Legal Writing Faculty
Faculty Awards
Members of the legal writing faculty have been recognized both for their contributions to the profession and for their outstanding teaching. Professor Laurel Currie Oates received the 2007 Burton Award for Outstanding Contribution to Legal Writing Education. In addition, she received Seattle University Alumni Association’s Distinguished Teaching Award in 1997, and the Association of American Law Schools’ Legal Writing, Research, and Analysis Section Award in 2003. Professor Anne Enquist won the 2007 Service Award from the AALS Section on Legal Writing, Reasoning, and Research. The Legal Writing Institute gave special awards to Professors Anne Enquist, Chris Rideout, and Laurel Currie Oates for their contributions to the profession in 1998, and Chris Rideout was named Faculty Member of the Year in 1995 and 1998.
Legal Writing Faculty
Laurel Currie Oates
Professor Laurel Currie Oates has been the director of Seattle University School of Law’s Legal Writing Program since 1984 and is one of the co-founders of the Legal Writing Institute. With Professor Anne Enquist, Professor Oates has authored five books on legal writing: The Legal Writing Handbook, which is in its fourth edition; Just Memos, Just Briefs, and Just Writing, which are in their second edition; and Just Research. Professor Oates has also authored numerous law review articles, including articles on legal reading, writing to learn, the transfer of learning, and the outsourcing of legal work. During spring semester 2007, Professor Oates worked in India, Uganda, and South Africa, providing workshops on effective writing for judges, magistrates, attorneys, and law students. In June 2007, Professor Oates received the Burton Award for Outstanding Contributions to Legal Writing Education at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C.
Anne Enquist
Professor Enquist was a member of the national Board of Directors for the Legal Writing Institute from 1986-1998 and again from 2002 to the present. The co-founder of the Association of Writing Specialists, she has written a regular column on teaching legal writing for Perspectives, as well as served on the editorial board for the journal Legal Writing. In addition, she is a noted scholar and author in the area of critiquing law students writing and has co-authored several books and numerous articles on legal writing. In 2005-2007, she served as the law school’s Co-Director of Faculty Development. In 2007, she received the AALS Legal Writing, Reasoning, and Research Section Award. She has served as a faculty advisor for both the Seattle University Law Review and the Seattle Journal for Social Justice, and as the Writing Advisor to the Legal Writing program since its beginning in 1980.
J. Christopher Rideout
Professor Rideout has a Ph.D. in English from the University of Washington. While a graduate student there, he taught writing and then joined the English department at the University of Puget Sound. From 1981-84 he co-directed a regional writing project funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities. He joined the Law School faculty in 1981 and serves as an Associate Director of the Legal Writing program. Co-founder of the Legal Writing Institute, he chaired its board of directors. Professor Rideout has been editor-in-chief of the journal Legal Writing and also served on its editorial board for many years. More recently, he has served as a mentor to the Legal Writing Institute’s Scholarly Writing Workshop. He has presented numerous CLE’s for the Washington State Bar Association on legal writing, legal drafting, and persuasive writing. He has also done plain-language consulting for the legal departments of Microsoft and Amazon.com. "In 2009, he was presented with the Mary S. Lawrence Award for Excellence in Legal Scholarship." He teaches courses in advanced writing and persuasion, legal drafting, and law, language, and literature.
Lorraine Bannai
After earning her J.D. from the University of San Francisco School of Law, Professor Bannai was a partner with the San Francisco firm of Minami, Lew & Tamaki. While in practice, she was part of the legal team in Korematsu v. United States, an action that successfully challenged Fred Korematsu’s conviction for violating military orders removing Japanese Americans from the West Coast during World War II. Before joining the Seattle University faculty in 1996, Professor Bannai directed the academic support program at the University of California, Berkeley, Boalt Hall School of Law; taught at the University of San Francisco School of Law, the John F. Kennedy School of Law, and the New College of California School of Law; and co-directed the Law and Diversity Program at Western Washington University. She has written and presented on issues related to the Japanese American internment, fostering diversity in the legal profession, and legal writing presenting last year on designing effective legal writing assignments at the AALS Workshop for New Legal Writing Teachers. She currently serves as co-faculty advisor to the Seattle Journal for Social Justice and currently serves as Associate Director of the law school's Fred T. Korematsu Center for Law and Equality.
Deirdre Bowen
Professor Bowen has an undergraduate degree from Boston University, cum laude, and a J.D., cum laude from the University of Buffalo School of Law, where she was the recipient of the Adolf Homberger Award for excellence in Civil Procedure. After practicing complex litigation in Washington, D.C., at Shaw, Pittman, Potts, & Trowbridge, she headed the consumer mediation department at Call For Action, a national non-profit consumer advocacy group. As a graduate student in Sociology at the University of Washington, Professor Bowen received the Norman S. Hayner award for excellence in her field in 1995. After completing her Ph.D. in 2002, Professor Bowen taught at the University of Washington Bothell, and Seattle University, where she was honored with the 2007 Faculty Appreciation award from the Criminal Justice department. Since 2001, Professor Bowen has taught Family Law and Consumer Law as an adjunct faculty member of the law school. She has presented her work on families, plea bargaining, and race issues both nationally and internationally at sociology as well as law conferences. Dr. Bowen was appointed by Governor Christine Gregoire to serve on the Washington State Child Support Guidelines Commission. Deirdre Bowen, the National People of Color Legal Scholarship Junior Faculty Competition's Best Paper Award, September 2010.
