Professor Sue Liemer served from 1998-2000 as president of the Association of Legal Writing Directors and served a four-year term on the Board of Directors of the Legal Writing Institute.
Professor Sue Liemer will lead efforts to further develop and implement an integrated, immersive, and iterative writing and research curriculum coordinated with Elon Law faculty colleagues who teach foundational courses.
“I like what Elon Law is doing with its curriculum,” Liemer said. “Its students are anxious to get out and start working, and this attracts people who are serious about being lawyers.”
At Elon Law, the Legal Method & Communication Program is woven through the first-year curriculum. The program’s approach to instruction was reinvented two years ago when Elon Law moved to a seven-trimester, 2.5-year program, where students focus more deeply on fewer courses at any given time.
Liemer served from 1998-2000 as president of the Association of Legal Writing Directors and served a four-year term on the Board of Directors of the Legal Writing Institute. She also created and co-edited the Legal Writing Professors’ Blog, which has twice been listed in the ABA Journal’s top law blogs.
Liemer comes to Elon Law after 17 years as director of the Lawyering Skills Program at Southern Illinois University School of Law. She takes over the program from Professor Catherine Wasson, who is developing an upper-level writing program that complements the first-year writing curriculum.
“Legal education is being challenged as technology evolves and the way students learn continues to shift,” Liemer said. “I was looking for a school that is addressing these challenges, and Elon Law is.”
Liemer earned a Bachelor of Arts in comparative literature from Princeton University and a Juris Doctor from the University of Virginia School of Law. Her scholarship includes book chapters, law journal articles, and book reviews on legal writing education and the administration of legal writing programs. She has also written law journal articles on the legal rights of artists and occasionally teaches Art Law.
Prior to her work in legal education, which included teaching positions at the University of Mississippi and Western New England University, Liemer worked as legal counsel for the Connecticut Freedom of Information Commission.