The Association of American Law Schools (AALS) Section on Legal Writing, Reasoning, and Research (LWRR) has named University of California, Irvine School of Law Professor Cindy Thomas Archer as the recipient of its 2025 Section Award. The award will be presented to Archer during the LWRR section award ceremony at the AALS Annual Meeting in San Francisco on Wednesday, Jan. 8, 2025.
“While I am deeply grateful for the recognition, I am humbled by this award because I work with so many exceptional colleagues who are doing the hard work right alongside me,” said Professor Cindy Thomas Archer, Associate Dean for Equity and Professor of Lawyering Skills. “And ultimately, my work is about empowering students and others in my discipline and across the academy for effective change.”
“Cindy is an exceptional teacher, who invests deeply in each of her students and motivates each of them to excel, sometimes to heights that the students themselves did not think they were capable of reaching,” shared Professors Rachel Croskery-Roberts, Sue A. McMahon, Alison M. Mikkor, Trilby Robinson-Dorn, Ezra Ross, Beatrice Tice, and Grace Tonner in their nomination letter. “Cindy is also a profoundly generous mentor to her colleagues across the discipline. We can think of no legal writing professor in the country more deserving of the Section Award.”
Prof. Archer, who currently serves as Associate Dean for Equity and Professor of Lawyering Skills, has over 24 years of experience teaching legal writing. Throughout her career, Prof. Archer has been active in regional and national professional organizations promoting and supporting the work of lawyering skills as a discipline, including the Legal Writing Institute (LWI), the Association of Legal Writing Directors (ALWD), AALS, and the Global Legal Skills Institute.
In her various roles within these professional organizations, she has been a co-chair of the AALS LWRR diversity committee, a member of the executive committee for the teaching methods section, and an active presenter for the clinics section. She currently serves as co-chair of the 2024 ALWD leadership committee and has been a pivotal force in the ALWD Leadership Academy, where she has served as a facilitator, mentor, and panelist.
Prof. Archer joined UC Irvine Law as a Professor of Lawyering Skills in 2020. Prior to her appointment, she was a Clinical Professor of Law and Associate Dean of Clinical Programs and Experiential Education at LMU Loyola Law School, Los Angeles where she was influential in inaugurating the Loyola Social Justice Law Clinic. Passionate about inclusive excellence in education, Prof. Archer was inaugural director of Loyola’s first-generation law student program; chaired the law school Equity and Inclusion Committee and was a member of the university president’s Implicit Bias Taskforce and served as developer, facilitator and trainer for the university-wide training programs.
About the Association of American Law Schools (AALS)
Founded in 1900, AALS is a nonprofit association that consists of nearly 180 law schools. Its members include most of the nation’s law students and produce the majority of the country’s lawyers and judges, as well as many of its lawmakers.
The mission of AALS is to uphold and advance excellence in legal education. To achieve this, AALS promotes the core values of excellence in teaching and scholarship, academic freedom, and diversity, while seeking to improve the legal profession, to foster justice, and to serve our many communities–local, national and international. The Section Award, created in 1995, is a prestigious award that recognizes professors who have made significant lifetime contributions to the field of legal research and writing.
About the University of California, Irvine School of Law
The University of California, Irvine School of Law is a visionary law school that provides an innovative and comprehensive curriculum, prioritizes public service, and demonstrates a commitment to equity within the legal profession. Nearly half of all UC Irvine Law’s J.D. graduates are people of color, and almost a third are first-generation students. At UC Irvine Law, we are driven to improve our local, national, and global communities by grappling with important issues as scholars, as practitioners, and as teachers who are preparing the next generation of leaders. The collaborative and interdisciplinary community at UC Irvine Law includes extraordinary students, world-renowned faculty, dedicated staff, engaged alumni, and enthusiastic supporters. Connect with us on Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook, Threads, and sign up for our monthly newsletter for the latest news and events at UC Irvine Law.
Original source can be found here.