Legal Writing Education

Outstanding Contributions to Legal Writing Education

Presented for outstanding contributions to the education of new lawyers in the field of legal analysis, research and writing, whether through teaching, program design, program support, innovative thinking or writing.

The 2011 Award Winner

Professor Marjorie Dick Rombauer was the 1960 Honor Graduate of the University of Washington Law School. Upon graduation, she was appointed a Legal Writing Instructor to teach in that school's first-year Legal Writing program. It was a nine-month appointment, but she remained at the school, became Director of the program and was promoted to a tenure-track faculty position. She redesigned the writing course to increase focus on the analysis and research processes that underlie basic forms of lawyers' thinking/writing. Credit for the course was doubled, and the number of teachers was increased from two to five. She also persuaded the faculty to appoint new teachers as tenure-track faculty members encouraged to specialize in the field rather than as short-term instructors. Although staffing exclusively by tenure-track faculty was ultimately not continued, the experience laid the foundation for tenure-track appointments as an alternative to long-term contracts so as to continue to provide experienced teachers for the course. In the mid-60s, she created a popular Legal Analysis course for foreign students in the Asian Law graduate program. She also taught Creditor-Debtor Law, Secured Transactions and Legal Drafting. In 1990, she served as Acting Dean of the school. She was a member of the Washington Law Revision Commission, serving as chairperson 1990-1995. She was an early chairperson of the AALS Section on Legal Reasoning, Research and Writing (originally, Legal Research Section) and continued as an active participant until her retirement in 1993. After her retirement, the Association of Legal Writing Directors created the Rombauer Award in her honor, given annually to a person who has contributed significantly to the field of legal writing. In 2000, she was named one of the school's Ten Outstanding Faculty Members of the Century at the school's 100th anniversary celebration. Other honors include her school's Distinguished Aumna and Service Recognition Awards (1996, 2008), the Washington Law Review's Outstanding Achievement Award (1992), and an Award of Honor and Merit from the Washington State Bar Association for drafting and securing adoption of comprehensive legislation conforming state collection law to federal constitutional requirements (1987). Her publications include LEGAL PROBLEM SOLVING: ANALYSIS, RESEARCH AND WRITING (West 5th ed. 1991) (with teachers' manuals); CREDITORS' REMEDIES-DEBTORS' RELIEF (West, 2 vols., 1998); Regular Faculty Staffing for an Expanded First-Year Research and Writing Course: A Post Mortem, 44 Albany L. Rev. 392-411 (1980); First-Year Legal Research and Writing: Then and Now, 25 J. Legal Educ. 538-552 (1973).