Other Conferences

What You Will Find on This Page:

On this page you will find information about the following conference-related subjects, in the following order, by scrolling down the page:

Upcoming International Conferences

Upcoming Regional Conferences

Other Upcoming Conferences

Access to Virtual Legal Writing Conferences / Archives

Recently Held Conferences (2009)

Other ("Older") Previously Held Conferences

If you are involved in planning or publicizing an upcoming legal writing conference,  or if you have updated information concerning any conference currently appearing on this page, please contact the Legal Writing Institute website committee by emailing Dan Real at DReal@creighton.edu.

Upcoming International Conferences:

 Upcoming Regional Conferences:

Other Upcoming Conferences:

Access to Virtual Legal Writing Conferences/Archives:

Stetson University College of Law has begun conducting "Legal Writing Conference Webinars."  Previously held webinars are now available for replay to members of non-profit, government, and educational institutions in Stetson's online Advocacy Resource Center.

To access the Advocacy Resource Center, go to Stetson's homepage and choose "Advocacy" from the "Centers" pull-down menu.  From there, click on the "Advocacy Resource Center" link and register.  Once you have registered, you may enter the Advocacy Resource Center by logging in on the right side of the page.  You will find the webinars under the link, "Project for Excellence in Legal Communication:  Virtual Legal Writing Webinars."

Currently available webinars include:

Strategies for Coaching Moot Court Teams

Outcomes and Assessments

Recently Held Conferences (2010):

May 14, 2010:  First Annual Empire State Legal Writing Conference.

Hofstra Law School in Hempstead, New York, was the location for the first annual Empire State Legal Writing Conference, held on May 14, 2010.  The Conference was a one-day event, timed in such a way that people in the greater NYC area could easily travel to the Law School and back on the conference day.  Out of town participants were welcome, and there was a conference rate at a local hotel, as well as transportation to the Law School.  The Planning Committee included Robin Boyle, St. John's; Ian Gallacher, Syracuse; Tracy McGaugh, Touro; John Mollenkamp, Cornell; and Marilyn Walter, Brooklyn, as well as Amy Stein, Scott Colesanti, Susan Joffe and Frank Gulino from Hofstra.  Richard Neumann  also offered his expert assistance.  

March 19-20, 2010:  Rocky Mountain Legal Writing Conference.

The University of Arizona James E. Rogers College of Law in Tucson hosted the ninth annual Rocky Mountain Legal Writing Conference. The conference was held on Friday afternoon and all day Saturday, March 19-20, 2010, at the University of Arizona Rogers College of Law.

There was no conference fee and most, if not all, meals were provided to participants free of charge.

For more information, please contact the conference chair, Professor Suzanne Rabe, at rabe@law.arizona.edu or (520) 626-2426. Program co-chairs were Professor Rebecca Scharf (rebecca.scharf@unlv.edu) and Professor Stacey Dowdell (stacey.dowdell@asu.edu). 

February 25-27, 2010:  Global Legal Skills Conference V.

Facultad Libre de Derecho de Monterrey hosted the Global Legal Skills Conference V in February 2010.  The call for proposals and further details are available at the conference website here.

Recently Held Conferences (2009):

December 7, 2009:  New England Consortium of Legal Writing Teachers Regional Conference, "The Changing Landscape of Legal Writing Programs."

The New England Consortium of Legal Writing Teachers hosted its regional conference on December 7, 2009, at the Western New England College School of Law.

Registration and program information is available at the WNEC Law School website under "Speakers and Events" (on the right-hand side of the page).

December 5, 2009:  "First 'Colonial Frontier' Legal Writing Conference."

Hosted by Duquesne University School of Law.  Co-sponsored by:  Aspen Publishers Legal Education / Wolters Kluwer Law & Business, the University of Pittsburgh School of Law, and the West Virginia University College of Law; with additional support from Indiana University School of Law -- Indianapolis.

This conference was built around an article by Indiana University professors Allison D. Martin & Kevin L. Rand, entitled The Future's So Bright, I gotta Wear Shades:  Law School Through the Lens of Hope. The draft article can be downloaded here. The twenty 45-50 minute presentations at this conference followed a plenary presentation by Martin & Rand, and were about pedagogical techniques, innovations in curriculum design, and methods of fostering good interpersonal relations between students and faculty that work to improve law student performance and learning in the legal writing course by engendering hope in our students.

Attendance at the conference was free to teaching faculty, and Duquesne  provided free on-site parking to conference attendees.  More information is available at the conference website.

The John Marshall Law School in Chicago and St. John's University School of Law in New York each hosted a one day workshop for adjunct professors and new legal writing instructors on December 4, 2009.  The workshop included discussion of the nuts and bolts of teaching legal writing and analysis, grading papers, student conferences, research and citation, and forward thinking.

An information packet, including conference schedule, registration details and a list of nearby hotels, is available by clicking here.

