Legal Writing Prof Blog

Save the Dates: Upcoming AALS Annual Meetings

The Association of American Law Schools will hold its 2021 Annual Meeting in San Francisco from Tuesday, January 5, 2021 to Saturday, January 9, 2021. AALS President Darby Dickerson (UIC John Marshall Law School) has announced that the theme of this meeting will be "The Power of Words."

The AALS will hold its 2022 Annual Meeting in New York from Wednesday, January 5, 2022 to Sunday, January 9, 2022.

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Capital University Law School in Ohio is Hiring

Capital University Law School is hiring a full-time Professor of Legal Writing to teach two courses in the Legal Research and Writing program each semester, including at least one section of the legal research and writing course for first-year law students. The full description and application information can be found by clicking here.

Hat tip to Professor Halle B. Hara, Professor and Director of the Academic Success Program at Capital University Law School.

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List of Winners of the 2019 Global Legal Skills Awards

The 2019 Global Legal Skills Awards were presented last month in Phoenix during the 14th Global Legal Skills Conference at the Arizona State University Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law. Here is the list of award winners from that conference. Click on a name to read more about that award (and to see a photo of the winner).

1. Teresa Brostoff and Ann Sinsheimer (University of Pittsburgh School of Law)
2. Alissa Hartig (Portland State University)
3. Craig Hoffman (Georgetown)
4. Rosa Kim (Suffolk)
5. Charlotte Ku (Texas A&M University School of Law)
6. Nadia Nedzel (Southern University Law Center)
7. Karen M. Ross (New York University)(Book Award)
8. Diana J. Simon (University of Arizona)
9. DLA Piper (Law Firm Award)
10. University of Houston Law Center (Law School Award)

And here is a link to the call for presenters for GLS-15 in Bari, Italy, being held May 20-22, 2020 at the University of Bari Department of Law.

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Dr. Charlotte Ku Has Won a Global Legal Skills Award

Charlotte Ku is Professor of Law and Associate Dean for Global Programs and Graduate Studies at Texas A&M University School of Law. She was recognized last month during the 14th Global Legal Skills Conference for her longstanding commitment to global legal education.

Dr. Ku was previously a Professor of Law and Assistant Dean for Graduate and International Legal Studies at University of Illinois College of Law. She served as Acting Director of the Lauterpacht Centre for International Law, University of Cambridge, and was Executive Director and Executive Vice President of the American Society of International Law from 1994 to 2006. Especially through her international work at ASIL and the Lauterpacht Centre, Dr. Ku became known by professors, judges, lawyers, and legal scholars across the world.

Dr. Ku initiated and directs the Global and Comparative Law program at Texas A&M University. That program has sent faculty-led teams of more than 100 students overseas and has brought at least 20 international visiting scholars and LL.M. students to Texas. Dr. Ku is a political scientist with a rich background in global legal education. Her interest in world affairs began during her childhood in Hong Kong, then under British rule.

She earned a Ph.D. in International Relations at Tufts University in the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy. Her current research focuses on international law and global governance. 

Dr. Ku believes that a global perspective is vital to the practice of law. “Lawyers are relationship-builders and problem-solvers,” she has said. “A global outlook strengthens the ability to do both even if lives and careers never take an individual out of the United States. A global mindset, as part of a student’s professional identity and toolkit, is useful to help a person comfortably identify and tackle issues at multiple levels, in diverse settings, and through varied perspectives.”

We congratulate Dr. Charlotte Ku on receiving a 2019 Global Legal Skills Award and thank her again for her longstanding support of international legal skills education.

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University of Houston Law Center Wins the 2019 Global Legal Skills Award for Law Schools

The University of Houston Law Center received the 2019 Global Legal Skills Award for Law Schools, in recognition of the school’s strong commitment to fostering programs vital to teaching skills that U.S. students will need to succeed in an increasingly global legal marketplace. The award was presented in Phoenix during the 14th Global Legal Skills Conference at the Arizona State University Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law.

The University of Houston Law Center offers almost three dozen independent courses related to international issues ranging from the mundane to the extraordinary. For example, course offerings include international staples such as International Tax and International Commercial Arbitration, but also specialized courses like Foreign Affairs, Crimmigration, and Transnational Petroleum Law (Lex Petrolea). The Law Center also supports a full-time librarian dedicated to foreign and international law research who, from time to time, teaches an upper-level research course in these fields.

