Edward A. Nolfi

Edward A. Nolfi proposed modern law dictionary projects when he was an associate editor at the Lawyer’s Co-operative Publishing Company in the mid-1980s, and when he was a lead case law editor and product developer with LexisNexis in the early 2000s, because he was aware of the need for a better law dictionary. While earning an A.B with Honors Thesis (Religious Studies) from Brown University, and while earning a J.D. (Law) from the University of Akron, Ed was inspired by teachers who could explain complex terminology with concise definitions in common words. In particular, Ed was inspired by medical and law school professor Marvin Platt, a doctor and a lawyer, who gave concise definitions of legal terms to medical students, and gave concise definitions of medical terms to law students.

Since the mid-1980s, Ed has developed his own concise definitions of legal terms, especially while teaching paralegal and court reporting students at the Academy of Court Reporting in Akron, Ohio; while teaching paralegal students at Kent State University in Kent, Ohio; while teaching legal assistant and criminal justice students at Mount Aloysius College in Cresson, Pennsylvania; and while teaching business, computer, and criminal justice students at Remington College in Cleveland, Ohio.

Along the way, Ed became an author for Glencoe/McGraw-Hill and McGraw-Hill/Irwin. Ed is the author of the nation’s first formal legal research textbook for paralegals, Basic Legal Research (1993), and its recently published second edition, Basic Legal Research for Paralegals (2008). Ed is also the author of Basic Wills, Trusts, and Estates (1995) and the Ohio Supplement to Basic Civil Litigation (1993). A lawyer since 1983—with a quarter century of legal experience—Ed is admitted to the bar in New York and Ohio and in several federal courts, including the U.S. Supreme Court.