Date: Wednesday, August 13th, 3:00 – 4:00 pm ET/2:00 pm – 3:00 pm CT/1:00 pm – 2:00 pm MT/ 12:00 pm – 1:00 pm PT
Section on Legal Writing, Reasoning, and Research
This session will help prepare individuals for interviews and give an opportunity to ask questions and seek personalized advice from experienced faculty in the Section on Legal Writing, Reasoning, and Research. The webinar will be discussion-based, so come ready with your questions and thoughts to share with the facilitators and other attendees!
Cindy Archer, Professor of Lawyering Skills and Associate Dean for Equity, University of California Irvine School of Law
Cindy Thomas Archer joined UCI Law as a Professor of Lawyering Skills in 2020. Prior to her appointment, she was a Clinical Professor of Law and Associate Dean of Clinical Programs and Experiential Education at LMU Loyola Law School, Los Angeles where she was influential in inaugurating the Loyola Social Justice Law Clinic. Passionate about inclusive excellence in education, Prof. Archer was inaugural director of Loyola’s first-generation law student program; chaired not only the law school Equity and Inclusion Committee but was a member of the university President’s Implicit Bias Taskforce and served as developer, facilitator and trainer for the university-wide training programs. In 2018, Prof. Archer was recognized by the Loyola Marymount University CSJ Center for Reconciliation and Justice with a “Hidden Hero Award.” In 2019, she was inducted as an honorary member into Alpha Sigma Nu, the honor society of Jesuit universities, recognizing students and community members who excel in scholarship, loyalty and service, and promote Ignatian values for life.
Prof. Archer’s expertise and experience includes Legal Analysis and Communication; Experiential Education; Civil Litigation Practice; various aspects of the Lawyer-Client Relationship: a Lawyer’s Professional Responsibility and Access to Justice, Client Interviewing and Counseling Skills, and Cultural Humility in Client Representation; Inclusive Excellence in Legal Education. She has been a regular presenter and invited panelist on topics related to experiential education, cultural competence in lawyering skills curriculum, and clinical legal education.
Throughout her career, Prof. Archer has been active in regional and national professional organizations promoting and supporting the work of lawyering skills as a discipline. Prof. Archer has lectured on a variety of professional responsibility topics for local bar associations and served on boards and committees of local affinity bar associations.
B. Afton Cavanaugh, Assistant Professor of Law, University of Baltimore School of Law
Cavanaugh joined the School of Law faculty in 2024, following over seven years as a Service Professor of Law and Assistant Dean at St. Mary’s University School of Law. At St. Mary’s, Cavanaugh taught a wide range of courses, including Legal Communications, Analysis, and Professionalism; Experiential Legal Analysis; Estate Planning; and Bar Prep for Credit. He also developed and implemented innovative curricula for online and in-person J.D. programs.
Prior to his academic career, Cavanaugh practiced law as co-founder and managing member of Cavanaugh Quintanilla, PLLC in Austin, Tex., where he specialized in real estate, business law, and wills and estates. He also worked as an associate attorney at The Law Office of John W. Pleuthner, gaining experience in various aspects of legal practice.
Cavanaugh is a member of the Texas Bar and is actively involved in several professional organizations, including the Association of Academic Support Educators (AASE). He is also a member of the Association of Legal Writing Directors and the Legal Writing Institute, where he serves as webmaster and oversees the LWI website. Cavanaugh has presented at numerous conferences on topics such as legal education innovation, diversity in law schools, and the use of technology in legal writing instruction. His research focuses on inheritance rights, tax law, and legal education reform. His work has been published in journals such as the UMKC Law Review, Hofstra Law Review, and The Scholar.
Anna Hemingway, Associate Dean for Academic Affairs, Professor of Law, and Director of Legal Methods Program, Widener University Commonwealth Law School
Anna Hemingway is a nationally-known expert in legal writing and legal education. She writes and lectures widely on innovative teaching strategies. Her recent scholarship has focused on ethics, and the uses of social media and technology for teaching and assessment.
Professor Hemingway’s teaching and scholarship are inextricably interlinked, and she is devoted to improving the educational experiences and outcomes of law students. Serving as the director of Legal Writing, Professor Hemingway coordinates the law school’s innovative writing program. She is a leader in the national legal writing community, and frequently presents at national and international writing conferences.
In addition to her work on legal writing, Professor Hemingway is interested in leadership, law & psychology, ethics, and property law. In December 2022, she was appointed to the Pennsylvania Interbranch Commission for Gender, Racial and Ethnic Fairness. Professor Hemingway is also the co-author (with Benjamin Barros) of an innovative Property Law textbook that was published by Aspen/Wolters Kluwer in early 2015.