In addition to its course offerings and research support, the law school also supports international skills training in several areas: 

• The University of Houston Law Center and the University of Calgary Faculty of Law have partnered to form the International Energy Lawyers Program, a dual program that permits participating law students to earn both American and Canadian law degrees in four years. Students spend two years at each school and, upon graduation, can apply for admission to bars in both the United States and Canada.
• The Center for U.S. and Mexican Law assists Law Center students to arrange summer externships in Mexico City with prestigious Mexican institutions such as Mexico’s Comisión Nacional de Hidrocarburos (National Hydrocarbons Commission), Petróleos Mexicanos (Pemex), the Secretaría de Relaciones Exteriores (Ministry of Foreign Affairs), and the Comisión Reguladora de Energía (Energy Regulatory Commission).
• The Law Center sponsors award-winning competition teams in the Competencia de Arbitraje Internacional de Inversión a Spanish-language arbitration competition, and other international competitions.
• And the Law Center annually hosts several foreign-trained and foreign-licensed LL.M. candidates who study U.S. Law, Energy Law, Health Law, Intellectual Property and Information Law, International Law, and Tax Law.

The law school also sponsors centers that organize research symposia, professional seminars, and lectures on current comparative law issues. These centers also participate in cross-border educational collaborations:

• The law school created the Center on Global Law and Policy for the Americas a new international center to focus on research, scholarship, and teaching related to international comparative law.
• The school sponsors a Center for U.S. and Mexican Law focused on increasing the understanding of Mexican laws and legal institutions in the United States, and U.S. laws and legal institutions in Mexico.
• And the Law Center promotes professional cooperation and comparative legal education through a partnership with the North American Consortium on Legal Education.

Through these many initiatives, the University of Houston Law Center demonstrates its commitment to global legal skills training for students and practitioners – international or domestic – who participate in the various research symposia and professional seminars the Law Center sponsors.

We congratulate the University of Houston Law Center on receiving the 2019 Global Legal Skills Award for Law Schools.

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Rosa Kim Wins a Global Legal Skills Award

Professor Rosa Kim of Suffolk University School of Law received a Global Legal Skills Award last month in recognition of her dedication to teaching global legal writing skills and for promoting global legal skills education. The award was presented last month in Phoenix during the 14th Global Legal Skills Conference held at the Arizona State University Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law.

Professor Kim chaired the Legal Writing Institute's Global Legal Writing Skills committee in 2016-18, and is currently co-chairing it in 2018-20.  In chairing this LWI committee, she redefined the charge to include teaching global and cultural skills to U.S. students, in addition to teaching international students, and led the effort to coordinate four globally-themed panels for the 2018 LWI conference, launch a Google Group for Global Skills, organize a webinar on teaching global skills to international and U.S. students, and update the LWI Teaching Bank on teaching global skills.  Rosa published the lead article in the international law edition, Summer 2018, of the Journal of Legal Education called "Globalizing the Law Curriculum for Twenty-First-Century Lawyering." Rosa has presented at several Global Legal Skills conferences, including Verona, Italy, San Jose, Costa Rica, and Chicago.  In her teaching, she developed a course in the Suffolk International Law concentration titled Advanced Legal Writing in an International Context, which she will be teaching in a hybrid format in Spring 2019.  She taught a summer course to Swedish and U.S. students called "Global Legal Skills" in Lund, Sweden in 2016, and in summer 2018 completed a Fulbright Specialist grant in Seoul, Korea at Korea University Law School, teaching an intensive legal writing and advocacy course to Korean law students.  

Before attending Boston College Law School, Professor Kim received an M.A. from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies with a concentration in International Economics and Latin American studies, and worked at the Republic of Korea s Mission to the United Nations. Upon graduation from law school, Professor Kim worked as a litigation associate at the Boston firm of Rubin Rudman, then as Assistant Attorney General of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the Civil Trial Division, litigating cases in the areas of civil rights, torts and employment law. Prior to joining the Suffolk University Law School faculty, Professor Kim taught legal research and writing at Boston University School of Law and also taught in the Legal Studies Department at Brandeis University as a Guberman Fellow.

