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.
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 Legal Writing Institute (LWI) is powered by the dedication, expertise, and collaborative efforts of its committees. These committees play a vital role in advancing LWI’s mission, supporting its members, and carrying out the organization’s priorities. Through their work, committee members contribute to the development of professional resources, educational programming, scholarly initiatives, and opportunities for engagement within the legal writing community.
LWI’s committees bring together legal writing professionals from institutions across the country, creating opportunities to share ideas, develop innovative approaches to teaching and scholarship, and address issues affecting the profession. Their collective efforts strengthen the organization, foster meaningful professional connections, and help shape the future of legal writing education.
This directory provides an alphabetical listing of LWI’s board committees, advisory groups, and membership committees for the 2026–2028 biennium. Select a committee below to learn more about its responsibilities, leadership, and membership.
Explore the Legal Writing Institute’s committees and advisory groups. Select a committee to see its charge, leadership, and membership.
Board committee / advisory group
Membership committee / publication
This committee recommends ways in which LWI can partner with ASP faculty to further LWI’s mission and examines the intersection between writing, research, and ASP as they relate to the NextGen Bar Exam.
Adam Eckart (Suffolk University Law School)
Heather Hall (Mississippi College School of Law)
Membership committee / publication
The Artificial Intelligence Committee supports LWI members as artificial intelligence changes legal communication, legal education, and legal practice. The Committee identifies emerging issues affecting legal writing and legal-skills education and develops practical resources, programming, and guidance responsive to the needs of LWI members.
Carolyn Williams (University of North Dakota School of Law); Meghan Sholy-Wells (University of Missouri–Kansas City School of Law)
Desmund Wu (University of Wisconsin Law School); Susan Tanner (University of Louisville Louis D. Brandeis School of Law); Tracy Norton (Louisiana State University Paul M. Hebert Law Center)
Board committee / advisory group
Membership committee / publication
This committee identifies nominees and assesses and recommends to the Board recipients of the Golden Pen, Courage, Mary Lawrence, and Hecht awards. In 2024, it will also recommend to the Board a fair, equitable, and efficient process for naming awards and review the protocol for establishing new awards and address several other special charges. The Board will also consider an LWI AI & Innovation Writing Contest.
Robert Parrish (Emory University School of Law)
Kristen Tiscione (Georgetown University Law Center)
Membership committee / publication
The LWI Bench and Bar Committee seeks to bridge legal writing pedagogy to the practice of law by drawing on the expertise of the practicing bench and bar to better prepare students for the practice of law. The Committee also seeks to understand the needs of the practicing bench and bar and to respond to those needs through formative legal education and supplemental training to be offered to students, the bench, and the bar.
Em Wright (Stetson University College of Law)
Kari Gallagher (Notre Dame Law School); Christopher Heo (Arizona State University Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law)
Board committee / advisory group
Board committee / advisory group
Membership committee / publication
To design and implement virtual summer and winter boot camps that equip new legal writing professors with essential pedagogical skills, resources, and support for effective teaching. The summer bootcamp will focus on foundational content and fall semester/predictive legal writing; the winter bootcamp will focus on spring semester/persuasive legal writing and oral advocacy.
Em Wright (Stetson University College of Law)
Ashley Armstrong (St. Mary’s University School of Law); Charles Oldfield (University of Akron School of Law)
Board committee / advisory group
Membership committee / publication
This committee develops and supports discipline-building projects, supports scholarship by legal writing professors, and encourages scholarly collaboration with the larger legal academy.
Ellie Margolis (Temple University Beasley School of Law); Brad Desnoyer (University of Missouri–Kansas City School of Law); Sherri Lee Keene (Georgetown University Law Center)
Ruth Anne Robbins (Rutgers Law School); Nantiya Ruan (University of Nevada, Las Vegas William S. Boyd School of Law)
Membership committee / publication
This committee fosters and supports diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging in legal writing education by supporting legal writing faculty from historically excluded groups and by including a diversity of perspectives in LWI and the legal writing classroom.
