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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 lawyering courses at the 1L and upper levels. She is the recipient of several law school and campus-wide teaching awards. Most recently she was awarded the first ALWD national teaching grant to develop a new course based on story and narrative.
Professor Robbins is particularly committed to the development of upper level legal writing opportunities. She started the first upper level writing course at Rutgers, "Advanced Brief Writing" and has since then created three additional upper level writing courses, the more theoretical "Persuasion in Legal Writing," the storytelling class, "Constructing Legal Narratives, and the peer-driven course "Advanced Legal Writing."
Additionally, Professor 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 treatise on domestic violence law. She has also spoken at conferences about the pedagogical nexus between clinical and legal writing departments.
Nationally, Professor Robbins is the President of the Legal Writing Institute, an organization whose members include professors, judges and practitioners, www.lwionline.org. She is also a member of the editorial board of J. ALWD and an advisor to the SSRN legal writing specialty journal. She is one of the organizers of the international conference series, "Applied Legal Storytelling."
Professor 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.
Publications
Robbins, R.A., An Introduction to Applied Storytelling, 14 J. Legal Writing 3 (2008)(symposium).
Robbins, R.A., The President's Column, 23 No. 3 The Second Draft 3 (2008) available at http://www.lwionline.org/uploads/FileUpload/Second_Draft_Fall_2008.pdf
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 Grant 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).