn Bach (Lexis) Room 207 | Educate Students on Law Firm Research Rates & Cost Recovery Provide students with up to date information on what they can expect in the workplace related to legal research access and billing. Learn more about cost recovery trends, how new research platforms like Lexis Advance® are priced, and key cost-effective features. |
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9:30–10:25 am | |
Mimi Wesson (Colorado) Courtroom 101 | Writing the Hillmon Case: An Instance of the Legal Storyteller’s Predicament Marianne Wesson, known as Mimi to her friends, holds the position of Professor of Law and Schaden Chair in Experiential Learning at the University of Colorado, where she has also been designated a President’s Teaching Scholar. In former times she has been a federal prosecutor, university administrator, and novelist. Three of her novels have been national bestsellers. Her newest book, a work of creative nonfiction called A DEATH AT CROOKED CREEK: THE CASE OF THE COWBOY, THE CIGARMAKER, AND THE LOVE LETTER, will be published in spring 2013. It reconsiders the origins and significance of the Supreme Court’s famous 1892 decision in Mutual Life Insurance Company v. Hillmon. When not at work, Mimi lives in Larimer County, Colorado, with her husband, fifteen llamas, assorted dogs and cats, and visiting wildlife. |
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10:30–10:55 am | |
David R. Cleveland (Valparasio) Room 204 | Student Generated Rubrics: A Tool for Metacognition and Building Student Confidence While rubrics are often something we present to students as a checklist or use ourselves as a grading guide, a student-generated rubric can be a powerful tool for student learning. The rubric creation process forces students to consider what is important about what they have been taught and what they are being asked to produce. It can also increase students’ confidence in their own work and in your evaluation of that work. This presentation will offer ideas and exercises to help students generate rubrics to direct their efforts and evaluate their success. |
Tamara Herrera & Kimberly Holst (ASU)
Room 205 | Facing the Fears of a Faculty Talk Giving a presentation to a law school faculty—your own or for a job talk—is a stressful endeavor. This presentation will attempt to de-mystify the faculty talk experience, provide helpful tips and guidance regarding the talk itself, and suggest methods for handling questions arising from the talk. Finally, we’ll discuss ideas for follow-up after the talk to maximize the success or impact of the talk. |
Lisa Mazzie (Marquette) Room 206 | Creating Legal Writing Problems that Work (And What to Do if They Don’t) Link to Handout 1 Link to Handout 2 Link to PowerPoint Notes Link to PowerPoint Learn how to come up with an idea for a memo or brief problem and how to make that idea a reality. In this presentation, we will discuss how to come up with an idea for a problem, set the parameters for that problem, determine what information to give the students, decide whether to recycle or retire a problem, and learn ways to handle the unexpected. The presentation will include samples of problems, including one that did not work well and how that problem was salvaged, so that you can see different ideas and different ways of presenting problems. |
Karen D. Thornton (George Washington) Room 207 | Let Discipline Set You Free: Teaching Upper Level Writers How to Organize & Outline for Success When students write an upper level writing paper they often skip the organizing stage that should occur between the researching and drafting phases of writing. As supervisors of upper level writing projects, we tend to overlook that stage because it is difficult to teach. I have developed a one hour class devoted to teaching students how to develop a research chart and then turn that research chart into a "living" outline that illustrates the connections among ideas developed during the research phase and readies the student to start writing. In this presentation I will share my lesson plan and teaching materials for that class. |
Jeff Brandimarte (Westlaw) Room 202 | Exploring the NEXT Frontier of Legal Research: WestlawNext in the Classroom An overview of how LRW faculty may introduce the WestlawNext platform to their students, with discussion of new features, cross-over elements between Westlaw Classic and WestlawNext, and the WestSearch algorithm. |
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11:00–11:25 am | |