We congratulate Professor Kim on receiving a Global Legal Skills Award and thank her for her passionate advocacy of global legal skills.

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Karen Ross Wins a Global Legal Skills Award for her Book, "Essential Legal English in Context"

Professor Karen M. Ross of the New York University School of Law received a Global Legal Skills Award last month in recognition of her book, Essential Legal English in Context: Understanding the Vocabulary of U.S. Law and Government (NYU Press 2019).

The award was presented during the 14th Global Legal Skills Conference held in Phoenix at the Arizona State University Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law.

Pictured here (from left to right) are Professors Kim Holst (Arizona State University), Julie Campagna (Hofstra Law School), Karen M. Ross (NYU), and Mark E. Wojcik (UIC John Marshall Law School). Professor Campagna, a past GLS Award Winner who presented the award to Professor Ross, is holding a copy of her new book.

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DLA Piper Wins a Global Legal Skills Award

The law firm DLA Piper received a Global Legal Skills Award in recognition of its extraordinary support of education and skills training in the field of international commercial arbitration. The award was presented last month in Phoenix, Arizona, during the 14th Global Legal Skills Conference at the Arizona State University Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law.

DLA Piper is a global law firm with lawyers in more than 40 countries.

In their Global Scholarships Program, DLA Piper each year pays full tuition and provides mentoring, internships, training and career preparation for up to 35 students based throughout Africa, South and West Asia, the South Pacific, and Latin America.

In their Head Start Program, the firm works with students for up to five years, providing financial assistance and a tailored course of mentoring, training, and internships designed to develop their skills, confidence, and networks.

The Phoenix office of DLA Piper was newly expanded and renovated last summer, with improved telepresence facilities that connect attorneys from different parts of the globe as though they were meeting in the same room.

Mark Nadeau, the founding and managing partner in the Phoenix office of DLA Piper, received the Global Legal Skills Award on behalf of the law firm. Pictured here are (from left to right) Professors Charles Calleros and Kim Holst of Arizona State University, Mr. Nadeau, and Professor Mark E. Wojcik of the UIC John Marshall Law School.

Mr. Nadeau has  taught International Arbitration at the Arizona State University Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law, he has presented at conferences (including the 14th Global Legal Skills Conference0, he has coached law school international arbitration teams, and he has arranged for DLA Piper to support law student to travel to competitions in Hong Kong and Vienna.

Congratulations to Mr. Mark Nadeau and the DLA Piper Law Firm for its contributions to global legal skills and its support of education and skills training in the field of international arbitration.

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Elon in North Carolina is Hiring

Elon University School of Law in Greensboro, North Carolina, invites applications for one continuing faculty position in our Legal Method and Communication (LMC) program, which integrates coverage of fundamental legal analysis and writing skills with other lawyering communication skills. The LMC program is a core component of Elon Law’s innovative curriculum, which combines traditional classroom instruction with unique course-connected, full-time residencies-in-practice, in a logically sequenced program of professional preparation. Elon Law’s groundbreaking approach is accomplished in seven trimesters over 2.5 years.

Since adopting the new curriculum, Elon Law has experienced improvement in applications, metrics, bar pass, and diversity while reducing student debt by one-third. We seek colleagues ready and able to contribute with passion to our innovative approach to legal education.

Requirements for the LMC positions include a J.D. degree from an ABA accredited law school or the equivalent, good standing with a state bar or the equivalent, excellent writing skills, and a demonstrated interest in teaching. Preferred qualifications include prior experience teaching legal writing and other lawyering skills, law practice experience, and facility with technology in practice.

This ten-month, three-year contract position is presumptively renewable after the second successful review. LMC professors teach one section of the two-credit LMC course each trimester, plus one other course during the academic year. LMC professors also teach Introduction to Legal Skills in August. LMC faculty have a writing requirement allowingfor law review articles, essays on pedagogy, or similar publications), and receive all perquisites afforded other faculty. This appointment begins not later than August 15, 2020.

To apply, please send not later than February 7, 2020, a cover letter, CV, and writing sample to Professor Henry Gabriel, Chair, Faculty Recruitment Committee, [email protected]. Please address questions to Professor Sue Liemer, Director of LMC, [email protected]. All appointments are subject to the Provost’s approval.

