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The Teaching Bank is an online resource center. It includes writing problems and exercises, syllabi, grading rubrics, teaching ideas, and other materials. Access to the Teaching Bank is professional teachers of legal writing.
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LWI has nearly 3,000 members. Members represent all ABA-accredited law schools in the United States as well as law schools in other countries. LWI members also come from undergraduate schools and universities, the practicing bar and the judiciary, and independent research-and-consulting organizations. Anyone who is interested in legal writing or the teaching of legal writing may join LWI.
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Teaching Bank MembershipThe Influential Teaching Award
The Influential Teaching Award recognizes outstanding teachers who have influenced the teaching of legal writing beyond their individual classrooms. The award will be presented at an LWI conference or, if necessary, at a legal writing conference near the recipient. With this award, we acknowledge our continued commitment to excellence in teaching and advances in legal writing pedagogy.
This is not a lifetime achievement award. Eligible candidates include professors currently teaching in the field, with a preference for new or mid-level professors who have yet to be recognized in the national legal writing community. Anyone can nominate an eligible candidate, and we encourage people to nominate colleagues from their own or other schools whose contributions have made a difference in their own teaching. Nominators should submit the name of the candidate(s) and a detailed description of the candidate’s (or candidates’) contributions, including how
(1) the nominator(s) learned of the contribution(s),
(2) the nominee's contribution(s) were influential, and
(3) the nominee's contribution(s) have affected the nominator’s or nominators’ own teaching or the teaching approach in their legal writing programs.
These contributions could include, but are not limited to, the following examples:
- “I was at a conference and I saw a presentation that changed my teaching.” This type of nomination would describe the influence of teaching idea(s), material(s), or technique(s) shared through a conference presentation;
- “I have a colleague who has started doing x in the classroom.” This type of nomination would describe the influence of teaching idea(s), material(s), or technique(s) shared through a mechanism other than a conference presentation (e.g., an article, an email to the listserv, a contribution to the Idea Bank); or
- “This person consistently shares:” This type of nomination would focus on the breadth of influential idea(s), technique(s), or material(s) consistently shared by the nominee with the legal writing community. These reasons are only suggestions. What we seek is a broad range of nominations highlighting the many ways that legal writing professors are advancing our discipline through innovative teaching and pedagogy.
The committee especially encourages a diverse and inclusive pool of nominees. Members of the LWI Board of Directors and the LWI Awards Committee are ineligible for nomination until at least one year after completing service.
2022 Winner: Rosario Lozada, Professor of Legal Skills and Values and Director of Well-Being in Law at the Florida International University College of Law, Florida International University College of Law
The Board of Directors of the Legal Writing Institute (LWI) is thrilled to announce that Professor Rosario Lozada is the recipient of the 2022 Influential Teaching Award. She is a Professor of Legal Skills and Values and Director of Well-Being in Law at the Florida International University College of Law, currently serving as a Faculty Fellow in the FIU Provost’s Office for Faculty Leadership and Success.
The Influential Teaching Award recognizes our colleagues in the legal writing academy who are outstanding teachers and who have influenced the teaching of legal writing beyond their individual classrooms. With this award, LWI acknowledges its continued commitment to excellence in teaching and advances in legal writing pedagogy. Rather than a lifetime award coming at the end of a career, the Influential Teaching Award seeks to celebrate new or midlevel professors who have yet to be recognized in the national legal writing community. Professor Lozada’s recognition rests upon her innovative work incorporating mindfulness into legal education, particularly in the legal writing classroom. In an effort to teach law more humanely, she encourages and teaches faculty how to
• help students reach their potential as legal writers by addressing well-being;
• enhance their commitment to excellence in the classroom by encouraging students to be healthy people; and
• become more effective and resilient teachers by practicing self-care.
Professor Lozada is also an incredible influence as a mentor. She is an active participant in ALWD’s Leadership Academy and participated in the 2020 AALS Annual Meeting Discussion Group on the topic of mentorship. Her unwavering commitment to well-being has been recognized by FIU, where she was named its new Director in Well-Being in Law. In addition, she has been elected as the chair of the AALS Section on Balance in Legal Education.
In short, Professor Lozada embodies the tenets of the Influential Teaching Award. Her work empowers us all to be kinder teachers, students, and lawyers — to know our limits and care as much for ourselves as we do for others. The LWI Board appreciates the work of the LWI Awards Committee in identifying nominees and making recommendations to the Board.
The Committee includes Chair Brenda Gibson, and members Andrew Carter, Janet Dickson, Kathryn Mercer, Samantha Moppett, Dyane O’Leary, Suzanne Rowe, and Mark Wojcik.