Legal Research and Writing
E LIN ON ON I y ENT eor s ATrTning thoces lea pr
professionalism
clear and succinct justices court
PRODUC TIVE
S
o
T
O
PR
AW sch AND ola POL rly ICY
IFE L
appMENT
SS ASSEasive
R NA L
meamtherine Be
C ic Joan pract
l lega ING CH TEA on
ti ers ciotkachaOptGY
bo NOL rs H pe
C TE nt pa
S e studERESWTTH O INSSTIONAL GRal E n F PRO itio ell d a r t ecca TrammON
TI TRA han N E g C CON anie Vau Reb
h Step
un lence in legal comm ication Jeffrey Minneti RAFTS law firm l e c x e r fo D en Davis RECOGNITIO s project N Kirs t C n O C O LLEGE Brooke Bowma N MMUNICATIO Catherine Cameron
D
E
M EISCIPLINARY LEADERSHIP l p ro T H O D OLOGY ethicOa NS fess io n al
eC rem Sup llate e
AL W
ATIO N
TERN
AW
G
I TUNSENTAT R O E I
AL
TATUTES
ADVOCAC ATE Linda Anderson Y LL PE DRAFTIN
BU eten comp cy
TY SCHOLARSHIP FACUL
OURNALS
S perspectives
LATE BRIEF APPEL
EXPERIENCE
tem
IVIDUALIZED IND
ur
H
KEN WO SPO t sys RD
teams
Na An n NS tional Pretrial Competition
co emic discip li d aca ONORS PR ne
SKILLS
J moot court
raining
LEG ERSE FIELDS DIVRTON AWARDS
the first year TEAM lawyer SUCCuErsSSinFU ure ECISION SAP L programmatic ten D t M. Piccard
i ORA ed
legal STRENG rigorous interaction law school TH visit research competence BRIEFS BEST BRIEF Conf erences art of commEuAnCicHaItNioGn seven credit h
District Court of App eal La nce
IGH EXPECTATIONS
TOP AWARDS
Florida’s S econd
tenPuEAreKE-tRrSa MASTER OF L ck visiting justAicWe S s
reasoning responsib best oralist webinailritsy H
paradigm shift
E D E IT o in E o CR pr em ST-Yciati URS BOAR DG ion NT n G s FIR o CO IAL LE ct ME io NIN s s a DISEDITOKRNOnWstruL ARGU ucaAtRD-WIN
CLASSROOM INTERACTION
RI FLO lmer a P n t Jaso our
u g peroswritoihnl
OF IN
law and rhetoric Leading the Way faculty TEACHING ADVOCAC Y SKILLS exemplary performance
e vic adDA
ILDL
anal ogi cal ACADEM Y a d u l t learning theory PERSUA
LAW
S
advanced ORAL ADVOCACY authority POLISHING FOR PROFESSIONALS feedback synthesis LEGAL COMMUNICATION courtrooms
K
advocacy
AL LEADERSHIP STETSON LA
NAL Legal Reasoning INTERNATIJO UDGES
Long JOU
ysis anal
ce VIS INTERNATIONAL COM SIVE COMMUNICATION nferen o MERCIAL ARBIT c g n i t i r w l RATION MOOT virtual lega
g tin s edi ssay ric e to S rhe CCES ctor SU s do S juri OOK eeley B elly F
Legal Research and WritinWg NATION W REVIE
Journal o f In a ter
OPP
ION
iation POWER OF WORDS
EXCELLENCE CONSTITUTION s o u t h e a st article MEMORANDsA PRETRIAL PRACTICE DILIGENCE pedagogy STETSON conferences styles PROBLEM-SOLVING ADVOCACY learning
OGRAM
AR
DICT RAL Law and Policy IN W g A n L i g TERNATIO BLACK’S TEG NAL ENVIRONM al A ICATION ENTAL MOOT COURT COMPETITION ase brief IN ATES on PUBL i t c ST vel analytical methods na rds ITED pper-le a S N E U I u w T
cases n egot
W DS LA EN LE rs K TR T Yree OO avines G s S a EB . Uzd UIN sor rs L R s U c BL arilyn IQ fes a A n M
ATING ADVO CA EDUC
Y
G ASSIGNMENTS ca se TIN I R
law prepared professional development independent research wisdom
OLUTI
R
o nSEARCH STRsAerTvEicGeIESS COURSEnS e ri C Utinuous learning d o cAt N S RR
c
ICULUM LIBR A RI
TES W
2010–2011 Moot Court Writing Awards • 2010 Robert Orseck Memorial Moot Court Competition: Best Brief • 2010 E. Earle Zehmer Workers’ Compensation Moot Court Competition: Best Brief • 2010 Navy JAG Corps National Moot Court Competition: Best Brief • 2011 Philip C. Jessup International Law Moot Court Competition: First-Place Memorial • ABA Law Student Division National Appellate Advocacy Competition: Second-Best Brief
Stetson’s team of Jason Lambert, Chad Burgess and Brooke Geiger won the championship, best brief and best final-round oralist awards at the 2011 Robert Orseck Memorial Moot Court Competition.
