Jacob Carpenter
Biography
Jacob Carpenter joined the Marquette School of Law faculty in 2012 after teaching full-time at DePaul University College of Law since 2006. Prior to that, Professor Carpenter worked for several years at a private law firm in Illinois, practicing primarily in the firm's civil litigation group. Professor Carpenter teaches Legal Analysis, Writing, and Research courses at the law school.
Outside of the law school, Professor Carpenter has presented at legal writing conferences across the country. He has also taught Continuing Legal Education courses for the Illinois Attorney General's offices in Chicago and Springfield, IL, and for legal organizations in Wisconsin. For a decade, he co-taught the Writing Persuasive Briefs course for the National Institute of Trial Advocacy (NITA) in Washington, D.C., Chicago, and Los Angeles. Professor Carpenter co-chaired the Association of American Law Schools' Section of Legal Writing, Reasoning, and Research's Outreach Committee. He has also chaired the Legal Writing Institute's New Member Outreach Committee and the Pro Bono Committee, served as the Editor-in-Chief for the Legal Writing Institute's Monograph Series, and co-chaired the Legal Writing Institutes' 2022 Biennial Conference in Washington D.C. He currently serves on the Legal Writing Institute's Board of Directors. Back on campus, Professor Carpenter serves on the Marquette University Committee on Teaching, having chaired it twice. At the law school he serves on the Admissions and Recruitment Committee, chairs the Judicial Committee, and serves on the advisory board for the Marquette Sports Law Review. Further, Professor Carpenter has published four law review articles and two books focusing on legal writing.
Prior to practicing law, Professor Carpenter was a member of the law review and graduated with honors from Mercer University School of Law, in Macon, Georgia. At Mercer, he received the Woodruff Scholarship, the law school's top scholarship award. Prior to law school, Professor Carpenter graduated with honors as a Rector Scholar and a Science Research Fellow from DePauw University, where he also named an All-American in track.
Citation Made Simple: An Easy, Effective Guide for Learning Legal Citation (Armour Academic Press, July 2024)
Citation Made Simple Practice Book: Exercises, Answers, and Explanations for Learning Legal Citation Efficiently and Effectively (Armour Academic Press, July 2024)
The Problems, and Positives, of Passives: Exploring Why Controlling Passive Voice and Nominalizations is About More than Preference and Style, 19 Legal Comm. & Rhetoric 95 (2022)
Identifying Inefficiencies: Exploring Ways to Write Briefs More Quickly Within the Time Demands of Legal Practice, 18 Wyo. L. Rev. 409 (2018)
Persuading with Precedent: Understanding and Improving Analogies in Legal Argument, 44 Cap. U. L. Rev. 461 (2016) (lead article) (selected in 2018 for inclusion in Volume VII of the Legal Writing Institute’s Monograph Series on legal writing)
Unique Problems and Creative Solutions for Assessing Learning Outcomes in Transactional Drafting Courses: Overcoming the “Form Book Problem”, 38 U. Dayton L. Rev. 195 (2012) (awarded a $5,000 Scholarship Grant by the Legal Writing Institute and the Association of Legal Writing Directors for this article)
Illinois Citation to Cases and Statutes (wrote a chapter for LexisNexis’ online version of the Interactive Citation Workbook, a book published by LexisNexis to aid students in learning proper Bluebook citation and state-specific citation rules—online chapter published in 2015 and updated in 2022)
Techniques to Assess Learning Outcomes in Contract Drafting Courses (published by the Legal Writing Institute at Volume 24, No. 3, of The Second Draft (Fall 2010))
Improving Your Legal Writing Style (CLE presented to 30 attorneys at the Madison Club, Madison, WI (July 26, 2023))
LWI and ALWD Publications (panelist for presentation at the Legal Writing Institute’s Biennial Conference, hosted by Georgetown University Law Center, in Washington, D.C. (July 20-23, 2022))
Little Adjustments for Big Improvements: Concrete Techniques to Improve the Focus, Cohesion, Concision, and Flow in Your Legal Writing (created and presented a 4 hour CLE, sponsored by Legal Aid Society of Milwaukee, Inc., and attended by 65 attorneys (Dec. 11, 2020)).
