Legal Research and Writing

Tobi Tabor
Clinical Assistant Professor of Legal Research and Writing, 2000-present. Co-Director, Legal Research and Writing, 2003-present. University of Wisconsin, B.S., 1965; Roosevelt University, M.A., 1972; University of Houston Law Center. J.D., magna cum laude, 1979, Note & Comment Editor, Houston L. Rev. Admitted: TX, 1979. Law clerk, The Honorable Carl O. Bue, United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas, 1979-1981. Associate, 1981-1985, Partner, 1986-1996, Royston, Rayzor, Vickery & Williams, L.L.P., Houston.

Merle M. Morris
Clinical Assistant Professor of Legal Analysis, Research, and Communication, 2001-present. Interim Co-Director, Legal Analysis, Research, and Communication, 2003-05. Director, Career Services, 2000-01. Founding Director, UHLC Public Interest Law Program, 1999-2000. Associate Director, Legal Research and Writing Department, 1998-99. Teaching assistant and adjunct, Legal Research and Writing, 1991-2001. Recipient, UHLC Student Bar Association Distinguished Staff Member of the Year Award, 2000 and the Public Interest Law Organization Faculty/Staff Award, 2000. University of Houston, B.A., Summa Cum Laude, 1973; University of Houston Law Center, J.D., 1992. Associate, Neel, Seymore, Price & Livingston, 1993-95; 1996-98 and Mehaffy & Weber, 1995. Professor Morris also teaches Pretrial Litigation.

Susan Kessler Rachlin
Clinical Assistant Professor of Legal Research and Writing, 2000-present. Program Manager, Legal Writing Center, 2002-present.  Rice University, B.A. 1974; University of Texas, M.P.H., 1976; University of Houston Law Center, J.D., summa cum laude , 1981, Houston L. Rev. Admitted: TX, 1981. Associate, Fulbright & Jaworski, Houston, 1981-85. Board Member, The Hospice at the Texas Medical Center, 1984-2001, board chair, 1993-94; Institutional Review Board, Rice University, 1985-2006.

Lisa Tilton-McCarthy
Clinical Assistant Professor of Legal Research and Writing. Professor Tilton-McCarthy received a B.A. in English from Texas A&M University in 1990 and graduated summa cum laude from South Texas College of Law in 1996. She was Editor-in-Chief of the South Texas Law Review as well as Valedictorian of her graduating class. After graduation, Professor Tilton-McCarthy served as a law clerk for the Honorable Vanessa D. Gilmore, United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas. She then worked as an associate in the trial department of Baker Botts, L.L.P.

Bethany Smith

Bethany Smith is an assistant clinical professor of legal research and writing.  In addition to teaching the first year legal research and writing courses, she has taught Advanced Legal Research and the foreign L.L.M. legal research and writing course.

In 1989, Professor Smith received a B.S. in Education from the University of Texas at Austin.  In 1991, she received her Master of Library and Information Science from the University of Texas at Austin.  She worked as an elementary school teacher and an elementary school librarian before entering law school.   In 1996, she received her J.D. from the University of Houston Law Center, and she was admitted to the bar in 1996.  After graduation, Professor Smith worked as a law librarian and as the Assistant Director of the Legal Research & Writing Program.

Lori Twomey
Lori Twomey is an assistant clinical professor of legal research and writing.  In addition to teaching the first year legal research and writing courses, she has taught Legal Drafting, Procedure II, and Pretrial Litigation.  She is also one of the coaches of the University of Houston Law Center’s award winning Interscholastic Moot Court Team.

Professor Twomey obtained a B.S. in Journalism and Broadcasting from Oklahoma State University in 1996, and her J.D., magna cum laude, from the University of Houston Law Center in 2002.  She was admitted to the Texas Bar in 2002.  While attending the University of Houston Law Center, Professor Twomey was an editor on the Houston Journal of International Law, she participated in numerous interscholastic moot court competitions including advancing to the national rounds of the A.B.A. Moot Court Competition, and she was awarded with membership into the Order of the Barristers.
Before joining the Law Center in 2006, Professor Twomey worked for Locke Liddell & Sapp LLP and for Rathwell & Nizialek, P.C.  Her principal area of practice was civil litigation.

Billy Berryhill
Clinical Assistant Professor of Legal Research & Writing, 2007–present. Professor Berryhill received a Ph.D. in Political Science from Louisiana State University and a J.D., summa cum laude, from the University of Mississippi School of Law. He served as a law clerk to Judge Edith H. Jones of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in 2001–2002, and to Judge E. Grady Jolly of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in 2000–2001. He practiced law for more than three years, mostly as an Assistant Attorney General in the Civil Litigation Division of the Mississippi Attorney General’s Office. Professor Berryhill taught courses in political theory and constitutional law at LSU.

Shaundra L. Kellam
Assistant Clinical Professor of Legal Research and Writing, 2007 to present.  Stetson University, B.A. 1995; University of St. Thomas School of Law, J.D., graduated with honors, 1998.  Assistant Public Defender, Miami-Dade Public Defender’s Office-Appellate Division, 1998-2001; Staff Attorney, United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit, 2001-2005; Appellate Attorney, Federal Public Defender’s Office for the Central District of Illinois, 2005-2007. 

Jani Maselli
Adjunct Professor of Legal Research and Writing, 1999-present. Criminal and Habeas Corpus Trial and Appellate Practice, 1998-present. Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts, B.A., 1985; State University of New York at Albany, M.A., English, 1986; University of Houston Law Center, J.D., 1994, Recipient, American Jurisprudence Award, Criminal Law. Admitted: TX, 1994. Staff Attorney, Inmate Legal Services, Texas Department of Criminal Justice, 1995-1997. Staff Attorney, Honorable Charles F. Baird, Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, 1997-1998.

Whitney Werich Heard
Adjunct Professor of Legal Research and Writing, 2007-present.  University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, B.A., summa cum laude, 2001; Georgetown University Law Center, J.D., cum laude, 2004.  Admitted:  IL, 2004.  Associate, Kirkland & Ellis, LLP (Chicago), 2004-2005.  Law clerk, The Honorable Marcia A. Crone, United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, 2005-2007.