Brenda Tofte (Qatar) Room 204 | ’Hi Ho, Hi Ho’—teaching students to mine cases for relevant law and facts New law students are often overwhelmed by the prospect of writing their first CREAC paradigm. Even students who do a good job briefing cases are unsure how to translate their understanding of precedent into useful information to include in a “legal writing product.” To help students learn to extract all the relevant information out of cases, I have them work in small groups to mine a case for the law and facts they will use when they write their first CREAC paradigm. In this presentation, I will introduce the worksheet that students use for this exercise, explain how we “do” this exercise in class, and explain how students can use the finished product when they write their first CREAC legal analysis of an issue. |
Jo Ann Ragazzo & Rebecca Rich (Duke) Room 205 | Anatomy of Two Upper-level Writing Seminars Prof. Jo Ann Ragazzo will share the challenges of creating and implementing practice-oriented upper-level writing experiences to better prepare students for law practice. Participants will receive sample course documents from two seminar courses (Legal Writing in Civil Practice and Writing: Electronic Discovery) including syllabi, assignments, class exercises, and peer review guides. |
Kevin Shelley (Gonzaga), Joseph M. Hnylka (Nova) & M. Lisa Bradley (Gonzaga) Room 206 | Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, Relax: Breathing New Life into Old Assignments Think it’s obsolete? Outdated? Garbage? Think again! It’s time to brush off those old writing assignments and turn them into new, exciting exercises to challenge your students! Reusing writing assignments and problems is an excellent time-saving teaching tool. It allows you to develop familiarity with the law, the authorities, and the mishaps common to student writing. |
Susan Smith Bakhshian & Aimee Dudovitz (Loyola–LA) Room 207 | Low Tech Teaching in a High Tech World: No Clicker? No Problem I love using technology, but it is not the only way to teach. This proposal includes five low tech ideas that involve using a 3x5 note card instead of technology. Whether it is because you don’t have the latest technology, you don’t want to use it, or you are tired of using it and want to mix it up more, this proposal covers easy teaching ideas that do not require any prep time. These tips help students build proofreading and self-assessment skills and increase students ownership of their written work. |
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11:30–11:55 am | |
Suzanna K. Moran (Denver) Room 204 | Are You a Good Witch or a Bad Witch This presentation will briefly describe the increasing focus on concepts of professionalism and professional identity development in law school, including some of the definitional problems associated with the terms. It will then discuss some explicit and implicit methods of bringing these concepts into the classroom so that teachers can assess students’ performance in these areas of increasing concern. |
Samantha Moppett & Lisa Healy (Suffolk) Room 205 | From Watching Paint Dry to Painting a Masterpiece: Exercises and Ideas for Teaching (Boring) Subject Matter You know the classes and subjects that elicit groans (both from you and your students): Citation. Editing. Updating the Law. Professionalism. This presentation will feature fun and effective alternatives to pure lecture. Join us for a citation relay game, a snapshot of a semester-long class competition, a research scavenger hunt, and other new ways to teach traditionally boring or lecture-heavy topics. |
Laura Reilly (Buffalo) Room 206 | Fun, engaging, and interactive ideas to help students teach themselves necessary LAWR skills I will demonstrate and explain some of my innovative teaching tricks and ideas. Learn some tips for effectively showing your students how to teach themselves necessary legal writing and analysis skills in a creative, fun (yes, fun!) way. I will share five techniques I have honed after ten years of teaching, including how to introduce citation, peer editing, articulating arguments from both sides, maximizing student conference time, and learning how to write professional e-mails. I will distribute my student handouts for your use. |
Andrea Susnir Funk & Patricia Leary (Whittier) Room 207 | Essential Skills Law Students Can Learn from Extreme Cliff Camping Using real world images from extreme cliff camping (i.e., pitching tents on the side of formidable cliff faces), we will explore the essential skills from this activity that can be transferred to surviving -- and even thriving in -- law school. Among such skills are the ability to problem solve, to self-assess, and, more generally, to "trust the process" of legal education. We have a handout to share with attendees that addresses all three of these key skills. |
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12:00 pm–1:15 pm | |
Student Commons (Second Floor) Sponsored by Lexis | |
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1:15–1:40 pm | |
