This fall, Marquette University Law School is fortunate to have Professor Michael R. Smith as a Robert E. Boden Visiting Professor of Law. Professor Smith is visiting from the University of Wyoming College of Law, where he is the Winston S. Howard Distinguished Professor of Law and the Director of Legal Writing. Professor Smith’s work in legal writing and written advocacy is nationally renowned. He has published a book on persuasive legal writing entitled Advanced Legal Writing: Theories and Strategies in Persuasive Writing (Aspen 2002). This book has received such interest and acclaim that the release of the second edition was the impetus for a 2008 conference, A Dialogue About Persuasion in Legal Writing & Lawyering, which was held at Rutgers Law School-Camden.
He has written numerous articles, including Levels of Metaphor in Persuasive Legal Writing, 58 Mercer L. Rev. 919 (2007). Another article that is useful to any rhetoric scholar is Rhetoric Theory and Legal Writing: An Annotated Bibliography, 3 J. Assoc. Legal Writing Directors 129 (2006). He has also presented often, most recently at the international Applied Storytelling in the Law Conference held this summer at Lewis & Clark Law School in Portland, Oregon. The title of his presentation was “Reconciling Colliding Images: Overcoming Adverse Stock Structures in Statutory Interpretation.”
This semester Professor Smith is teaching Advanced Persuasive Writing and a section of the Legal Analysis, Writing, and Research 1 course.
I had a chance to chat at length with Professor Smith about his interest in advocacy, persuasion, and classical and modern rhetoric. We are very excited to engage in further dialogue with Professor Smith on these topics. We encourage you to stop by Professor Smith’s office and meet him.
This is Professor Smith’s first visit to Wisconsin. I thought I would end this blog by suggesting a few favorite places to visit in Wisconsin. Add your favorites to the list!
- Hike the Wisconsin Ice Age Trail
- Enjoy a local Wisconsin fish fry
- Spend a few hours with the original manuscript J.R.R. Tolkien collection at Marquette
It’s a bit of a trip from Milwaukee, but I think my favorite place to visit in Wisconsin is Nelson Dewey State Park, with its incredible views from bluffs looking out over the Mississipi River. The last parts of the drive there are also incredibly beautiful, through the driftless area, beautiful rolling hills.
An even longer trip, but also really beautiful, is a visit to the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore in Lake Superior.
In Milwaukee, coffee lovers (or tea lovers who like coffee shops) should visit Alterra’s coffee shops. Each has its own charms.
Kopp’s.
Kids in tow? The zoo is pretty fantastic, as are the museums (Betty Brinn, the Public Museum, Discovery World). For fun hikes and a cool nature center, I like to go down to Whitnall Park, southwest of downtown, with the Boerner Botanical Gardens and Wehr Nature Center.
In any case, Michael, I am so glad you are visiting Marquette! See you.
Welcome, Michael! I use your Advanced Legal Writing text in a seminar course, and I am so pleased you are visiting this semester.
For fall fun in Wisconsin, I recommend the Schlitz Audubon Nature Center, north of downtown. My second recommendation is apple picking. Lots of area farms allow guests to pick apples. My kids are partial to the Elegant Farmer.
Welcome, Michael! I suggest heading 75 miles west on I94 to Madison. There’s another zoo there – the delightful Henry Vilas Zoo – as well as the gorgeous state capitol building and Lake Mendota and Lake Monona.
For water fun year-round, many people head to the Wisconsin Dells, about an hour north of Madison, for one of their gigantic indoor waterparks.
Glad to have you here!