As part of UNC Research Week, an annual event celebrating
the scholarship of the UNC community, the law school held a panel discussion
Monday, November 8th in the Kathrine R. Everett Library. The panel addressed two
recent books by Carolina Law professors: Punishment Without Trial: Why Plea Bargaining Is a Bad Deal by Carissa Byrne Hessick and MBEs for the MBE: Mnemonics, Blueprints, and Examples for the Multistate Bar Exam by O.J.
Salinas. Scott Sipe from Carolina Academic Press joined to talk about the
academic legal publishing process, and Professor Leigh Osofsky moderated the
panel.
Professor Hessick
, the Ransdell Distinguished Professor of Law, read a
section from the introductory chapter of her book and spoke about the support
she received from the Carolina Law community, including, but not limited to,
research leave and mentoring and advice from many colleagues. Punishment Without Trial, which just came out on October 12, grew out of her work running
the Prosecutors and Politics project at UNC.
MBEs for the MBE
, by contrast, was created partly in
response to the frustrating experience many of Carolina Law’s 2020 graduates
had taking the bar exam. Professor Salinas, director of the law school’s Academic
Excellence Program and Clinical Professor of Law, read from the preface of his
book and described the difficulties that students experienced navigating bar
passage during the COVID pandemic. His book grew out of his work trying to make
studying and passing the bar easier during that time. MBEs for the MBE will be
published on November 12th.
Scott Sipe, Associate Publisher with Carolina Academic Press,
also discussed the effects of the pandemic on his work. Sipe walked the
audience through the process of working with CAP to develop a book concept,
write a prospectus, and navigate the differences between academic and trade
presses. He also talked about some of the challenges facing the industry, like
contending with the rise in ebook sales vs. print, supply chain issues, and connecting
with authors in the absence of in-person academic conferences and school
visits.
The theme of UNC’s 2021 Research Week is “Research Perseveres,”
and the work of Profs. Hessick and Salinas demonstrates that in abundance. More
information about Research Week events can be found here: https://researchweek.unc.edu/
Posted by Ellie Campbell on Wed. November 10, 2021 10:00 AM
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