Hat tip to Sue Liemer.

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Professor Diana Simon of Arizona Wins a Global Legal Skills Award

Professor Diana J. Simon of the James E. Rogers College of Law, The University of Arizona is recognized with an individual Global Legal Skills Award for her scholarship on cross-cultural legal education. The award was presented last month in Phoenix during the 14th Global Legal Skills Conference at the Arizona State University Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law.

Professor Simon is an Associate Professor of Legal Writing and an Assistant Clinical Professor of Law at The University of Arizona, where she has taught legal writing, analysis, persuasion, and advocacy for more than 20 years.

She was recognized with a 2019 Global Legal Skills Award for her research is on Cross-Cultural Differences in Plagiarism. She recently published an article in the Duquesne Law Review. Her article addresses cross-cultural differences in plagiarism and the different attitudes that prevail in the academic and professional worlds.

We congratulate Professor Simon on her Global Legal Skills Award in recognition of her scholarship. She is pictured here with Professor Kim Holst (Arizona State University), a Co-Chair of the 14th Global Legal Skills Conference.

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Nadia Nedzel Wins a Global Legal Skills Award

Professor Nadia E. Nedzel received a Global Legal Skills Award in celebration of her book, Legal Reasoning, Research, and Writing for International Graduate Students, and her contributions to international legal education. The award was presented last month in Phoenix during the 14th Global Legal Skills Conference at the Arizona State University Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law. She's pictured here with the GLS-14 Conference Co-Chairs Mark E. Wojcik (UIC John Marshall Law School) and Kim Holst (ASU Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law).

Professor Nedzel is the Reilly Family Professor of Law at Southern University Law Center in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

Her research interests include the Rule of Law, legal history, and comparative law, and she has a number of books and articles on this topic as well as others.  She teaches commercial law, including Contracts, Obligations, Sale and Lease, and International Public and Private law. 

She received her LL.M. with Honors from Northwestern University in Chicago, her J.D. Magna Cum Laude from Loyola University in New Orleans, and her B.S. in English, French, and Comparative Literature from Northwestern University. 

She speaks, writes, and reads French, Spanish, and Russian (to varying extents). She enjoys teaching and lecturing abroad in countries as diverse as France, Chile, Italy, Austria, Russia, Turkey, China, Guatemala, and Mexico.

We congratulate Professor Nedzel on receiving a 2019 Global Legal Skills Award for her book, Legal Reasoning, Research, and Writing for International Graduate Students, and for her contributions to international legal education.

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Southwestern Law School (Los Angeles) is Hiring

Southwestern Law School in Los Angeles is seeking applicants for a full-time position as a professor of Legal Analysis, Writing and Skills (LAWS).  Its innovative LAWS course offers first-year students six credits of instruction in core lawyering skills including research, writing, oral advocacy, and professionalism.  Entry-level appointment as an Associate Professor of Legal Analysis, Writing, and Skills is for an initial contract of one year with the possibility of presumptively renewable five-year contracts after the third year. 

 

LAWS professors participate actively in the life of Southwestern and enjoy full faculty voting rights.  The LAWS program has a director and shared core assignments, but faculty members each select and develop their own teaching materials and lessons.  Applicants must have a law degree, strong academic record, and at least two years of post-law school experience demonstrating the potential for excellence in teaching legal writing and other practical lawyering skills.  Teaching experience is preferred but not required.  Southwestern is committed to faculty diversity.  Applicants should be prepared to start work as early as July 1, 2020 and to start teaching as early as August 10, 2020. 

 

Salary is estimated at $80,000 to $89,999, but the salary may be negotiable above that level if the candidate is highly experienced. Faculty hired get to vote during faculty meetings. Estimated 41-45 students per semester.

 

Please send a cover letter and resume to [email protected].  You can address your cover letter to Members of the LAWS Hiring Committee. 

 

Hat tip to Tracy Turner, Associate Dean for Learning Outcomes and Director of the Legal Analysis, Writing, and Skills Program at Southwestern Law School.