Teaching Excellence News and World Report ranks Stetson’s Legal Research and Writing Program “Knowing what to say and how to say U.S. third among law schools across the country. Stetson seeks to educate students as self-motivated and excellent legal communicators and to develop legal it well, whether in written or spoken ethical, writing as an academic discipline on a local, national, and international level. word, is what separates a successful Rigorous First-Year Requirement in legal research and writing education, Stetson requires seven credits of lawyer from an unsuccessful one. Aslegala leader research and writing in the first year of law school, four in the first semester. courses emphasize legal problem solving, analytical methods, research My goal is to teach my students the The strategies and techniques, and effective predictive and persuasive communication. power of words.” Professionalism is a core value in Stetson’s legal research and writing courses.
– Ann M. Piccard,
Professor of Legal Skills
Students are expected to meet the ethical demands of lawyers, including the professional obligations of competency, diligence, autonomy and integrity. Low student-to-professor ratios in legal writing courses increase classroom interaction, and students are expected to perform as lawyers in their courses. Extensive feedback on writing assignments helps support students’ professional growth.
Advanced Upper-Level Curriculum After their first year, Stetson ensures that law students have multiple opportunities to excel at researching and writing. Students can take courses in legal drafting, appellate advocacy and pretrial practice; these courses maintain small enrollments to support individualized feedback. Students can write articles and serve as editors for Stetson’s three law journals: the Journal of International Aging Law and Policy, the
• Willem C. Vis (East) International Commercial Arbitration Moot: (Hong Kong), Eric Bergsten Award for Best Memorandum on Behalf of the Claimant and Honorable Mention, Respondents’ Memorandum • 2011 Robert Orseck Memorial Moot Court Competition: Best Brief
Exemplary Performance Journal of International Wildlife Law and Policy, and the Stetson Law Review. Stetson’s highly acclaimed Moot Court Board allows students to refine persuasive writing and oral advocacy skills. Upper-level students also serve as Legal Research and Writing Teaching Assistants.
Expert, Experienced and Engaged Faculty The first-year legal research and writing curriculum is taught by full-time, tenured and tenure-track faculty members who produce scholarship that contributes to the growth of knowledge about legal research and writing, the refinement of communication in legal practice, and the improvement of pedagogy in the discipline. Faculty have held positions in state and federal government, as judicial clerks, in international and public interest organizations, and as attorneys in large and small firms. They hold leadership positions in state, regional and national legal research and writing organizations. Some hold or are working toward advanced degrees in law, human communication, library science, and other fields, enriching their perspectives on the legal research and writing curriculum and disciplinary development. Six Stetson legal skills faculty have received tenure and promotion to full Professor of Legal Skills since the creation of the programmatic tenure-track in 2008. In addition, the Director received tenure as an Associate Professor of Law in 2010. In all, more than 30 individuals are involved in Stetson’s Legal Research and Writing curriculum, including faculty members, librarians, and a team of Legal Research and Writing Teaching Assistants. The award of programmatic tenure recognizes the unique teaching, scholarship, and service contributions of legal writing faculty.
National Writing Awards In recent years, three Stetson University College of Law graduates have won the Burton Legal Writing Award. Forrest Bass won the award in 2010 and Elizabeth Wood Voss won in 2009 (both pictured below). Alumna Carrie Ann Wozniak won in 2005.
