Legal Writing Prof Blog

Vanderbilt is Hiring

Vanderbilt University School of Law in Nashville, Tennessee is hiring part-time legal writing instructors for its JD and LLM programs.  Click here to see the application and job description. 

Hat tip to Prof. Jennifer S. Swezey, Director of Legal Research and Writing at Vanderbilt

(mew)

St. Mary's in Texas is Hiring

St. Mary’s University School of Law in San Antonio, Texas, is looking to hire three instructors for its Law Success Program. Information about the program and the application system is available by clicking here. They are accepting applications through June 7, 2019.

Hat tip to Afton Cavanaugh.

(mew)

The significance of clothing in the Courtroom

Interesting article on dress in the courtroom:

Does this Dress Make Me Look Guilty?

 

Congratulations Mary Nagel

Congratulations to Professor Mary Nagel of The John Marshall Law School in Chicago, who was given the Lex Ancilla Justitiae Award (favorite professor) at the John Marshall Commencement this year.  As all of Mary's friends know, this award was no surprise. Mary received a standing ovation from the graduating class.

After law school, Mary clerked for judges on the Circuit Court of Cook County and the Illinois Appellate Court. She then worked in private practice and later served as an Illinois assistant attorney general as Chief Legal Counsel for the Illinois Department of Labor.

h/t Lurene Contento

(km)

UCLA is Hiring for Its LL.M. Legal Research and Writing Program

UCLA School of Law is seeking a full-time instructor with a background in legal research and writing to coordinate and teach in the LL.M. Legal Research and Writing program, which is designed for graduate law students who have a foreign law degree. This is a full-time, nine-month, academic, non-tenure track appointment as a Lecturer in Law (lecturer). The appointment will be effective July 1, 2019, with classes beginning August 14.

The lecturer will coordinate all aspects of the LL.M. LRW program including curriculum design, formative and summative assessment development, assistance with hiring of part-time LRW instructors and other aspects of the program to ensure an excellent, robust, and responsive legal research and writing program. The lecturer will teach up to four sections of LL.M. Legal Research and Writing each year. Each section is two units, graded on a pass/no pass basis and enrolls approximately 25 students. Currently the course is designed to develop skills needed by practicing lawyers, including legal research, writing and analysis and is taught through the clinical method with students learning through practice and feedback. Students are taught how to proficiently research client problems and analyze the law within the context of those problems. Students then focus on drafting objective memoranda and engage in other writing assignments. Excellent and extensive feedback on assignments is required. In addition to the class meetings, the lecturer is expected to hold regular office hours and meet with students to counsel them about their writing projects, career interests and other matters of academic or professional concern.

Depending on background, the lecturer will likely also teach one or two substantive law courses for LL.M. students, with the total number of semester teaching units not to exceed 16 per year, as well as engage in other duties expected of faculty on an as-needed basis, such as serving on faculty committees, assisting in a clinical course, or supervising student externships. The lecturer should also expect to collaborate with the Vice Deans and Associate Deans, Assistant Dean for Graduate and International Programs and LL.M. Academic Support faculty on issues of curriculum and program planning, and collaborate with other legal research and writing instructors in developing assignments and coordinating due dates.

The salary and level of appointment will be commensurate with qualifications and experience but generally in a range of $80,000 to $90,000 per year.

A J.D. degree or foreign professional law degree is required. This position also requires evidence of past or potential ability for:
• Effective classroom teaching (including command of the subject matter, ability to organize and present material, and ability to awaken student interest, curiosity, creativity, and achievement).
• Effective and timely feedback on written assignments with extensive oral and written comments on student work product.
• Successfully coordinating a legal research and writing program including developing course materials for self and others teaching within the program

Click here for more information.

(mew)

Tamara Herrera Named Associate Dean of Faculty Development at ASU

Professor Tamara Herrera has been named as Associate Dean of Faculty Development here at Arizona State University’s Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law. 

A professor at ASU since 2001, Tamara Herrera teaches a variety of courses, including Legal Writing and Method, Legal Advocacy, Writing for Law Practice, Indian Legal Research, and first-year Property. Her scholarly interests include legislative drafting and tribal law, as well as the intersection of legal writing and legal research.

Professor Herrera currently serves as the Secretary of the Association of Legal Writing Directors. She writes a monthly column about legal writing for the Maricopa County Bar’s publication, Maricopa Lawyer. Following her graduation with distinction from the University of Nebraska School of Law, Professor Herrera practiced law at the firm of Ryley, Carlock & Applewhite in Phoenix. She performed complex legal research in water and Indian law; drafted proposed rules and legislation relating to natural resources issues in Arizona; and represented clients in both state and federal court. In addition to her law degree, Professor Herrera has a Masters Degree in Information and Library Science from the University of Arizona. 

Hat tip to Amy Langenfeld

(mew)

Elon Adds Two Professors to its Legal Writing Faculty

Elon University School of Law in North Carolina announced that it will have two new LRW professors starting next month: Tiffany Atkins and Vanessa Zboreak.

