Department of English

Maxwell Shipley

I’m currently in Lexington, KY attending the University of Kentucky College of Law. I’m in my second year of school and this summer I plan on working for the Legal Aid Society of Louisville representing various clients in the rural areas surrounding the city. I use the critical reading skills I learned in undergrad every day of my life reading cases for all of my classes. Additionally, my experience with word choice exercises using the OED in my poetry classes, the introduction to Chaucer course, or other Middle English courses has come in handy for interpreting various legal texts and in my own legal writing. I’m currently in a seminar course on Family Law and am writing a research paper on how narrative is used as a tool in arguing and deciding homosexual adoption cases.

Aside from technical reading and writing skills, my English courses also exposed me to all kinds of philosophies, perspectives, and structures which compose our world. All of those experiences have enriched my understanding of the law by helping me create a broader context for the various dichotomies that thread across all areas of the law and our society.