UAH's professor "distinguished speaker" at legal writing conference

Conference organizer Kirsten Davis and Dr. Clarke Rountree attend the Southeast Regional Legal Writing Conference. (Photo courtesy of Stetson)

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (May 6, 2014) – Dr. Clarke Rountree, Professor and Chair of the Department of Communication Arts at The University of Alabama in Huntsville, was the distinguished speaker at this year's Southeast Regional Legal Writing Conference held April 25-26 in Gulfport, Fla.

The conference, hosted by Stetson University College of Law, offered workshops to law professors on preparing students to be "practice-ready" and developing writing and research skills for the 21st century. Discussions highlighted developments in legal pedagogy, advances in advocacy, and theory on teaching the digital millennial lawyer.

Dr. Rountree, who was recently named editor of a new series on rhetoric and law, spoke to conference attendees about the connection between rhetorical theory and legal writing in a lecture entitled "Legal Argument as Motive Construction."

"Most of legal writing is concerned with various actions, such as criminal actions, court actions, prosecutor actions, legal acts such as statutes, and so forth," noted Dr. Rountree in his presentation. "Therefore, an important component of teaching legal writing ought to include the strategic construction of action." He then went on to provide a framework for understanding and explaining such constructions.

He also took part in a Scholars' Forum sponsored by the Association of Legal Writing Directors that focused on legal writing scholarship addressing rhetoric, narrative, and storytelling subjects.