
Carol McCrehan Parker, associate dean for academic affairs, an associate professor of law, and director of legal writing at the College of Law, is the 2011 winner of the Thomas F. Blackwell Memorial Award for Outstanding Achievement in the Field of Legal Writing. The award, sponsored by the Association of Legal Writing Directors and the Legal Writing Institute, will be presented at the Association of American Law Schools annual meeting in San Francisco in January, 2011.
The Blackwell award is presented annually to a person who has made an outstanding contribution to improve the field of Legal Writing by demonstrating
- an ability to nurture and motivate students to excellence,
- a willingness to help other Legal Writing educators improve their teaching skills or their Legal Writing Programs, and
- an ability to create and integrate new ideas for teaching and motivating Legal Writing educators and students.
Parker earned her J.D. from the University of Illinois in 1984. She joined the UT, Knoxville, faculty in 1994 as director of legal writing. Before coming to Tennessee, she taught in and directed legal writing programs at Indiana University and DePaul University and practiced law with Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal in Chicago.
Selected Publications
The Signature Pedagogy of Legal Writing, 16 LEG.WRITING 463 (2010).
Plenary II: Teaching (Nov. 6, 2009) in Symposium, The Legal Writing Institute: Celebrating 25 Years of Teaching and Scholarship (with Marilyn R. Walter and M.H. Sam Jacobson), 61 Mercer L. Rev. 782, 792 (2010).
What Will I Do on Monday – and Why Aren’t We Doing It Already?: Reflecting on the Value of Expressive Writing in the Law School Curriculum, 15 LEG.WRITING 287 (2009).
TENNESSEE LEGAL RESEARCH, (Carolina Press 2007) & accompanying Teacher’s Manual (2008) (with Sibyl Marshall).
Writing is Everybody’s Business: Theoretical and Practical Justifications for Teaching Writing Across the Law School Curriculum, 12 LEG. WRITING 175 (2006).
A Liberal Education in Law: Engaging the Legal Imagination through Research and Writing Beyond the Curriculum, 1 JALWD 129 (2002).
Writing Throughout the Curriculum: Why Law Schools Need It and How to Achieve It, 76 NEB. L. REV. 562 (1997).
Visit the Quest Gallery at Trace, UT’s digital archive, to access publications of other Quest Scholars of the Week.