The Program Committee is delighted to announce the topic and call for proposals for the 2025 Western Regional Legal Writing Conference, which will be held at UC Irvine School of Law on September 5-6, 2025.

Our theme this year is Lawyering Through a Justice Lens. Now, more than ever, it is critical to ground law and lawyering skills within a larger justice framework. Some have been approaching our discipline this way from the beginning. Given the current climate, others are just beginning to think about how lawyers and law professors may need to shift both to respond to the current moment and to support the long arc of justice.  

We encourage you to think about the conference theme broadly, addressing whatever aspect of the theme speaks to you. With that said, here are some possible areas you might consider:

• Addressing the wide divide between law as written and law as it actually operates on the ground (stare decisis, administrative law, judicial decision-making, attacks on the rule of law, and more)
• Approaching writing as resistance, particularly in a time of destabilization
• Continuing to effectively teach our students in the face of budgetary challenges (increased class sizes, reduced resources)
• Addressing the role of AI in increasing/facilitating access to justice
• Teaching soft skills and professional identity formation, particularly in a world of disruption
• Balancing teaching the basics and disrupting the status quo
• Exposing students to the increasingly diverse and global practice of law in the face of institutional withdrawal of support for DEI language, initiatives, and programs.
• Responding to external or internal challenges to the goal of teaching students to be changemakers.

Proposal Submission Guidelines

If you are interested in presenting, please use the form available at this link. You will be asked to provide the following information:

1. Your name, professional title, and school
2. Your e-mail
3. The names and school affiliations of any co-presenters
4. Presentation details:
   • Title of the Presentation
   • A description of your presentation (no more than 300 words)
   • Any technology needs beyond the basics. All rooms have computers with internet and the ability to show PowerPoints, video, etc.
   • Your preferred duration for the presentation (25 minutes or 50 minutes). Note that we will have a limited number of 50-minute slots, and we will prioritize dynamic programming with audience engagement for the longer time slots.

We will likely select no more than one proposal per person, though we may make an exception if there is room. If you have more than one idea, please submit as many as you would like considered.

Deadline for Proposals: July 7

We anticipate making all program decisions by July 28.

Warmly,

The Western Regional Legal Writing Conference Program Committee (Cindy Archer, Rachel Croskery-Roberts, Charlie Martel, Sue McMahon, Beatrice Tice, and Danielle Tully).

Rachel Croskery-Roberts

Associate Dean for Lawyering Skills

University of California, Irvine School of Law