Maureen Johnson

Maureen Johnson

Visiting Professor

AREAS OF EXPERTISE

  • Applied Legal Storytelling
  • Rhetoric
  • Persuasion
  • Advocacy
  • Supreme Court Process

EDUCATION

  • Master of Fine Arts in Screenwriting - University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA)
  • Legal Education

Biography

Professor Maureen Johnson joins Seattle University as a visiting professor after teaching first-year legal writing and research as a visiting professor at UC Irvine, School of Law, ranked by U.S. News as the seventh-best legal writing department in the nation. She previously taught at the University of Connecticut School of Law, where she taught legal writing, appellate drafting, and negotiation. She previously visited at William S. Boyd School of Law at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, then ranked as the top legal writing department in the nation. She began her teaching career at Loyola Law School, Los Angeles, which also routinely was ranked as a top-tier legal writing department. As a complement to her teaching, Professor Johnson has authored five published law review articles. The bulk of her scholarship focuses on the intersection of social and legal rhetoric, with an emphasis on civil rights and antiracism.

Prior to teaching, Professor Johnson amassed substantial litigation experience, including working for six years at two worldwide law firms, Mayer Brown and Kaye Scholer LLP. She also worked at a boutique Beverly Hills plaintiff-side law firm where she focused almost exclusively on appellate work and major law and motion practice. One of the appeals she drafted and argued—Global Hawk v. Le—was favorably resolved and certified for publication by the First District of the California Court of Appeal.

Having earned a Master of Fine Arts in screenwriting from the University of California at Los Angeles, Professor Johnson has a particular interest in storytelling in the legal profession, with a particular emphasis on transformative social change. While at Loyola Law School Los Angeles, Professor Johnson launched #EQ4ALL@LLS, a diversity webpage that profiled individuals committed to equality and equity for all. She strives to teach students how to compellingly portray the humanity in every individual.

Publications

  • “That Little Girl Was Me”— Kamala Harris and the Civil Whites of 1964 and Beyond,
    44:2 Cardozo L. Rev. 667 (2022).
  • Separate But (Un)Equal: Why Institutionalized Anti-Racism is the Answer to the Never-Ending Cycle of Plessy v. Ferguson, 52:2 U. Rich. L. Rev. 327 (2018).
  • Trickle-Down Bullying and the Truly Great American Response: Can Responsible Rhetoric Help Heal a Divided Nation? 25:4 Am. U.J. Gender Soc. Pol’y & L. 445 (2017).
  • You Had Me At Hello: Examining the Impact of Powerful Introductory Emotional Hooks Set Forth in Appellate Briefs Filed in Recent Hotly-Contested U.S. Supreme Court Opinions, 49 Ind. L. Rev. 397 (2016).
  • To Quote or Not to Quote: Making the Case for Teaching Law Students the Art of Effective Quotation in Legal Memoranda, 56 S. Tex. L. Rev. 283 (2015).
  • JD: Loyola Law School, Los Angeles
    Undergrad (and MFA): UCLA