Legal Reasoning, Research and Writing

The Boston College Law School first-year Legal Reasoning, Research & Writing Program has ranked among the top ten in the nation since program rankings were introduced five years ago.

"This course was very well organized, growing more challenging as the year moved on. The feedback was outstanding - the most thorough critique I have ever received on my writing."
-- Excerpt from course evaluation after 1L year

For over twenty-five years, the LRR&W program has provided 1L students with a problem-based curriculum that equips them with the analytical, research and written communication skills essential to the practice of law.  The five-credit, year-long course engages students in rigorous predictive and advocacy memoranda assignments.  Instruction is characterized by a fully integrated research curriculum, classroom discussion of analysis, and comprehensive, individualized feedback. The exceptionally experienced, full-time LRR&W faculty are leaders in the pedagogy and scholarship of legal analysis and communication.  An extensive and varied upper-level legal writing and research curriculum complements this outstanding first-year program.  Boston College Law School is proud that its LRR&W program has been a training ground for teachers of legal writing at many other law schools.

"BC Law's LRR&W program will leave students feeling prepared to research and write, and most importantly, to think."
-- Excerpt from alumnae/i feedback

FACULTY BIOS

DAN BARNETT joined the faculty of Boston College Law School after practicing corporate law.  Professor Barnett received the Boston College Distinguished Teaching Award in 2004 and the Boston College Teaching with New Technology Award in 2007.  He has presented a variety of training programs for practicing lawyers.  Professor Barnett was the Distinguished Visiting Professor of Legal Writing at Lewis & Clark Law School in 2009 and the Visiting Professor of American Law at the University of Avignon, France in 2003.  He has served as Chair of the Section on Legal Writing, Reasoning and Research of the Association of American Law Schools and a member of the Board of Directors of the Legal Writing Institute.

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E. JOAN BLUM clerked for the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court and practiced in the area of tax exempt financing in Boston before joining the LRR&W faculty.  At the invitation of the U.S. Department of Justice, she developed and taught a course in common law reasoning to the legal officers of the War Crimes Chamber of the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina in 2009.  Professor Blum has worked as a legal writing consultant to Boston law firms and has served as Chair of the Section on Legal Writing, Reasoning and Research of the Association of American Law Schools and on the Board of Directors of the Legal Writing Institute.

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MARY ANN CHIRBA-MARTIN is a proud alumna of Boston College Law School and was a litigator in Boston before joining the LRR&W faculty.  She holds a Master’s in Public Health from the Harvard School of Public Health where she is in the final stages of completing her Doctorate of Science in Health Policy.  In addition to LRR&W, she has taught a variety of courses at BCLS and at the HSPH including advanced legal writing, appellate advocacy, product safety regulation, health care law and policy, and comparative health law.  She has also served as a guest lecturer in health law at Harvard Medical School, Tufts Medical School, and Boston Children’s Hospital.

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JANE KENT GIONFRIDDO has taught in the BCLS LRR&W Program for over 25 years and was its Director from 1985 to 2007.  She won the Boston College Distinguished Teaching Award in 2000 and has done extensive consulting at Boston area law firms and other law schools.  Professor Gionfriddo was a contributing author to the American Bar Association’s Sourcebook on Legal Writing Programs, a book on “best practices” in the field of legal analysis, research and writing.  She has been President of one of the two major national legal writing organizations, The Legal Writing Institute, and is currently the Editor-in-Chief of the Institute’s new Monograph Series.

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ELISABETH KELLER has been a professor in the LRR&W program for over eighteen years.  For the past ten years, she has served as Director of the Law School’s Academic Support Program, and in this capacity redesigned the delivery of support services to first-year students.  Professor Keller holds a Master’s Degree in Educational Policy and Leadership and coordinates the dual degree program in Law and Education with the Boston College Lynch School of Education.  She has authored a variety of publications in subjects ranging from securities law to employment discrimination.

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JUDITH B. TRACY joined the LRR&W faculty after extensive experience in legal practice, having served as Executive Director of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights of the Boston Bar Association; Assistant General Counsel of the Massachusetts Board of Registration in Medicine; and a Bunting Fellow at the Radcliffe Institute where she studied complex judicial decrees in law reform cases. Professor Tracy received the BCLS Emil Slizewski Excellence in Teaching Award in 2001. She currently serves as the coordinator of the LRR&W program.

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"This was the most difficult course I took but also the most rewarding.  My writing skills improved dramatically and I have the confidence to prepare quality memos for my employers this summer."
-- Excerpt from course evaluation after 1L year

"I attribute my professional success at my law firm entirely to Boston College's LRR&W program. Good writing skills guarantee more work, positive recognition and future success"
-- Excerpt from alumnae/i feedback

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