Megan E. Boyd

Senior Lecturer of Law

Education

J.D., magna cum laude Walter F. George School of Law 2008

Jesse Mercer Scholar

Member, Mercer Law Review
-Eleventh Circuit Survey Editor

Student Editor, Journal of Southern Legal History

CALI Awards
-Advanced Strategies in Legal Argument
-Poverty Law

B.B.A., summa cum laude Mercer University 2005

-Member, Phi Kappa Phi

-Member, Beta Gamma Sigma

-Teaching Assistant, Women and Gender Studies

-Study Abroad, St. Peter’s College, Oxford, England

Biography: Boyd joined the Georgia State University College of Law in 2014 as an adjunct instructor in the Lawyering: Foundations program. She is now a senior lecturer of law and teaches Civil Procedure I and II, Professional Responsibility, Advanced Strategies in Legal Argument, and Animal Law.

Before joining the College of Law, Boyd served as a law clerk and worked as a litigator at an Atlanta law firm, where she focused on bad faith and coverage defense and served as the co-chairperson of the firm's appellate practice group. She has represented clients in state and federal trial and appellate courts.

Boyd is the author of Show, Don’t Tell: Legal Writing for the Real World (co-written with Adam Lamparello). She has also written numerous articles on legal writing and animal law, and has spoken on these topics at conferences and seminars across the country. She currently serves as the Vice-Chairperson of the Animal Law Section of the State Bar of Georgia and as the College of Law's representative on the Bar's Formal Opinion Advisory Board.

Boyd is pursuing a PhD in English Literature, where her research focuses on the roles of law in children's literature.

Publications

- Show, Don’t Tell: Legal Writing for the Real World (Carolina Academic Press, 2014) (co-authored with Adam Lamparello)

Law Reviews and Journals

- Book Review, Legal Writing Style, 19 The Scribes Journal of Legal Writing 198 (2020)

- Editor and Mentor: Making Effective Use of the Revision Process, 62 For the Defense Magazine 14 (February 2020)

- Georgia Aquarium v. Pritzker: The Beginning of the End for Belugas in Captivity in the United States, 25 Animal L. 93 (2019)

- Book Review, Legal Writing Lessons from American Presidents, 15 Legal Comm. & Rhetoric: JALWD 287 (2018)

- On Point: A Review of Ross Guberman’s Point Taken: How to Write Like the World’s Best Judges, 13 Legal Comm. & Rhetoric: JALWD 231 (2016)

- Legal Writing in the Real World—Using Practitioners’ Briefs to Teach Advanced Legal Writing Strategies, 23 Perspectives: Teaching Legal Research and Writing 74 (2014)

- Riding the Bench—A Look at Sports Metaphors in Judicial Opinions, 5 No. 2, J. Sports & Ent. L. 245 (2014).

- Vulnerable Victims: Increasing Animal Cruelty Sentences to Reflect Society’s Understanding of the Value of Animal Lives, 45 L. Rev. Conntemplations 31 (2013) (with Adam Lamparello)

- Legal Writing for the “Real World”: A Practical Guide to Success, 46 Marshall L. Rev. 487 (2013) (with Adam Lamparello)
  - - Selected for inclusion in course materials at 2014 Appellate Judges Education Institute, presented by Dedman School of Law and the ABA Judicial Appellate Judges Conference
  - - Litigation Pick of the Week, TechnoLawyer Blog

- A Dog in the Fight: S. v. Hargrove and Why Americans Should Care About Sentencing Guidelines in Animal Cruelty Cases, 40 Rutgers L. Rec. 249 (2013) (with Adam Lamparello)

Bar Journals

- Fact Statements Part II: More than “Just the Facts,” 23 No. 2 Georgia Bar Journal 60 (October 2017)

- Fact Statements Part I: More than “Just the Facts,” 23 No. 1 Georgia Bar Journal 76 (August 2017)

- Blogging for Lawyers, The Verdict (Fall 2015) (Georgia Trial Lawyers Association)

- More Writing for Judges, Sidebar (Spring 2014) (Federal Bar Association Litigation Section)

- Writing for Judges: Easy, Effective Ways to Improve Motions, Briefs, and Other Filings, Sidebar (Fall 2013)

Using Legal Writing and Research Skills to Win at Summary Judgment, 18 No. 6 Georgia Bar Journal 60 (April 2013)

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