One-Day Workshops

Please join LWI at one of the 2019 One-Day Workshops listed below. You can register by clicking HERE.

Registration fees: $45.00 for regular attendees; $25.00 for host-school attendees; and $25.00 for presenters.

Friday, December 6th

Charleston School of Law

Legal Writing & Bar Passage: Where the Two Intersect

What is taught in legal writing skills classes has a direct impact on bar passage and academic success. As there can sometimes be less emphasis placed on skills classes, this workshop focuses on crafting legal writing curriculum that coordinates with academic success programs and conveys the integrated nature of such skills. The pros and cons of such approaches may also be included as well as experiential successes and best practices. Ultimately, this workshop will explore how to best emphasize the skills learned in legal writing to raise prestige of the discipline, and practically speaking, how this understanding can impact bar passage. 

Florida International Univ. College of Law

Teaching to the “Multi”-tudes 

Join Florida International College of Law to hear presentations about teaching to the many different audiences that modern legal writing professors teach including:  multi-cultural, multi-racial, multi-gendered, multi-able, multi-national and/or multi-lingual students.

Penn State Dickinson Law

Dismantling the Separate but Equal Paradigm: Integrating Legal Research and Writing into the Law School Curriculum

Legal research and writing are essential components of any healthy law practice. Finding useful sources of law and translating that research into effective writing are critical skills of lawyers. If these statements are true, why are legal research and writing courses often limited to the first-year curriculum? If legal research and writing permeate every facet of law practice, shouldn’t these skills be intertwined throughout the curriculum, including in casebook and upper level courses? Is the lack of curricular integration of legal research and writing a symptom of the hierarchical structure of the legal academy, often placing LRW faculty and law librarians at the bottom of the totem pole? In what ways have you worked with your faculty colleagues to challenge the “separate but equal” status of legal research and writing in the classroom and in the larger context of the legal academy? What are the tools that are most effective when breaking down barriers of separation to provide students with a quality legal education? How have you struggled and overcome hierarchical structures that negatively impact you as a legal writing professor or law librarian?

SMU Dedman School of Law

Ethics and Professionalism in Legal Research, Writing, and Advocacy: Helping Faculty and Students Navigate Through Murky Waters

Presenters at this one-day workshop might address the following:

• Effective methods to teach students regarding the duty to communicate candidly with a court and with clients
• Utilizing proper citations and attribution to avoid plagiarism
• Truth in negotiations: when hiding the ball becomes bad advocacy
• Advocacy vs. dishonesty: slanting facts in an appellate record without compromising the truth
• Using metadata and other electronic tools to detect plagiarism
• Addressing ethics and professionalism in assignments and classroom discussions
• Ethical consideration regarding the use of blogs, Wikipedia, Google™ and Websites
• Professional interactions with students: handling student conferences and feedback
• Reviewing and editing resumes and student writing samples without becoming a co-author
• Identifying ethical landmines in legal writing and helping students to avoid stepping on them
• Familiarizing students with Rules of Professional Conduct

Univ. of Alabama School of Law

Training Advocates:  Teaching Persuasive Argument in the Legal Writing Classroom and Beyond

Join us in December as many of us are shifting gears in the classroom from objective analysis to persuasive advocacy. Share your ideas, exercises, and tips for making that transition and for teaching argument to 1Ls. Presentations may also address building on students’ advocacy skills when coaching moot court teams or teaching upper-level courses.

Univ. of California – Irvine

Courting Controversy: Challenging Traditional Notions of What We (Should) Teach

This workshop will include a wide variety of presentations related to the following topics:

• Are there any aspects of the traditional lawyering skills curriculum that may no longer be serving our students well? If so, what are they? What do we replace them with? What is the appropriate balance between basic writing and research instruction and other skills, particularly in light of findings in the recent Foundations for Practice Survey?
• How much should we be involving members of the practicing bar in what we teach to ensure we remain on the cutting edge of professional expectations?
• Can (or should) we teach at least some aspects of lawyering skills from a more interdisciplinary perspective than we have in the past? More specifically, how are lawyering skills professors integrating social justice, artificial intelligence, critical legal studies, or clinical pedagogy into skills classes?
• Relatedly, we welcome presentations from lawyering skills professors who are teaching or practicing in those other areas regarding how they bring a skills perspective to other classes and conversations.

Univ. of Iowa College of Law

Thinking Beyond the Traditional Classroom and Student

This workshop will explore topics such as (1) teaching students from diverse backgrounds, first-generation students, and international students, (2) the role of LRW faculty in teaching outside the first-year curriculum (such as upper-level writing courses, online courses, and undergraduate courses), (3) the evolving role of writing centers, and (4) incorporating formative assessment techniques into LRW courses.

York Univ. Osgood Hall Law School & Univ. of Toronto Law

Research and Writing in the Experiential Learning Context

Experiential learning continues to be at the forefront of legal education in Canadian law schools. What has been the focus of legal writing and instruction for these experiential learning opportunities? This workshop brings together legal writing and instruction experts who will discuss this question and how to help students build their skills in the experiential learning context.

Visit here to view the workshop program.

Saturday, December 7th

Gonzaga Univ. School of Law

Beyond the Basics: Ideas for Teaching all Levels of LRW Courses

The number of LRW courses being taught in law schools around the country is increasing. This trend is producing many different types of courses being offered to 1L, 2L, and 3L students. Along with the variety of courses comes a variety of teaching methods, ideas, and assessments. Join us in Spokane, Washington, at Gonzaga University School of Law and share your expertise and ideas on teaching LRW. Come learn about subjects such as:

1. What courses do you teach that take the students beyond the basics?
2. What courses would you like to teach to take students beyond the basics?
3. What strategies do you use or suggest to move students beyond the basics?

Friday, December 13th

St. Mary’s Univ. School of Law

Developing Life-Long Learners

Our focus as Legal Writing teachers is to develop students for the practice of law. This includes teaching them to be life-long learners in the field and in honing their skills for the profession. Committing to continued growth as a legal writer and thinker requires ongoing development. Just like our students, we as teachers need our own systems for life-long learning to develop the skills we bring to the classroom and beyond. What methods do you use to continue developing your legal and educational skills for the classroom? What lessons have you learned over the years that have informed how you teach today? How do you stay current legal and educational trends and incorporate them? How do you get students to think about their own professional development?

Click here for St. Mary’s LWI One-Day Workshop Website and here for the hotel reservation link.

Rutgers Law School

The Pros and Cons of New Technology

Our generation of students takes learning with new technology for granted, but when is it really helpful for them and for us? For example, what are the pros and cons of banning laptops? What are the pros and cons of PowerPoint? Does interactive editing work? This workshop will explore this broad topic and also focus on how to adapt to new technology. 

Univ. of Memphis Cecil C. Humphreys School of Law

Building Connections: Connecting Legal Writing to the Broader Curriculum, the Bar Exam, Practice, and Beyond

This workshop may include presentations on a variety of topics such as:

• Exploring ways to connect legal writing instruction with other courses to encourage skill transfer.
• Exploring ways to connect legal writing instruction with clinics and externships.
• Collaborations with other faculty and staff that demonstrate the connections between legal writing and a wide range of other courses and programs, including bar preparation, academic support, clinics, library programs, career services, and others.
• Exploring ways to connect practitioners, judges, and the community with the legal writing curriculum.
• Exploring ways to connect students outside brick and mortar law schools with effective legal writing instruction.