we write
}
We seek to create an interest in writing about the law and to promote a clear, succinct, and forceful
style in legal writing.
SCRIBES MEMBERS IN THE NEWS
John Browning Appointed to Fifth Court of Appeals of Texas
Scribes Secretary John Browning was appointed as a justice of the Fifth Court of Appeals of Texas on August 24, 2020. This follow 31 years of practice. For more information, see the Texas Courts website.
EVENTS
2020 CLE in Chicago
Our live 2020 CLE in Chicago has been cancelled. We hope to record an interview with our Book Award winner, Prof. Jill Elaine Hasday, and a discussion on writing for law reviews that we will publish online.
Please contact Philip Johnson at with any questions.
NEWS
Brief Award Nominations Open
Nominations for the Brief Award for the 2019-20 academic year are open until October 19, 2020. For information on making a nomination, contact Philip Johnson at scribeslegalwriters@gmail.com.
Congratulations to Our 2020 Award Winners!
We are pleased to announce the winners of our Book, Brief, and Law Review Awards.
Intimate Lies and the Law by Professor Jill Hasday won the Book Award.
Allyson Lynch, Paul Madden, and Sarah Martin of Belmont College of Law won the Brief Award for their brief written for National Appellate Advocacy Competition.
And Mary Marshall's comment for the Columbia Law Review, Miller v. Alabama and the Problem of Prediction, won our law review award.
See the award pages for runners up and honorable mentions.
Scribes Welcomes a New Student Chapter
We are pleased to announce that students at WMU Cooley Law School started a Scribes student chapter in spring 2019 under the sponsorship of Professor Mark Cooney.
WMU Cooley joins the John Marshall Law School and Texas Tech University School of Law as the third school with a Scribes student chapter. These groups encourage strong legal writing in law school work and assist students with publishing their work before they graduate.
"Using plain language can save businesses and government agencies a ton of money."
—Joseph Kimble, author of Writing for Dollars, Writing to Please.
Teri McMurtry-Chubb Wins 2021 Blackwell Award
The Legal Writing Institute awarded board member Teri Mc-Murtry-Chubb the 2021 Thomas F. Blackwell Memorial Award for Outstanding Achievement in the Field of Legal Writing. The award recognizes educators who motivates students and other educators to excellence and innovation in legal writing.
Cofounder of Scribes Student Chapter Wins Writing Contest
Alison Zoltowski, cofounder of the WMU-Cooley Law Student Scribes chapter, was the Grand Prize winner in the California Lawyers Association’s Marshall M. Schulman Writing Contest. The contest, sponsored by the Association’s Criminal Law Section, celebrates student articles in the area of criminal law and procedure. Zoltowski’s winning article, The Tale of For-Profit Commercial Bail and How It’s Gone Stale, bested excellent submissions from law students across the country. Zoltowski’s article will appear in the Section’s Criminal Law Journal.
More information about the contest and contest results are available on the Section’s
website. Law students
wishing to form Scribes student chapters at their own schools can find more information on the
Scribes website.