Jim Dimitri (Indiana) Room 204 | Hitting the “Send” Button: Translating the Traditional Objective Memorandum into a Less Formal E-mail Memorandum In today's law practice, lawyers frequently use e-mail to convey legal advice to others, and most of today's law students prefer to communicate electronically. However, many students have little or no experience in the professionalism and ethics required of writers who draft business-related documents. This presentation will discuss how law professors may take a traditional, long-form memorandum that their students have written and have the students translate that memo into a concise, informal e-mail memorandum. Through this process, students will learn how to concisely communicate a legal analysis through a commonly-used medium and how to professionally use that medium. |
Aaron M. House (UMKC) Room 205 | hey prof, like i didn’t know the memo was due last week, lol!!! L Professionalism and the “LOL” Generation: An Updated Approach to Incorporating Professionalism Skills Into First-Year Legal Research and Writing Courses Ensuring that we meet employers’ demands that law schools produce practice-ready students requires that we teach students how to act professionally. But teaching professionalism raises unique challenges because many students have never worked in a professional business setting. To better equip our students, we have instituted Professionalism Expectations in our Introduction to Law courses, which are designed to mirror the realities new lawyers face in practice and to help students avoid mistakes often made by new lawyers, like using emoticons in professional email. This presentation will provide an overview of our professionalism guidelines, along with a copy of the Professionalism Expectations, and it will explain how professionalism skills are integrated into our courses. |
Sheila Miller (Dayton) Room 206 | Teaching a Blended (Partially Online) LRW Class This past fall, I taught a “blended class” in which part of my first semester Legal Research and Writing class was taught online. I will explain both the pedagogy of online class design and the technological tools I used in designing my class. I will also cover lessons learned from teaching the blended class this semester and the students’ responses to a survey about the class. |
Jeff Brandimarte (Westlaw) Room 207 | Exploring the NEXT Frontier of Legal Research: WestlawNext in the Classroom An overview of how LRW faculty may introduce the WestlawNext platform to their students, with discussion of new features, cross-over elements between Westlaw Classic and WestlawNext, and the WestSearch algorithm. |
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1:40–2:00 pm | |
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2:00–2:25 pm | |
Natalie Mack (Colorado) Room 204 | A Step-by-Step Method for Constructing a Question Presented Beginning legal writers often struggle with writing the question presented. This presentation first demonstrates one step-by-step method for crafting an objective question presented or issue statement for an office memo. It then offers techniques for helping students write persuasive questions presented for briefs. |
Susie Salmon (Arizona) Room 205 | Teaching Teachers to Teach: Training Teaching Assistants and Writing Fellows Many of us use 2L or 3L students to help teach our courses. “Teaching Assistants” or “Writing Fellows” may provide written or in-person feedback on student drafts, grade citations, deliver in-class presentations, or even teach smaller “discussion group” classes. This presentation will give you some ideas (and materials) to help train your teaching assistants to be as effective as possible. |
David Thomson (Denver) Room 206 | Escaping Flatland As we enter the second decade of the digital century, already transformed by the web and a new publishing paradigm, the print law review is looking pretty tired. Some of us are starting to feel constrained by the form. Some of what we may want to write about is not entirely linear or flat, and much of it would benefit from being more interactive. This presentation will discuss options for those who want to express their scholarly interests in ways that leverage but also go beyond the traditional print law review. |
Karen Wellman, (Lexis) Room 207 | LexisNexis Law School Publishing: Books, eBooks & More Learn more about LexisNexis Law School Publishing’s resources for legal writing faculty, including our dynamic eBooks, the interactive Skills & Values Series of materials, and Coursebook Support Communities with supplemental online material. |
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2:30–2:55 pm | |
Debra Austin (Denver) Room 204 | Stress and Cognition: The Neuroscience Behind Stress, Memory & Thinking This presentation will identify the areas of the brain involved in the learning process and describe the neuroscience of memory formation and how learning occurs. It will explain the difference between emotions and feelings, and examine the impact of negative emotions on learning. It will connect the neuroscience with suggestions to maximize cognitive function. |
