Laurel Currie Oates is a legal author and
law professor at
Seattle University School of Law
Seattle University School of Law, or Seattle Law School, or SU Law (formerly University of Puget Sound School of Law) is the law school affiliated with Seattle University, the Northwest's largest independent university.
The School is accredit ...
. Oates is also a visiting professor at the
University of Witwatersrand School of Law in Johannesburg.
She was a co-founder of the
Legal Writing Institute The Legal Writing Institute (LWI) is a nonprofit organization dedicated to improving legal communication, building the discipline of legal writing, and improving the status of legal writing faculty across the United States. The Institute currently h ...
, which now has more than 8,000 members; helped establish its newsletter known as ''The Second Draft''; and helped organize and host seven of its national conferences, including the 1984, 1986, 1988, 1992, 1996, 2000, and 2004 conferences. She is the co-author of five books, including ''The Legal Writing Handbook'', which is now in its sixth edition, and ''Just Research'', ''Just Memos'', ''Just Briefs'', and ''Just Writing''.
After graduating from the
University of Puget Sound
The University of Puget Sound (UPS or Puget Sound) is a private university in Tacoma, Washington. The university draws approximately 2,600 students from 44 states and 16 countries. It offers 1,200 courses each year in more than 50 traditional an ...
Law School (now the
Seattle University School of Law
Seattle University School of Law, or Seattle Law School, or SU Law (formerly University of Puget Sound School of Law) is the law school affiliated with Seattle University, the Northwest's largest independent university.
The School is accredit ...
), she clerked for the
Washington Court of Appeals
The Washington Court of Appeals is the intermediate level appellate court for the state of Washington. The court is divided into three divisions. Division I is based in Seattle, Division II is based in Tacoma, and Division III is based in Spok ...
. In 1980, Professor Oates joined the faculty at Seattle University School of Law until June 2021.
She designed and taught in the Legal Writing program at Seattle University School of Law, which has been ranked as the best or second best legal writing program in the United States by ''U.S. News & World Report'' in 14 or the last 15 years during her tenure there.
In 2014, Oates launched the Law School's first online course, a course on effective legal writing.
During the last fifteen years, Oates has taught multiple courses and workshops on legal writing in Afghanistan, Botswana, China, Ethiopia, India, Liberia, South Africa, Uganda, and the United States. She has hosted programs for both students and lawyers in South Africa. In 2018, she helped design an online Legal Writing course, which is now being used in South African law schools.
Awards
In June 2007, Oates received the Burton Award for Outstanding Contributions to Legal Writing Education at the Library of Congress in Washington D.C.; in October 2009 she received the Marjorie Rombauer Award for Contributions to the Teaching of Legal Writing; in October 2012 she received the Tom Holdych Award for Meritorious and Transformational Service, and in 2016 she received both the
Global Legal Skills Award and the Terri LeClercq Courage Award for her work in Afghanistan.
References
External links Seattle University School of Law
{{DEFAULTSORT:Oates, Laurel
Living people
Year of birth missing (living people)
American legal writers