Professor Robbins teaches courses across the 1L and upper level legal writing curriculum, as well as in the clinic. In addition to co-authoring the New Jersey practice treatise on New Jersey domestic violence law, she also writes about persuasion and lawyering theory. One of her areas of inqury focuses on story structure and elements: her work is premised on the conclusions of others, in multiple disciplines, that storytelling is the most effective and ubiquitous method of communicating information. Her other area of inquiry looks at visual persuasion in legal writing: enhancing the readability of legal writring with the look of the document itself.
Nationally, she is the immediate past president of the Legal Writing Institute (LWI), an international organization whose 2,100 members include professors, judges, and practitioners. She is currently the co-editor in chief of the peer-reviewed journal, Legal Communication & Rhetoric: JALWD, which publishes scholarly articles about legal writing and lawyering, written for a practitioner audience. She is also one of the founders and organizers of the international conference series "Applied Legal Storytelling," which most recently was hosted by the University of Denver, Sturm College of Law, and was co-sponsored by the Legal Writing Institute and the Clinical Legal Education Association (CLEA). She has organized other national and regional conferences about legal writing. She also chaired the first committee on upper level writing for the Legal Writing Institute. She is the recipient of national scholarship and teaching grants. Locally, she has received law school and campus-wide teaching awards.
In 2002, Professor Robbins founded the Domestic Violence Clinic at the law school and continues to serve of counsel to that clinic and to teach in the advanced clinic. She supervised or co-supervised the pro bono Domestic Violence Project from 2000 until 2011. Prior to joining the Rutgers faculty in 1997, she practiced family law at Schnader Harrison Segal & Lewis and worked at the Haddonfield firm of Eisenberg, Gold & Cettei. She clerked for the New Jersey Appellate Division (Hon. Michael Patrick King).
(forthcoming) Robbins, Johansen, Chestek, Persuasive Legal Writing: Constructing the Client's Narrative (Aspen L. & Bus.)(textbook).
Robbins, R.A., Harry Potter as Client in a Lawsuit, in The Law & Harry Potter 307(Jeffrey E. Thomas & Franklin G. Snyder, eds., Carolina Acad. Press 2010).
Robbins, R.A., Conserving the Canvas: Reducing the Environmental Footprint of Legal Briefs by Re-Imagining Court Rules and Legal Briefs, 7 J. ALWD 193 (2010).
DiCamillo, J.S.C., Robbins, Abatemarco, New Jersey Domestic Violence Practice and Procedure 3d ed., (N.J. Inst. of CLE 2009).
Robbins, R.A., An Introduction to Applied Storytelling, 14 J. Legal Writing 3 (2008).
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 (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).
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).
DiCamillo, Angelo, J.S.C., Robbins, R.A., Abatemarco, M.M., New Jersey Domestic Violence Practice and Procedure, (N.J. Inst. of CLE 2002).
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
Various shorter pieces appear in multiple issues of The Second Draft, available at http://www.lwionline.org and include President's Columns (between 2008-10) and The Next Step #1 Starting a Dialogue About Upper Level Writing (beginning of a regular column).
Also a past contributor to AALS Newsletters of the Legal Writing, Reasoning & Research and the Clinical Education Sections.