For more information, contact Professor Mark E. Wojcik at The John Marshall Law School in Chicago, (312) 987-2391, mwojcik@jmls.edu or legalwritingprof@gmail.com.

October 9-10, 2009:  2009 Central States Regional LRW/Lawyering Skills Conference, "Climate Change:  Alternative Sources of Energy in Legal Writing."

Marquette University Law School hosted the Central Region Conference on the Teaching of Legal Research, Analysis, and Writing, "Climate Change: Alternative Sources of Energy in Legal Writing," on Friday, October 9th and Saturday, October 10th, 2009.

This year marked ten years of Central States Regional Conferences, and the conference committee continued the Central States tradition of a teaching-focused conference. This year there was a special emphasis on ways to improve legal writing teaching with resources beyond the legal writing faculty, such as librarians, writing specialists, and doctrinal faculty.

For more information, visit the conference website here.

Stetson University College of Law hosted on its Gulfport, Florida, campus the 2009 Southest Regional Legal Writing Conference on September 11 and 12, 2009, along with an ALWD Scholars' Forum/Workshop on September 13, 2009.

The conference theme, "Remixing the Classics," honored the classical legal writing conepts of the last 25 years and recognized the need to "remix" those traditional ideas to meet the needs of new students, to adapt to new facult expectation, and to move the discipline forward.  The plenary speaker for the conference was Mary Beth Beazley, Associate Professor of Law at The Ohio State University Moritz College of Law in Columbus, Ohio. Finally, an ALWD Scholars' Forum/Workshop was held at the end of the conference.  Up to 16 participants presented their scholarship ideas, works-in-progress, or further developed drafts of legal writing articles to other legal writing factulty for feedback.

Please direct any further questions to Kirsten Davis at kkdavis@law.stetson.edu.  The website for the conference is available here.

August 28-29, 2009:  Northwest Regional Legal Writing Conference:  "Legal Writing in a Green World:  Recycle, Reuse, Rethink" and ALWD Legal Writing Scholars' Forum.

Lewis & Clark Law School and the University of Oregon School of Law are pleased to announce their joint sponsorship of the 2009 Northwest Regional Legal Writing Conference.  Because of that sponsorship, the conference had NO registration fee.

The conference began on Friday, August 28, 2009, with an early evening reception at the University of Oregon's downtown Portland facility, the White Stag Building.  All working sessions took place the following day at the Lewis & Clark campus.

In addition to the  conference, there was a day-long Legal Writing Scholars' Forum on Friday, August 28, funded by ALWD and taking place in downtown Portland at the White Stag Building.  The forum presented an opportunity for new and experienced scholars alike to generate ideas, learn about the writing process, find mentors, and set appropriate deadlines for completion.  For more information , contact Suzanne Rowe at srowe@uoregon.edu.

 July 22-24, 2009: "Once Upon a Legal Time, Chapter 2:  Applied Storytelling in Law."

Once Upon a Legal Time, Chapter 2: Applied Storytelling in Law was held at Lewis & Clark Law School, Portland, Oregon on July 22-24, 2009:  Building on the success of the first conference, held in London in 2007, this conference sought to foster collaboration and dialogue about the skill of storytelling in law and about teaching storytelling and other skills to lawstudents and practitioners. This conference brought together academics, judges, and practitioners to explore the role of narrative in legal practice and curricular strategies that will prepare students to use story and narrative as they enter the practice of law.  The conference schedule can be found here.

July 16-18, 2009:  2009 ALWD Conference.

Site host:  University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law.

Event hosts:  Washburn University and University of Kansas Schools of Law.

July 1-4, 2009:  APPEAL Conference on Promoting the Teaching of Legal Writing in Southern Africa.

APPEAL Conference on Promoting the Teaching of Legal Writing in Southern Africa was held in Pretoria, South Africa, from July 1 to 4, 2009. The conference focused on the development of curricula in legal writing for law faculties in Southern Africa, with a particular emphasis on handling large, undergraduate class loads and teaching to students with a variety of language and educational backgrounds.

June 3-5, 2009:  Global Legal Skills Conference IV.

The Global Legal Skills Conference IV was held at Georgetown University Law Center in Washington D.C. June 3 to 5, 2009.  For information click here.

May 29-30, 2009:   2009 Lone Star Legal Research & Writing Conference.

Texas Tech University School of Law was host to the 2009 Lone Star Legal Research & Writing Conference.   To learn more about the conference, visit the event web page.

If you have any additional questions, email the Texas Tech School of Law Legal Practice Program Director, Professor Nancy Soonpaa, at nancy.soonpaa@ttu.edu.

March 13-14, 2009:  2009 Rocky Mountain Legal Writing Conference.

The Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law at Arizona State University announces the 2009 Rocky Mountain Legal Writing Conference. The conference was held March 13-14, 2009. The keynote address was by Linda Edwards, the 2008-2009 Blackwell Award Winner, Macon Professor of Law, and Director of Legal Writing at Mercer University School of Law, and current Visiting Professor of Law at William S. Boyd School of Law at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas.  The conference included sessions on both days and featured sessions for both new and experienced legal writing professionals.  For more information,  click here.

