CHICAGO, June 28, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Professor Kim D. Chanbonpin of The John Marshall Law School in Chicago has been installed as president of the Legal Writing Institute. As the new LWI president, Chanbonpin also becomes the first person of color to hold the office as well as the first John Marshall professor to do so.
"I am honored for this opportunity to serve the members of LWI," said Chanbonpin. "When I was elected, I promised to incorporate diversity and racial inclusion practices into the core of the work I do for LWI. The composition of our LWI committees, rich with the varied perspectives and experiences of our members, is one example of that effort."
She added, "Legal education is experiencing a transformation, and legal writing professors are poised to be at the forefront of pedagogical reforms. To provide assistance for our members during this transition, LWI is building and nurturing systems of professional, scholarly and teaching support. I am proud to be a part of this process," she said.
Chanbonpin will formally take office at LWI's biennial conference, which will be held this July in Portland, Oregon. She will serve a two-year term. Previously she served on LWI's Board of Directors along with fellow John Marshall Professor Mark E. Wojcik. The 2,800-member Legal Writing Institute provides a forum for the exchange of ideas about legal writing and for research and scholarship about legal writing and legal analysis.
Anthony Niedwiecki, associate dean of academic affairs for John Marshall, said Chanbonpin's appointment "reflects the great respect that our academic community has for the work she has done. Kim is an innovative and collaborative leader. In just the past few years, Kim has been a leader on diversity issues in the academy; helped the legal writing community collaborate with the Society of American Law Teachers; worked on a task force that lobbies the American Bar Association on issues in legal education; and served as a board member for LWI."
Chanbonpin, who is the director of John Marshall's Lawyering Skills program, is also serving a three-year term on the Board of Governors for the Society of American Law Teachers. She also sits on the Illinois State Bar Association's Criminal Justice Section Council and acts as its Secretary. Chanbonpin joined John Marshall's faculty in 2008. Her scholarly writing considers redress and reparations law, policy and social movements in the United States. Her scholarly work has appeared in the U.C. Irvine Law Review, the Northwestern Journal of Law & Social Policy and the Washington University Global Studies Law Review, among other publications.
She teaches Lawyering Skills; Criminal Law; Torts; Gender, Race and Class; and National Security Law. The law school's Lawyering Skills Program is ranked No. 5 in the country by U.S. News & World Report.