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.
Learn MoreBecome an LWI Member:
Become a MemberApply for our Teaching Bank Membership:
Teaching Bank MembershipBoard Liaison:
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The following section showcases the membership committees open to all LWI members. These committees provide opportunities for members to actively contribute to the organization's mission, collaborate with peers, and help shape the future of legal writing education.
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Charge: 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.
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Carolyn Williams
Charge: This committee identifies and recommends policies for best practices in legal writing and in the use of artificial intelligence. During the 2024-2026 biennium, this committee will have the following special charges: (1) to articulate a strategic plan aimed at situating LWI as a thought leader in the AI space; (2) to host a workshop, webinar, conference, etc., aimed at training legal writing professors regarding how to effectively utilize AI in their teaching, scholarship, and courses; (3) to encourage LWI members to engage in scholarship regarding AI; and (4) to engage in outreach to the bench and bar regarding the role of AI in legal communication and legal writing education, such as by hosting a CLE sponsored by LWI.
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Charge: 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.
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Charge: This committee identifies ways to better connect LWI with the practicing bar and bench, explores greater collaboration with the bench and bar, and aims to position LWI as a resource for expertise for practitioners and judges. From 2022-2024, this committee also coordinated Bench & Bar programming and CLE accreditation for the 2024 Biennial. During the 2024-2026 Biennium, this committee may have a special charge of coordinating a CLE to be held in conjunction with the 2026 Biennial and handling the CLE Book for the Biennial, depending on the decision of the President-Elect.
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Charge: To identify nominees and assess and recommend to the Board a recipient of the Blackwell Award for Outstanding Achievement in the Field of Legal Writing.
Charge: To plan and prepare for the Blackwell Award Reception held in conjunction with the AALS Annual Meeting.
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Charge: To design and implement a comprehensive virtual summer boot camp that equips new legal writing professors with essential pedagogical skills, resources, and support for effective teaching.
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Charge: To develop strategies and initiatives that promote access, preparation, and support for students pursuing clerkships.
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Charge: This committee develops and supports discipline-building projects, supports scholarship by legal writing professors, and encourages scholarly collaboration with the larger legal academy.
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Charge: This committee fosters and supports diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging in legal writing education by, inter alia, supporting legal writing faculty from historically excluded groups and by including a diversity of perspectives in LWI and the legal writing classroom.
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Charge: 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.
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Charge: 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.
Charge: This committee welcomes new members into the LWI community through such efforts as outreach activities at conferences and workshops. It also assists new members in identifying legal writing resources and finding ways to become more involved in service and leadership positions. In addition, it updates the New Member Information Guide and posts it on LWI’s website. During the 2024-2026 Biennium, this committee will have a special charge of hosting new member programming, including a speed mentoring session, at the 2026 Biennial and the Applied Legal Storytelling Conference. The committee will also explore creative ways via virtual outreach to build community among new members in between major, in-person conferences. It will also facilitate a mentorship initiative.
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Charge: This committee plans and organizes a combination of virtual and in-person One-Day Workshops held in December of each year. During the 2024-2026 Biennium, this committee will also assess whether One-Day Workshops should be limited to only December of each year or whether it would be beneficial for some to be offered at different times of year that do not conflict with other major LWI conferences.
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Charge: 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). During the 2024-2026 biennium, this committee will have the special charge of planning and coordinating a service opportunity (preferably on-site or walking distance) in conjunction with the 2026 Biennial.
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Charge: This committee serves as a resource for members facing specific employment or professional development issues.
For information about the work of this committee, visit its committee page here.
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Charge: This committee promotes efforts to achieve equality of status and to support the interests of legal writing faculty and programs with regard to ABA Standards.
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Charge: 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. During the 2024-2026 biennium, this committee will have the following special charges: (1) to review and update our membership list on Mailchimp before our next election; (2) to assess ways to improve our website, (3) to review and update our Visual Identity Manual, particularly with regard to podcasts, blogs, etc., and (4) perhaps most importantly, to attempt to answer the question “what is (or should be) the voice of LWI?”
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Charge: During the 2024 to 2026 biennium, this newly created working group will have a specific special charge to: (1) organize a one-day workshop or symposium on conducting empirical research to advance the discipline of legal writing; (2) to host a scholarship speed mentoring event at the 2026 Biennial; (3) to create a tips series of short videos regarding effective research techniques from how to select a topic to how to organize your sources; and (4) to work with our Website Committee and Webmaster to develop (or begin developing) a searchable scholarship bank or repository on our website where LWI members can upload their scholarship on any topic and website visitors can easily access and cite it.
Charge: To recommend and implement collaborative projects with SALT that further LWI's mission.
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Charge: 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.
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Charge: To conduct an annual survey of legal writing programs and to report the results to the membership. LWI Members:
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Charge: This committee provides outreach and resources to foster and support the teaching of legal writing and maintains the LWI Teaching Bank. During the 2024-2026 Biennium, this committee will have the following special charges: (1) to create a series of short “tips” videos that contain teaching tips (Heather’s LEAP Project that she will lead); (2) to request exercises for the bank that relate to AI; (3) to remove outdated problems from the bank that are no longer usable; (4) to host a contest with a cash prize for the best exercise or contribution to the bank; and (5) to create one or more short videos that provide guidance to professors regarding how to teach with or about AI and legal writing. Several of these special charges should likely be completed in collaboration with the AI Committee.
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