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Publications | Presentations | Professional Memberships
During law school, Maureen Straub Kordesh was a member of the Indiana Law Journal. After graduation, she represented the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Department of General Services. In 1991, she joined the faculty at Widener University School of Law, where she directed the writing program and taught legal writing, property, and land-use planning. One of her articles, published in the Harvard Environmental Law Review, was a finalist for best land use planning article of 1996.
She has led workshops on drafting for HUD housing discrimination investigators and has written articles and made numerous presentations to legal professionals on the practical and pedagogical issues of legal writing, lawyering skills, and the bar exam. She has made presentations on pedagogy to law schools internationally, and has designed Street-Law style curricula for elementary and junior-high students.
Professor Kordesh is a former president of the Association of Legal Writing Directors and board member of the Legal Writing Institute. She has served as an assistant editor for the Journal of the Legal Writing Institute and a reviewer for the Multistate Performance Test.
Professor Kordesh joined the John Marshall faculty in 1996 and directed the Lawyering Skills Program from 1996-2004. In 2008, she became director of the the special admissions program at John Marshall, the Summer College for Assessing Legal Education Skills (SCALES). She teaches Lawyering Skills and Property.
Full Curriculum Vitae
Publications
Sailing Against the Wind: How a Pre-Admission Program Can Prepare At-Risk Students for Success in the Journey Through Law School and Beyond (with Professors Sonia Bychkov Green and Julie Spanbauer), __ U. Mem. L. Rev. __ (2008 forthcoming), http://ssrn.com/abstract=1260924
I Will Build My House with Sticks": The Splintering of Property Interests Under the Fifth Amendment May be Hazardous to Private Property, 20 Harv. Envtl. L. Rev. 397 (1996).
Navigating the Dark Morass: A First-year Student's Survival Guide to the Law Library, 19 Campbell L. Rev. 115 (1997).
Rule-Based Legal Writing Problems: A Pedagogical Approach, 3 J. Legal Writing Inst. 143 (1997).
How to Draft Facts for a Lawyer (HUD training materials, with Professor Ardath Hamann) 1998.
"Where Economy and Democracy Collide," 40th Annual Law Day, Chicago Daily Law Bulletin (April 25, 1998).
"Rolling Up Their Sleeves: Using A Single Case to Teach Case Analysis," 14 The Second Draft 3 (No. 2, May 2000).
Reconsidering ABA Standards in Light of the Multistate Performance Test, 40 Memphis L. Rev. 229 (2000).
Adjunct Faculty Handbook for Lawyering Skills Instructors (training materials) 1996-97, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002.
"And Now for Something Completely Different: Revising a Legal Writing Program," 16 The Second Draft 6 (No. 2, May 2002).
Presentations
"Reality Bites . . . Or Does It? The Value of Controlled vs. Real-Life Problems InTeaching Basic Skills" (Joint Presentation with Sonia Bychkov Green and Julie Spanbauer) Accepted for presentation at Legal Writing Institute Conference, July, 2008, Indianapolis.
"A Chance to Succeed: Designing a Program to Assess Legal Skills for Law School Education" (with Sonia Bychkov Green), Legal Writing Institute Conference, Atlanta 2006.
"Heraclites Goes to Law School: Creative Approaches in the Classroom," Legal Writing Institute Regional Conference, Indianapolis, 2005.
"Next Steps in Furthering Palestinian Legal Education," for Arab-American Bar Association-sponsored judicial and administrative delegation from The West Bank and Gaza Strip, March, 2004.
"An Introduction to Property Law for Non-Lawyers," The John Marshall Law School, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006.
"Palestinian Legal Education: Legal Writing Pedagogy and Directorial Challenges," North Park University Exchange Delegation from the West Bank and Gaza Strip, October 2003.
Designing a Long-Distance Learning Experience in Time of Political Conflict: Experience with USAID and The Rule of Law Project," AALS conference, January 2002.
"Teaching and Learning Legal Writing," a 24-hour taped series in United States legal education and legal writing pedagogy for Najah University in Nablus, Al-Quds University in Jerusalem, Bir Zeit University, and Al Azhar University in Gaza, October-December 2002.
"Designing a Skills-Based Legal Writing Program on a United States Model," taped presentation for Palestinian legal educators in the West Bank and Gaza, December 2002.
"Designing Performance Test Problems for a Skills Curriculum," National Legal Writing Institute Bi-ennial Conference July 22, 2000 (with representatives of the National Conference of Bar Examiners).
Statewide Judicial Conference, Education 2000 conference, February, Legal Research on the Internet, 400 Illinois judges in attendance at conference (with student Edward Renner).
Legal Writing Institute Midwest Conference, October, 1999, "Integrating Performance-Based Writing into the Skills Curriculum," University of Kansas City-Missouri.
"Should Performance Testing be Part of Your Legal Writing Curriculum?" Association of Legal Writing Directors Biennial Conference, July 1999, New England School of Law, Boston.
Welcome speech as President, "Gratitude Leads to Action," The Association of Legal Writing Directors Biennial Conference, July 1999, New England School of Law, Boston.
Workshop, "How an Investigator Drafts Facts for Lawyers", workshop presented for HUD housing discrimination investigators, managers and supervisors, and state agency investigators; Chicago, April 29-30, 1998; Atlanta, June 25, 1998, and July 29, 1998; Chicago, June29-July 1, 1998; Kansas City, March, 1999; Atlanta, March 1999 (with Professor Ardath Hamann).
Presentation, "So You Want to Become a Legal Writing Director?" Summer, 1998 conference of the Legal Writing Institute, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor (with Professors Grace Tonner and Jan Levine).
Presentation, Association of Legal Writing Directors Biennial Conference, Summer, 1997: "The Curricular Implications for Skills Programs of the Multistate Performance Test" (with Professor Frank Morrissey and Dean Susan Brody).
Presentation, Association of Legal Writing Directors Biennial Conference, Summer, 1997: "Taking Your Act on the Road: Becoming a Director at a New School" (with Professors Grace Tonner, Michigan, and Jan Levine, Temple)
Panelist, Legal Writing Institute Summer Conference, "Rule-Based Legal Writing Problems: A Pedagogical Approach," Summer, 1996 (co-presenter).
Presentation, Legal Writing Institute Summer Conference, "Re-envisioning Organization: Teaching Students to Organize Their Writing," Summer, 1996.
Professional Memberships
- The Association of Legal Writing Directors, Charter Member
- Chair, Rombauer Awards Committee, 2000-01
- Executive Committee, 1999-2000
- President, 1998-99
- Vice-President, 1997-98
- Co-Chair, Conference Planning Committee, 1996, 1997, 1998.
- Chair, By-laws Committee, 1997-98.
- The Legal Writing Institute
- Chair, Plagiarism Committee, 2006-08.
- Board Member, 2000-04
- Chair, ad hoc Membership Committee, 2004
- Member, Outreach Committee 2000-04.
- American Bar Association
- Association of American Law Schools
- Pennsylvania Bar Association
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