Sherri Lee Keene (Georgetown University Law Center)
Ashley B. Armstrong (St. John’s University School of Law); Susan McMahon (University of California, Irvine School of Law)
Board committee / advisory group
Membership committee / publication
Among other things, the Emeritus Engagement Committee will: 1) Develop and oversee processes to recognize and honor retiring LWI members at the end ofeach academic year; 2) Design, sponsor, and/or coordinate programming tailored to retired faculty and those entering the later stages of their careers; 3) Explore opportunities for seasoned and emeritus members to remain engaged with LWI through inter-generational mentorship and other community-building activities; 4) Collaborate with the Institutional Memory Project and other committees to develop initiatives to preserve LWI’s history; and 5) Foster ongoing outreach to emeritus members and advise LWI on matters affecting their engagement and inclusion.
Abigail Perdue (Wake Forest University School of Law)
Candace Centeno (Villanova University Charles Widger School of Law); Jane Grise (University of Kentucky J. David Rosenberg College of Law)
Board committee / advisory group
Board committee / advisory group
Membership committee / publication
This committee develops resources to improve global legal skills education of international law students studying in the U.S. and promote global legal skills in U.S. legal education.
Sylvia Lett (University of Arizona James E. Rogers College of Law)
Robin Juni (The George Washington University Law School); Rachel Croskery-Roberts (University of California, Irvine School of Law)
Membership committee / publication
Lori Johnson (University of Nevada, Las Vegas William S. Boyd School of Law)
Andrele Brutus St. Val (University of Pittsburgh School of Law)
Membership committee / publication
To develop strategies and initiatives that promote access, preparation, and support for students pursuing clerkships.
Abigail Perdue (Wake Forest University School of Law)
Kari Gallagher (Notre Dame Law School); Katrina Robinson (Cornell Law School); Kerry Kornblatt (University of Michigan Law School)
Membership committee / publication
The LWI Monograph endeavors to select and reprint foundational articles on specific topics crucial to the teaching, curriculum, scholarship, or professional status of legal communication.
Jake Carpenter (Marquette University Law School)
Membership committee / publication
This committee gathers and disseminates information about moot court programs and competitions, including collection and coordination of lists of programs and banks of moot court problems, supports the LWI Moot Court Advisors Handbook, and fosters more scholarship and presentations about topics relevant to moot court.
Susie Salmon (University of Arizona James E. Rogers College of Law)
Jessica Mahon Scoles (Western New England University School of Law)
Membership committee / publication
This committee welcomes new members into the LWI community, assists new members in identifying legal writing resources, and helps new members find ways to become more involved in service and leadership positions. It does so through outreach activities at conferences and online roundtable events. During the 2026-2028 Biennium, this committee will have a special charge of hosting new member programming at the 2028 Biennial Conference, including a happy hour for new members, a lunch for new members, and mentor coffee chats. In addition, the committee will expand its outreach to new members by planning additional events at other national conferences, such as the Applied Legal Storytelling Conference and the AALS Annual Meetings, and the regional legal writing conferences. The committee will also continue its mentoring program, which pairs experienced legal writing professors with new legal writing professors at the beginning of each school not year.
Adam Eckart (Suffolk University Law School)
Kelly Gamble (University of Cincinnati College of Law); Amanda Stephen (University of Washington School of Law)
Membership committee / publication
Charge: This committee plans and organizes a combination of virtual and in-person One-Day Workshops held in December of each year.
Kristen Murray (Temple University Beasley School of Law)
Amy Soled (Rutgers Law School); Carem Corvaia (St. Thomas University Benjamin L. Crump College of Law)
Membership committee / publication
This committee identifies and implements ways to foster faculty engagement with social justice concerns, including collaboration with bar associations, reshaping legal writing curricula around social justice themes, and supporting faculty pro bono work as well as non-law related community service. This committee may do things like adding social justice-themed problems to the teaching bank, connecting members with voluntary pro bono opportunities, working with our status committees to endorse the ability of professors to use something like a pro bono amicus brief to meet a scholarship requirement for promotion or pay purposes, developing a toolkit with tips on how to conduct classroom conversations around social justice themes, and creating diverse community service and pro bono opportunities at our conferences and workshops (or in between).