Disciplinary Leadership
“I want my students to continue learning throughout their careers, and it is essential that I do the same. I remain engaged in discussions of best practices for and emerging ideas to improve teaching and student learning, both in the specific field of legal writing and in legal teaching more generally.” –Linda Anderson,
Selected Research and Writing Faculty Scholarship
Selected Research and Writing Faculty Presentations
Professor of Legal Skills and Associate Director of Legal Research and Writing
Linda Anderson, Incorporating Adult Learning Theory into Law School Classrooms: Small Steps Leading to Large Results, 5 Appalachian L.J. 527 (2006).
Brooke J. Bowman & Stephanie A. Vaughan, Learning the Process: Developing Your Critiquing Methodology, and Using the Process: Working with Your Critiquing Methodology, Educating Advocates: Teaching Advocacy Skills, Gulfport, Florida, May 2010.
Faculty accomplishments
Brooke J. Bowman (with Coleen M. Barger), ALWD Companion: A Citation Practice Book (Aspen Publishers 2010). Joan Catherine Bohl, Generations X and Y in Law School: Practical Strategies for Teaching the “MTV/Google” Generation, 54 Loy. L. Rev. 775 (2008). Brooke J. Bowman, Research Across the Curriculum: The Road Must Continue Beyond the First Year, 61 Okla. L. Rev. 503 (2009).
Brooke J. Bowman & Stephanie A. Vaughan, Team Teaching: A Combination of Good Parenting and Good Cop/Bad Cop? Southeastern Regional Legal Writing Conference, Gulfport, Florida, September 2009.
Kirsten K. Davis, Legal Forms as Rhetorical Transaction: Competency in the Context of Information and Efficiency, 79 U.M.K.C. L. Rev 1 (2011).
Catherine J. Cameron, Lance Long & Jason Palmer, Paradigm Shift: Effectively Transitioning Students between Professors during the First-Year Writing Curriculum OR Let’s Talk about Switching It Up, Rocky Mountain Legal Writing Conference, Tucson, Arizona, March 2010.
Kirsten K. Davis, The Rhetoric of Accommodation: Considering the Language of WorkFamily Discourse, 4 U. St. Thomas L.J. 530 (2007).
Kirsten K. Davis, Roundtable, The Meaning of Being “Faculty,” Association of Legal Writing Directors Biennial Conference, Sacramento, CA, June 2011.
Kirsten K. Davis, Building Credibility in the Margins: An Ethos-Based Perspective on Commenting on Student Papers, 12 Leg. Writing 71 (2006).
Kirsten K. Davis, You Are Already Working on a Legal Writing Article: A Workshop, Association of Legal Writing Directors Biennial Conference, Sacramento, CA, June 2011 (with Karen Sneddon & Cassandra Hill).
Kirsten K. Davis, Designing and Using Peer Review in a First-Year Legal Research and Writing Course, 9 Leg. Writing 667 (2003). Kelly M. Feeley, Hear a Song—Write a Wrong, Poor Grammar in Song Lyrics: An Old and New Enemy to Clear and Succinct Legal Writing, 2008 Scrivener 4. Royal C. Gardner, Lawyers, Swamps, and Money: U.S. Wetland Law, Policy, and Politics (Island Press 2011) (includes chapter on advocacy). Royal C. Gardner & Darby Dickerson, Advancing Environmental Education Through Moot Court, 1 Int’l J. Envtl. Consumerism 63 (2005). Lance N. Long & William C. Christensen, Does the Readability of Your Appellate Brief Affect Your Chance of Winning an Appeal?—An Analysis of Readability in Appellate Briefs and Its Correlation with Success on Appeal, 12 J. App. Pract. & Process __ (forthcoming 2011). Lance N. Long & William C. Christensen, Clearly Using Intensifiers Is Very Bad—Or Is It? 45 Idaho L. Rev. 171 (2008). Jeffrey Minneti & Catherine Cameron, Teaching Every Student: A Demonstration Lesson That Adapts Instruction to Students’ Learning Styles, 17 Persps. 161 (Spring 2009). Jeffrey Minneti & Catherine Cameron, Using Student Learning Preferences to Compare and Contrast Objective Memo Writing with Essay Exam Writing, 22 Second Draft 10 (Spring 2008). Ann Piccard, Teaching to Different Levels of Experience: What I Learned from Working with Experienced Writers from Different Fields, 17 Persps. 115 (Spring 2009). Stephanie A. Vaughan, Persuasion Is an Art…But It Is Also an Invaluable Tool in Advocacy, 61 Baylor L. Rev. 101 (2009).