Joseph Hummel, Assistant Professor, UNT Dallas College of Law
Joseph Hummel is an Assistant Professor of Law. He teaches first-year legal writing, upper-level legal writing, and Law, Literature, and Popular Culture. A Dallas native, Professor Hummel graduated from the Southern Methodist University Dedman School of Law in 2008. During law school, Professor Hummel served on the SMU International Law Review Association, where his law review comment was selected for publication in The International Lawyer, one of the most widely distributed U.S. international law reviews in the world. He also represented clients pro bono as a student attorney for the SMU civil legal clinic and worked as a teaching assistant in SMU’s Legal Research Writing and Advocacy program. Professor Hummel received his undergraduate degree in English with a minor in American Studies from Boston College in 2005. At Boston College, Professor Hummel graduated summa cum laude and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa.
Prior to joining the College of Law, Professor Hummel served as in-house litigation counsel for one of the country’s largest tax services firms. Before that, Professor Hummel practiced commercial litigation with the Texas law firm of Kane Russell Coleman & Logan PC, where he represented clients in all varieties and phases of complex commercial litigation. He represented plaintiffs and defendants in federal and state court, as well as arbitration proceedings before the American Arbitration Association. While in private practice, Professor Hummel also served as an adjunct professor with the UNT Dallas College of Law’s legal writing program.
In addition to teaching, Professor Hummel also serves as Senator, Tenure-Track on the UNT Dallas Faculty Senate.
Zachary Schmook, Associate Professor of Legal Research and Writing, University of Oklahoma College of Law
Zachary Schmook joined the University of Oklahoma College of Law faculty in Fall 2017 as an Assistant Professor in the Legal Research & Writing Program.
Prior to joining the College of Law, Professor Schmook worked for a nonprofit in St. Louis, Missouri, dedicated to ending housing discrimination. His work included representation of the organization and individual clients before state and federal trial and appellate courts, as well as in administrative actions with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and state administrative agencies.
Professor Schmook has previously worked with the Washington University College of Law as an Adjunct Professor—teaching courses in Legal Writing and Mediation—and a Clinical Supervisor for the Civil Rights and Community Justice Clinic.
Professor Schmook received his J.D. from Washington University in St. Louis and is admitted to practice law in Missouri (inactive), Illinois, and Oklahoma, as well as federal courts in the Eastern District of Missouri and the Southern District of Illinois. In addition to his work at OU, Professor Schmook serves in the U.S. Army Reserve as a Civil Affairs Officer.
Nancy Soonpaa, Professor of Law, 2001; Dean Richard B. Amandes Senior Scholar in Legal Practice, Texas Tech University School of Law
Since 2001, Nancy Soonpaa has taught at Texas Tech University School of Law, where she directed (2001-2018) and teaches in the Legal Practice Program; teaches Health Law, Negotiation Workshop, and Family Law; and served as Associate Dean for Student Affairs (2005-07).
Professor Soonpaa began teaching undergraduate writing courses at the University of North Dakota, taught for three years at the University of Puget Sound School of Law, and taught in the Lawyering Program at Albany Law School for six years. Her articles about legal writing often focus on effective pedagogical choices and learning theory and have appeared in several professional journals; she has also published an empirical study on law students and stress and most recently, an article on constructing an effective syllabus for the Journal of Legal Education.
In addition to book chapters on using pop culture to teach law and on integrating experiential learning into law courses, she is one of the editor-authors of the second edition of the ABA’s Sourcebook on Legal Writing Programs. She is currently working on a Family Law casebook for Carolina Academic Press’s Context & Practice series.
Professor Soonpaa regularly presents at professional conferences, including those of the Association of American Law Schools, the Legal Writing Institute, the Association of Legal Writing Directors, and the Institute for Law Teaching and Learning. In addition, she teaches CLE’s and professional training workshops on legal writing.
She coaches Tech’s negotiation teams, winning the International Negotiation Competition in 2005 and 2010 and placing third in the nation in 2018; served on the ABA subcommittee that administers the regional and national competitions; and is a Senior Advisor to the Executive Committee of the International Negotiation Competition. She also teaches CLE’s and professional training workshops on negotiation skills.
Professor Soonpaa is active in leadership roles in the Association of Legal Writing Directors, the Legal Writing Institute, the Association of American Law Schools, and the Southeastern Association of Law Schools, having served on multiple committees and boards in the past 20 years. She is a past chair of the AALS Section on Academic Support and a founding member of the AALS Section on Balance in Legal Education. She is also a founder and co-editor of the Legal Writing Prof Blog on the Law Professors Blog Network, lawprofessors.typepad.com/legalwriting.
Professor Soonpaa has received the Texas Tech Alumni Association New Faculty Award and the President’s Excellence in Teaching Award; she also has been elected to the Texas Tech University Teaching Academy for demonstrated teaching excellence (limited to 15% of professors campus-wide). She also served a term on the Teaching Academy’s Executive Council.
In addition, under her leadership, the Legal Practice Program received the university-wide Departmental Excellence in Teaching Award in 2010, and USNews regularly ranks the LP Program among the top legal writing programs in the nation, including 16th in the country in 2018.
