Thanks the USA Law Lib blog for thie piece about Jones McLure Publishing in the USA
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Watch out Lexis, Apsen and TR Legal’s [insert name of eventual buyer’s] legal education publishing divisons, there is a new player coming to market. “‘Legal Publisher Declares Law School to be Easy, Fun.’ This. Will. Be. Awesome.’” tweeted Jason Wilson. When I click on the provided link, sure enough it sent me to a Feb. 28, 2012? press release titled Legal Publisher Declares Law School to be Easy, Fun and, well, the press release speaks for itself. A couple of quotes:
No longer will students have to struggle to learn the finer points of jurisprudence,? said vice president Jason Wilson [Jones McClure Publishing]. ?Instead of parsing obscure cases, studying dense outlines, and puzzling over their professors? remarks, law students can simply read these entertaining comic guides and easily understand it all.????When reached for comment at his law office, author Nathaniel Burney remarked ?he said what?!?
Who is Nathaniel Burney? He is the author of the first volume of?Jones McClure Publishing’s Illustrated Guide to Law series, “The Illustrated Guide to Criminal Law”, due out this fall. Burney’s work?started life as a highly praised webcomic last year.
I’m thinking Jason’s tweet — “This [full stop] Will [full stop] Be [full stop]?Awesome [full stop]” is not an understatement.?There’s plenty of talent beyond the full-time law faculty who have much to contribute by way of law school educational publications. Hell,ABA and/or state bar association?CLE programs offered to members of the bench and bar taught?by practitioners also could be a substantial contribution to educating law school students while they are still attending law school. Just imagine course credit hours being earned toward graduating with a JD by way of CLE webinars. But I digress… .
Mr. Burney, formerly a prosecutor in the Manhattan DA?s Rackets Bureau, explained the origins of his work.
[I started the project] because the law is fun, and I like explaining it. I already teach a series of courses aimed at lawyers. But there are so many myths and misconceptions out there, so I thought I?d try something that high school students and other regular folks could easily grasp?starting with the most very basic concepts and building from there. I wasn?t even thinking about law students at first. But now, yeah, obviously they?d probably get a lot out of it.
According to the press release future volumes in the Jones McClure illustrated guides?series will?cover constitutional law, property, procedure, torts and more. For the moment I can’t wait for a copy of The Illustrated Guide to Criminal Law (hint). In general, criminal law isn’t an area I have ever been all that comfortable performing research in so I’ll “probably get a lot out of it.? [JH]
