Institute for the Advancement of Legal Communication
Stetson Law's Institute for the Advancement of Legal Communication was established in 2010 to contribute to building the discipline of legal research and writing at Stetson, within the broader legal academy, and throughout the practice of law. The Institute offers a forum for the exploration of the scholarly and pedagogical issues facing the discipline of legal writing.
Director's Message
"At The Institute, we are enthusiastic about cultivating a community that cares about exploring the facets of the legal writing discipline. Through rigorous and critical exploration of the discipline, we play an essential role in leading the ongoing development of our discipline both at the academic, as well as at the practical, level. Through this work, we set a high bar for practice, ensure access to justice, and protect the very systems that sustain our democracy."
Elizabeth E. Berenguer, Professor of Law
Director of the Institute for the Advancement of Legal Communication
Recent Newsletter
Our mission is to support the development of critical scholarship in our field, facilitate critical conversations about the contours of the discipline itself, and connect with the bench and bar to ensure that what we believe and teach about legal writing remains true and effective in the real world of legal practice.
This mission is fulfilled in three primary realms: student development of ethical legal writing, professor development of scholarship and pedagogy, and judicial and practitioner continuing education.
Stetson’s Institute for the Advancement of Legal Communication is committed to supporting student development as legal advocates. Stetson’s Legal Research and Writing program is currently ranked #3 in the nation, and it has been a top ranked program for more than two decades. Features of the curriculum include:
- Seven credits of required legal research and writing training in the first year.
- Full-time tenured and tenure-track legal writing faculty.
- Subject-focused first-year persuasive writing courses in areas such as elder law, social justice advocacy, family law, environmental law, transactional law, and international law.
- A menu of advanced legal writing courses, such as judicial writing and legal drafting for practice.
In addition, the Institute provides support to students writing seminar papers, law review notes/articles, or competition papers (where permitted by the rules of the competition). The Institute’s goal is to create a dynamic environment where students can come together to brainstorm, collaborate, and work on similar challenges, all while exploring topics that ignite their intellectual curiosity. The Institute helps students cultivate a deeper understanding of legal writing, providing them with essential skills that will benefit them throughout their career.
At Stetson Law, all professors who teach legal research and writing are on a unitary tenure track and fully integrated into the scholarly life of the faculty. This means that junior faculty are formally mentored by a committee of three professors in each year preceding a tenure award, and tenured professors from all fields participate in this mentorship infrastructure. To achieve tenure, all professors are held to the same standard of producing substantive scholarly works that demonstrate rigorous and critical analysis of legal materials.
On a more macro level, The Institute aims to foster a thriving community for legal writing educators—creating spaces for collaboration, scholarship, and professional development. It provides a forum to engage with others who are passionate about advancing the discipline of legal writing and who want to explore best practices alongside other colleagues in the field.
One way we do this is by supporting the publication of The Unending Conversation, an online forum of The Stetson Law Review. The Unending Conversation is dedicated specifically to publishing legal writing scholarship about legal writing scholarship. We accept submissions on a rolling basis and invite authors to submit essays responding to articles written about the discipline of legal writing. If you would like to submit an essay, please contact Anne Mullins.
The Institute is also developing resources to support legal writing scholars from around the world. In Spring 2025, The Institute plans to create The Parlor, an online space where we will host conversations and writing retreats to discuss the issues facing our discipline, to explore pedagogical best practices, and to support legal writing academics in the advancement of scholarly projects. We will also launch a podcast called Exploring the Contours of the Discipline, where we will be in conversation with legal writing academics, both veteran and novice, members of the bench and bar, and academics from other disciplines that tie into the legal writing discipline. Through these conversations, we hope to develop depth and richness around what we understand the discipline of legal writing to be.
Stetson Law’s Institute for the Advancement of Legal Communication understands the vital role that writing plays in legal practice and is dedicated to helping the bench and bar maintain best practices and develop expertise through specialized training and resources. The Institute’s faculty are experienced in a variety of areas, such as genAI, ethical legal writing, persuasion, storytelling, ethical legal research, appellate practice, transactional drafting, and pretrial litigation, to name just a few. We also regularly conduct trainings for judicial staff attorneys, appellate and trial judges, large, mid-size, and small firms, and federal and state government attorneys, and we are available for private coaching. If you would like to book a speaker or contract for other services, please contact Elizabeth Berenguer for more information about what we can offer and how we might meet your needs.