Date: Friday, June 12, 1:00 PM – 2:00 PM ET/12:00 PM– 1:00 PM CT/11:00 AM – 12:00 PM MT/10:00 AM – 11:00 AM PT
Section on Legal Master’s Programs
As many legal educators have argued, the structured reasoning that defines legal thinking is a competitive advantage for any professional navigating complex decisions under uncertainty. But for non-lawyer graduate students in legal master’s programs, learning to think like a lawyer is only half the equation. They must also learn to write like one. These students do not need to draft appellate briefs; they need to structure analyses that lead to sound conclusions, frame risk in language that decision-makers trust, and distill regulatory complexity into actionable guidance.
This session will explore why legal writing should be a required component of every legal master’s curriculum and how programs can design writing instruction that meets the needs of non-lawyer students.
Mark Edwin Burge, Professor of Law, Texas A&M University School of Law
Mark Edwin Burge is a Professor of Law at Texas A&M University School of Law, where he teaches contracts, commercial law, and legal skills courses. His scholarship focuses on commercial law and on legal education pedagogy. Burge has been a proponent for the development of legal master’s programs as a means of bringing legal education outside of the realm of lawyers, including in his article Access to Law or Access to Lawyers? Master’s Programs in the Public Educational Mission of Law Schools, 74 U. Miami L. Rev. 143 (2019) and in the groundbreaking textbook Legal Literacy and Communication Skills: Working with Law & Lawyers (with Jennifer Murphy Romig, 2d ed. 2025). As the School of Law’s inaugural Director of San Antonio Programs (2017-2020), Burge was instrumental in developing hybrid curricula for bringing the live law school experience to remote sites, and has also taught and developed fully online courses.
He is a past president of the Central States Law Schools Association and a Contributing Editor for ContractsProf Blog. He is also co-author of the open-source casebook, American Contract Law for a Global Age (with Franklin G. Snyder, 2017). Burge has been in legal education since 2005 and on the faculty of Texas A&M University since 2013. He has twice been chosen by students as Legal Analysis, Research, and Writing Professor of the Year, and in 2023 he received the Distinguished Achievement Award – College Level for excellence in teaching from the Texas A&M University Association of Former Students.
Sandra Erickson, Assistant Teaching Professor, Arizona State University Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law
Sandra Ortland Erickson is an Associate Teaching Professor at the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law at Arizona State University, where she teaches in the Master of Legal Studies and Master of Human Resources and Employment Law programs. Since joining ASU Law in 2009 as Director of Graduate Programs, she has helped develop and expand graduate legal education for non-lawyers and now focuses primarily on teaching in the College’s online master’s degree programs. Her teaching and curriculum development focus on how non-lawyers learn to read, analyze, and communicate about legal issues, and on helping graduate students develop legal reasoning through practical application and written communication.
Before entering legal education, Sandra practiced law for approximately ten years, primarily in environmental law, including with Bryan Cave LLP. She earned her J.D. from Arizona State University in 1999. Sandra is a co-author of Navigating Your Legal Master’s Program: A Roadmap for Success (West Academic, 2024).
Maryellen Maley, Adjunct Professor, Loyola University Chicago School of Law
Maryellen Maley received her law degree from Loyola University Chicago School of Law where she was a member of Law Review. Her passion for teaching legal writing began with 1Ls at Loyola in 2005. For 17 years, she was the Director of Online Writing for Loyola’s Legal Masters Program, creating and teaching three of its required courses. Maryellen hired and mentored 15-20 adjunct writing professors per semester. Having retired from her full-time faculty position, she is teaching as an adjunct professor. She recently co-authored Essential Legal Knowledge and Writing Skills: Foundations of Law for Every Profession.
After a ten-year nursing career, Maryellen practiced healthcare law at a large Chicago law firm, was regulatory counsel at a University of Chicago Hospital, and worked at the American Academy of Pediatrics as a Senior Health Policy Analyst. She taught legal research for LexisNexis at Notre Dame, the University of Chicago, and Loyola. Maryellen is certified in mediation from Chicago’s Center for Conflict Resolution and Harvard Law School.
Anitha Cadambi, Executive Director, Online & Professional Programs and Adjunct Professor of Law, University of Southern California, Gould School of Law
Anitha Cadambi teaches LLM Legal Profession, Introduction to U.S. Culture and Practice, and Introduction to the U.S. Legal System for USC’s residential and online programs, respectively. She serves as USC Gould’s executive director of Online & Professional Programs, and is an adjunct assistant professor of law.
Prior to joining USC full-time, Cadambi was a transactional attorney with Singh Law Group, where she advised clients on a variety of business law issues. Over the years, Cadambi’s clients have included startup companies, restaurants, health care agencies, educational ventures and manufacturing companies. Previously, she was an attorney with Castilla Del Oro, a Washington, D.C., non-profit organization, with offices in Panama and Spain. While at Castilla Del Oro, she advised on legal and business issues for the foundation’s projects in Panama, Spain and the U.S.
Cadambi graduated in the top 2% of her class with an LLM degree from USC Gould School of Law in 2011. Upon graduation, she completed a six-month legal fellowship with Aparicio Law, where she worked as a research associate for the firm’s business law practice. She received her Bachelor’s in Law (LLB), with top honors, from Indian Law Society, Pune, India. Cadambi is a member of the California and New York state bars.
