Category: Podcast

Law school, learning issues and LLM students

Posted by Stephen Horowitz, Lecturer of Legal English

Law schools in the US have become increasingly aware of and attuned to the range of cognitive learning issues that law students may deal with. I remember how counter-intuitive that seemed to me the first time I learned about this topic several years ago: “How could someone even get into law school if they have cognitive learning issues?” my brain naively wondered.

And the answer is that learning issues include things like ADHD (attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder), neurodivergence (e.g., autism), and dyslexia. And perhaps it even overlaps with anxiety, which often can present in the form of various learning issues.

In the context of foreign-trained lawyers and law students in LLM, JD and MSL programs in the US, the topic of course can be particularly tricky. In part because of cultural differences in attitudes towards and awareness of learning issues. And in part because it’s much more difficult to identify or diagnose issues when someone is operating in a second or third or fourth language. Is a student’s struggle with reading a function of language or of a learning issue? It’s hard to know. And in the case of dyslexia, there’s even a case to be made (in this TikTok video clip by @etymologynerd) that the nature of written English may cause more problems for people with dyslexia than other written languages do. So it’s possible that a foreign-trained law student in the US could struggle with dyslexia studying in English when it was not an issue for them studying in their home language.

I’m not aware of any specific solutions or research or discussion related to the intersection of learning issues and foreign-trained lawyers and law students in US law schools. But I think if nothing else, it’s helpful and important to bring awareness to such students, as well as to faculty and administrators who work with them, that these issues are out there and are very much on law school’s radars these days in a way they were not at all back when I was a law student in the 1990s.

Here’s a Law School Toolbox Podcast Episode (474) titled “Thriving in Law School with ADHD (w/ Rawi Nanakul.”

In this episode they discuss:

  • >Rawi’s personal journey and ADHD diagnosis
  • >Identifying ADHD signs
  • >The difference between the help provided by a doctor, a therapist, and an ADHD coach
  • >A few specific scenarios that might play out for students struggling with ADHD
  • >The importance of self-care and professional help

Resources:

Note from the Law School Toolbox Podcat:

If you enjoy the podcast, we’d love a nice review and/or rating on Apple Podcasts (https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/law-school-toolbox-podcast/id1027603976) or your favorite listening app. And feel free to reach out to us directly. You can always reach us via the contact form on the Law School Toolbox website (http://lawschooltoolbox.com/contact). If you’re concerned about the bar exam, check out our sister site, the Bar Exam Toolbox (http://barexamtoolbox.com/). You can also sign up for our weekly podcast newsletter (https://lawschooltoolbox.com/get-law-school-podcast-updates/) to make sure you never miss an episode!

Thanks for listening!

Alison & Lee

Note: The Georgetown Legal English Blog has no affiliation with the Law School Toolbox Podcast or its parent organization JDSupra. We just thought this was a helpful episode to share.

2-Year LLM Program alum Paloma Cipolla Moguilevsky featured in “Master of Laws” season 3 interview

Post by Prof.  Stephen Horowitz, Legal English Lecturer

The latest interview in the Master of Laws series (conceived and produced by Georgetown Law’s Yi Song) focuses on Georgetown Two-Year LLM Program alum Paloma Cipolla Moguilevsky, an associate at the law firm of Williams & Connolly LLP in Washington, DC

How did a moot court competition turn into her job offer at BigLaw?

Paloma initially aspired to become diplomat when she began law school. Fluent in Spanish and English and having been raised in Argentina and Spain, she has a keen interest in international affairs. It was not until she started her LLM at Georgetown that she begun to explore a career in international arbitration. Paloma was a member of the team that represented Gerogetown at the 2018 LLM Commercial & Investment Arbitration Moot Competition. One of the coaches happened to be a lawyer at Jones Day. Paloma stayed in touch with her moot court coach after the competition. When a position became available at Jones Day, Paloma applied and ultimately received the job offer.

What was the job application process for Paloma?

How did she get into BigLaw right after receiving her LLM?

What’s her insight on getting a summer internship position at the World Bank?

Continue on to the Masters of Law Interviews with Yi Song website to listen to and read more about Paloma’s experience and career journey.

You can also subscribe to the Master of Laws LinkedIn weekly newsletter to receive FREE insider tips.

Podcast: Multilingual Lawyer interview with Georgetown legal writing professors

Post by Stephen Horowitz, Professor of Legal English

Here is the latest podcast episode of the Multilingual Lawyer series for the USLawEssentials Law & Language podcast, in which I interviewed Georgetown Law legal writing professors Eun Hee Han and Jonah Perlin.

Here’s the write-up from the show notes:

Prof. Eun Hee Han

The USLawEssentials Law & Language podcast continues its series of interviews with multilingual lawyers as Stephen Horowitz interviews Professors Jonah Perlin and Eun Hee Han.

