Maria Perez Crist has been teaching at the School of Law since 1989. She is Director of the Legal Profession Program, a required, two-semester legal research, writing, and analysis course. Though all schools have a legal research and writing program, Professor Crist says UDSL’s program stands out because it is taught by full-time professionals in a technologically advanced facility. “Technology and email are changing law practice,” she says, and the program takes this into account. “Professors teach students how to become effective and efficient within the changing environment of law practice. Students hone their research and writing skills with realistic assignments.”

As an undergraduate at Northwestern University, Professor Crist took a class with a law professor about early 19th century juvenile delinquency. The class piqued her interest in law, and she enrolled in the University of Michigan Law School. As a law student at Michigan, Professor Crist was a finalist in the Henry M. Campbell Moot Court Competition and served on the board of the Women Law Students’ Association.

After graduating in 1981, she entered into a small general practice firm as an associate. She later worked as a contract attorney for the Miami County (Ohio) prosecutor’s office, where she researched and prepared appellate and trial briefs. Professor Crist originally began teaching to ease back into the working world after a few years as a stay-at home mother. She soon discovered she loved teaching and working with students. “Whether they’re struggling or really grasping a concept, they’re inspiring to me,” she says. “They always look at things in a totally different way.”

In addition to her work at the School of Law, she is a frequent presenter on Internet research for the Ohio Bar Association Continuing Legal Education Institute. She’s also a regular speaker at national conferences of the Legal Writing Institute on how to integrate technology into the classroom. Professor Crist focuses on technology because “our lives and the practice of law are increasingly dependent on the technology around us.” She feels it’s important to incorporate technology into the classroom. “The students we’re teaching are from a different generation,” she says. “Using technology can be an effective way of reaching them.”

Professor Crist is the recipient of the 1996 LexisNexis Legal Research and Writing Award, and she was selected to be a Fellow of the Ohio State Bar Foundation, Class of 2004.

Courses
LAW 6105 Legal Profession I
LAW 6106 Legal Profession II
LAW 6315 Law Practice Management
LAW 6300 Family Law

Useful Web Link
UDSL Legal Profession Program

Publications

• Preserving the Duty to Preserve: The Increasing Vulnerability of Electronic Information, South Carolina Law Review (2006) - also available on the Social Science Research Network
• The E-Brief: Legal Writing for an Online World, 33 The New Mexico Law Review 49 (2003)
• Contributor, Techniques for Teaching Law, Gerald F. Hess and Steven Friedland 210-211 (Carolina Academic Press 1999)
• Technology in the LRW Curriculum: High Tech, Low Tech or No Tech, 5 Legal Writing 93 (1999)
• The Internet: Strategies for Effective Use in Law Practice (Ohio CLE Institute Publications 1998)
• Using Closed Universe Assignments to Teach Legal Analysis, Legal Writing and Lawyering Skills, (with Rebecca Cochran, Westlaw 1996)
• Consulting report, An Analysis of Technology Trends in Law Practice (LexisNexis 1994)
• Consulting report, The Role of Computer-Assisted Legal Research in Teaching Legal Research in the First Year (LexisNexis 1992)