Lurene Contento joined Chicago-Kent College of Law in 2019, and teaches Legal Writing IV for international LL.M. students and Legal English.
Professor Contento has over twenty years’ experience teaching legal writing, negotiations, and other legal skills to J.D.s and to international attorneys and students. She has lectured and taught extensively abroad, including in Australia, China, Costa Rica, Czech Republic, Ireland, Italy, and Mexico. During the 2020-2021 year, she taught legal skills remotely to international LL.M. students in the Graduate Lawyering Program at St. John’s School of Law in New York City.
Before joining Chicago-Kent, she was an Assistant Professor at The John Marshall Law School (currently UIC Law) and Director of its Legal Writing Resource Center, a professionally-staffed center that held more than 1500 advising sessions per year. Professor Contento has personally counseled thousands of students – both J.D. and international LL.M. students – on how to improve their legal writing.
Professor Contento is the recipient of the Global Legal Skills Award and the Deborah Hecht Memorial Writing Award. During her teaching career, she has presented widely, both domestically and internationally, on legal pedagogy and skills training. Before embarking on her teaching career, Professor Contento was an attorney in a general practice law firm.
Education
J.D., John Marshall Law School
B.A., Loyola University Chicago
Publications
Articles
Plagiarism: What Every Legal Writer Should Know, 7 Kaczncı Peer-Reviewed Law Journal 209, Issue 83-84 (2011).
Plagiarism: What Every Legal Writer Should Know, J. Rus. Acad. Leg. Sci. 119, Issue 2 (2011).
Essays
Why Online Resources Won’t Replace Writing Specialists—At Least Anytime Soon!, Legal Writing Institute, The Second Draft, Vol. 29, No. 1 (Spring 2016).
Way Beyond Grammar: What Today’s Legal Writing Specialist Can do for You, The Scrivener, Scribes: The American Society of Legal Writers (Summer 2015).
Freeing Students to Write More Effectively—Taking the Fear Out of Plagiarism, Legal Writing Institute, The Second Draft, Vol. 25, No. 2 (Fall 2011), winner of the 2012 Deborah Hecht Memorial Writing Award.
Books
Book Chapters
Writing Centers and Writing Specialists, in ABA Sourcebook on Legal Writing (ABA Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar, 3rd ed., forthcoming).