Professor Atkins is the first graduate of Elon to join the faculty full-time. She worked for several years at Legal Aid of North Carolina, then was appointed to a two year fellowship at Elon, teaching in its LRW program. This year she’s been teaching as a visitor at Wake Forest.

Professor  Zboreak is also joining ELon from Wake Forest, where she’s been teaching LRW courses and administrative law, remedies, and food law and policy. She also had a faculty appointment in Wake’s graduate programs in sustainability. She previously served as a staff attorney in the Wake Forest Innocence & Justice Clinic.

Hat tip to Professor Sue Liemer, Director of the Legal Method & Communication Program at Elon University School of Law.

(mew)

UCLA is Hiring

The UCLA School of Law is accepting applications for instructors to teach one or two sections of the LL.M. legal research and writing course, or the first-year J.D. course, or other advanced writing courses. Openings are for the 2019-2020 academic year. The successful candidate(s) will be expected to start on or as soon as practical after July 1, 2019.

Click here for more information.

(mew)

Villanova Promotes One Professor to Full Professor and Another to Associate Dean

Professor Jessica Webb has been promoted to Professor of Law at Villanova University School of Law. Professor Webb developed and teaches Appellate Advocacy, a course that now includes the Theodore Reimel Moot Court Competition.  She is also the Moot Court Board’s faculty advisor.  She received her B.A. from Penn State University and her J.D. from the Villanova University School of Law (cum laude).  Before teaching she was an associate in the litigation group at Blank Rome LLP.  Subsequently, she practiced employment law at Rubin Fortunato & Harbison P.C. and medical malpractice defense at Post & Post LLC, where she specialized in appellate advocacy.  Before joining Villanova Law as an Assistant Professor of Legal Writing in 2013, Professor Webb was a Visiting Assistant Professor of Legal Writing at Villanova and an Adjunct Professor of Legal Writing at Widener Law School.  She also developed and regularly teaches a graduate level course at the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine and several law and education courses for public school administrators and teachers at the Delaware County Intermediate Unit. 

Professor Candace Centeno, who recently assumed the role of Director of the Duane Morris LLP Legal Writing Program at Villanova, has been appointed Associate Dean for Academic Affairs at Villanova. Professor (now Dean) Centeno teaches in the first year Legal Writing Program and an upper level medical malpractice course. She is a graduate of Muhlenberg College (summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa) and Boston College Law School (cum laude). Before joining the Legal Writing Faculty at Villanova Law School in 2006, Professor Centeno was a defense litigator for thirteen years at White & Williams in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where she represented physicians, hospitals, and other healthcare professionals in medical malpractice and premise liability actions; she also served as an Arbitrator for the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas. She served as Treasurer on the Legal Writing Institute Executive Board from 2014-2018, and she has helped coordinate and plan three national conferences (2010 program committee member and poster presentation chair, 2012 co-chair of program committee, and 2014 conference co-chair). 

Hat tips to Mary Ann Robinson, Heather Baum, Diane Edelman, Amy Emerson, Christine Mooney, and Mitch Nathanson.

(mew)

Claire Robinson May Named a "Dean's Teacher" at Cleveland-Marshall

Professor Claire Robinson May has been named a "Dean's Teacher" at the Cleveland-Marshall College of Law for 2019-2020. The "Dean's Teacher" title was created by Dean Lee Fisher to acknowledge excellence in teaching, and to ensure that the law school is appropriately recognizing the importance of teaching.

Professor May focuses her teaching on developing students' writing, research, and professional skills needed for success in real world legal practice. Before joining Cleveland-Marshall in 2001, she was in private practice with law firms in Cleveland and Washington, D.C. She and colleague Professor April Cherry recently developed and co-taught an innovative new course integrating the doctrine of estates and trusts with the research, document drafting, and other professional skills required for an estates and trusts practice.

Hat tip to Karin Mika

(mew)

Ken Chestek Elected Chair of Faculty Senate at the University of Wyoming

Professor Kenneth D. Chestek, a former President of the Legal Writing Institute, was recently elected Chair of the university-wide Faculty Senate at the University of Wyoming. Ken will begin his one-year tenure has the head of the Faculty Senate in the fall.

Professor Chestek joined the University of Wyoming College of Law faculty in the summer of 2012. He graduated cum laude from University of Pittsburgh School of Law where he was Editor in Chief of the Law Review. He practiced law for 21 years in Pennsylvania in a variety of settings, from solo practice to managing attorney for a branch office of a large law firm. While in practice, he also served for 18 years as Chief Civil Counsel to Erie County, Pennsylvania.

From 2010 to 2012 he served as President of the Legal Writing Institute (LWI), an organization of more than 2700 legal writing professionals in the United States and around the world. Previously, he served as a member of the Board of Directors and Treasurer of LWI. From 2005-2008 he co-chaired the ALWD/LWI Annual Survey Committee, and from 2004-2008 he served as a member of the Editorial Board of Legal Writing: The Journal of the Legal Writing Institute, a peer-reviewed academic journal..

Hat tip to Michael Smith.

(mew)