Ralph Brill
Encyclopedia
Ralph L. Brill is Professor of Law at Chicago-Kent College of Law
.
, the son of Romanian
immigrants. He attended the University of Illinois, where he received both his undergraduate degree
and his Juris Doctor
. While in law school, Brill served as associate editor of the University of Illinois Law Forum. He was admitted to the Illinois Bar in 1960. Brill's first case as an attorney was a dog bite case.
Brill began teaching law school in the fall of 1960 at the University of Michigan
in Ann Arbor. He began his teaching career by teaching a subject outside the customary law school discipline — Legal Writing. Legal Writing was part of a course entitled "Problems and Research." It was at this time that Brill began to recognize the importance of including skills courses in the law school curriculum
. Brill also became aware early on that "skills" teachers, such as those who taught legal writing, were treated differently from "substantive" (non-skills) teachers who were considered part of the regular faculty. According to institutional protocol, non-skills, or "theoretical," professors were compensated at a higher rate and given more political power than were their peers teaching nontheoretical and pragmatically oriented courses.
Following his year in Ann Arbor, in 1961, Brill returned to his hometown when he was offered a position at Chicago-Kent College of Law which, in 1969, merged with the Illinois Institute of Technology
. Brill taught Property, Agency, Legislation, Damages and several sections of legal writing. For much of his later career, he has taught Torts. Recently, he added a Famous Trials in History seminar.
s. Many legal educational institutions at the time maintained that skills teaching was the province of law firm
s, and that the discipline of legal writing was little more than a remedial grammar course not appropriate, even if necessary, in a graduate school
setting.
Recognizing that skills instruction went beyond a course in remedial grammar, Brill proposed a three-year legal writing program which would be taught by legal professionals, and would be of a uniform quality for all students. Brill further proposed that class sizes be reduced so that students would receive more individualized instruction. The Chicago-Kent faculty adopted Brill’s proposal and the legal writing program at Kent not only became the benchmark
for all law school legal writing programs, but Chicago-Kent became known for the high level of legal training that its students received.
Brill remained director of Chicago-Kent’s legal writing program for fourteen years. During that time period and afterward, he worked to improve the status of the legal writing professional. In 1985, Brill became one of the original Board members of the Legal Writing Institute
(LWI), an association of legal writing professionals. Until the establishment of the LWI, legal writing professionals had few opportunities to exchange ideas or to compare experiences as to status at their schools. The LWI enabled them to band together in an attempt to enhance programs and status at their own schools.
While working toward national goals related to the profession of the legal writing professional, Brill continued to enhance the quality of his own program at Chicago-Kent. He helped to ensure that instructors in his own department, although not having the status of tenured faculty, were able to work without capped contracts. Moreover, Brill began, at the earliest stages of national computer use, to incorporate technology into his teaching by way of the use of listserv
s and visual presentations in class. In the early 1990s, Chicago-Kent became known for its use of technology in law school, and Brill was instrumental in establishing American Bar Association
(ABA) accreditation
standards related to distance learning in law schools.
Brill stepped down as director of Chicago-Kent’s legal writing program in 1992, but remained on the faculty of Chicago-Kent teaching Torts and Tort-related subjects.
at Chicago-Kent on two separate occasions in the early 1970s, and taught Torts throughout his entire tenure as director of Chicago-Kent’s legal writing program. He continues to work with the school’s moot court
team and sponsors the Brief award for the Chicago-Kent’s intraschool moot court competition. He has been chair of the Association of American Law Schools
(AALS) Section on Legal Writing, Research, and Reasoning and of the Individual Rights and Responsibilities Committee. Brill has been at the forefront of efforts to integrate computers into the law school classroom, and has spoken on issues related to replacing the traditional law school handwritten exam with an exam typed on a laptop.
In addition to his work in legal education, Brill has been active in the Chicago Bar Association
and was the chief draftsperson of rules requiring State of Illinois lawyers to be responsible for continuing their legal education for the remainder of their careers. Brill has also been a consultant on numerous tort cases.
Despite stepping down as Director of Legal Writing, Brill continued to remain involved in the development of the field. In 1994, Brill established a legal writing listserv in conjunction with the Legal Writing Institute Conference held at Chicago-Kent that year. The listserv was expanded subsequent to the conference and enabled legal writing professionals to communicate on a daily basis concerning the development of their programs. The listserv membership, which grew from a handful of individuals to over a thousand members within ten years, became instrumental in enhancing the solidarity of the professionals in the field and the overall quality of programs across the nation. Professor Brill was also an early leader and continues to be involved with the Association of Legal Writing Directors (ALWD), which was formed to advance the political objectives of the profession.
