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Professor Slomanson Cited Over 2,000 Times

March 7, 2016

Professor William Slomanson has reached an extraordinary milestone. His publications have been cited over 2,000 times. Citation number 2,000 appeared in Professor Abigail DeBlasis’s Building Legal Competencies: The Montessori Method as A Unifying Approach to Outcomes-Based Assessment in Law Schools, 42 Ohio N.U. L. Rev. 1 (2015). Her article contains a handful of citations to Professor Slomanson’s article Pouring Skills Content into Doctrinal Bottles, 61 Journal of Legal Education 683 (2012).

Professor Slomanson first acknowledged the supporting role of his colleagues: “The Thomas Jefferson School of Law publication bug has been incredibly contagious. I am thus quite fortunate to be working in—and inspired by—an institution on the cutting-edge of legal and pedagogical developments. That improves the faculty’s work product in the classroom, as well as the reputation of Thomas Jefferson Law.”

His colleagues have responded in kind. As Professor Ken Vandevelde puts it: “Although some law professors research certain topics to satisfy their personal curiosity, the most valuable work is that which is useful to others. Usefulness to others is a hallmark of Bill’s work, as the many citations to that work attest. For example, he is a nationally recognized expert on California civil procedure, on which he has written more than a dozen books. This is a subject of great practical importance to the 150,000 lawyers practicing in California. It is no exaggeration to say that, through his prodigious scholarship in the field, Bill has trained an entire generation of California trial lawyers.”

Professor Susan Bisom-Rapp adds: “Bill Slomanson is a scholar’s scholar. Quite simply, writing is so integral to his life that it is difficult to imagine him not working on a new book or article or essay. It is in his blood. Moreover, Bill Slomanson has always been the champion of junior faculty members in their efforts to launch their scholarly careers. When I joined the faculty, he was always available for advice and assistance, and usually the first one to argue that young professors need to be nurtured and need sufficient time to research and write. Bill knows that scholarly work is his mission and is central to the mission of our law school.”

Professor Bryan Wildenthal comments that “I always tell my students that Professor Bill Slomanson is Mr. Civil Procedure—and more specifically, Mr. California Civil Procedure, since he has written or co-written many of the key works in that area. What makes Bill all the greater as a colleague and teacher is that he is also Mr. International Law. He has also remained deeply engaged in cutting-edge debates about pedagogy, making optimal use of technology, and new approaches in the classroom. He is one of the few law professors I know who regularly publishes articles about the art of teaching itself. If I end up having in one field the impact that Bill has had in two or three I will be fortunate indeed.”

As Professor Wildenthal points out, Professor Slomanson’s notoriety is not limited to Civil Procedure. His international scholarly persona is exemplified by the six editions of his Cengage textbook Fundamental Perspectives on International Law. They have been cited over 600 times in worldwide venues. The corpus of his scholarship is viewable online.

As Professor Slomanson concludes: “Legal education is experiencing profound changes. Law faculties across the nation are shrinking. Faculty members at many institutions are thus expected to do more with less. We are fortunate to have a Dean who is pursuing a doable balance between teaching and scholarship. Dean Guernsey can thus strive to sustain the faculty’s qualitative and quantitative scholarly output, so that Thomas Jefferson Law avoids the fate of becoming a teaching-only institution. That posture would eschew the scholarly role which has advanced the core interests of the institution since it achieved ABA and AALS accreditation.”