 

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Mitchell Hamline is Hiring THREE Legal Writing Professors

The Mitchell Hamline School of Law in St. Paul, Minnesota, invites applications for three full-time faculty positions in its legal writing program beginning in the 2020-2021 academic year. The successful candidates will join a vibrant faculty in a flourishing law school and teach in the required first-year legal research and writing course, currently titled Lawyering: Advice and Persuasion. For more information about the Lawyering program, please visit their website at https://mitchellhamline.edu/lawyering/.

These positions are full time and include (1) security of position, (2) voting rights, and (3) compensation equity with doctrinal and clinical faculty. Faculty members who teach legal writing will be fully included in the life of the institution and will be encouraged to take on leadership roles consistent with their talents and areas of interest. Depending on the candidate’s interests and the law school’s needs and capacity, the successful candidate will be offered either an appointment on the tenure track or a position eligible for presumptively renewable long-term contracts consistent with ABA standard 405(c).

The school states that its goals are ambitious. First, we hope to build a first-class, nationally recognized legal writing program committed to innovative teaching, useful scholarship, and highly engaged community service—building on the strengths of the existing program and its steadfast respect for the practice of law. Second, we plan to remain a leader among U.S. law schools in blended legal education (an approach that combines online and on-campus instruction in each course) and experiential learning. Mitchell Hamline pioneered blended legal education among accredited law schools, and our legal writing program will embrace the latest learning technologies and principles of instructional design—including team-based and distance learning—to help students from diverse backgrounds all over the country (and, in some cases, around the world) to prepare for successful and influential legal careers. For more information about MHSL’s blended enrollment options, please visit our website at https://mitchellhamline.edu/academics/j-d-enrollment-options/blended-learning-at-mitchell-hamline/.

The Mitchell Hamline program is currently in transition from a highly centralized model in which skilled practitioners served as adjunct faculty and took responsibility for most of the instruction to one that relies on autonomous, full-time faculty to serve as students’ primary source of training in legal writing. Experienced adjunct faculty will continue to play an important role, but one that is supportive of full-time faculty teaching. Professors will teach one section of about 50 students in the residential program or one section of about 70-90 in the blended program. Professors will eventually implement the course’s learning goals through teaching materials of their choice, though they anticipate at the outset needing a high degree of coordination as they launch their new curriculum.

Given the relatively large number of students in each section, professors will receive a high degree of support in curricular design, problem development, and student feedback and assessment by collaborating with an experienced team that includes the Director of Legal Writing, law librarians, writing specialists in a top-notch Academic Excellence program, educational technology professionals, and a group of seasoned adjunct professors assigned to each section.

Over the course of their careers, professors should expect to teach legal research and writing in both the law school’s residential and blended learning enrollment options. In addition to their regular skills-related teaching, faculty members who teach legal writing will have opportunities to teach doctrinal courses in their areas of expertise, either as part of their regular teaching package or as an overload for additional compensation.

Applicants for these positions must have a J.D. degree with a strong academic record; excellent research, analysis, and writing skills; current bar membership in at least one jurisdiction; and at least three years of law practice experience post-J.D. The school is open to entry-level candidates but strongly prefer applicants who have experience teaching legal writing and managing a team. They also prefer candidates who have served as a judicial law clerk in a state, federal, or tribal court or who have written for publication. Finally, they prefer candidates with substantive knowledge in one or more areas of law or legal practice, an interest in producing scholarship, and a record of community engagement and service.

Mitchell Hamline School of Law is an equal opportunity employer committed to diversity, equity, and inclusion. We seek candidates who can contribute to the diversity of the campus community, as well as candidates who wish to work in a collaborative atmosphere with faculty and staff.

The law school is in an historic area of Saint Paul, Minnesota, along the longest avenue of Victorian homes in the United States and adjacent to Rondo, a resilient historic black neighborhood that boasts a yearly Jazz festival and a cutting-edge professional African American theater (Penumbra). Just a few miles away, Minneapolis is home to the Walker Art Center, the Guthrie Theater, the Minneapolis Institute of Art, and one of the nation’s liveliest performing arts scenes; it was ranked the fifth most “creatively vital” city in the country, after D.C., New York, L.A., and Boston.

Saint Paul itself has an active theater and restaurant scene, a well-regarded opera, and one of the finest chamber orchestras in the world. Minneapolis and Saint Paul are top cities for biking, cross-country skiing, active lifestyles, low cost of living, non-profit organizations, and exceptionally high levels of volunteer engagement. For all these reasons, the Twin Cities have been recognized consistently as being among the best places in the nation to start a career.

