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Clinical Professor Rutgers School of Law - Camden 217 North Fifth Street Camden, NJ 08102
F: (856) 225-6666
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Biography
Ruth Anne Robbins teaches legal writing courses at the 1L and upper levels. She also teaches in the Domestic Violence programs.
Professor Robbins is very committed to the doctrine of legal writing. She started the first upper level writing course at Rutgers, "Advanced Brief Writing" and has since then created two addtional upper level writing courses, the more theoretical upper level writing course "Persuasion in Legal Writing" and the peer-driven writing course "Advanced Legal Writing."
Additionally, Robbins founded the Domestic Violence Clinic in 2002. She has supervised the pro bono Domestic Violence Project since 2000 (co-supervised as of 2004 with Professor Victoria Chase). She co-authors and updates a New Jersey practice treaty on domestic violence law. She regularly trains service providers about New Jersey domestic violence law. She has also spoken at conferences about the pedagogical nexus between clinical and legal writing departments.
Nationally, Ruth Anne Robbins is the President-Elect of the Legal Writing Institute, an organization whose members include professors, judges and practitioners, www.lwionline.org. Professor Robbins has served on the Board of Directors since 2004.
Robbins earned a B.A. in biology from the University of Pennsylvania and a J.D, with High Honors, from Rutgers-Camden. After law school, she clerked for the the Honorable Michael Patrick King of the New Jersey Appellate Division. She practiced family law at Schnader Harrison Segal & Lewis and also worked at the Haddonfield firm, Eisenberg, Gold & Cettei prior to joining the Rutgers faculty in 1997.
Publications
Robbins, R.A., Harry Potter, Ruby Slippers and Merlin: Telling the Client's Story Using the Characters and Paradigm of the Archetypal Hero's Journey, 29 No. 4 Seattle L. Rev. 767 (Summer 2006)(lead article).
Robbins R.A., Painting with Print: Incorporating concepts of typographic and layout design into the text of legal writing documents 2 J. ALWD 108 (2004); reproduced on the website of the United States Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals.
DiCamillo, Angelo, J.S.C., Robbins, R.A., Abatemarco, M.M., New Jersey Domestic Violence Practice and Procedure 2d ed., (N.J. Inst. of CLE 2005).
Robbins, R.A. The Next Step #1 Starting a Dialogue About Upper Level Writing (regular column about upper level writing), 17 No. 2 The Second Draft, the Bulletin of the Legal Writing Institute, 13 (July 2003).
King, S. A. and Robbins R.A., Creating New Learning Experiences Through Collaborations Between Law Librarians and Legal Writing Faculty, 11 No. 3 Perspectives 110 (Spring 2003).
ALWD Scholarship awarded, March 2003.
DiCamillo, Angelo, J.S.C., Robbins, R.A., Abatemarco, M.M., New Jersey Domestic Violence Practice and Procedure, (N.J. Inst. of CLE 2002).
Robbins, R.A., Teach to Your Audience, 16 No. 1 The Second Draft, the Bulletin of the Legal Writing Institute, 8 (December, 2001).
Robbins, R.A., Varying the Traditional Methods of Peer Editing, 15 No. 2 The Second Draft, the Bulletin of the Legal Writing Institute, (August, 2001) 15.
Foley, B.J., Robbins, R.A., Fiction 101: A Primer for Lawyers On How To Use Fiction Writing Techniques To Write Persuasive Facts Sections, 32, No. 2, Rutgers L.J. 459 (Winter, 2001).
*Reprinted in 51 No. 1 Defense L.J. 149 (Spring 2002) and as How To Use Fiction Writing Techniques to Write Persuasive Facts Sections, Natl. Inst. Trial Advoc. LexisONE Articles, http://www.nita.org/lexisarticles.htm#NEWJULY
Robbins, R.A., Introducing Splits in Authority With a Low-Tech Multi-Part Exercise, 12 No.2 The Second Draft, the Bulletin of the Legal Writing Institute 4 (May 1999).
Contributing author of Valuation Strategies in Divorce Fourth Edition, 1997. Feder, R. F., ed., Wiley Law Publications. (Under Eisenberg, R.A.)