In 1995, Brill, along with Hofstra
Legal Writing Professor Richard Neumann, worked toward lobbying the ABA to increase law school requirements for skills and writing instruction. The result was the ABA's adoption of increased requirements for writing during law school. In 1996, Brill, along with Susan Brody and Richard Neumann, argued that the ABA should change its standards regarding the protections and job security afforded Legal Writing professionals, and that adhering to these standards should be considered in determining whether a law school should be accredited. The result was the ABA’s adoption of standard 405(d). Although this standard did not equate legal writing professionals to the status of tenured law school faculty, it did put legal writing professionals on more of an equal footing. Subsequent to the adoption of 405(d), many law schools determined that Legal Writing professors should be given even greater job protections and security than required by the standard.
In 1997, Brill along with Susan L. Brody, Christina L. Kunz, Richard K. Neumann, Jr., and Marilyn R. Walter, collaborated on the Sourcebook on Legal Writing Programs. This book compiled information on existing programs of legal writing and gave recommendations for optimal programs. Recommendations included suggestions on class sizes and commentary on the need to improve the status and salary of legal writing professionals in order to enhance skills training in general. The Sourcebook became a standard for schools attempting to improve their own legal writing programs and put the American Bar Association on notice that the future of the quality of legal education necessitated taking notice that legal writing was integral to a quality legal education.
In recent years, both the ABA and law schools have begun to pay more attention to not only the status of the legal writing professional, but also to the quality of legal writing programs throughout the country. Currently, U.S. News and World Reports assesses the quality of legal writing programs when doing its annual rankings of law schools. The rankings of legal writing programs are based in part, on the status and security afforded legal writing professionals.
Chicago-Kent College of Law
Chicago–Kent College of Law, the law school affiliated with Illinois Institute of Technology, is nationally recognized for the scholarship and accomplishments of its faculty and student body. It is the second oldest law school in the state of Illinois. Many of the applications of technology in the...
.
Early life
Brill was born in ChicagoChicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
, the son of Romanian
Romanians
The Romanians are an ethnic group native to Romania, who speak Romanian; they are the majority inhabitants of Romania....
immigrants. He attended the University of Illinois, where he received both his undergraduate degree
Undergraduate degree
An undergraduate degree is a colloquial term for an academic degree taken by a person who has completed undergraduate courses. It is usually offered at an institution of higher education, such as a university...
and his Juris Doctor
Juris Doctor
Juris Doctor is a professional doctorate and first professional graduate degree in law.The degree was first awarded by Harvard University in the United States in the late 19th century and was created as a modern version of the old European doctor of law degree Juris Doctor (see etymology and...
. While in law school, Brill served as associate editor of the University of Illinois Law Forum. He was admitted to the Illinois Bar in 1960. Brill's first case as an attorney was a dog bite case.
Establishing a legal writing course
University of Michigan
The University of Michigan is a public research university located in Ann Arbor, Michigan in the United States. It is the state's oldest university and the flagship campus of the University of Michigan...
in Ann Arbor. He began his teaching career by teaching a subject outside the customary law school discipline — Legal Writing. Legal Writing was part of a course entitled "Problems and Research." It was at this time that Brill began to recognize the importance of including skills courses in the law school curriculum
Curriculum
See also Syllabus.In formal education, a curriculum is the set of courses, and their content, offered at a school or university. As an idea, curriculum stems from the Latin word for race course, referring to the course of deeds and experiences through which children grow to become mature adults...
. Brill also became aware early on that "skills" teachers, such as those who taught legal writing, were treated differently from "substantive" (non-skills) teachers who were considered part of the regular faculty. According to institutional protocol, non-skills, or "theoretical," professors were compensated at a higher rate and given more political power than were their peers teaching nontheoretical and pragmatically oriented courses.
Following his year in Ann Arbor, in 1961, Brill returned to his hometown when he was offered a position at Chicago-Kent College of Law which, in 1969, merged with the Illinois Institute of Technology
Illinois Institute of Technology
Illinois Institute of Technology, commonly called Illinois Tech or IIT, is a private Ph.D.-granting university located in Chicago, Illinois, with programs in engineering, science, psychology, architecture, business, communications, industrial technology, information technology, design, and law...
. Brill taught Property, Agency, Legislation, Damages and several sections of legal writing. For much of his later career, he has taught Torts. Recently, he added a Famous Trials in History seminar.