Interested candidates should submit the following materials to [email protected]:  (1) a letter of interest; (2) a resume or CV; (3) a 1-2 page statement of teaching philosophy and practice; (4) a 5-15 page writing sample demonstrating legal analysis; (5) a 1-2 page diversity statement addressing your past efforts and future plans to advance diversity, equity, and inclusion through your teaching, service, and scholarship; and (6) a list of 3-5 references. While they will continue to consider applications until the positions are filled, candidates should submit their application materials before January 31, 2020, for priority consideration. Please contact Prof. Tom Cobb, Director of Legal Writing, with any questions at [email protected].

The anticipated salary range indicated starts at $80,000 and goes above $120,000. The number of students to be taught each semester is estimated at 46 to more than 60, depending on whether the professor teaches in the blended or residential learning program.

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CFP: SALT Teaching Conference at Loyola Chicago

The Society of American Law Teachers (SALT) announced that the 2020 SALT Teaching Conference will be held on September 25–26, 2020 at Loyola University Chicago School of Law. The Conference, Social Justice in Action, will provide opportunities to engage in broad, substantive, and innovative discussions on the roles that the legal academy and the profession can and should take to prepare our students to address the social injustices of our time. 
 
Call for Proposals --  The CFP is available on Google Drive by clicking here.  

Please submit proposals via email to [email protected] by June 1, 2020. Given the many different areas of law that intersect with social justice and the myriad of settings in which lawyers practice, we encourage submissions that address a range of topics. 
 
Hat tip to the 2020 SALT Teaching Conference Committee

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Craig Hoffman of Georgetown Wins 2019 Global Legal Skills Award

Dr. Craig Hoffman is a Professor of U.S. Legal Discourse and Director of the Graduate Writing Program at the Georgetown University Law Center in Washington, D.C. At the 14th Global Legal Skills Conference held last month at the Arizona State University Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law, Dr. Hoffman was honored with a 2019 Global Legal Skills Award in recognition of his contributions to the development of the field of Legal English.

Professor Hoffman is a linguist and a lawyer who has specialized in transactional writing and negotiations. He teaches courses that introduce students to how U.S. lawyers use language to communicate about the law. He consults with law schools around the world on issues of language and the law and with law firms on the interpretation of statutes and contracts.  

He received his B.A. from William & Mary; his Ph.D. from the University of Connecticut; and his J.D. from the University of Texas. Professor Hoffman has also received several fellowships in linguistics, cognitive science, business, and writing. His scholarship includes forensic linguistics, statutory and contract interpretation, discourse analysis, and genre analysis. 

He was co-chair of the Fourth Global Legal Skills Conference when it was held at Georgetown in June 2009.

His focus on law and language has directly inspired many programs around the country. At least one prominent law school based its hiring decisions on trying to find someone with Craig’s dual background and expertise in both law and linguistics.

Dr. Hoffman has accomplished much but he also has plans for the future. He plans now to develop at Georgetown a Masters’ Program in Teaching Legal English.

For his past work and future vision in developing the field of global legal skills education, we congratulate Dr. Craig Hoffman on receiving a 2019 Global Legal Skills Award. He is pictured here with the Co-Chairs of the 14th Global Legal Skills Conference, Professors Kim Holst (Arizona State University Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law) and Mark E. Wojcik (UIC John Marshall Law School).

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Teresa Brostoff and Ann Sinsheimer Win 2019 Global Legal Skills Awards

Professors Teresa Kissane Brostoff (pictured at left) and Ann Sinsheimer (pictured at right) are professors at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law, where they created the English for Lawyers Program, now titled U.S. Law and Language.

They co-authored a legal English text now in its third edition. Their book, United States Legal Language and Culture, is published by Oxford University Press.

At the 14th Global Legal Skills Conference held last month at the Arizona State University Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law, Professors Brostoff and Sinsheimer were recognized with individual Global Legal Skills Awards for this publication – a book that helped develop the field of legal English education – and for their many contributions to the development of the field of Legal English.