Mary Bowman
Professor Bowman received her B.A. summa cum laude from Seattle University in 1995 and her J.D. in 1998 from Stanford Law School in 1998, where she was a member of the Order of the Coif. After graduation, she clerked for Judge Thomas S. Zilly, U.S. District Court, Western District of Washington. Professor Bowman is the co-faculty advisor to the Seattle University Law Review. Professor Bowman also co-facilitates Seattle University’s Arrupe Seminar on the Foundations and Visions of Jesuit Education, a biweekly, year-long seminar for university faculty and staff. Before joining the law faculty in 2001, Professor Bowman practiced environmental law and employment law at Davis Wright Tremaine, LLP, in Seattle. Within the law school, Professor Bowman has served as a faculty advisor for students interested in pursuing clerkship opportunities. Nationally, Professor Bowman serves on the final committee selecting the winner of the Scribes Law Review Award for best student note or comment, and she screens entries for the Scribes’ National Best Brief Award.
Merryn DeBenedetti
Ms. DeBenedetti received her J.D., summa cum laude, from Seattle University School of Law, where she was Editor-in-Chief of the Seattle University Law Review and a Faculty Scholar, and a B.A. in Political Science from Western Washington University. During law school, she also earned CALI awards for academic achievement in Contracts; Property; Professional Responsibility; Advanced Writing Seminar; Law, Language, and Literature; Natural Resources; and Corporate Governance.
After law school, Ms. DeBenedetti joined the law firm of Davis Wright Tremaine LLP, where she practiced environmental and complex commercial litigation. Ms. DeBenedetti represented a broad range of industry, commercial, and private clients before administrative, state, and federal tribunals. At Davis Wright Tremaine, she managed and advised petroleum, corporate, and telecommunications clients, defended petroleum industry clients in cost recovery and contribution claims, and researched and drafted motions and appellate briefs and other written litigation materials in environmental, employment, and antitrust matters. Ms. DeBenedetti also served on Davis Wright Tremaine's Attorney Evaluation and Pro Bono Committees and was nominated for the firm's pro bono award for successfully obtaining asylum for women who had been victims of domestic violence in their home countries.
Janet Dickson
Professor Dickson received her B.A. in 1982 from the University of California at Davis, where she received a Chancellor’s Outstanding Senior Student Award. She received her J.D. cum laude University from now Seattle University School of Law in 1988 and her LL.M. in taxation from the University of Washington in 2000. She clerked for Judge Carolyn R. Dimmick, U.S. District Court, Western District of Washington. After maintaining a solo practice, Professor Dickson joined the law firm of Betts Austin, PLLC, where she practiced in the areas of estate planning and probate law, handling complicated tax issues, until joining the law school faculty in 2001. Professor Dickson has presented at Legal Writing conferences regionally, nationally, and internationally. Professor Dickson serves as Treasurer for APPEAL, an international organization developed to support the teaching of legal writing and the exchange of information among U.S. and African academics. As the faculty advisor to the student organization, Families United Network, Professor Dickson supports students as they address the difficulties inherent in having families while attending law school.
Connie Krontz
Professor Krontz has been a member of the legal writing faculty at Seattle University School of Law since 1994. She received her B.S. from University of Washington and was named Outstanding School of Social Work Undergraduate. She received her J.D. magna cum laude from Seattle University School of Law, where she was a Law Review note and comment editor and the Andrew Walkover Faculty Scholar. Before joining the legal writing faculty, Professor Krontz clerked for the Honorable Barbara Durham, Justice of the Washington Supreme Court and was a staff attorney at the Washington Appellate Defender Association. She has presented workshops for the Moot Court Board, the Seattle University Law Review, and the Seattle Journal of Social Justice and CLEs for the King County Bar Association and the Washington Office of Public Defense.
Sara Rankin
Professor Rankin has extensive experience handling complex commercial litigation matters. She has nearly a decade of experience in private practice, both as a partner at Kirkland & Ellis (Chicago office) and as an attorney at Sidley Austin (Chicago office). Professor Rankin also gained an in-house perspective, serving as assistant general counsel for a national accounting firm. Her areas of interest include legal education reform, clinical education, immigration and asylum law, alternative dispute resolution, and the dynamics between law, race, culture and gender. Prior to coming to Seattle University, Professor Rankin taught Legal Analysis, Research, and Communication at DePaul College of Law.
