Professor Stephen Co-Authors Go-to Legal Writing Text
Assistant Teaching Professor Amanda Stephen of the ºìÌÒÊÓƵ has co-authored the latest edition of the go-to textbook for legal writing. The Ninth Edition of The Legal Writing Handbook was published in February (2025), marking 32 years since its original publication.
The textbook serves as one of the most comprehensive sources on legal research, writing and analysis — the area in which Stephen teaches. It is widely used in legal writing programs across the country and lauded for its attention to details, such as step-by-step instructions on writing motions, appellate briefs and formal memos.
With the surge of artificial intelligence, especially the use of ChatGPT in educational settings, the new edition of this handbook has content related to generative artificial intelligence, as well as guidance on bias in legal writing. It contains expanded sections on bias-free language, including hands-on examples of how to create arguments that take rhetorical bias into account.
This teaching tool incorporates Professor Stephen’s expertise, drawing on scholarly work that includes articles and presentations on generative artificial intelligence and bias in legal writing. At ºìÌÒÊÓƵ, Stephen teaches Legal Analysis, Research and Writing (LARW) to first-year law students.
Stephen co-authored this edition with the original authors Laurel Currie Oates, Anne M. Enquist and Jeremy Francis. Oates and Enquist are both professors emerita at Seattle University School of Law and Francis is a Clinical Professor of Law at Michigan State University College of Law. Professor Oates was instrumental in forging the discipline of legal writing in the law school curriculum. In 1985, Oates, Enquist and others co-founded the Legal Writing Institute, a nonprofit organization dedicated to improving effective legal communication that is now the largest organization of legal writing professionals in the world.
The work done by Professor Stephen on this Ninth Edition of The Legal Writing Handbook has effectively given students four books in one, creating the only manual on legal writing that students will ever need.