Event Title
Document Type
Presentation
Start Date
12-6-2019 1:35 PM
End Date
12-6-2019 2:15 AM
Presenter Biography
Anna Hemingway, Director of the Legal Methods Program, Widener University Commonwealth Law School
Anna Hemingway is a nationally-known expert in legal writing and legal education. She writes and lectures widely on innovative teaching strategies. Her recent scholarship has focused on ethics, and the uses of social media and technology for teaching and assessment.
Professor Hemingway’s teaching and scholarship are inextricably interlinked, and she is devoted to improving the educational experiences and outcomes of law students. Serving as the Director of Legal Writing, Professor Hemingway coordinates the law school’s innovative writing program. She is a leader in the national legal writing community, and frequently presents at national and international writing conferences.
In addition to her work on legal writing, Professor Hemingway is interested in leadership, law & psychology, ethics, and property law. She is the co-author (with Benjamin Barros) of an innovative Property Law textbook to be published by Aspen/Wolters Kluwer in early 2015.
Sherri Keene, Director of the Legal Writing Program, University of Maryland Carey School of Law
Sherri Lee Keene has been a member of the full-time faculty at the University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law since 2008. She serves as the Director of the Legal Writing Program and as a Law School Associate Professor. Prof. Keene was a Visiting Associate Professor of Legal Practice at Georgetown University Law Center for the 2017 to 2018 school year and an adjunct legal writing professor at The George Washington University Law School prior to joining Maryland’s faculty. Prof. Keene is an active member of the national legal writing professor community, and she participates as an editor for the peer review journal, Legal Communication & Rhetoric: JALWD. She has also served as a planning chair for national and regional legal writing conferences.
Immediately prior to joining the University of Maryland faculty, Prof. Keene litigated appeals and motions in the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit and the United States District Court for the District of Maryland as a staff attorney for the Federal Public Defender's Office. Prof. Keene also worked as an associate for Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton and Garrison in New York City, and as a civil trial attorney for the United States Department of Justice in Washington D.C. Immediately upon completing law school, Prof. Keene clerked for the Honorable James T. Giles of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.
Prof. Keene writes in the areas of legal advocacy, criminal law, and law school reform. Her recent work focuses on the intersection of criminal law and social science, and she considers how unconscious cognitive shortcuts can impact an individual’s perception of observed events and subsequent decision-making. She further considers how seemingly neutral legal structures can mask biased thinking, rather than afford opportunities for such thinking to be challenged in the courtroom. Prof. Keene’s articles include “Stories That Swim Upstream: Uncovering the Influence of Stereotypes and Stock Stories in Fourth Amendment Reasonable Suspicion Analysis” and “Standing in the Judge’s Shoes: Exploring Techniques to Help Legal Writers More Fully Address the Needs of Their Audience.”
Prof. Keene received her law degree from New York University School of Law which she attended as a Root-Tilden Scholar. She graduated summa cum laude from Spelman College with a B.A. in Sociology.
Description
Most law schools’ first-year curriculums include a course on legal analysis, research, and writing. At many law schools, the synthesis of these subjects into one course is considered the best way to teach first-year law students basic lawyering skills. Recently, however, law schools have begun to separate the topics into stand-alone courses. This presentation will review the different models law schools are currently using and will explore additional opportunities to remix the individual topics with other first-year courses.
The Traditional Legal Analysis, Research, and Writing Course: Does Subject Synthesis Serve Students Best?
Most law schools’ first-year curriculums include a course on legal analysis, research, and writing. At many law schools, the synthesis of these subjects into one course is considered the best way to teach first-year law students basic lawyering skills. Recently, however, law schools have begun to separate the topics into stand-alone courses. This presentation will review the different models law schools are currently using and will explore additional opportunities to remix the individual topics with other first-year courses.