Ann Nowak, Debra Lanin & Joan Foley (Touro) Room 205 | Perspectives in Writing: From the Newsroom and Courtroom to the Classroom What we teach our students about legal writing often is informed by what we learned in our professional lives before we began teaching. In this presentation, a former judicial clerk, a former law firm partner, and a former journalist will offer teaching tips gleaned from their prior professional experiences. We will discuss (1) what judges need to know to write decisions, (2) tips for collaborating with other attorneys on writing projects, and (3) how to present a statement of facts so that it appears neutral but subtly favors one point of view. |
Alyssa Dragnich (Miami) Room 206 | Don’t Let the Blues Get You Down: Teaching Legal Citation Without Driving Your Students–or Yourself–Crazy Whether you use the Bluebook or the ALWD Manual, you are surely familiar with the agonized groans of students trying to determine why there is a space between So. 2d but not between P.2d (one of law’s more important queries, to be sure). This presentation will offer strategies on how to teach citation in a way that is faster, easier, and (gasp) maybe even fun. |
Lisa Freeman (La Verne) Room 207 | Demystifying Grammar: Practical Pointers and Easy Fixes that Will Keep Your Students Engaged (Lesson Plans and Worksheets Included) Proper grammar is a hallmark of good legal writing. Conversely, bad grammar unwittingly focuses the reader on form over analysis and signals a lack of investment in the client’s case. How would you like; to never see another misplaced semicolon? Or an incorrectly hyphenated-phrasal adjective? Or a class that doesn’t make their pronouns agree with their subjects? Drawing on lessons learned in the trenches, this presentation will show you how to address some of the most common grammar mistakes that incoming law students make. |
Douglas Godfrey (Chicago-Kent) Room 202 | Training Law Students to Write for a Modern, Technological Audience There is no doubt that technology has changed the practice of law. The Legal Writing academy has done a good job of teaching students how to write with the new technology; however, we have ignored another change -- that people read differently on the screens of their phones, tablets, and computers. First, I will marshal evidence that people do in fact read differently on screen. Then, I will show how we can teach students to be more effective writers with this information. Finally, I will suggest some assignments to implement these skills. |
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3:00–3:30 pm | ||
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3:30–3:55 pm | ||
Henry Webb (Qatar) Room 204 | Lessons Learned in Vietnam and Qatar: Best Practices for Teaching Legal Analysis, Research, and Writing to Students from Different Cultural, Socioeconomic, Educational, and Linguistic Backgrounds Based on his five years of teaching legal research and writing in Vietnam and Qatar, Mr. Webb will discuss some of the challenges posed by teaching common law legal research and writing to foreign students from civil code legal systems and for whom English is a second language. He will also discuss some of the best practices he and his colleagues have developed for teaching such students. Finally, he will discuss how those practices may be applicable to the teaching of non-traditional students in U.S. law schools | |
Deb Moritz (Wisconsin) Room 205 | Lessons from the Protest: Using Current Events to Teach Legal Writing & Analysis Over the last year, I used the Wisconsin Budget Repair Bill (eliminating collective bargaining rights for state employees), the protests that followed its introduction, and the law suits that followed its passage as a tool for teaching a variety of legal writing and research topics from the basic concepts of separation of powers and stare decisis to writing a memo and a motion brief. Overall, this was a very successful method, but I had some surprises along the way. I will demonstrate how I used these events to teach some basic concepts as well as discuss the advantages and pitfalls of using current events as a teaching tool. | |
Jodi Wood Jewell (La Verne) Room 206 | From Confusion to Concision: Tips and Techniques to Aid Student Writing This presentation will focus on successful techniques to improve students’ writing style through commenting, student group work and one-on-one conferences. Attendees will receive copies of editing checklists, peer editing exercises and a list of 10 steps for continued improvement which students can use to organize more logically and write more clearly. | |
