Bio
Jennifer Sheppard is an Associate Professor of Law at the U.S. Air Force Academy, CO. She teaches courses in Legal Research and Writing and Legal Advocacy.
Professor Sheppard graduated summa cum laude from Capital University Law School, where she was Executive Articles Editor for the Capital University Law Review, a Dean’s Fellow for Legal Writing, and a teaching assistant in Legal Writing and Research. Before entering academia, she clerked for the Honorable Norah McCann King of the United States District Court for the Southern District of Ohio. Prior to joining the Air Force Academy, Professor Sheppard taught as an Associate Professor of Law at Mercer University School of Law. In addition to teaching the core legal research and writing courses in Mercer’s nationally-recognized Legal Writing Program, she also taught in and administered Mercer’s Advanced Legal Writing, Research, and Drafting Certificate Program for almost a decade.
Professor Sheppard’s scholarship focuses on improving legal discourse in a variety of media, including appellate briefs, trial motions and memoranda, and judicial opinions. She has also authored a book for judicial externs and clerks titled In Chambers: A Guide for Judicial Externs and Clerks (Aspen Publ. 2012).
Education
Juris Doctor, Capital University Law School
Bachelor of Arts, Ohio University
Professional Experience
Law professor teaching basic legal research and writing, legal advocacy, advanced persuasion techniques, judicial opinion writing, and a seminar for judicial externs.
Honors & Awards
Recipient of the 2020 LWI/ALWD Scholarship Grant
Recipient of the American Academy of Appellate Lawyers’ Eisenberg Prize for Once Upon A Time, Happily Ever After, and In A Galaxy Far, Far Away: Using Narrative to Fill the Cognitive Gap Left by Overreliance on Pure Logic in Appellate Briefs and Motion Memoranda, 46 Willamette L. Rev. 255 (2009).
Recipient of the 2006 ALWD Scholarship Incentive Grant
Research and Scholarly Interests
Persuasion and Advocacy
Applied Legal Storytelling
Judicial Clerkships & Externships
Judicial Opinion Writing
Publications
“All We Have to Decide Is What to Do with the Time Given to Us”: Using Concepts of Narrative Time to Draft More Persuasive Legal Documents, 106 Marquette L. Rev. 831 (2023), https://scholarship.law.marquette.edu/mulr/vol106/iss4/5/.
Once Upon A Time, Happily Ever After, and In a Galaxy Far, Far Away: Using Narrative to Fill the Cognitive Gap Left by Overreliance on Pure Logic in Appellate Briefs and Motion Memoranda, 46 Willamette L. Rev. 255 (2009), reprinted in Vol. 10, Legal Writing Institute Monograph Series: Applied Legal storytelling (2021).
Creative Strategies to Get Students to Read Your Course Syllabus, 33 The Second Draft 54 (2020), https://www.lwionline.org/article/creative-strategies-get-students-read-your-course-syllabus.
Collaborative Legal Writing Programs: Management Styles to Use When “Take Me to Your Leader” Is No Longer Applicable, 24 J. Leg. Writing Inst. 159 (2020), http://www.legalwritingjournal.org/2020/03/15/transitioning-to-a-collaborative-legal-writing-program-management-principles-to-apply-when-take-me-to-your-leader-is-no-longer-applicable/.
Once Upon A Time, Happily Ever After, and In a Galaxy Far, Far Away: Using Narrative to Fill the Cognitive Gap Left by Overreliance on Pure Logic in Appellate Briefs and Motion Memoranda, 46 Willamette L. Rev. 255 (2009), reprinted in Vol. 4, Legal Writing Institute Monograph Series: Advanced Legal Writing: Courses & Themes (2015).
In Chambers: A Guide for Judicial Clerks and Externs (Aspen Publ. 2012).
What if the Big Bad Wolf in All Those Fairy Tales Was Just Misunderstood?: Techniques for Maintaining Narrative Rationality While Altering Stock Stories that Are Harmful to Your Case, 34 Hastings Comm. & Ent. L.J. 187 (2012), https://repository.uchastings.edu/hastings_comm_ent_ law_journal/vol34/iss2/2/.
Once Upon A Time, Happily Ever After, and In a Galaxy Far, Far Away: Using Narrative to Fill the Cognitive Gap Left by Overreliance on Pure Logic in Appellate Briefs and Motion Memoranda, 46 Willamette L. Rev. 255 (2009), https://willamette.edu/law/resources/journals/review/pdf/volume-46/wlr46-2-sheppard.pdf.
The “Write” Way: A Judicial Clerk’s Guide to Writing for the Court, 38 U. Balt. L. Rev. 73 (2009), https://scholarworks.law.ubalt.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1842&context=ublr.
The ALWD Citation Manual: A Grammar Guide to the Language of Legal Citation, 26 UALR L.J. 573 (2004), https://lawrepository.ualr.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1266&context=lawreview.
The Imagination is a Fertile Stomping Ground: Non-Enumerated Grounds for Departure from the United States Sentencing Guidelines under §5K2.0, 47 Clev. St. L. REV.193 (1999), https://engaged scholarship.csuohio.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=https://www.google.com/&httpsredir=1&article=1481&context=clevstlrev.
State v. Wilson: Social Discontent, Retribution, and the Constitutionality of Capital Punishment for Raping a Child, 27 Cap. Univ. L. Rev. 135 (1998).