Nancy Soonpaa (Texas Tech University School of Law)
Sarah Dingivan (St. Mary’s University School of Law)
Membership committee / publication
This committee serves as a resource for members facing status-related challenges or seeking to take advantage of status-related opportunities at their law schools (including but not limited to issues related to security of employment, compensation, workload, voting). This committee also supports LWI’s broader advocacy efforts on status issues, including supporting the interests of legal writing faculty regarding advocacy related to ABA Accreditation Standards.
Ellie Margolis (Temple University Beasley School of Law); Brad Desnoyer (University of Missouri–Kansas City School of Law)
Bob Brain (Loyola Law School, Loyola Marymount University); Mary Bowman (Arizona State University Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law); Angie McDuff (University at Buffalo School of Law)
Membership committee / publication
This committee uses social media to promote LWI and its mission to improve the teaching and quality of legal communication. It also explores strategies to use social media and other PR tools to raise LWI’s profile among members of the bench and bar and position LWI with media sources as a source of expertise on issues in our discipline. It also manages the LWIC community, including maintaining the membership to LWIC, monitoring LWIC usage and policies, ensuring compliance with LWI’s Visual Identity Manual, reminding users to observe LWIC policies (when necessary), and overseeing maintenance and updating of the LWI website.
Lori Johnson (University of Nevada, Las Vegas William S. Boyd School of Law)
Afton Cavanaugh (University of Baltimore School of Law); Joshua Jones (California Western School of Law / University of Connecticut School of Law)
Membership committee / publication
To publish three times a year short, readable, lightly footnoted essays and articles related to teaching legal research and writing that combine theory with practical experience and personal insight.
Meghan Sholy-Wells (University of Missouri–Kansas City School of Law)
Susan Azyndar (Notre Dame Law School)
Membership committee / publication
Em Wright (Stetson University College of Law)
Kristin Gerdy Kyle (Brigham Young University J. Reuben Clark Law School); Cara Cunningham Warren (University of Detroit Mercy School of Law); Joshua Jones (California Western School of Law / University of Connecticut School of Law)
Membership committee / publication
The committee provides outreach and resources to foster and support the teaching of legal writing and maintaining the LWI Teaching Bank. During the 2026-2028 Biennium, this committee will have the following special charges: (1) to improve the functionality of the Teaching Bank, including improving navigation and search functions; (2) to grow the type and number of resources in the Teaching Bank; and (3) to promote and advertise the Teaching Bank to the LWI community.
Jake Carpenter (Marquette University Law School)
Wendy Shea Mitchell (Hamline school of Law); Kim Peterson (University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Law)
Board committee / advisory group
The Virtual Events Protocols Ad Hoc Committee will create a set of guidelines to govern LWI events that include virtual components. The Ad Hoc Committee will liaise with LWI committees that have previously offered or been asked to offer virtual events, including the One-Day Workshops Committee, the Bootcamp Committee, and the AI Committee to gather information about challenges encountered or concerns that have arisen in the course of virtual events. The Committee will consult with outside resources to develop an understanding of best practices for online events, including practices related to 1) attendees’ use of AI transcription/notetaking tools, 2) name/likeness/image permissions from presenters and attendees, 3) pricing guidelines for synchronous attendance vs. recorded content, 3) the use of LWI branding to ensure virtual events and related digital imagery is consistent with LWI’s visual identity, 4) hosting/storage of recorded content, 5) accessibility in digital content, 6) permission-levels for sharing recorded content (downloadable, expiring links, etc.), and 7) other issues related to hosting virtual events. The Ad Hoc Committee shall prepare a report and a series of recommended protocols for virtual events to present to the LWI Board for approval.
Membership committee / publication
The Well-Being Committee is committed to fostering a supportive community for legal writing professors by promoting awareness of well-being resources, organizing impactful programming, and encouraging the integration of holistic well-being practices into legal writing education.
Nancy Soonpaa (Texas Tech University School of Law); Robert Parrish (Emory University School of Law)
Jarrod Reich (Boston University School of Law); Nyla Millar (Widener University Delaware Law School)
Committee assignments for the 2026–2028 biennium.