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LAW > Faculty > Rita Barnett Chapman University School of Law

Professor Rita Barnett
Associate Professor of Legal Research and Writing

Chapman University School of Law
One University Drive, Orange, California 92866

B.A., cum laude: Barnard College of Columbia University, New York
J.D. with Honors: University of Texas, Austin, Texas

Prior to joining Chapman, Professor Barnett was a full time legal writing professor at California Western School of Law and a former adjunct professor at Whittier School of Law. Prior to teaching, she was an associate at the international law firm of Latham & Watkins, practicing in both the litigation and intellectual property transactional departments. Most recently, Barnett worked as independent counsel for a streaming video and software company and practiced as a juvenile dependency attorney in the San Diego juvenile courts. During law school, Barnett was an extern for Justice Greg Abbott of the Supreme Court of Texas. She was a staff member of the Texas Environmental Law Journal, where her Note "You Didn't Tell Me Your Lights Were Off: Negligence Per Se and Violations of EPCRA -- Will It Work?" was published. Barnett also won the University of Texas School of Law’s Best Appellate Brief Award. A professional writer, Barnett has won numerous awards in both fiction and non-fiction. She is a produced playwright, an optioned screenwriter, and has worked on assignment as a screenwriter for Walt Disney studios. A member of the State Bar of California, Barnett's pro-bono work has included services for the California Lawyers for the Arts, CASA, Orangewood, and the Second Harvest Food Bank. Her scholarly interests are in the areas of intellectual property, legal writing, and juvenile advocacy. Barnett is currently an Assistant Editor for the Journal of Legal Writing and has presented "The U.S. Juvenile Justice system and selected U.S. cases" as part of the post-graduate Resolucion de Casos series at the Heidelberg Center for Latin America, University of Heidelberg, University of Chile, Santiago, Chile 2007.

Courses Taught: Legal Research and Writing.