In addition to their publication, Professors Brostoff and Sinsheimer have taught many classes of international lawyers not only at the University of Pittsburgh but also around the world including in China, Ethiopia, Iceland, Japan, Oman, Poland, Serbia, Ukraine, the United Arab Emirates, and other countries. They were also deeply involved as participants and peer reviewers in the Fulbright program helping to share legal English education around the world.

We congratulate Professors Brostoff and Sinsheimer on their award and thank them for their many contributions to international legal skills education.

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CFP: Global Legal Skills Conference in Bari, Italy in May 2020

The Global Legal Skills Conference shares the latest teaching techniques and materials for international legal skills education and for teaching lawyers and law students who speak English as a second language. The GLS conference originated at The John Marshall Law School in Chicago. Past conferences have been held in Australia, Costa Rica, Italy, Mexico, and the United States. Attendees come from law schools and law firms around the world. After our most recent conferences at Melbourne Law School and Arizona State University, the 15^th edition of the conference will be held at the University of Bari Department of Law in southern Italy.

The organizers invite proposals for presentation at the GLS-15. Proposals are invited for individual presentations, group presentations, and for participation in international legal education roundtable discussions.The first call for proposals will close on January 31, 2020. Decisions will be made by February 29, 2020. Additional presentation proposals will be accepted until March 31, 2020 if space is still available. The link to submit proposals is

• https://forms.law.asu.edu/view.php?id=659654 or
• law.asu.edu/gls15

Questions about the conference can be directed to the Conference Co-Chair, Professor Mark E. Wojcik, at 312-987-2391 or by email at [email protected]. Several airlines serve the international airport at Bari or you might decide to fly earlier to Rome and take an express train to Bari.

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Kimble Center for Legal Drafting

We congratulate Western Michigan University Thomas Cooley Law School for creating the Kimble Center for Legal Drafting, named in honor of Joseph Kimble, a Distinguished Professor Emeritus at Cooley.

The Kimble Center is intended to serve both an academic and public-service function. Academically, it will teach research and drafting to interested students through directed studies. As a public service, the Center will develop consumer-friendly forms for public use and also offer free drafting seminars for practitioners. Every seat was taken at the inaugural legal-drafting seminar for the Kimble Center for Legal Drafting, held on November 1, 2019 at WMU-Cooley's Lansing campus and through distance education at their other campuses.

Professor Kimble was a staff attorney for the Michigan Supreme Court and the Michigan Court of Appeals. He later practiced law in Flint, Michigan, and was an adjunct professor at WMU–Cooley. He joined the full-time Cooley faculty in 1984.

He is senior editor of The Scribes Journal of Legal Writing and the longtime editor of the "Plain Language" column in the Michigan Bar Journal. He also writes an editing column called “Redlines” for Judicature. He has published dozens of articles on legal writing and written three popular books — Lifting the Fog of Legalese: Essays on Plain Language; Writing for Dollars, Writing to Please: The Case for Plain Language in Business, Government, and Law; and Seeing Through Legalese: More Essays on Plain Language. He has lectured on writing to legal organizations in the United States, Canada, Europe, Mexico, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa. He served as a drafting consultant to the Sixth Circuit Committee on Pattern Jury Instructions and the Michigan Committee on Standard Criminal Jury Instructions. He now serves as the drafting consultant to the Committee on Rules of Practice and Procedure of the Judicial Conference of the United States. He led the redrafting of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure and the Federal Rules of Evidence.

Professor Kimble is also a past president of the international organization Clarity, served as the executive director of Scribes (the American Society of Legal Writers), is a founding director of the Center for Plain Language, and was on the board of the Legal Writing Institute. In 2000, he was named a "Plain English Champion" by the Plain English Campaign, in England. He is one of the first persons to receive that award. In 2007, he won the first Plain Language Association International Award for being a "champion, leader, and visionary in the international plain-language field." He has twice won a prestigious Burton Award for Reform in Law — in 2007 for his work on the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, and in 2011 for his work on the Federal Rules of Evidence. In 2010, he won a lifetime-achievement award from the Section on Legal Writing, Reasoning, and Research of the Association of American Law Schools. In 2015, he received the John W. Reed Lawyer Legacy Award from the State Bar of Michigan. And in 2017, Scribes created the Joseph Kimble Distinguished Service Award.

