UH Law Center Lawyering Skills and Strategies faculty present across the country 

Dec. 20, 2019 — From teaching online classes and pro bono initiatives to bar preparedness and  mindfulness, Lawyering Skills and Strategies professors at the University of Houston Law Center are establishing themselves as experts and innovators in numerous aspects of teaching and learning.

This fall, LSS faculty presented across the country at national and regional conferences and workshops.  They also contributed impactful scholarship on skills-related topics and in other fields. 

“Our faculty had a busy and productive semester,” said Clinical Associate Professor Sarah Morath, director of the LSS program.  “I am delighted that we have the opportunity to share our expertise with different audiences.  In turn, the insights we gain from our fellow skills professors and practicing attorneys help us create a more effective learning environment for our students.”

The LSS professors’ presentations covered the following topics:

• Professors Kate Brem, Hilary Reed and Lauren Simpson shared their expertise on persuasive writing techniques with practicing attorneys at the Bar Association of the Fifth Circuit’s 2019 Appellate Advocacy Seminar in New Orleans.  They conducted a two-hour writing and editing workshop titled “Catching the Court’s Eye: Effective Writing and Editing Techniques to Elevate Your Advocacy.”

• Several LSS professors presented at the 2019 One-Day Workshops organized by the Legal Writing Institute.
  • Professors Megan Davis and Irene Ten Cate presented “Under, Here, Therefore” at the Charleston School of Law.  They discussed how translating the building blocks of legal advice into concrete cue words can help deepen students’ understanding of legal reasoning and provide a framework for tackling exam answers and bar exam essays.
  • Professors Alissa Gomez and Hilary Reed presented “Learning to Love Pro Bono: Bringing the Real World to the LRW Classroom” at the UC Irvine School of Law.  Their presentation identified ways to engage students in pro bono work as early as the first semester of law school, and discussed how working on real legal problems facing real people can bring legal research and writing to life.
  • Professors Whitney Heard and Simpson presented “Make it Personal: How Personal Interests Contribute to Professional Development” at St. Mary’s University School of Law in San Antonio.  They shared how their passionate pursuit of interests outside legal research, analysis, and writing informs their teaching philosophies and methodologies.
• Two LSS professors presented at the 2019 Global Legal Skills Conference, held at the Arizona State University Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law.  Brem presented “Passing the Bar,” which addressed how to use Uniform Bar Exam materials as a low-cost but high-impact means to equalize the education experience for foreign LL.M. students pursuing legal studies in the United States.  In a presentation titled “Unintended Education,” Davis discussed the need to weave historical and social context into introduction courses to U.S. law for foreign LL.M. students.  Brem and Davis also accepted the Global Legal Skills Award, which recognized the Law Center’s “strong commitment to international legal education.”

• LSS professors also shared insights on creating an effective online learning environment.
  • Reed presented “Asynchronous Brief Writing Instruction” at the Reimagining Advocacy Conference at Stetson University College of Law.  Her presentation discussed the pros and cons of using online, asynchronous video modules for students to use as they are writing sections of a brief.
  • Professor Kenneth Swift presented at a conference titled Online & Hybrid Learning Pedagogy: Toward Defining Best Practices in Legal Education, held at the University of Denver Sturm College of Law.  His presentation, “Active Learning and the Asynchronous Classroom,” addressed how to design asynchronous online education so that it satisfies fundamental principles of good practice in legal education.
• At the Western Regional Legal Writing Conference at the Santa Clara School of Law, Brem and Simpson explored how legal writing faculty can integrate mindfulness into their classrooms, in a presentation titled: “If a Lawyer Isn’t Happy, What’s the Point?  Making Mindfulness a Part of the Legal Writing Curriculum.”

• LSS professors also presented scholarship in other areas.  Morath presented her work-in-progress “Organic 2.0” at the Academy of Food Law & Policy’s Annual Meeting at Georgia State University College of Law.  Ten Cate presented her work-in-progress “Arbitral Judging” at a Works-in-Progress Program held in conjunction with the American Society of Comparative Law’s Annual Meeting at the University of Missouri School of Law, and at the American Society of International Law’s Midyear Meeting and Research Forum at Brooklyn Law School.