Stinson elected to post

04/23/2007

Stinson elected to post 

 

 Judy Stinson 07 better

 Judy Stinson
     Professor Judy Stinson, Director of the Legal Research and Writing Program, will play a more prominent role in shaping the skills of tomorrow's attorneys, due to her recent election to a post in a national organization.
     In July, Stinson will become the 2007-08 president-elect of the Association of Legal Writing Directors (ALWD), and a year later, she will automatically become its president.
     "Professor Stinson is a terrific choice for national leadership of ALWD," said Dean Patricia White. "She brings great energy, knowledge and high intellectual standards to the position."
     ALWD is a non-profit professional association of directors of legal reasoning, research, writing, analysis and advocacy programs at law schools in the United States, Canada and Australia. The association has more than 200 members representing more than 150 law schools.
     Stinson said she's looking forward to helping further ALWD's mission of improving legal education and the analytic, reasoning and writing abilities of lawyers. One of the ways it does that is to advocate for smaller class sizes by conducting and circulating surveys that help law schools make better staffing decisions.
     "The best way to teach writing is to teach the necessary underlying organizational and analytical abilities," Stinson said. "Writing takes a lot of practice, with a lot of feedback."
     Her commitment to ALWD and willingness to serve in the volunteer post stems from the assistance she's received, both professionally and personally, from its membership.
     "It's a spectacular resource and a great group of people," Stinson said.
     She acknowledged her election may improve the College of Law's national rankings - its legal writing program is ranked 19th by U.S. News & World Report - but said the program's faculty deserves the most credit.
     "What helps the most with this program is we have incredibly wonderful writing professors, who are known nationally" and also publish books and lecture at major conferences, she said.
     Stinson, who has her J.D. from the University of Arizona, joined the faculty at the College of Law 10 years ago, and she teaches in the areas of legal writing and appellate advocacy. She previously taught at the University of Illinois and practiced law for several years.
     Stinson has been affiliated with ALWD for 13 years and has been a member of its board of directors for three years.
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