Terrill Pollman

Terry is a Professor of Law at the William S. Boyd School of Law in Las Vegas, Nevada. 

This distinguished award is presented annually to a person who has made an outstanding contribution to improve the field of Legal Writing by demonstrating:

• an ability to nurture and motivate students to excellence;
• a willingness to help other legal writing educators improve their teaching skills or their legal writing programs; and
• an ability to create and integrate new ideas for teaching and motivating legal writing educators and students.

As stated in her nomination letter, Terry exemplifies these qualities in several important ways.  Here are just a few excerpts from several nominators: 

“Terry has ‘an ability to nurture and motivate students to excellence.’ As a teacher, Terry is simply amazing; she engages with students in a non-judgmental way, meeting them where they are and pushing them forward. A number of her former students have themselves gone on to teach legal writing. She has taught a variety of students in a variety of courses, and her impact on students’ lives is noticeable.”

“Terry demonstrates ‘a willingness to help other Legal Writing educators improve their teaching skills or their Legal Writing Programs.’ She has directed programs at Stetson and Illinois, as well as being the founding legal writing director at her current institution, the University of Nevada at Las Vegas. At each institution, Terry transitioned the program to some extent, and at UNLV, significantly—it now employs a tenure model for all faculty, including those who teach legal writing.”

“Finally, Terry has ‘an ability to create and integrate new ideas for teaching and motivating Legal Writing educators and students.’ She was one of the founders of the Rocky Mountain Regional Legal Writing Conference and one of the founders of the West Coast Rhetoric Workshop. She has spent significant time documenting legal writing scholarship to increase its availability and demonstrate the seriousness of our discipline.”

The Blackwell Award Reception will be held at the AALS Annual Meeting in New Orleans, Louisiana, on Friday evening, January 4, 2019.