Kirsten K. Davis, What? Take a Gamble on a Legal Research and Writing Exam? Yes, You Can Bet on It!, Rocky Mountain Regional Legal Writing Conference, Las Vegas, NV, March 2011. Kirsten K. Davis, Panelist, Reflect, Reconnect, Re-Energize—Retreat! How a Program Retreat Can Move You Forward, Legal Writing Institute Biennial Conference, Marco Island, Florida, June 2010. Kirsten K. Davis, Panelist, Kenneth Burke, Law, and Rhetorical Theory, Law and Rhetoric Panel, Southeastern Association of Law Schools Conference, Palm Beach, Florida, August 2009. Lance N. Long, How to Avoid Writing Like a Loser: The Theory of Argumentative Threat, 2011 Rocky Mountain Legal Writing Conference, Las Vegas, Nevada, March 25, 2011. Jeffrey J. Minneti, Pre and Post Testing: An Effective Instructional Tool for Professors and Students in the Legal Writing Classroom, Legal Writing Institute Biennial Conference, Marco Island, Florida, June 2010. Jason Palmer, Associates Boot Camp: Nuts and Bolts of Drafting for Clients, American Bar Association 2009 Fall Meeting, Miami, Florida, October 2009. Stephanie A. Vaughan, Moderator, The Status of Legal Writing Faculty in the Academy, Southeastern Association of Law Schools Annual Conference, Palm Beach, Florida, August 2010.
Kirsten K. Davis Associate Professor of Law Director of Legal Research and Writing B.A., J.D., The Ohio State University; Ph.D. candidate, Arizona State University Professor Davis is a member of the board of directors of the Association of Legal Writing Directors and serves on the Executive Committee for the AALS Section on Women in Legal Education. She served as Scholarship Committee co-chair for ALWD and as a member of the Legal Writing Institute’s Awards Committee and Plagiarism Committee. She regularly presents at regional and national legal writing conferences. Professor Davis is pursuing a doctorate in human communication, and her scholarship focuses on legal method and writing, law and rhetoric, professional responsibility, and work/life law. Her recent article appearing in the University of Missouri Kansas City Law Review explores the intersect between rhetorical theory and legal form use. In addition to legal research and writing, Davis teaches professional responsibility and is the Gulfport Campus Director of Stetson’s Pre-Law Institute. She is an affiliate member of The Florida Bar and has been admitted to practice in Arizona, Ohio and West Virginia. Linda S. Anderson Professor of Legal Skills Associate Director of Legal Research and Writing A.B., College of the Holy Cross; J.D., Franklin Pierce Law Center (now University of New Hampshire Law School) Professor Anderson practiced law in northern New Hampshire before entering the legal academy. She also worked for the New Hampshire court system and as the assistant director and associate contract officer of The Hitchcock Foundation. Professor Anderson regularly makes presentations about assessment and learning outcomes at regional and national conferences of the Legal Writing Institute, serves as an assistant editor of Legal Writing: Journal of the Legal Writing Institute, and is a member of the LWI Professional Development Committee. In addition, Professor Anderson is Chair-Elect of the AALS Section on Part-Time Programs. Professor Anderson’s research focuses on assessment and learning theory as applied to legal education, parenting rights of non-traditional parents, and the intersection of reproductive technology and the law.
Joan Catherine Bohl Professor of Legal Skills B.A., Boston University; J.D., Suffolk University Professor Bohl joined Stetson’s legal writing faculty in 2004 after 13 years of teaching legal writing at Southwestern University School of Law in Los Angeles. She served for five years as staff attorney to the Rhode Island Supreme Court, becoming counsel to the Court’s Ethics Advisory Panel. During this period, she also taught college writing to evening students at Providence College, Rhode Island. Professor Bohl was a visiting professor of Law at the Santa Clara University School of Law during the 2009–2010 academic year. Her scholarship has focused on legal ethics, custody and visitation. Professor Bohl is a nationally recognized expert on grandparent visitation. Four state supreme courts, four state appellate courts and more than 40 law review articles have cited her work in evaluating the constitutionality of grandparent visitation statutes. Professor Bohl’s most recent book, Children and the Law: The Competing Rights, Privileges, and Interests of Children, Parents and the State, was published by Vandeplas Publishing in 2010. Brooke J. Bowman Professor of Legal Skills and Moot Court Advisor B.S., Indiana University, Bloomington; M.S., University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign; J.D., Stetson University Professor Bowman co-authored the ALWD Companion: A Citation Practice Book (with accompanying Teacher’s Manual). She has published articles in the Oklahoma Law Review, The Second Draft, Stetson Law Review, and Perspectives: Teaching Legal Research and Writing. She regularly presents at national and regional conferences on teaching strategies, citation, research, scholarship, and working with research assistants. She is the Assistant Editor In Chief and a member of the editorial board for Legal Writing: The Journal of the Legal Writing Institute. Professor Bowman is also the Moot Court Advisor, and she has coached a number of award-winning moot court teams. In addition, she is the codirector of Stetson’s International Environmental Moot Court Competition and a member of the competition committee for Stetson’s National Pretrial Competition. She teaches Research and Writing, as well as a workshop on “Polishing for Professionals.”
