E. Joan Blum received her B.A. degree summa cum laude from Harvard University in 1975, where she was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. In 1978 she received her J.D. from Columbia Law School, where she was a Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar and a member of the Law Review. She was admitted to practice in Massachusetts in 1978, and in 1978-79 she was Law Clerk to Justice Robert Braucher on the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court. Between 1979 and 1984, she was an associate at Palmer & Dodge in Boston, where she practiced primarily in the area of tax-exempt financing. She joined the faculty of Boston College Law School in 1985, and currently is an Associate Professor of Legal Reasoning, Research & Writing. In addition to teaching in the first-year LRR&W course, Professor Blum for several years taught an upper-level seminar in Legal Drafting and has consulted with Boston law firms on legal writing issues. With Jane Gionfriddo, she co-edits The Second Draft, the semi-annual newsletter of The Legal Writing Institute.

EDUCATION

A.B., Harvard University; J.D., Columbia Law School.

RECENT ACTIVITIES

Work in Progress:  With Kathleen Vinson. "Teaching in Practice: Legal Writing Faculty as Expert Writing Consultants to Law Firms." Mercer Law Review (forthcoming 2009)

Presentations: “Taking Our Expertise into the Trenches: Consulting on Writing in Law Practice,” Twelfth Biennial Conference of the Legal Writing Institute, Atlanta, GA, in June 2006.

With Karen S. Beck, "Teaching Legal Research Analytically," at the Tenth Biennial Conference of the Legal Writing Institute, Knoxville, Tennessee, in May 2006.

Activities: Conducted a workshop on legal writing for summer associates at Edwards Angell Palmer & Dodge LLP in May 2006.

Appointments: Appointed by Dean Garvey to the BC Law Strategic Planning Committee for 2001–2003. Chair-elect of the Association of American Law Schools’ Section on Legal Writing, Reasoning, and Research for 2002.

Other: Presented legal writing workshops and individual coaching to associates at three major law firms in Massachusetts. With Jane Gionfriddo and Daniel Barnett, participated in the summer 2002 legal writing program for associates at the Boston law firm Choate, Hall & Stewart in June. Writing coach for several Boston law firms.

COURSES

Fall '07: Legal Reasoning, Research & Writing
Spring '08: Legal Reasoning, Research & Writing

• "Clarifying the Law on Post-Employment Covenants." New Jersey Law Journal 178 (November 22, 2004): 765.
• "Why You Should Use a Course Web Page." Perspectives: Teaching Legal Research and Writing 10: no.1 (Fall 2001): 15-17.
• "Writing Labs: Commenting on Student Work-In-Progress." The Second Draft: Bulletin of the Legal Writing Institute 14:no.1 (November 1999): 11-12.
• "Teaching Case Synthesis in Living Color." The Second Draft: Bulletin of the Legal Writing Institute 12: no.1 (November 1997): 7.
• With Jane Kent Gionfriddo, editors. The Second Draft: Bulletin of the Legal Writing Institute 9-14 (1994-2000).