DEGREES
J.D., Loyola Law School, Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles
B.A., University of California, Irvine
COURSES
Legal Writing and Research I & II
BIOGRAPHY
Professor Somers began his legal career practicing family law and estate planning at a small law firm. He then taught Legal Writing and Research and other law courses from 2003 until 2016 at Western State College of Law (2003-2004) and Whittier Law School. Professor Somers also practiced appellate law beginning in 2006, including practicing appellate law full-time from 2016 until 2023.
Professor Somers facilitates student comprehension of legal writing, research, and advocacy by using materials designed to simplify legal concepts and by introducing legal concepts using nonlegal examples and exercises. Professor Somers links the concepts and skills that he teaches to the practice of law so that students understand that they will use the concepts and skills as attorneys.
SELECTED PUBLICATIONS
Innovations in Persuasiveness: Formal Memo to Appellate Brief Continuity, AALS SECTION ON TEACHING METHODS NEWSLETTER, Spring 2014, at 21.
Innovations in Persuasiveness: Creatively Using Cases to Argue, AALS SECTION ON TEACHING METHODS NEWSLETTER, Spring 2014, at 22.
Innovations in Persuasiveness: An Exercise in Citation, AALS SECTION ON TEACHING METHODS NEWSLETTER, Spring 2014, at 23.
Innovations in Persuasiveness: Persuasive Video Analysis, AALS SECTION ON TEACHING METHODS NEWSLETTER, Spring 2014, at 23.
Teaching Through the Test: Using Post-assignment Review Exercises to Improve Student Writing, THE LAW TEACHER, Fall 2013, at 48.
Slander? Prove It: Why a Two Hundred-Year-Old Defamation Law Should Be Changed, 19 SOUTHWESTERN JOURNAL OF INTERNATIONAL LAW 133 (2012).
Using Video Clips to Teach Legal Analysis, THE SECOND DRAFT, Spring 2009, at 10.
SELECTED PRESENTATIONS
Teaching Through the Test: Using Review Tests to Teach Students to Avoid Mistakes, Sixteenth Biennial Legal Writing Conference of the Legal Writing Institute, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, July 2, 2014.
Robert F. Somers and Kelley B. Poleynard, Killing Two Birds with One Stone: Using a Standardized Review Exercise as a Teaching Tool and Assessment Mechanism, Second Annual Western Regional Legal Writing Conference, University of Oregon School of Law, Eugene, Oregon, August 11, 2012.
Slander? Prove It: Why a Two Hundred-Year-Old Defamation Law Should Be Changed, Second Annual Western Regional Legal Writing Conference, Scholars’ Forum, University of Oregon School of Law, Eugene, Oregon, August 10, 2012.
Fair and Consistent Grading, Whittier Law School Legal Writing Conference, Rancho Mirage, California, August 12, 2006.