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4:00–4:25 pm | ||
Abigail Patthoff (Chapman) Room 204 | Happily ever after: Providing students with epilogues for cautionary tales Stories of lawyers’ writing failures and ethical mishaps often seem ready-made teaching material for legal writing professors. But do cautionary tales succeed in changing student behavior? This presentation will offer a few ideas about how to make cautionary tales a more effective teaching tool. | |
Heather E. Ridenour & David H. Spratt (American) Room 205 | Finding Your Advocacy Voice: Teaching Persuasive Fact Statements and Oral Advocacy Each year, after initially resisting and then mastering objective writing, many students struggle with persuasive writing. To facilitate the switch to advocacy, we have developed several exercises and techniques that we have used quite successfully with our students. These in-class exercises, based on general principles of advocacy instead of specific course assignments, allow students to “get their feet wet” with persuasive fact characterization and public speaking. This presentation will also discuss the benefits we have seen in holding appellate oral arguments in an actual courtroom (as opposed to a classroom or moot courtroom) when possible. | |
Andrew Carter (ASU) Room 206 | It starts with a sentence: a cognitive theory for legal writers This presentation begins with a quick review of the cognitive science research supporting a link between the “fluency” of legal prose and various reader judgments. After affirming that fluency (roughly, “ease” in reading) is a fundamental goal of good legal writing, I posit that fluency is largely a function of managing the legal reader’s limited working memory capacity. Using the framework of cognitive load theory, I conclude by offering “working memory management” guidelines for legal writers interested in maximizing the fluency of their writing. | |
Katerina P. Lewinbuk (South Texas) Room 207 | Fulbright Senior Specialist Grant Opportunities for Legal Writing Professionals “Fostering leadership, learning and empathy between cultures was and remains the purpose of the international scholarship program.” - Senator J. William Fulbright. Learning and teaching in another country leaves lasting impressions and provides great opportunities for personal, cultural and scholarly growth for those who participate in it. The presentation will specifically address the history of the program and how Legal Writing professionals can apply and serve as Fulbright specialists and how they can receive appointments to international exchanges for 2-6 weeks. The presenter will also share her wide-ranging experiences as Fulbright Specialist in Mexico and the Czech Republic and she will also discuss her service on Peer Review Committee that is given the task of selecting candidates for Fulbright Senior Specialist program in law. | |
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4:30–4:55 pm | ||
Ken Chestek (Wyoming) Room 204 | First Impressions: An Empirical Study into the Efficacy of Preliminary Statements Many briefs today include a section variously labeled “Introduction,” “Preliminary Statement,” or words to that effect. These sections are increasingly showing up not only in trial briefs, where the rules are fairly flexible, but also in appellate briefs, where the generally more rigid rules of procedure do not require (but also do not prohibit) such sections. What might make an effective Preliminary Statement? Prof. Chestek will reveal his preliminary findings from the experiment conducted at the end of Friday’s plenary session, and seek input from participants to help him design a similar experiment to measure the reactions of trial and appellate judges in a future empirical study. | |
John Haberstroh (Qatar) Room 206 | Critical Thinking and Legal English at Qatar University The presenter will briefly survey the meanings of thinking critically, and then the possibilities within a conservative Islamic culture for developing critical and legal thinking skills. | |
Chantal Morton (Melbourne) Room 207 | Integrating Legal Writing in the Substantive Curriculum: The Australian Experience There is no stand-alone “legal research and writing” subject at Melbourne Law School. Instead, instruction and assessment of these skills is embedded in the doctrinal subjects. This presentation will describe how this works in practice, and highlight the opportunities and challenges of this approach. | |
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Sunday, March 24 (Optional Events) | ||
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9:30–11:00 am | 9:30 am–1:00 pm | |
Book discussion about Louise Erdrich’s The Round House, led by Gabrielle Stafford (Colorado) | ALWD Scholars’ Workshop (Previous application required) | |