Isthatlegal? weblog: t akes a tough enterprise and makes it simpler much simpler. I think it's a must have not just for 2l's gearing up for their student notes or 3l's scampering about in search of a seminar topic. I think it's a must have for all law students, including perhaps especially 1ls who are biting their nails over how to get started on their first memo assignment. Findlaw.com: if you have a sibling, a child, a friend, even a distant acquaintance, in law school or trying to get something published in a legal publication, buy them a copy of academic legal writing. 63 2003: a n engaging, witty, and extremely useful book for the aspiring student note and article writer that is based. Rich bales northern kentucky law school , student lawyer magazine: u nique.

Not only does the book describe how to write a paper worthy of publication and therefore, almost by definition worthy of an a in a seminar class , but it also describes how to get your paper published. Norm garland, southwestern school of law: i have given it to a number of my students. Marquette university law school: a great guide for the paper writing process. Liberty university law school: a n exceptionally helpful book on academic legal writing that should be read by all new law students.

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Wayne state university law school: u seful, down to earth advice on writing seminar papers and law review notes. paul brest, dean emeritus, stanford law school: professor volokh's elegant book is his own best example of academic writing that is both really useful and a good read. In an engaging, witty and lucid style, he provides student writers with practical advice at every stage from selecting a topic to negotiating editorial changes and also addresses fundamental ethical concerns. Not only students but many of their professors would benefit from his savvy observations and advice. Michael dorf, columbia law school: now there's no excuse for rambling, poorly reasoned, and question begging student papers. By providing astute advice on everything from soup to nuts, volokh has performed a great service for his readers and for the lucky professors and editors that compose the audience for their written work. Publisher's note: michael dorf is listed as tied for 1 in brian leiter's list of 50 most cited faculty who entered teaching since 1992 prof.

Jeffrey rosen, george washington university law school, and legal affairs editor, the new republic: professor volokh offers law students precisely the kind of useful advice about academic legal writing that they are most likely to need and least likely to get in law school. Aided and abetted by judge alex kozinski, eugene volokh has written a fabulous book in fact, the best ever in its field. Diane penneys edelman, assistant dean for legal writing, villanova university school of law: professor volokh's text grabs and keeps the reader's attention just like the articles and seminar papers he exhorts law students to write. He offers writers plain spoken and practical but intelligent advice on how to find and test a topic, and research and write a great article or paper. He also clearly guides the writer to undertake the difficult parts of writing like source checking, use of proof and avoidance of plagiarism. His ability to distill knowledge from his own broad experience into reader friendly, sound advice for law students makes academic legal writing a great resource. Darby dickerson, vice dean, professor of law, and director of legal research and writing, stetson university college of law: professor volokh's new book fills a notable gap in the field of legal scholarship.

He provides detailed answers to the 'how,' 'when,' and 'why' questions with which new scholars struggle. Professor volokh also is to be congratulated for the attention he pays to the ethics of academic writing, which is an important but often overlooked topic. The senior staff member registrar, assistant dean for student support, assistant dean for academic affairs, associate dean for academic affairs who first receives the complaint will a. Request the student submit the complaint in writing, or restate the student rsquo s issue in an e mail to the student to confirm that we understand the specific issue. At that time or as soon thereafter as practicable, point the student to any applicable academic rule s that address the student rsquo s complaint, asking whether the rule itself clarifies for the student the answer to the complaint.

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If not, explain that the complaint will be reviewed by all a member or members of the senior staff and an answer can be expected within 5 business days. Notify the other member s of the senior staff, requesting any additional information on the situation and e. Communicating with the faculty member or administrator associated with the issue to obtain information regarding the problem complained of. That staff member will communicate with the other members of the senior staff, discussing all facts, applicable academic rules, and proposed response. Consensus will be reached and the result communicated to the student, in writing, by the staff member who initially received the complaint.

A student who disagrees with the result can submit additional information or pursue the matter through additional communication with the dean. The communication must be in writing and should include the specific rule upon which the student relies, additional relevant information, and the argument that the student makes. To get and keep a job, either as a nonclinical or clinical legal academic, you need to produce legal scholarship. Be prepared to describe your methodology, your field or fields, and your scholarly agenda by the time you are ready to seek such a position. You may know your methodology, field, and scholarly agenda before you start writing your first article, but more likely it will emerge organically from what you write. A few generations ago, the vast majority of legal scholars produced what would today be called ldquo doctrinal rdquo scholarship: works that explain, analyze, and criticize judicial decisions, often proposing to substitute one doctrinal test e.g. Many legal scholars continue to produce excellent doctrinal scholarship, especially in areas in which common law methods of judicial decision making are dominant such as constitutional law.

However, the definition of legal scholarship also encompasses much more than just doctrinal analysis. Much fine legal scholarship analyzes law by bringing to bear the insights of other disciplines, including economics and other social sciences, history, literary theory, philosophy, and more. Some of this scholarship is purely descriptive some is prescriptive often scholars make both descriptive and prescriptive claims.

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How should you go about selecting a methodology? if you have special training in a field that is relevant to a topic about which you want to write, you may decide to exploit that training. Or masters degree, or even if you just majored in economics in college, you could write about bankruptcy, tax, or torts from an economic perspective. Or, if you previously studied philosophy, you might bring that to bear on a paper on professional responsibility.

In history, your efforts to do legal history may come across to serious historians mdash including serious historians on law faculty hiring committees mdash as amateurish. Likewise, if you have never had any training in empirical methods, you may end up spending months or years carrying out a study that was flawed from the beginning. Accordingly, most new scholars coming out of law school, a clerkship, and/or other practice tend to write doctrinal scholarship, because that is what they are most qualified to do. The best answer is what interests you most, especially if your training or experience gives you a leg up. So, if you have been working as a public defender for four years, and you are keen on writing about criminal law and criminal procedure, you should do so. Conventional wisdom holds that it is harder to get an entry level job in public law including subjects like constitutional law, public international law, and jurisprudence, even though jurisprudence also covers private law than in fields on the ldquo business side rdquo of the curriculum including subjects like corporations, securities, and tax. We repeat this conventional wisdom here, even though we have not conducted a study of the ratio of excellent entry level candidates to job openings in each field.