Mimi Samuel
Professor Samuel earned her undergraduate degree from Georgetown University and her J.D. cum laude from Georgetown University Law Center, where she received both the International Academy of Trial Lawyers’ Award for Advocacy and the American Jurisprudence Award for Excellence in Evidence. After law school, she practiced business litigation in Washington, D.C. at Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld, and in San Francisco, at Thelen, Marrrin Johnson and Bridges. In 2003, Professor Samuel taught the foundations of the U.S. legal system to Russian law students at Far Eastern National University in Vladivostok. In spring 2007, Professor Samuel conducted a series of trainings and workshops in India, Uganda, and South Africa. In addition, she co-organized the Conference on the Pedagogy of Legal Writing for Academics in Nairobi, Kenya, which brought academics from the U.S. together with academics from East Africa. Professor Samuel is a founding member and the first U.S. Co-President of APPEAL, an organization formed to promote exchanges between U.S. and African academics committed to improving the teaching of legal writing.
Kirsten Schimpff
Kirsten Schimpff is a graduate of Harvard Law School, where she was an editor on the Harvard Environmental Law Review. Following law school, Ms. Schimpff clerked for U.S. District Court Judge Deborah K. Chasanow, then entered private practice. Ms. Schimpff was a litigation associate at Williams & Connolly LLP in Washington, D.C., where her practice included First Amendment, white collar criminal defense, employment, and general commercial litigation. After moving to Seattle, Ms. Schimpff joined Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP as a corporate and technology associate, where she practiced corporate and securities law. Most recently, Ms.Schimpff was an Assistant United States Attorney in the Civil Division of the Seattle U.S. Attorney's Office. At the U.S. Attorney's Office, Ms. Schimpff litigated cases on behalf of the United States at both the trial court and appellate level, on a wide range of civil matters, including employment, torts, medical malpractice, and immigration cases.
Denis Stearns
Denis Stearns is a founding partner of Marler Clark, LLP, PS, a Seattle-based law firm with a national practice devoted to the representation of persons injured by unsafe food and drink. He is also a principal in Outbreak, Inc, a non-profit company that promotes food safety through education, political advocacy, and pro bono consulting with the food industry.
Stearns began his involvement in food-related litigation in 1993 as one of the lead defense attorneys handling the cases arising from the historic Jack in the Box E. coli O157:H7 outbreak in January 1993. Mr. Stearns was responsible for designing and implementing a discovery plan that allowed Foodmaker to present a consistent and successful defense in over one hundred lawsuits spread among several states. In this role, Mr. Stearns obtained extensive knowledge and experience in litigation that involves complex manufacturing systems, foodborne illnesses, and issues of quality control. He also became noted for a highly principled, but persistent, approach to the discovery process and is a frequent speaker and guest lecturer on ethics and the law. Since helping to found Marler Clark twelve years ago, he has worked on hundreds of food outbreak cases, including recent ones involving E. coli O157:H7-contaminated Dole spinach, Salmonella in Peter Pan peanut butter and Banquet pot pies, and a spate of outbreaks involving E. coli O157:H7 in ground beef, Nestlé cookie dough, and raw milk.
Mr. Stearns graduated from Seattle University with a degree in philosophy and obtained his law degree at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He is a frequent author and speaker on a wide variety of topics related to food, law, economics, and policy, and is the author of two book-chapters, a law journal article, and numerous other articles, essays, and opinion pieces. His most recent article, which is entitled "ON (CR)EDIBILITY: Why Food in the U.S. May Never Be Safe," will be published April this year in Stanford Law & Policy Review. He also has had an article published in the Journal of Food Law & Policy, titled "Preempting Food Safety: An Examination of USDA Rulemaking and its E. coli O157:H7 Policy in Light of Estate of Kriefall ex rel. Kriefall v. Excel Corporation." He has written extensively on food law and product liability law.
In addition to his work for Marler Clark, Mr. Stearns is active in the King County Bar Association pro bono program, Volunteer Attorneys for People with AIDS. Mr. Stearns was for nine years on the Board of Directors for The Bailey-Boushay House, America's first skilled nursing facility that was planned, founded, built and staffed to meet the needs of people living with AIDS.
Brendon Taga
Mr. Taga received his J.D., cum laude, from Seattle University School of Law, where he was a Fellow for the Center for Global Justice and a Faculty Scholar, and a B.A. in Intellectual History from the University of Pennsylvania. In addition to his responsibilities as a Professor of Lawyering Skills, Mr. Taga serves as the Assistant Director of the Academic Resource Center, which is nationally renowned for its commitment to providing access to the legal profession through the Access Admission Program. Mr. Taga designs instruction and promotes curricular programming that supports the diverse and non-traditional students admitted through the Program so they excel in law school and beyond. Mr. Taga is also responsible for supervising, hiring, and training the 30 teaching assistants that provide support for all 1L doctrinal courses. As an appointed panelist to the Partnership for Youth Justice, Mr. Taga also conducts community based hearings that serve as a diverse program for minor juvenile offenders.
Sullivan Hall