Professor Elizabeth Lenhart ’04 joined UC Law in August 2009 as a visiting assistant professor of legal research and writing. Prior to this position, she was a senior associate at Frost Brown Todd, focusing on complex business litigation. She has significant experience in all aspects of antitrust, business torts, unfair competition, shareholder derivative suites, class action litigation, among many other things. She joins the legal writing team with experience in oral arguments, motion practice, and other professional skills that she will soon share with law students.
Not a stranger to academia, Professor Lenhart spent many years teaching at the collegiate level. For several years she worked as an associate instructor in Indiana University’s history department, teaching courses in colonial United States history and 20th century world history. Then, she joined the University of Cincinnati’s history department as a visiting assistant professor. She taught introductory and advanced courses in pre-Columbian American history, colonial Latin American history, 20th century Mexican history, and colonial United States history.
After moving to Washington D.C., she took a position with the National Geographic Society, working with authors and others researching and editing travel and history books. Her projects included books and/or chapters devoted to Alaska, Arizona, Utah, New Mexico, Virginia, and Maryland.
Upon her return to Cincinnati, she decided to attend law school, noting the similarities between the law and history: the analytical side, writing, research. While attending UC Law, Lenhart was the notes and comments editor of the Law Review, a participant in the volunteer tenant information program, a research assistant for several professors, and a legal extern for Judge Sandra Beckwith, United States District Court for the Southern District of Ohio. In addition, she was involved in numerous tax preparation and community tutoring programs and is the recipient of several academic awards, honors, and scholarships.
After graduating from the law school, she joined Frost Brown Todd where she has worked for the past five years. She was also recently named an Ohio Super Lawyer Rising Star 2009 for commercial litigation.
Courses
- Legal Research and Writing
Summer 2011
Betsy presented a paper entitled, “Emails, Narrative and A Midwife’s Tale: Historical Methodology, Attorney Correspondence and the ‘Story of the Case,’” at the International Legal Storytelling Conference, held on July 8-10 in Denver, Colorado.
Betsy presented a paper entitled, “The 17th Century Meets the Internet: Historical Documents as a Guide to 21st Century Online Legal Research,” as part of the College’s Summer 2011 Faculty Workshop series. Betsy’s completed draft of this paper has been submitted to law reviews for publication.
Betsy recently completed, “The Writing Exposes the Thinking: Collaborating with Doctrinal Faculty to Make Explicit Connections between 1L Doctrinal Classes and Legal Writing,” which she will present in September at the Central States Legal Writing Conference in Chicago.
Betsy was elected to serve on the 2011 Program and Awards Committee of the Association of American Law School’s Section on Legal Writing, Reasoning, and Research, which is responsible for putting together the Section’s programming at the annual AALS Annual Meeting, to be held in Washington, DC in January 2012.