This is a fascinating discussion among three professors at Georgetown University Law Centre. Jonah and Eun Hee are Legal Practice professors, meaning they teach legal writing, but they also both have significant experience working with international students in Georgetown’s JD program.

Prof. Jonah Perlin

Whether you are a student or instructor you will find this to be an inspiring interview. Jonah and Eun Hee have fascinating backgrounds and their dedication to their students and love for teaching make this an enlightening chat.

Among other things, Eun Hee has previously been co-chair of the Legal Research & Writing Diversity Committee for the Association of American Law Schools. She is currently on the Editorial Board for the Asian Journal of Legal Education and a member of the Asian Pacific American Legal Writing Professors Collective. 

Jonah is also a graduate of Georgetown Law and did his undergraduate degree at Princeton University where he majored in religious studies. He has worked as a litigator at the law firm of Williams & Connolly LLP in Washington DC and also clerked for federal appeals court Judge Robert A. Katzman of the 2nd Circuit and for Judge Ellen Segal Huvelle of the US District Court for Washington, DC.

And Jonah is the founder of the very successful and influential HowILawyer Podcast in which he interviews different lawyers about how they practice law.

A different podcast interview with Georgetown Law’s Paula Klammer, legal translator and legal English professor

Post by Prof. Stephen Horowitz, Professor of Legal English

I was fortunate to have the opportunity to interview my colleague Paula Klammer for the Multilingual Lawyer interview series for the USLawEssentials Law & Language podcast, a podcast aimed at helping foreign-educated lawyers and law students improve their legal English.

Here’s a summary of the episode from USLawEssentials:

The USLawEssentials Law & Language podcast continues its series of interviews with multilingual lawyers as Stephen Horowitz interviews Professor Paula Klammer. 

Paula is a legal English Lecturer & Research Fellow at the Georgetown Center for Legal English. Currently earning her Ph.D. in Law from Universidad de Palermo in Argentina, Paula is an experienced lawyer and translator and is bilingual in Spanish and English. She speaks a few other languages, too, including French and Brazilian Portuguese (but she’s modest and says she’s not proficient yet).

This is a really cool interview with a fascinating guest. Paula’s bilingual background and her work as a translator enable her to provide insights on the special challenges of translating legal English, especially when dealing with false cognates, different writing styles, and very different legal systems.

Link to the episode is in the comments.

And hey – – do you think Spanish people speak faster or slower than most English speakers? Not sure? Got a hunch? You’ll find out.

Paula also discusses her doctoral dissertation so you’re going to learn a lot from this podcast.

Enjoy and let us know what you liked most about this episode.

Want to hear more from Paula? Listen to this May 2022 interview with her on the American Translators Association (ATA) podcast.

Legal English podcast interview with Italian lawyer-linguist Claudia Amato

Post by Prof. Stephen Horowitz, Legal English Lecturer & Adjunct Professor of Law

Claudia Amato, Italian lawyer-linguist

I recently had the privilege of interviewing Italian lawyer-linguist-teacher Claudia Amato, founder of SpeechLex, for the USLawEssentials Law & Language podcast, a podcast intended to help foreign-educated lawyers and law students to improve their legal English.

From USLawEssentials:

“The USLawEssentials Law & Language podcast continues its series of interviews with multilingual lawyers as Stephen Horowitz interviews Claudia Amato.”

“Based in Italy, Claudia is a remarkable attorney, translator, and legal English instructor. Among other things, she is the founder of SpeechLex, where she provides courses in legal English to help prepare attorneys and judges for the TOLES examination. In this episode, she also shares how her experiences working as a translator and teacher inspire her to help others as she explores the “human side” of people’s interaction with the law.
Oh – and as a surprise bonus- you get some helpful travel tips for Japan!”

Johnny Depp and bar prep on the USLawEssentials Law & Language podcast


Post by Prof. Stephen Horowitz, Legal English Lecturer

Just sharing a few potentially interesting, engaging and short(!) legal English podcast episodes from the USLawEssentials Law & Language podcast, for which I’m a co-host.

Johnny Depp

Johnny Depp & Amber Heard

If you’ve been paying attention to the news at all over the past month, then you’ve probably heard about the celebrity defamation trial between Johnny Depp and his former wife Amber Heard.

The USLawEssentials Law & Language podcast has not been covering every minute of the trial. But it does have two episodes to help foreign-educated attorneys and law students better understand the legal English concepts of “hearsay” and “forum shopping.”

And bar prep

The USLawEssentials Law & Language podcast also recently launched the first episode on a continuing series of short episodes focused on exam-tested topics. And the first episode is on sources of contract law.

