On Friday, September 12, the Legal Writing Department at Vermont Law and Graduate School (VLGS) hosted the New England Legal Writing Conference. This year’s theme was Legal Writing: 2035.
Participants were asked to imagine the promise—and peril—of the future of legal writing in the next ten years. Would today’s core principles still be primary, or would new ideas become more relevant? More than 50 professors from across the country traveled to South Royalton to join this exploration of ideas. Sessions covered a diverse range of topics—from the role cultural humility should play in legal writing instruction to the ethical use of generative AI and ways to encourage self-reflection in the classroom.
Attendees enthusiastically praised the conference and VLGS. They described the conference as “thought-provoking” and “enriching.” One attendee wrote: “The sessions challenged me to see our work from new perspectives, and I left with a renewed sense of purpose about where the discipline is headed. It was a memorable day of learning and connection.”
Selected presenters are now at work turning their presentations into essays for publication in Proceedings. A special edition of this journal dedicated to the New England Legal Writing Conference will be edited by VLGS’s legal writing faculty and published in 2026.
On behalf of the VLGS community, thank you to our attendees, sponsors, and everyone who contributed to making the conference a success!