FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. - Terry Jean Seligmann, associate professor of law and director of Legal Research and Writing in the University of Arkansas School of Law, is the new president-elect of the Legal Writing Institute (LWI).

The Legal Writing Institute is a non-profit organization of more than 1,300 members, representing all of the ABA accredited law schools in the United States. The institute was founded in 1984 to promote the exchange of information and ideas about legal writing, and it has members from Canada and Australia, English departments, independent research and consulting organizations, and the practicing bar.

The Institute also provides a forum for research and scholarship about legal writing and legal analysis. The Institute promotes these activities through a biennial conference, a newsletter called The Second Draft and the scholarly journal Legal Writing: The Journal of the Legal Writing Institute.

"The Legal Writing Institute has helped me and many others become better teachers through its conferences, publications and other activities," Seligmann said. "The institute's members have contributed to the development of the discipline and the scholarship of legal writing. I am proud to be able to continue to serve the institute in this new position. I think my election also reflects the University of Arkansas School of Law's national reputation for offering a strong legal research and writing curriculum that is helping future lawyers develop their analytical and communication skills."

Seligmann's two-year term began May 29, and among other responsibilities, she will plan the next major conference. The most recent conference, held May 29-June 1 in Knoxville, Tennessee, had more than 400 in attendance and included 60 presentations.

The next conference, celebrating LWI's 20th Anniversary, will be held in Seattle in July 2004. The president-elect automatically becomes president at the conclusion of her term and serves a two-year term in that position.

Seligmann joined the law school in 1997. She previously taught at Suffolk University School of Law. Following her graduation from New York University Law School, she was law clerk to the Hon. W. Arthur Garrity, Jr. of the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts. She practiced civil litigation as an assistant attorney general in Massachusetts and with both large and small law firms in Boston. She also

served as Staff Counsel to the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts.

She was president of the Women's Bar Association of Massachusetts and served on ethics panels for the bar and the court.

Seligmann is a member of the Arkansas Bar Association and has taught continuing legal education programs on legal writing and special education law for the Arkansas bar. She has written on legal research and writing curriculum, and on special education law.

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