Legal writing program at Chicago-Kent
In 1977, Brill was asked by administrators at Chicago-Kent to set up a larger scale legal writing program. At that time, legal writing was still not considered an important discipline in legal study. Aside from a few programs, such as Marjorie Rombauer's program at the University of Washington, most legal writing departments consisted of one director and a staff of part-time instructors. Even when instructors were employed full-time, their contracts were most often limited to one or two years. These instructors were not considered "real" law school professors. In some instances, Legal Writing courses were staffed with individuals who were not legal professionalProfessional
A professional is a person who is paid to undertake a specialised set of tasks and to complete them for a fee. The traditional professions were doctors, lawyers, clergymen, and commissioned military officers. Today, the term is applied to estate agents, surveyors , environmental scientists,...
s. Many legal educational institutions at the time maintained that skills teaching was the province of law firm
Law firm
A law firm is a business entity formed by one or more lawyers to engage in the practice of law. The primary service rendered by a law firm is to advise clients about their legal rights and responsibilities, and to represent clients in civil or criminal cases, business transactions, and other...
s, and that the discipline of legal writing was little more than a remedial grammar course not appropriate, even if necessary, in a graduate school
Graduate school
A graduate school is a school that awards advanced academic degrees with the general requirement that students must have earned a previous undergraduate degree...
setting.
Recognizing that skills instruction went beyond a course in remedial grammar, Brill proposed a three-year legal writing program which would be taught by legal professionals, and would be of a uniform quality for all students. Brill further proposed that class sizes be reduced so that students would receive more individualized instruction. The Chicago-Kent faculty adopted Brill’s proposal and the legal writing program at Kent not only became the benchmark
Benchmarking
Benchmarking is the process of comparing one's business processes and performance metrics to industry bests and/or best practices from other industries. Dimensions typically measured are quality, time and cost...
for all law school legal writing programs, but Chicago-Kent became known for the high level of legal training that its students received.
Brill remained director of Chicago-Kent’s legal writing program for fourteen years. During that time period and afterward, he worked to improve the status of the legal writing professional. In 1985, Brill became one of the original Board members of the Legal Writing Institute
Legal Writing Institute
The Legal Writing Institute is "a non-profit organization dedicated to improving legal writing by providing a forum for discussion and scholarship about legal writing, analysis, and research." LWI maintains several resources for its members including a national conference held every two years,...
(LWI), an association of legal writing professionals. Until the establishment of the LWI, legal writing professionals had few opportunities to exchange ideas or to compare experiences as to status at their schools. The LWI enabled them to band together in an attempt to enhance programs and status at their own schools.
While working toward national goals related to the profession of the legal writing professional, Brill continued to enhance the quality of his own program at Chicago-Kent. He helped to ensure that instructors in his own department, although not having the status of tenured faculty, were able to work without capped contracts. Moreover, Brill began, at the earliest stages of national computer use, to incorporate technology into his teaching by way of the use of listserv
LISTSERV
LISTSERV was the first electronic mailing list software application, consisting of a set of email addresses for a group in which the sender can send one email and it will reach a variety of people...
s and visual presentations in class. In the early 1990s, Chicago-Kent became known for its use of technology in law school, and Brill was instrumental in establishing American Bar Association
American Bar Association
The American Bar Association , founded August 21, 1878, is a voluntary bar association of lawyers and law students, which is not specific to any jurisdiction in the United States. The ABA's most important stated activities are the setting of academic standards for law schools, and the formulation...
(ABA) accreditation
Educational accreditation
Educational accreditation is a type of quality assurance process under which services and operations of educational institutions or programs are evaluated by an external body to determine if applicable standards are met...
standards related to distance learning in law schools.
Brill stepped down as director of Chicago-Kent’s legal writing program in 1992, but remained on the faculty of Chicago-Kent teaching Torts and Tort-related subjects.
Contributions within the field of Legal Writing
Although Brill is primarily associated with legal writing, his involvement in attempting to enhance legal education has been more expansive. Brill served as interim deanDean (education)
In academic administration, a dean is a person with significant authority over a specific academic unit, or over a specific area of concern, or both...
at Chicago-Kent on two separate occasions in the early 1970s, and taught Torts throughout his entire tenure as director of Chicago-Kent’s legal writing program. He continues to work with the school’s moot court
Moot court
A moot court is an extracurricular activity at many law schools in which participants take part in simulated court proceedings, usually to include drafting briefs and participating in oral argument. The term derives from Anglo Saxon times, when a moot was a gathering of prominent men in a...
team and sponsors the Brief award for the Chicago-Kent’s intraschool moot court competition. He has been chair of the Association of American Law Schools
Association of American Law Schools
The Association of American Law Schools is a non-profit organization of 170 law schools in the United States. Another 25 schools are "non-member fee paid" schools, which are not members but choose to pay AALS dues. Its purpose is to improve the legal profession through the improvement of legal...
