The Legal Writing Institute (LWI) has renamed a prestigious teaching award for Professor Emerita Laurel Oates ’78 to honor her extraordinary contributions in elevating the status of legal writing as a discipline. Among her most significant achievements is co-founding LWI 40 years ago.
The idea to recognize Oates’ long career and legacy with the Laurel Oates Teaching Award renaming came from another
Seattle U Law professor and active LWI member, Associate Professor of Lawyering Skills Janet K.G. Dickson ’88. Previously Oates’ student and teaching assistant, Dickson explained that the award will go to a legal writing professor who teaches “in the spirit of Oates.”
“There are a lot of LWI awards that name people, but there were none named for Laurel. That was silly because of everything she has done for us,” Dickson said.
When Dickson noticed that the Influential Teaching Award had no name attached, she thought, “That’s the perfect thing for Laurel, who has always focused on teaching and communicating with students.”
Oates initially studied to become an elementary school math and science teacher, earning a B.A. in psychology with honors from Western Washington University, before she obtained a law degree and began her legal writing teaching career at the University of Puget Sound (UPS) School of Law (which later became Seattle U Law). In addition to her 45 years at Seattle U Law, Oates has guest-taught English legal writing in more than a dozen countries around the world, including Uganda, South Africa, Afghanistan, China, and India.
“My first love has always been teaching at Seattle U Law and helping our Legal Writing Program develop,” Oates said. “I’ve had a wonderful career — and I’ve graded thousands of papers!”
Legal writing programs at law schools across the country were able to develop into a special discipline thanks in large part to Oates’ work as a co-founder of LWI, which began as an 80-person legal writing conference in 1984. Since then, it has expanded into a nonprofit comprising more than 2,500 legal writing educators around the world. LWI publishes a journal and a magazine, and holds national and regional conferences.
“Back in the ’80s, people typically only taught legal writing for one or two years before going into practice — it was not considered a career path — so it was hard to get to know people who were doing the same thing at other schools if you didn’t have a conference,” Oates said. “The goal was to bring people together and share ideas about teaching legal writing.”
In those days, she said, law school was more about theoretical and philosophical subjects, without as much emphasis on practical skills. Legal writing faculty were often classified as instructors, with no possibility of earning tenure, rather than professors, and many had to re-apply for their positions at the end of each academic year.
The establishment of LWI, however, helped to position legal writing as an equal academic subject — on par with traditional courses like Constitutional Law — by law schools.
“Once we became a group, then we were able to start talking about status and move on from one-, two-, and three-year contracts to be considered full-fledged faculty,” Dickson said. “We were able to get together and talk about this and not just be shoved off into a corner. Everyone helps each other. It’s about raising each other up, and that comes from Laurel.”
“We had to be patient,” Oates said. “We slowly brought about change.”
Due to the efforts of Oates and others, Seattle U Law’s Legal Writing Program has become one of the most celebrated in the country, demonstrated by its consistently high national ranking by U.S. News and World Report. Students often cite the program as a top reason for choosing the law school.
Dickson said that Oates has been instrumental in transforming the teaching of legal writing into an established profession — making it fitting that an award for exceptional legal writing educators should bear her name.
“The courage that Oates showed to change the status of legal writing, combined with all those things that have happened over the years — that’s such a great role model for those of us who followed them,” Dickson said.
“I am immensely grateful and humbled to have this award carry my namesake,” Oates said. “It is truly the biggest honor.”