2025 New England Legal Writing Conference

Vermont Law and Graduate School (VLGS) looks forward to hosting professors from near and far for the the 2025 New England Legal Writing Conference. This year’s theme is “Legal Writing: 2035.”

Participants will be asked to imagine the promise—and peril—of the future of legal writing. What will legal writing look like ten years from now? How should legal writing professors pivot to address rapidly evolving developments in technology and society? Which core principles of legal writing should we preserve–and which should we abandon?

For conference details, including information on registration and hotel accommodations, please click here. You can view the tentative schedule below.

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SCHEDULE:

8:30 – 9:30 a.m. | Breakfast (Yates Common Room)

Sponsored by Bloomberg

9:15 – 9:30 a.m. | Dean’s Welcome with Dean Beth McCormack (Yates Common Room)

9:30 – 10:15 a.m. | Opening Plenary Address (Yates Common Room)

• Moderator: Greg Johnson
• Linda Anderson, Stetson University College of Law: Legal Writing Reimagined: AI, NextGen Bar, and the New Writing Process—What Every Professor Needs to Know

10:25 – 10:50 a.m. | Plenary Discussion Group (Yates Common Room)

• Moderator: Catherine Fregosi
• Nicole Belbin, Beth Cohen, and Jessica Mahon Soles, Western New England School of Law: The Future of Legal Writing is Now: Everything, Everywhere, All at Once

10:50 – 11 a.m. | Coffee Break (Yates Common Room)
Sponsored by Aspen Publishing

11 – 11:50 a.m. | Concurrent Sessions

• Map Room
  • Moderator: Professor Michael Kovac
  • Anna Elbroch, Melissa Christensen, Heather Ward, Julia Pothen, and Kelsey Klementowicz, UNH Franklin Pierce School of Law: Mindful AI Integration: Designing Activities that Build Skills, Not Shortcuts
  • Rachel Jay Smith, University of Cincinnati College of Law: Chatbots as Tutors: Enhancing Legal Writing Education for the Future
    
• Nina Thomas Classroom
  • Moderator: Professor Anna Connolly
  • Liz Chen, Brooklyn Law School: Rewarding Reflection
  • Kerry Fulham, Brooklyn Law School: Beyond Anxiety: Incorporating Creative Exercises into the Legal Writing Classroom

12 – 12:30 p.m. | Lunch (Yates Common Room)
Sponsored by Thomson Reuters

12:30 – 1:50 p.m. | Keynote Speakers (Yates Common Room)

• Moderator: Professor Catherine Fregosi
• Elizabeth Berenguer, Stetson University College of Law; Lucy Jewel, University of Tennessee Winston College of Law; and
  Teri McMurtry-Chubb, University of Illinois Chicago School of Law: Gut Renovation: Using Critical and Comparative Rhetoric to Remodel How the Law Addresses Privilege and Power

2 – 2:50 p.m. | Concurrent Sessions

• Map Room
  • Moderator: Professor Tenielle Fordyce-Ruff
  • Colin M. Black, Suffolk University Law School: The Ghost-writer- in the Machine: When Must Lawyers Disclose AI Assistance in Legal Writing?
  • Sarah Cansler, Campbell University, Norman Adrian Wiggins School of Law: Teaching Ethical Use of AI
    
• Nina Thomas Classroom
  • Moderator: Professor Jessica Durkis-Stokes
  • Anna Connolly, Vermont Law and Graduate School, Get Out of the Shallows: Break Up Legal Research and Writing
  • Stevie Leahy, Suffolk University Law School: Fifty Classrooms, One Future: Ground-Level Visions for Legal Writing in 2035

2:50 – 3 p.m. | Coffee Break (Yates Common Room)
Sponsored by LexisNexis

3 – 4:30 p.m. | Concurrent Sessions

• Map Room
  • Moderator: Professor Greg Johnson
  • Marni Goldstein Caputo and Kathleen Luz, Boston University School of Law: Professional Identity Formation in the Transactional Context: Not an Amorphous Concept
  • Laura D’Amato and Claire Abely, Boston University School of Law: A Transactional Simulation for a Changing Legal Education Landscape
  • Rebecca Chapman, Northeastern University School of Law: Transforming and Expanding Legal Writing Instruction Through Clinical Work
    
• Nina Thomas Classroom
  • Moderator: Professor Michael Kovac
  • Patricia Winograd and Rebecca Delfino, LMU Loyola Law School: A Look at the Future . . . From a First-Generation Perspective
  • Krista Bordatto, Campbell Law School: Incorporating Cross-Cultural Competency and Cultural Humility into the Legal Writing Classroom—Enhancing Advocacy and Global Understanding
  • Afton Cavanaugh, University of Baltimore School of Law: “We Were Raised in Crisis”: Teaching Legal Writing to a Generation Formed by Upheaval

4:30 – 5 p.m. | Closing Reception (Yates Common Room)