(AALS) Section on Legal Writing, Research, and Reasoning and of the Individual Rights and Responsibilities Committee. Brill has been at the forefront of efforts to integrate computers into the law school classroom, and has spoken on issues related to replacing the traditional law school handwritten exam with an exam typed on a laptop.
In addition to his work in legal education, Brill has been active in the Chicago Bar Association
Chicago Bar Association
Founded in 1874, the Chicago Bar Association is a voluntary bar association with over 20,000 members. Like other bar associations, it concerns itself with professional ethics, networking among members, and continuing legal education. It is located adjacent to the John Marshall Law School in the...
and was the chief draftsperson of rules requiring State of Illinois lawyers to be responsible for continuing their legal education for the remainder of their careers. Brill has also been a consultant on numerous tort cases.
Despite stepping down as Director of Legal Writing, Brill continued to remain involved in the development of the field. In 1994, Brill established a legal writing listserv in conjunction with the Legal Writing Institute Conference held at Chicago-Kent that year. The listserv was expanded subsequent to the conference and enabled legal writing professionals to communicate on a daily basis concerning the development of their programs. The listserv membership, which grew from a handful of individuals to over a thousand members within ten years, became instrumental in enhancing the solidarity of the professionals in the field and the overall quality of programs across the nation. Professor Brill was also an early leader and continues to be involved with the Association of Legal Writing Directors (ALWD), which was formed to advance the political objectives of the profession.
In 1995, Brill, along with Hofstra
Hofstra University School of Law
The Maurice A. Deane School of Law at Hofstra University is located in Hempstead, New York. Founded in 1970 and accredited by the ABA in 1971, the school offers a JD, a joint JD/MBA degree, and LL.M degrees in American Law and Family law...
Legal Writing Professor Richard Neumann, worked toward lobbying the ABA to increase law school requirements for skills and writing instruction. The result was the ABA's adoption of increased requirements for writing during law school. In 1996, Brill, along with Susan Brody and Richard Neumann, argued that the ABA should change its standards regarding the protections and job security afforded Legal Writing professionals, and that adhering to these standards should be considered in determining whether a law school should be accredited. The result was the ABA’s adoption of standard 405(d). Although this standard did not equate legal writing professionals to the status of tenured law school faculty, it did put legal writing professionals on more of an equal footing. Subsequent to the adoption of 405(d), many law schools determined that Legal Writing professors should be given even greater job protections and security than required by the standard.
In 1997, Brill along with Susan L. Brody, Christina L. Kunz, Richard K. Neumann, Jr., and Marilyn R. Walter, collaborated on the Sourcebook on Legal Writing Programs. This book compiled information on existing programs of legal writing and gave recommendations for optimal programs. Recommendations included suggestions on class sizes and commentary on the need to improve the status and salary of legal writing professionals in order to enhance skills training in general. The Sourcebook became a standard for schools attempting to improve their own legal writing programs and put the American Bar Association on notice that the future of the quality of legal education necessitated taking notice that legal writing was integral to a quality legal education.
In recent years, both the ABA and law schools have begun to pay more attention to not only the status of the legal writing professional, but also to the quality of legal writing programs throughout the country. Currently, U.S. News and World Reports assesses the quality of legal writing programs when doing its annual rankings of law schools. The rankings of legal writing programs are based in part, on the status and security afforded legal writing professionals.
Recognition
Brill has received several awards for his commitment to legal education.- In 1997, Brill was given the AALS Legal Writing, Research, and Reasoning Section Award for contributions to the profession of legal writing.
- In 2004, Brill received the Thomas F. Blackwell Memorial Award for his contributions to legal writing and legal education.
- In 2006, Brill received the Burton Foundation's “Legends of the Law” Award for "outstanding contribution to legal writing education".
- In 2007, Brill and Professor Molly Lien of The John Marshall Law SchoolJohn Marshall Law SchoolJohn Marshall Law School may refer to:*John Marshall Law School in Chicago, Illinois*John Marshall Law School in Atlanta, Georgia*Cleveland-Marshall College of Law in Cleveland, Ohio...
in Chicago were jointly awarded the first Legal Writing Institute Terri LeClercq Award for Courage—an award established to reward acts of courage in advancing causes related to legal writing. - In 2009, Chicago-Kent established an endowed visiting professor position in his name, the Ralph L. Brill Distinguished Visitor, with plans to eventually establish an endowed chair (the school's first) in his name.
- In 2011, the Association of Legal Writing Directors (ALWD) created the Brill Award to honor him for his 50 years of teaching and contributions to the enhancement of Legal Writing programs. Brill was the first honoree.