LLASTL Blog

As we all know, the year 2020 brought the COVID-19 pandemic and with it, an end to in-person professional conferences.  One of the conferences most helpful to our staff is the Annual Meeting of the Mid-America Association of Law Libraries (MAALL). 

From 2020 to 2023, the MAALL Annual Meeting carried on, but only in a virtual format. There were many inspiring sessions at these meetings, but something was lost in not being able to connect in person.

In May of 1838, Charles Daniel Drake distributed a petition and obtained nineteen signatures to form a law library. He modeled his plan on the law libraries he knew in Boston and Philadelphia, which were supported by individual membership dues. When serving in the Missouri House, Hon. John Fletcher Darby (four times mayor of St. Louis) introduced a bill that incorporated the Law Library Association in 1839.

Professor Morgan Hazelton of Saint Louis University is also a prolific author. Her most recent book is “Persuading the Supreme Court: The Significance of Briefs in Judicial Decision Making.” The Law Library Association asked Professor Hazelton to tell us more about her new book. 

Tell us about your book, “Persuading the Supreme Court: The Significance of Briefs in Judicial Decision Making.”