Catherine J. Cameron Professor of Legal Skills B.A., M.A., J.D., University of Florida Professor Cameron’s scholarship focuses on media law and legal research and writing. She is co-authoring a legal writing textbook with Professor Lance Long titled The Science Behind the Art of Legal Writing, which focuses on the empirical research that supports many of the theories behind legal writing instruction. During the next two summers, Professor Cameron will conduct a sabbatical project at the Poynter Institute, where she will research media law issues that journalists are facing in the age of online publishing. Her recent scholarship includes “Fixing FOIA: Pushing Congress to Amend FOIA Section b(3) to Require Congress to Explicitly Indicate an Intent to Exempt Records from FOIA in New Legislation” in Quinnipiac Law Review, and “Jumping Off the Merry-Go-Round: How the Federal Courts Will Reconcile the Circular Deference Problem between HIPAA and FOIA” published in the Catholic University Law Review. Professor Cameron regularly presents at national and regional conferences and has coached several moot court and negotiation teams. Tishia A. Dunham Assistant Professor of Legal Skills and Director of Bar Preparation Services B.S., Florida State University; J.D., Indiana University Prior to joining the Stetson faculty, Professor Dunham practiced law for seven years in the areas of employment law, commercial and business litigation and real property with an emphasis on community associations. She served as a bar exam grader for the Florida Board of Bar Examiners for five years. While in private practice, she volunteered her time to help repeat takers pass the Florida Bar exam. Kelly M. Feeley Associate Professor of Legal Skills B.S., Florida State University; J.D., Stetson University Professor Feeley teaches Legal Research and Writing as well as Interviewing and Counseling. She advises Stetson’s Alternative Dispute Resolution Board, which consists of competition teams for arbitration, client counseling, mediation, and negotiation. Professor Feeley coached the first and second place regional arbitration teams and the national semifinalist arbitration team in 2010-2011. She coordinated the American Bar Association Law Student Division Regional Negotiation Competition in November 2010. Professor Feeley served as a liaison to the St. Petersburg Bar Association in 2010-2011. Royal C. Gardner Interim Dean, Professor of Law, and Director of the Institute for Biodiversity Law and Policy A.B., Georgetown University; J.D., Boston College Dean Gardner serves on the editorial boards of Wetlands Ecology and Management and the Journal of International Wildlife Law and Policy. He is a co-founder and co-director of Stetson’s International Environmental Moot Court Competition and serves on the advisory board for the Surana & Surana International Attorneys Moot Court Competitions in India. Dean Gardner received a 2006 National Wetlands Award for his scholarship. He teaches Research and Writing II, focusing on advocacy in an environmental law context. Dean Gardner’s most recent book, Lawyers,
Swamps, and Money: U.S. Wetland Law, Policy, and Politics, was published by Island Press in 2011. Lance Long Associate Professor of Legal Skills and ADR Board Co-Advisor B.A., J.D., Brigham Young University Professor Long taught legal research and writing for nine years at Brigham Young University and the University of Oregon before joining the Stetson faculty. His scholarship focuses on empirical analyses of language patterns in appellate briefs and opinions and the development of a theory of argumentative threat. He is a regular presenter at national and regional legal writing conferences. His most recent article, “Does the Readability of Your Appellate Brief Affect Your Chance of Winning an Appeal?—An Analysis of Readability in Appellate Briefs and Its Correlation with Success on Appeal” is forthcoming in the Journal of Appellate Practice and Process. Before entering academia, Professor Long practiced law in California and Utah in the areas of intellectual property, contract, and construction law. Jeffrey J. Minneti Associate Professor of Legal Skills and Director of Academic Success B.A. University of South Florida; M.B.A., J.D., Cumberland School of Law, Samford University Professor Minneti recently published “Relational Integrity Regulation: Nudging Consumers Toward Products Bearing Valid Environmental Marketing Claims” in Environmental Law and “Is it Too Easy Being Green? A Behavioral Economics Approach to Determining Whether to Regulate