Newton, MA--Boston College Law School Associate Professor and Director of Legal Reasoning, Research & Writing Jane Kent Gionfriddo is the new President of the Legal Writing Institute. A member of the Board of Directors since 1995, Professor Gionfriddo assumed the responsibilities of President of the 1200 person organization, based out of Seattle, Washington, in late July.

"I am very excited that Jane Gionfriddo has become President of the Legal Writing Institute," said former President Mary Beth Beazley of Ohio State University College of Law. "Her eighteen years of experience developing with her colleagues a highly successful program at Boston College have prepared her well for this important position. LWI has changed the way that legal writing is taught in the United States and around the world. I know that Jane's intelligence, judgment, and wisdom will serve her and our profession well during the next two years."

The Legal Writing Institute is a non-profit corporation founded in 1984 to exchange ideas and promote discussion regarding legal writing and analysis. A 1991 American Bar Foundation survey asked a number of practicing lawyers what skills are the most important for lawyers today. At the top of the list were oral and written communication. The Legal Writing Institute's diverse membership reflects the perceived importance of these skills; all ABA-accredited law schools in the U.S. are represented, as well as a number of foreign countries, independent research and consulting organizations, and members of the practicing bar. The Institute publishes a semi-annual newsletter, The Second Draft, as well as an annual scholarly journal. It has also held a national conference on teaching, curriculum and scholarship issues in the discipline of legal writing every other year since 1984.

Professor Gionfriddo graduated from Wesleyan University, and Boston University Law School, and began teaching at BCLS in the Legal Reasoning, Research & Writing Program in 1982. From 1994 to the summer of 2000 she was the co-editor of the Institute's Second Draft Newsletter (with BCLS Professor E. Joan Blum, and recently, BCLS Professors Keller and Tracy). In 1999 she was awarded the Boston College Distinguished Teaching Award.