Professor Kimble taught Research & Writing and Advanced Research & Writing. He developed the original course for Introduction to Law I. He is now senior director of WMU–Cooley's Kimble Center for Legal Drafting.

He is a past recipient of Section Award from the Association of American Law Schools' Section on Legal Writing, Reasoning, and Research.

Professor Kimble most recently presented at the 14th Global Legal Skills Conference held last month at Arizona State University Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law.

Professor Kimble is pictured above with the late Justice Antonin Scalia, who is holding a copy of one of Joe's books. He's also pictured at right with Professor Mark E. Wojcik, President of Scribes--The American Society of Legal Writers.

Further information about the Kimble Center is available by clicking here.

Hat tip to Mark Cooney.

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Last Call for Nominations for the Scribes Law-Review Award

Each year, Scribes—The American Society of Legal Writers—sponsors a legal writing competition to recognize an outstanding note or comment written by a law student who is associated with a student-edited law review or journal. This award has the distinction of being the only national award for student authors that places no limitation on subject matter.

Scribes invites law schools to submit one outstanding student note or comment that has been, or will be, published between June 1, 2019, and May 31, 2020. The competition will be judged by the Scribes Law-Review Committee. The winning journal and the author of the winning note or comment will each receive a plaque.

Scribes was founded in 1953 with the goal of recognizing legal writers and improving legal writing. Its members consist of judges, lawyers, law professors, and students who served on law reviews or journals. Scribes also publishes its own journal, The Scribes Journal of Legal Writing, and offers two national awards in addition to the Law-Review Award.

To get an entry form or for any questions, contact Scribes Executive Director Philip Johnson at [email protected]. Please submit your nomination by January 15, 2020. If the article has already been published you can also send the citation to that email address with a note that you're nominating it for the Scribes Law-Review Award.

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Dr. Alissa Hartig Wins a 2019 Global Legal Skills Award

Dr. Alissa J. Hartig, a professor at the Portland State University College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Department of Applied Linguistics, received a Global Legal Skills Award last month in recognition of her scholarship and work to improve our understanding of the intersections between law and language.

The award presentation was made at Arizona State University Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law during the 14th Global Legal Skills Conference.

Dr. Hartig's research interests include:

• Second language writing
• Discipline-specific literacy
• English for Specific Purposes
• Sociocultural theory and second language learning
• Usage-based linguistics
• Intercultural competence

Those who read Dr. Hartig’s scholarship appreciate the substantial training and wide-reaching experience that stands behind her work. Dr. Hartig received her B.A. summa cum laude in French from New York University and her Ph.D. in Applied Linguistics from Penn State University. After graduating from New York University she taught English as a foreign language as a Peace Corps volunteer in Guinea, and she later taught or did research in Ecuador, Mexico, and South Korea. She was also an Applied Linguistic Specialist at Penn State Law. She has also presented her work at academic conferences in Canada, Costa Rica, Italy, Norway, and Poland. Dr. Hartig’s global experience sets her apart in this field because very few experts have accumulated global experience in Africa, Asia, North and South America, and Europe.

            Her scholarship on advanced academic literacy in law for non-native speakers of English fills a void in academic research and scholarship on second language legal literacy. Her publications include:

• Hartig, A.J. (2017). Connecting language and disciplinary knowledge in English for Specific Purposes: Case studies in law. Bristol: Multilingual Matters.
• Hartig, A.J. (2016). Intersections between law and language: Disciplinary concepts in second language legal literacy. Studies in Logic, Grammar and Rhetoric, 45(1), 69-96. http://dx.doi.org/10.1515/slgr-2016-0016.
• Hartig, A.J. (2016). Conceptual blending in legal writing: Linking definitions to facts. English for Specific Purposes, 42, 66-75. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.esp.2015.12.002.
• Hartig, A.J., and Lu, X. (2014).  Plain English and legal writing: Comparing expert and novice writers.  English for Specific Purposes.  33, 87-96, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.esp.2013.09.001

Pictured here (from left to right) at the award presentation are the GLS Conference Co-Chairs Professors Mark E. Wojcik (UIC John Marshall Law School) and Kim Holst (Arizona State University), Dr. Hartig, and Professor Lurene Contento (Chicago-Kent College of Law).

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