January 6, 2009: "Law & Rhetoric Workshop: Legal Writing Through a Rhetorical Lens."

Mercer University School of Law sponsored a law and rhetoric workshop on January 6, 2009, at the Hilton San Diego, Gaslamp Quarter, immediately before the start of the AALS Annual Meeting and at a hotal across the street from the conference hotel.

The workshop brought together a group of people with common interests in legal rhetoric for a day of conversation that generated new ideas and strengthened existing connections between rhetorical theory and legal writing scholarship, teaching, and practice. Steven J. Mailloux, Chancellor's Professor of Rhetoric at the University of California-Irvine, began the discussion, with other speakers available at the workshop website. For more information click here.

January 6, 2009:  "Technology, Ethics and the Practice of Law:  Training the 21st Century Law Student."

California Western School of Law in San Diego, California, hosted this free workshop on the eve  of the AALS Annual Meeting. This workshop was held to celebrate the launching of the "Skills Training for Ethical and Preventive Practice and career Satisfaction (STEPPS)" program at California Western, and  featured Catherine Sanders Reach, the Director of the ABA Legal Technology Resource Center. The workshop was of interest to deans, faculty, and staff involved in curricular reform, professional responsibility training or skills training, and librarians.  For more information about the workshop please click here.

Other ("Older") Previously Held Conferences:

December 5, 2008:  "Practice Meets Pedagogy."

 St. John's University School of Law hosted a Legal Research and Writing Conference on December 5, 2008, in New York City. Titled "Practice Meets Pedagogy," the conference explored how legal research and writing as taught in law school can best prepare new lawyers for practice in today's workplace. Topics included developments in the workplace affecting the skills expected of beginning lawyers; how legal employers assess applicants' legal writing skills; changes in the nature of writing tasks assigned to beginning lawyers; and the advanced training in legal writing now made available by many legal employers. Speakers and panelists were primarily from the world of practice, and included judges, lawyers in private firms and public interest organizations, law librarians, and others. A panel of legal writing professors addressed the interface between the academy and the world of practice, innovations in the legal writing curriculum, and related topics.

For more information, please click here.

December 1, 2008:  "Teaching Through Technology -- Making Chalkboards Obsolete."

Suffolk University's Legal Practice Skills Program hosted a conference, "Teaching Through Technology - Making Chalkboards Obsolete," held on December 1, 2008, for the New England Consortium for Legal Writing Teachers. This conference allowed participants to see demonstrations and receive training on podcasts, clickers, and wikis. What makes this conference unique is that each presentation not only offered the perspective of legal writing and research professors who have incoroporated these methods into their classrooms, but it  also provided attendees with hands-on tutorials on using the various forms of technology. For more information, please contact Sabrina DeFabritiis of Suffolk at:  sdefabritiis@suffolk.edu.

November 7, 2008:  "How Legal Rhetoric Shapes the Law II -- The Language of Violence and Torture."

American University Washington College of Law hosted a colloquium titled, "How Legal Rhetoric Shapes the Law II -- The Language of Violence and Torture," on Friday, November 7, 2008. The colloquium featured a keynote address by Professor Peter Brooks, a scholar of narrative theory, who spoke on "The Ethics of Reading" to kick off a day of discussing how language can be used, interpreted, manipulated to justify violence, and, perhaps, also to combat it. There were also two panel discussions and an innovative workshop for legal writing teachers on introducing these ideas in the legal writing classroom.  For more details click here.

October 14-17, 2008:  "Ideology and the Rule of Law." 

The International Institute for Legal Writing and Reasoning sponsored a conference October 14-17, 2008, in New York City.  The purpose of the conference was to provide an opportunity for judicial officers, academics, and practitioners to examine the cultural and philosophical aspects of the law in an international and multi-cultural setting.  Participants included judges, tribunal members, attorneys, academics, and legal officers from a number of legal systems and nations.  For more information click here.

September 19, 2008:  "Persuasion in Legal Writing and Lawyering."

Rutgers School of Law-Camden and University of Wyoming College of Law co-sponsored a one-day conference, "Persuasion in Legal Writing and Lawyering," held on September 19, 2008, in Camden, New Jersey. The conference featured three interactive panels about logos, pathos, and ethos.  For more information click here.

 August 4-7, 2008:  Istanbul Legal Skills Conference:

In Istanbul, Turkey. For more information, contact:

Tracy L. McGaugh
Associate Professor, Legal Process
Touro Law Center
225 Eastview Dr.
Central Islip, NY l1722
631.761.7184
tmcgaugh@tourolaw.edu

Millennial Law Prof Blog:
www.themillennials.org

If you are involved in planning or publicizing an upcoming legal writing conference, please contact the Legal Writing Institute website committee by emailing Dan Real at DReal@creighton.edu about having your conference added to this page.