Writing To Win Symposium
The Center for Excellence in Advocacy at Washburn University School of Law presented "Writing to Win: The Art of Advocacy" on Friday, March 9 and Saturday, March 10, 2007. Organized by Professor J. Lyn Entrikin Goering, director of the Legal Analysis, Research and Writing Program at Washburn Law, and Professor Michael Kaye, Director of the Center for Excellence in Advocacy, the symposium offered valuable information to litigators who need to write persuasively for trial and appellate court audiences and served to highlight Washburn Law's special commitment to effective legal writing. Attendees included practicing lawyers, judges, faculty members and law students. Washburn Law faculty joined panel discussions during the symposium as participants and as moderators. Following the symposium members of the Legal Analysis, Research and Writing Program presented a CLE program on persuasive writing techniques, focusing on presentation of factual statements, effective issue formulation and other brief writing skills.
The "Writing to Win: Art of Advocacy" symposium followed a three-day visit to Washburn Law by the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit. The Court heard 12 oral arguments in the Robinson Courtroom and Bianchino Technology Center, providing students the opportunity to observe live appellate arguments. Members of the court participated in the symposium's opening panel, sharing their insights on the kind of briefs appellate judges expect in cases pending before them. The panel, moderated by Kansas Court of Appeals Judge Nancy Caplinger, included Deanell Reece Tacha, Chief Judge, U.S. Court of Appeals, Tenth Circuit, and Tenth Circuit judges Mary Beck Briscoe and Neil Gorsuch and Eighth Circuit Judge Duane Benton.
A second panel of judges presented the views of trial judges on written advocacy. This panel was moderated by Kansas Court of Appeals Judge Stephen D. Hill and included U.S. District Court Judge J. Thomas Marten, Shawnee County District Court Presiding Judge Nancy Parrish, Johnson County District Court Judge Janice Russell and Crawford County District Court Judge Donald Noland.
Appellate court law clerks also discussed what they look for as they evaluate briefs and memoranda. Panelists included David Y. Stevens, Law Clerk to Chief Judge Deanell Reece Tacha, Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals; Daniel L. Real, Staff Attorney, Nebraska Court of Appeals and Adjunct Professor, Creighton University School of Law; and Eunice C. Peters, Research Attorney, Kansas Court of Appeals.
The "Writing to Win" symposium featured the Center's first Advocacy Writing Scholar in Residence, Professor Mary Beth Beazley, from the Michael E. Moritz College of Law, The Ohio State University. In addition to providing the symposium's keynote address, Professor Beazley taught a writing class, conducted a faculty professional development session and gave a Saturday luncheon presentation on organizing and presenting winning briefs. The Center sponsors advocacy scholars and advocates in residence to provide students and faculty an extended opportunity to meet with talented lawyers, judges and scholars in informal and formal settings. Previous visitors have included judges, law school faculty and trial and appellate lawyers.
Several Washburn Law students joined faculty on symposium panels. One panel discussed student and faculty work on an amicus curiae brief filed in a death penalty case argued twice last year in the U.S. Supreme Court. The panel also discussed an amicus brief in a Kansas case involving parental rights of sperm donors, which is currently pending in the Kansas Supreme Court. The latter amicus brief received international attention. Professor Sean O'Brien, University of Missouri at Kansas City School of Law and Washburn Law Professor Linda Elrod, lead lawyers on the death penalty and parental rights briefs, were joined by law students Claudia Weaver, Andrea Rusche and Dr. Milford (Bud) Dale.
Students and faculty also shared a panel to offer insights about the writing skills learned in moot court brief writing and discussed how that experience relates to brief writing in law practice. Third-year students and national Moot Court award winners Matthew Ballard, Kelly Kauffman and Karen Quintelier joined Professors Jeffrey Jackson and Tonya Kowalski on the panel.
Other symposium speakers included Stan Sexton, Partner, Shook, Hardy & Bacon, Kansas City, Missouri, who explored whether law schools should teach multimedia advocacy and discussed using electronic technology to produce the persuasive high-tech brief; Professor Sean O'Brien, who lectured on storytelling techniques in appellate work; and Rebecca Woodman, Kansas Appellate Defender's Office and counsel for respondent in Kansas v. Marsh in the United States Supreme Court, who talked about persuasive themes and narrative techniques in appeal briefs in criminal cases.
The Saturday afternoon continuing legal education program featured presentations by Washburn Law Legal Analysis, Research and Writing Program faculty. These included:
- Jeffrey D. Jackson, "Just the Facts: Writing a Persuasive Fact Statement"
- Tonya Kowalski, "Better Advocacy Through Persuasive Issues and Point Headers"
- Aida Alaka, "Writing with Clarity and Strength: Maximizing Advocacy with Best Writing Practices"
- J. Lyn Entrikin Goering, "Winning Fair and Square: Ethics in Advocacy Writing"
As a special recognition of symposium speakers and other invited guests, the Center hosted a gala dinner at the Brown v. Board of Education National Historic Site on Friday evening, March 9. Kansas Supreme Court Justice Lee Johnson, a longtime supporter of the law school and participant in Center activities, was keynote speaker. The evening concluded with a special showing of "Race and the American Creed," the Site's award-winning multimedia presentation that highlights aspects of African American history in the United States and the civil rights movement.
