Research Week at Carolina Law
November 10, 2021
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/