{"id":6609,"date":"2025-07-24T11:57:08","date_gmt":"2025-07-24T15:57:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hedgehogsandfoxes.org\/?p=6609"},"modified":"2025-07-24T11:57:08","modified_gmt":"2025-07-24T15:57:08","slug":"smith-on-the-first-year-law-student-in-legal-rhetoric","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hedgehogsandfoxes.org\/index.php\/2025\/07\/24\/smith-on-the-first-year-law-student-in-legal-rhetoric\/","title":{"rendered":"Smith on The &#8220;First-Year Law Student&#8221; in Legal Rhetoric"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Michael L. Smith, University of Oklahoma College of Law, is publishing <a href=\"https:\/\/papers.ssrn.com\/sol3\/papers.cfm?abstract_id=5336651&amp;dgcid=ejournal_htmlemail_law%3Asociety%3Athe%3Alegal%3Aprofession%3Aejournal_abstractlink\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">The &#8220;First-Year Law Student&#8221; in Legal Rhetoric<\/a> in volume 23 of Legal Communication &amp; Rhetoric: JALWD (2026). Here is the abstract.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>This article explores the surprising variety of roles the conceptual first-year law student plays in the rhetoric of legal actors. Judges, attorneys, scholars, and legal commentators love to dismiss disfavored notions by proclaiming that even a first-year law student would find them unconvincing. And, as it turns out, the first-year law student appears in other rhetorical contexts which I survey and categorize. After doing so I turn to the question of whether referring to first-year students\u2019 knowledge in legal arguments is a wise rhetorical move and whether this tactic is demeaning to law students. I conclude that the benefits of these arguments are typically outweighed by their drawbacks and risks. Additionally, while referring to first-year students\u2019 knowledge isn\u2019t insulting in all cases, it\u2019s easy to cross the line. The rhetorical advantages one may gain from referencing first-year students\u2019 knowledge are almost always available through classier and less-clunky alternatives.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Download the article from SSRN at the link.<\/p>\n\n<div class=\"twitter-share\"><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?via=HedgehogsFoxes\" class=\"twitter-share-button\">Tweet<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Michael L. Smith, University of Oklahoma College of Law, is publishing The &#8220;First-Year Law Student&#8221; in Legal Rhetoric in volume 23 of Legal Communication &amp; Rhetoric: JALWD (2026). Here is the abstract. This article&#46;&#46;&#46;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[333,143],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6609","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-law-and-rhetoric","category-legal-education"],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pasVL2-1IB","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hedgehogsandfoxes.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6609","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hedgehogsandfoxes.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hedgehogsandfoxes.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hedgehogsandfoxes.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hedgehogsandfoxes.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6609"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/hedgehogsandfoxes.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6609\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6610,"href":"https:\/\/hedgehogsandfoxes.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6609\/revisions\/6610"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hedgehogsandfoxes.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6609"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hedgehogsandfoxes.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6609"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hedgehogsandfoxes.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6609"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}