Environmental Marketing Claims” in Loyola Law Review. He co-authored two articles in the spring 2009 edition of Perspectives: “Law Students Are Different from the General Population: Empirical Findings Regarding Learning Styles” and “Teaching Every Student: A Demonstration Lesson that Adapts Instruction to Students’ Learning Styles.” Professor Minneti has served as resident director for Stetson’s summer abroad programs in Granada, Spain, and The Hague, Netherlands, and he has coached First Amendment and criminal procedure moot court teams. In May 2010, he received the Dean’s Award for extraordinary service to the College of Law. Jason Palmer Associate Professor of Legal Skills B.A., University of Virginia; J.D., George Washington University Professor Palmer’s scholarship focuses on developing trends in international mass claims processes, and he has written articles and book chapters on the topic. He presented on “live commenting” in student conferences as a panelist at the 2010 Legal Writing Institute One-Day Conference. He also presented “The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities: Will Ratification Lead to a Holistic Approach to Post-Secondary Education for Persons with Disabilities” at the 2010 Florida Legal Scholar Forum and the Southeastern Association of Law Schools 2011 Annual Meeting, and on ““The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities: A Holistic Approach to Disability” at the Association of American Law Schools 2010 Annual Meeting in San Francisco, Calif. Professor Palmer serves as deputy or co-editor for several scholarly journals and was a moderator for Stetson’s Virtual Legal Writing Webinar on Upper-Level Writing Programs.
Ann M. Piccard Professor of Legal Skills B.A., Florida State University; J.D., Stetson University; LL.M., University of London Professor Piccard teaches U.S. Legal Research and Writing to Stetson’s J.D. and International LL.M. students. She also teaches and writes in the area of international human rights law, with an emphasis on international distributive justice. Her most recent scholarship includes “U.S. Ratification of CEDAW: From Bad to Worse?” in Law and Inequality, and “The United States’ Failure to Ratify the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights: Must the Poor Be Always with Us?” in The Scholar: St. Mary’s Law Review on Minority Issues. She presented her current research on the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights at the AALS Workshop on Women Rethinking Equality in Washington D.C. in June 2011. Wanita Scroggs Library Liaison for Legal Research and Writing B.A., Texas A&M University; M.L.I.S., University of South Florida; J.D., Arizona State University Wanita Scroggs is the foreign and international law librarian for Stetson University College of Law. She is a member of the Florida Bar and the American Association of Law Libraries, where she serves as a mentor to new law librarians. She also is a member of the American Society of International Law, where she serves as a research attorney in the International Legal Research Interest Group. She is immediate past president of the Central Florida Association of Law Libraries. She teaches Advanced Legal Research with an international law focus. Her research interests also include environmental law and bioethics. Rebecca S. Trammell Law Library Director, Director of Electronic Education and Professor of Law B.A., Lindenwood University; M.L.S., Dominican University; J.D., University of Denver; Ph.D. candidate, Nova Southeastern University Professor Trammell has directed legal research programs and has taught live and online courses in basic and advanced legal research, advanced legal research in tax, and cyberlaw. Her research interests focus on technology and technology in legal education. She is the author of Werner’s Manual for Prison Law Libraries (3d ed., William S. Hein & Co. 2004) and numerous articles on research and writing. Marilyn Uzdavines Visiting Assistant Professor of Legal Skills B.A., J.D., University of Florida Professor Uzdavines joins Stetson from private practice, where she was a shareholder at the Uzdavines Law Group in Tampa. She also worked as an associate for Holland & Knight LLP and as an extern for the Middle District of Florida for Judge Susan C. Bucklew. During law school, she served as symposium editor of the Florida Law Review and teaching assistant for legal research and writing, appellate advocacy, and trial practice courses. Professor Uzdavines is a member of the Order of the Coif and speaks fluent Spanish and Italian.