Feder, R.F., Eisenberg, R.A., Take a Number, Volume XVI, Number 39 Pennsylvania Law Journal (October 1993)(Dealt with issues involving bankruptcy and equitable distribution of marital property in marital dissolution proceedings).
Presentations
Robbins, R.A. and Levy, J., Emotion Granted: Pathos, Pedagogy and Persuasion, Legal Writing Institute Biennial Conference (June 8, 2006, Atlanta, GA)(materials on file with Legal Writing Institute).
R.A. Robbins, M.R. Smith, B.J. Foley, "Once Upon a Time: A Three-Part Collaboration to Start the New Discipline of Applied Storytelling in Law," poster presentation at the 2006 AALS Conference on Clinical Education (April 30, 2006, New York, NY).
Robbins, R.A., Client Mythology: their stories as heroic journeys, Power of Stories Conference Celebrating the 400th Anniversary of the Dick Whittington story (July 26, 2005, Gloucester University, Gloucester, UK).
Smith, Michael R. and Robbins, R.A., Psyched up: Teaching the psychology of persuasion, New England Consortium of Legal Writing Teachers (June 10, 2005, Albany, NY).
Robbins, R.A., Visual rhetoric: Enhancing persuasion with graphic design, Legal Writing Institute Biennial Conference (July 22, 2004, Seattle U. Law School, Seattle, WA)(materials on file with Legal Writing Institute).
Robbins, R.A. and Schwinn, S., Incorporating Legal Writing Pedagogy Into the Clinical Curriculum. Sharing session. AALS Conference on Clinical Legal Education (May 2, 2004, San Diego, CA)(materials on file with AALS Section on Clinical Legal Education).
Robbins, R.A., Writing about our clients as heroes, Rocky Mountain Regional Legal Writing Conference (March 4,2004, Boyd School of Law, Univ. of Las Vegas, Las Vegas, NV).
Robbins, R.A., 'Fuzzy Thinking': Borrowing concepts from clinicians to teach students the need to avoid a polarized method of factual and legal analysis, Philadelphia Region Legal Writing Conference (May 12, 2003, Rutgers School of Law - Camden, Camden, NJ).
Robbins, R.A., Legge, P. A., It is still all about the facts: how researching and understanding the client situation permits students to present the R of CRAC in a more thorough and sophisticated manner, Legal Writing Institute Biennial Conference, (May 31, 2002, U. of Tenn. Law School, Knoxville, TN)(materials on file with Legal Writing Institute).
Invited Speaker: Storytelling for Lawyers: How to Use the Most Powerful Tool of Persuasion to Win Your Cases, Widener U. School of Law Continuing Legal Education Presentation,
(April 27, 2001, Philadelphia, PA)(materials on file with Widener U. School of Law).
Robbins, R.A., Foley, B.J., Creative Ways to Teach Persuasive Facts, Legal Writing Institute Biennial Conference, (July 22, 2000, Seattle U. Law School, Seattle, WA)(materials on file with Legal Writing Institute).
Foley, B.J.; Iannone, A.M.; Robbins, R.A.; Shore, D.A., How to Write Winning Briefs, New Jersey Institute of Continuing Legal Education Presentation (November 1999, Mount Laurel, NJ)(materials on file with New Jersey Institute of Continuing Legal Education).
Foley, B.J.; Iannone, A.M.; Robbins, R.A.; Shore, D.A., Practical Brief Writing Skills, New Jersey Institute of Continuing Legal Education Presentation (March 1999, New Brunswick, NJ)(materials on file with New Jersey Institute of Continuing Legal Education).
Numerous informal presentations about domestic violence law and practice to domestic violence crisis intervention teams and to volunteer groups.
Professional Organizations:
1. Legal Writing Institute 2001-present
Executive Committee 2004-present
-President-Elect, 2006-08 term
-Secretary, 2004-2006 term.
Board of Directors, July 2004-2008 term.
First Chairperson of Legal Writing Institute committee about upper level writing courses, September 2002-2004 term.
Co-coordinator of Idea Bank, national exchange of teaching documents for two Legal Writing Institute biennial conferences, May 2002 and July 2004.
2. Clinical Legal Education Association 2002-present.
3. AALS Teaching Methods Section 2005-present.
4. AALS Legal Writing Section 2003-present.
5. Association of Legal Writing Directors (ALWD) 2006-present.