Writing Persuasive Briefs (co-instructor for a two-day National Institute for Trial Advocacy (NITA) course on the following dates):
▪ Washington, D.C., on March 9-10, 2020
▪ Los Angeles, California, on October 10-11, 2019
▪ Chicago, Illinois, on May 24-25, 2019
▪ Washington, D.C., on March 11-12, 2019
▪ Los Angeles, California, on October 11-12, 2018
▪ Chicago, Illinois, on May 17-18, 2018
▪ Washington, D.C., on March 15-16, 2018
▪ Chicago, Illinois, on October 20-21, 2017
▪ Washington, D.C., on March 16-17, 2017
▪ Los Angeles, California, on October 6-7, 2016
▪ Chicago, Illinois, on July 14-15, 2016
▪ Washington, D.C., on March 10-11, 2016
▪ Los Angeles, California, on October 20-21, 2015
▪ Chicago, Illinois, on May 21-22, 2015
▪ Washington, D.C., on March 12-13, 2015
▪ Chicago, Illinois, on May 15-16, 2014
▪ Washington, D.C., on March 20-21, 2014
▪ Chicago, Illinois, on May 16-17, 2013
▪ Chicago, Illinois, on May 17-18, 2012
▪ Chicago, Illinois, on May 19-20, 2011
New Members Speed Mentoring (panelist for presentation sponsored by the Legal Writing Institute’s New Member Outreach Committee at the Legal Writing Institute’s Biennial Conference, hosted by Marquette University in Milwaukee, WI (July 11-14, 2018))
Sculpting a Contract (presented at the Central States Legal Writing Conference, hosted by the Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law in Indianapolis, IN (Sept. 16, 2017))
Persuasive Legal Writing for Public Interest Lawyers (created and presented a 3 hour CLE for public interest law groups in Wisconsin (July 23, 2015))
March Madness in the Legal Writing Classroom (presented at the Legal Writing Institute’s Biennial Conference in Philadelphia, PA (June 30, 2014))
Connecting Students With Lawyers: Three Ways to Connect Students to Practicing Attorneys to Get Students “Practice-Ready” (presented at the Legal Writing Institute One-Day Workshop, hosted by Marquette University Law School (Dec. 6, 2013))
Directorless But Not Without Direction: The Workings of Marquette Law School’s Director- and Coordinator-Free Legal Writing Program” (presented as part of panel at the Association of Legal Writing Director’s 2013 Biennial Conference, hosted by Marquette University Law School (June 26-28, 2013))
Engaging Burnt Out Students Late in the School Year (presented at the Southeast Regional Legal Writing Conference, hosted by the Savannah Law School on April 27, 2013)
Podcasts, Videos, and Buzzer Beaters: Beating Bluebook Boredom (presented at the Rocky Mountain Legal Writing Conference at the University of Colorado Law School on March 22, 2013)
“It Just Sounds Better”: Small-Scale Tips and Techniques to Improve Your Legal Writing Style (CLE presented to 63 attorneys at Marquette University Law School on Jan. 31, 2013)
Micro-Level Editing of Legal Documents (2 hour CLE presented to 55 supervising attorneys at the Illinois Attorney General’s Springfield office on May 24, 2012)
Teaching Legal Writing – Creating Legal Writing Problems, Grading, Selecting Materials, Conducting Paper Conferences, and Including Other Assignments as Part of the Research and Writing Course (panel presentation at the Legal Writing Institute’s One-Day Workshop for legal writing professors, Chicago, IL, on Dec. 2, 2011)
Rethinking Assignment Design in Contract Drafting Courses (presented at the Central States Regional Legal Writing Conference, Chicago, IL, on Sept. 17, 2011)
Editing for the Big Picture (2 hour CLE presented to 34 supervising attorneys at the Illinois Attorney General’s Office in Springfield, IL, on April 27, 2011)
Best Practices for Large-Scale Editing (2 hour CLE presented to 52 supervising attorneys at the Illinois Attorney General’s Office in Chicago, IL, on Feb. 10, 2011)
Deploying an Effective Progression of Assignments to Effectively Teach Transactional Drafting (presented at the Legal Writing Institute’s Rocky Mountain Regional Conference, University of Arizona School of Law, on March 20, 2010)
Understanding Learning Disabilities and Implementing Effective Teaching Methods to Assist Law Students Affected by Learning Disabilities (presented at the Institute for Law Teaching & Learning Conference, Gonzaga University School of Law, on June 24, 2009)