Stephanie A. Vaughan Professor of Legal Skills and Special Assistant to the Dean for Alumni and Development B.A., University of Alabama; J.D., Stetson University Professor Vaughan teaches Research and Writing and co-teaches International Sales and Arbitration. She served as Moot Court Advisor to Stetson’s awardwinning Moot Court Board for over a decade. During her tenure, the school won 17 championships, 22 best brief awards, and over 40 oralist awards. This year, she coached the Houston National team and both Willem C. Vis International Commercial Arbitration teams (one went to Hong Kong and the other to Vienna, Austria). Professor Vaughan was awarded the first-ever Moot Court Board Cornerstone Award for her decade of distinction as its advisor. She has served as the resident director of overseas programs, administering study-abroad programs in Lausanne, Switzerland; Freiburg, Germany; the Cayman Islands; Buenos Aires, Argentina; The Hague, Netherlands; and Tallinn, Estonia.
Virtual Legal Writing Conference Webinars Stetson recognizes the importance of fostering a national conversation among faculty about legal research and writing topics to the growth and development of the field. To that end, Stetson launched a webinar series through its Project for Excellence in Legal Communication in fall 2009. Over the last two years, Stetson has hosted eight webinars with more than 20 presenters and 250 attendees for the live events. Topics have included outcomes and assessment in legal writing, coaching moot court teams, advanced writing course innovations, the definition of “legal writing scholarship,” technology for giving feedback, and new ideas and voices in legal writing scholarship. Stetson will continue its webinars, and archived presentations are available by registering for free at www.law.stetson.edu/arc, and then clicking on the “Project for Excellence in Legal Communication” category. “As legal writing faculty, we are part of a continuing conversation about important issues of pedagogy, service, professional development and scholarship. When we come together at our conferences, we are invigorated by our interactions, renewed in our commitment to the profession, and stimulated by the presentations to think more deeply about those topics of significance to our community. The goal of the Virtual Legal Writing Conference is to create an online opportunity for legal writing faculty to have the ‘conference experience’ — education, invigoration, and professional renewal — without needing a travel budget.” – Kirsten K. Davis, Director of Legal Research and Writing and Associate Professor of Law
Praise for the webinars from the participants: “It far exceeded my expectations. The insight was very practical and extremely useful.” “I enjoyed the webinar very much and learned a lot. In fact, I’ll be downloading the conference to go over some of the points again, and hope to share it with some of my colleagues.” “Very informative and just the right length for an online course.” “This is a wonderful idea. Our depleted resources have made it impossible to attend many valuable conferences offered in the legal writing community. ... Great information delivered in an economically friendly package!”
Stetson University College of Law 1401 61st Street South Gulfport, FL 33707 www.law.stetson.edu/academics/lrw
Legal Research and Writing • Full-time tenured and tenure-track legal writing professors with substantial practice, teaching, publication, and leadership experience
• Home of the International Environmental Moot Court Competition and the National Pretrial Competition
• Seven credits of legal research and writing courses required in the first year
• One of few law schools to share space with a working court, Florida’s Second District Court of Appeal
• Individualized attention for first-year legal writing students, including office conferences, oral arguments and small classes • Specialized moot court training in Stetson’s award-winning advocacy program • Seven courtrooms featuring advanced technology • 2009 host of the Southeast Regional Legal Writing Conference • 2010 host of Legal Writing Institute One-Day Workshop for Legal Writing Faculty • Three academic law journals: Stetson Law Review, Journal of International Aging Law and Policy, and Journal of International Wildlife Law and Policy • Project for Excellence in Legal Communication produces legal writing programs and materials • Scholarly Writing Series for students in seminars and independent research courses • Championship moot court teams who have won 25 brief awards in past five years
• Honors Program for top-ranking students • Frequent awards for student writing excellence, including two consecutive Burton Legal Writing Award winners • Host of Virtual Legal Writing Conference Webinars • Committed to developing the discipline of legal writing • Dedicated faculty for academic success and bar preparation
Now available: Recorded webinars online You can now watch archived webinars from Stetson’s Virtual Legal Writing Conference series by logging into our Advocacy Resource Center at www.law.stetson.edu/arc. Access is free to law professors and students.