Putting Skills Into Practice: Legal Problem Solving and Writing for New Lawyers

Dan Barnett joined William S. Richardson School of Law in 2014 from Lewis & Clark Law School, where he was the Distinguished Professor of Legal Writing. Professor Barnett also taught at Boston College Law School for over twenty years, where he received the 2004 Boston College Distinguished Teaching Award and the 2007 Teaching with New Technology Award. Professor Barnett has been active with the Association of American Law Schools, serving as Chair of the Section on Legal Writing, Analysis, and Research and Chair of the Task Force on Military Recruiting—Section on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Issues. He also was on the Board of Directors of the Legal Writing Institute and was the National Coordinator of the Campaign to Repeal the Solomon Amendments.

Professor Barnett's scholarship focuses on student assessment, legal writing, and innovative methodologies in law school teaching. The critiquing workshops of the Legal Writing Institute Conference and the Association of American Law Schools Workshop for New Law Teachers are based on his article, Triage in the Trenches of the Legal Writing Course: The Theory and Methodology of Analytical Critique, 38 The University of Toledo Law Review 651 (2007). In addition to his teaching, Professor Barnett has developed a variety of training programs for practicing lawyers, including workshops for the Office of the Attorney General for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and several large law firms. In 2014, he completed Putting Skills into Practice (Aspen Publishing 2014), an innovative book designed to help new practitioners make the transition from law school to practice. In 2002, Professor Barnett was the Visiting Professor of American Law at the University of Avignon, France. Before teaching, he practiced law at McDonough, Holland & Allen in Sacramento and Kutak Rock in New York and Omaha, specializing in corporate and securities law.