Joining the Club Without Paying Its Dues: Newcomers View Their First LWI Conference

<p>At the opening session of this summer’s Legal Writing Institute Conference at Seattle University, LWI President Jane Kent Gionfriddo asked people attending their first conference to stand and be recognized. I and (what seemed like) a majority of those in the auditorium rose from our seats. Looking into the sea of faces, I began to wonder: all of us newcomers had become LWI members gratis by dint of becoming legal writing teachers, but had we really joined the club?