Welcoming Shailini George, Distinguished Visiting Professor of Legal Writing
A national leader in the legal writing space with a passion for promoting student wellness, Suffolk University Professor Shailini George will serve as Distinguishing Visiting Professor of Legal Writing for the 2024-2025 academic year at Stetson Law.
Stetson Law has consistently ranked near the top of U.S. News & World Report’s list of the best law schools for legal writing. George’s years of teaching experience in legal writing will help to bolster that reputation while strengthening ties within the legal writing community. She said she looks forward to working with other leading legal writing scholars – and to bringing new insights back with her to Boston when she returns to Suffolk.
“I know some of the legal writing faculty at Stetson and have always admired the work they do as well as the school’s excellent reputation,” she said. “I thought I could bring some of my experience to Stetson and some of my experience back to Suffolk: a win-win!”
Passion for a fundamental legal skill
Asked what got her interested in teaching others the craft of legal writing, George said the answer is simple: legal writing is a core lawyering skill. Sharing knowledge she gained from a decade of practicing law would be an opportunity to give back through mentorship.
“When I decided I wanted to teach I thought I should teach what I know best,” she said. “I had a great relationship with my legal writing professor from Boston College and I got some advice from her when I set out to teach. I try to have that same kind of personal and professional relationship with my students.”
Promoting wellness culture for students
In addition to her legal writing scholarship, George brings an extensive body of work exploring the role that mindfulness and other wellness-promoting practices can play in academic and professional success for law students. She said this work has informed how she runs her classes at Suffolk University, which she hopes to continue at Stetson through such efforts as the innovative, one-credit course she will teach called “Professional Identity and Well-Being.”
“Well-being and mindfulness are important to me and I have found that this interest resonates deeply with students and allows me to create a dynamic and supportive environment which is conducive to learning,” she said. “These principles are an essential part of me and therefore my teaching and I hope to keep incorporating them into my teaching at Stetson as well.”
Other work George has done in this space includes authoring The Law Student’s Guide to Doing Well and Being Well (Carolina Academic Press 2021), articles on distraction and the cognitive science of learning, and articles on why law students need mindfulness training. She is also a member of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court’s Standing Committee on Lawyer Well-Being (and co-chairs its Legal Education Subcommittee), Vice President for Law Schools on the Board of Directors for the Institute for Well-Being in Law, and chair-elect of the AALS Balance and Wellbeing in Legal Education Section. (See her full bio.)
Post date: July 31
Media contact: Kate Bradshaw
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