Linda H. Edwards
B.A. 1970 Florida State University; J.D. 1976 University of Tennessee College of Law; Visiting Scholar 2002 Harvard Law School. Member of the Mercer Law Faculty since 1990.
Involvement:
Recent Professional Activities:
Founding member of the Persuasion Institute (Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts); Director of Legal Writing Institute Home Office; ABA Site Evaluation Committee; ABA Committee on Communications Skills; Co-sponsor of 1998, 2000, and 2003 Notre Dame Colloquium on Legal Discourse; Chair, AALS Section on Legal Reasoning, Research and Writing; Board of Directors, Association of Legal Writing Directors.
Prior Law Teaching & Legal Practice:
New York University School of Law.
Coordinator of Lawyering Program and Senior Lawyering Instructor (1987-90).
Hawley Troxell Ennis & Hawley.
Associate, 1981-1987; Offered partnership, 1987. General litigation on behalf of business clients; Chair of firm's Employment Law Section; Member, Hiring Committee; In-house ethics advisor. Representative clients: Sears, Roebuck & Co.; Union Pacific Railroad; Lloyds of London; Albertson's Inc.; Dart & Kraft; Westinghouse Electric Corp.; Aviation Underwriting Specialists; Maryland Casualty Co.; GAF Corp.; Georgia Pacific Corp.; United Parcel Service; United First Federal Savings & Loan; First Security Bank.
General Counsel to Idaho State Bar Assn. 1979-1981.
Responsibilities included investigation and prosecution of attorneys for disciplinary violations; provision of ethics advice to attorneys; supervision of bar examination drafting and grading.
Idaho Legal Aid Services, Inc. Staff Attorney, 1978-1979.
Responsibilities included representation of low-income clients in U.C.C., consumer, and housing litigation in state and federal courts. Drafted mobile home legislation and successfully lobbied its passage.
Colorado Rural Legal Services.
VISTA Attorney, 1977-1978. Responsibilities included general practice representation of low-income clients.
AALS Sections and Bar Admissions:
Legal Writing, Reasoning and Research; Property; Teaching Methods; Law and Interpretation; Jurisprudence.
Admitted in state and federal courts:
New York, Colorado, Idaho.
Publications:
Legal Writing and Analysis, 2d. ed., (Aspen Law and Business, 2007)(1st. ed., 2003).
Legal Writing: Process, Analysis, and Organization, 4th. ed., (Aspen Law and Business, 2006) (3d. ed. 2002) (2d. ed. 1999) (1st. ed., 1996).
Scholarship By Legal Writing Professors: New Voices In the Legal Academy, 11 J. Leg. Writing 3 (2006)
Estates In Land And Future Interests: A Step-By-Step Guide, 2d. ed., Aspen Law and Business (2005)(1st ed., 2002).
The Process and the Product: A Bibliography of Scholarship About Legal Scholarship, 49 Mercer L. Rev. 741 (1998).
The Convergence of Analogical and Dialectic Imaginations in Legal Discourse, 20 Legal Stud. F. 7 (1996) (lead article).
Honoring the Law in Communities of Force: Wildman and Terrell's Teleology of Practice, 41 Emory L.J. 489 (1992) (with Jack Sammons).
Civil Rights In Employment: The New Generation, 67 Den. U.L. Rev. 1 (1990) (lead article).
Watson v. Ft. Worth Bank and Trust: The Changing Face of Disparate Impact. 66 Den. U.L. Rev. 179 (1989).
Atonio v. Wards Cove Packing Co., Preview of United States Supreme Court Cases, (Feb. 9, 1989).
Book Review, Bowker's Legal Publishing Preview. Vol. 1, No. 2, reviewing Modjeska, Employment Discrimination Law (March 1989).
PRESENTATIONS
Planner and Faculty Member, LWI Writer's Workshop, June 11-13, 2006, Callaway Gardens, GA.
Chair, LWI Conference Site Committee, in charge of hosting 600-person 2006 conference Atlanta, Ga., June 7-10.
"Law School Writing Without Teachers," University of Arizona, March 17, 2006. "“Narrative Components of A Jury of Her Peers” Faculty member, Persuasion Institute Training Program, Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts, Philadelphia, PA, September 17 - 19, 2004.
“Ready From Day One: Teaching the Core Competencies of Law Practice,” ABA Annual Meeting, Atlanta, Ga., Aug. 7, 2004.
Plenary speaker, “Scholarship By Legal Writing Professors: Voices From An Emerging Discipline,” 11th Biennial Conference of the Legal Writing Institute, Seattle University, July 24, 2004.
"Theories of Jurispurdence and Legal Reasoning," Notre Dame Law School, June 9, 2003.
"Leading Without Directing," ALWD Conference, University of Windsor, Ontario, Canada.
"The Next Leadership Frontier," ALWD Conference, University of Windsor, Ontario, Canada.
"The Writing Life," Rocky Mountain Regional Legal Writing Conference, March 2003.
"Putting Theory To Work For Legal Writers: A Rhetorical Look At Jurisprudence," Legal Writing Institute Conference, June 2002.
"Do Best Practices in Legal Education Include an Emphasis on Compositional Modes of Studying Law as a Liberal Art?" ALWD Conference, 2001 (moderator).
"The Present and Future State of Legal Writing Scholarship," Notre Dame Colloquium on Legal Discourse, June 28, 2000.
"Scholarship By Legal Writing Teachers: An Empirical Study," Legal Writing Institute Conference, July 22, 2000.
"Reading for Legal Reasoning," AALS Workshop on Reading Critically, January 7,1999.
Moderator, "Writing in the Law," AALS Section Program, 1998; Primary speakers: James Boyd White and Lawrence Joseph.
"The Convergence of Analogical and Dialectic Imaginations in Legal Discourse." Presentation, Association of Legal Writing Directors Conference, 1997.
"The Scholarship of Legal Discourse: Where We Are and Where We Go From Here." Plenary presentation, Association of Legal Writing Directors Conference, 1997.
"Long-Range programmatic and Institutional Planning." Plenary presentation, Association of Legal Writing Directors Conference, 1997.
"A Certificate Program in Advanced Legal Writing, Research, and Drafting." Presentation, Association of Legal Writing Directors Conference, 1997.
"Writing to Learn Doctrinal Law." Lead speaker, AALS Section Program 1997.
"Teaching Legal Analysis: A Step-by-Step Approach," Legal Writing Institute Conference, Seattle, July 1996.
Moderator and panelist, "Directing LW Programs Staffed by Full Time Teachers," Association of Legal Writing Directors, 1995.
Moderator, "Teaching Legal Analysis: Why It's So Hard and How We Can Do It Better," AALS Section Program, 1993.
Honors:
Visiting Scholar, Harvard Law School; University of Tennessee College of Law Dean's List; American Jurisprudence Award in Constitutional Law; Harold C. Warner Centurion Scholarship Recipient.
Teaches:
Property; Legal Analysis; Advanced Writing Groups.
Has also taught: Employment Discrimination; Law of Lawyering; Advanced Litigation Drafting; Introduction to Counseling; Perspectives on Lawyering; Introduction to Law.