So if you want to get a head start on the legal English of bar exam preparation, this episode and future episodes will be helpful and relatively painless ways to improve your legal English vocabulary and fluency that will benefit you down the road.

The USLawEssentials Law & Language Podcast is available on Apple, Spotify, Sticher, Himalaya, Overcast, and anywhere else you get your podcasts.

Beyond Non-JD: The Tax LL.M. Path for Foreign-Educated Lawyers

Post by Prof. Stephen Horowitz, Legal English Lecturer

Another timely post by my friend and former colleague Joshua Alter on his blog Beyond Non-JD, this one titled “The Tax LLM Path for Foreign-Educationed Lawyers” providing advice on those thinking about doing a tax LLM at a US law school rather than a general LLM.

Josh’s advice includes:

–Secure post-LL.B. work experience/education in the field of tax law. This can be working for a law firm, accounting firm, company, government, or a Master’s degree in your home jurisdiction in tax law.

–I’d generally suggest at least 3 years of tax experience in your home jurisdiction if your goal is to work in the U.S. upon graduation.

–Begin building your U.S. tax network in advance of your LL.M. experience.

Click here to read the full post.

Want to hear first-hand from foreign-educated lawyers who have graduated from tax LLM programs at US law schools? Listen to my podcast interviews with foreign-educated Tax LLM grads (below) on the USLawEssentials Law & Language podcast:

A podcast about women lawyers…and legal English?

Post by Prof. Stephen Horowitz, Legal English Lecturer

“Heels in the Courtroom” is a podcast by three female lawyers who talk about being a woman and working in law. In their latest episode (“Ep 510: Can you please stop comparing?“) they discuss the innate need we have to compare ourselves to others and the ways it affects them in their own law practice as well as the ways they struggle with comparing themselves to others in their personal lives.

In additional to being an extremely relevant and engaging topic and discussion, it’s also a wonderful source of legal English (and socio-emotional English) as they regularly reference their work on depositions, jury selection, settlement negotiations, etc.

It’s a refreshing kind of conversation to hear among lawyers and also provides great insights into American legal culture, and American culture in general, which is valuable for any lawyer or law student from another country or culture who is planning to study at a US law school or work with American lawyers in some context.

It’s worth also noting that their previous episodes toggle between career advice and work-life balance topics (e.g., Ep 503: Got Nerves?, Ep 418: “Back Off Buddy.”; Dealing with Intimidation in the Deposition, and Ep 506: Don’t Take it Personally) and more specific, technical legal topics (e.g., Ep 419: Sovereign Immunity, Ep 415: Jury Instructions and Ep 317: Deposition Objections).

So if you like podcasts and want to improve your legal English, definitely check out Heels in the Courtroom.

Podcast interview with legal translator Paula Arturo

Post by Prof. Stephen Horowitz, Legal English Lecturer

I was very excited this morning to see that Daniel Sebesta of the American Translators Association (ATA) podcast had done a podcast interview with my Georgetown Legal English colleague, Professor Paula Arturo, about her work and career path as a legal translator. Episode and more info from the ATA website below:

From the ATA website:

“This is not another lawyer-turned-translator story which just goes to show you that there’s more one way to become a legal translator! In this episode of Inside Specialization, lawyer-linguist Paula Arturo tells ATA member Daniel Sebesta about the role passion plays in the decision to become a legal translator and why how much you’re willing to learn is key to becoming one of the best. You’ll also discover why “follow the money” is the secret to choosing a subspecialty, how you can compete against machine translation, and a surprising skill you’ll need to climb this career ladder.Comments? Email podcast@atanet.org.”

Legal English accessibility in China

Internet in China: Prices and Providers for Your House and Cellphone

I just learned yesterday (thanks to my friend Eileen who is based in Shanghai) that this Georgetown Legal English blog is not accessible in China (at least not without a VPN.) I think it might be that fact that the URL is .domains and not .com or .org. But I really don’t know.

If anyone is aware of any way to view this site in China (aside from using a VPN), please don’t hesitate to get in touch at sh1643@georgetown.edu.

I also learned that the USLawEssentials Law & Language podcast and website, which is listed on the Legal English Resources page of this blog, is not accessible in China (at least not without a VPN) via the main website or via the Apple podcast app. However, I did figure out that the podcast episodes can be accessed in China via two other podcast platform links: this link or this link.

If anyone becomes aware of any other links on the Legal English Resources page that don’t work in China–along with any alternative links that do work–please don’t hesitate to let me know at sh1643@georgetown.edu or in the comment section below.

I’m aware, of course, that anything Google/YouTube among other sources will not be accessible. But after the big players, I’m much less clear on what is and isn’t accessible.

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