Curriculum Vitae

Joe Regalia

Joe is a law professor, trainer, and attorney with a passion for legal writing, persuasion science, and technology. He combines his experience as both practitioner and professor to create exciting new ways to teach legal skills. 

Table of Contents

Education

University of Michigan Law School

J.D., Summa Cum Laude
  • 4.05 GPA, ranked first in class
  • Certificate of Merit
  • Daniel Grady Award
  • Executive Board Member, Michigan Journal of Environmental Law
  • Executive Director, Michigan Journal of International Law

University of Nevada, Reno

B.A. English, Summa Cum Laude
  • Most outstanding graduate of the humanities
  • Robb Law Scholar 

Academic Appointments

William S. Boyd School of Law

Associate Professor of Law, 2019—Present

Peking University School of Transnational Law

Visiting Professor of Law, Summer 2020

U.S. Court of Appeals 9th Circuit

Legal writing professor, 2017—Present
  • Selected to teach annual series of legal writing workshops in the Pacific Islands for judges, staff, and attorney.

Loyola University Chicago School of Law

Adjunct professor of law, 2017—2019
  • Taught advanced legal writing, research, and practice
  • Bar exam lecturer on all major subjects
  • Developed and taught legal writing orientation programming

John Marshall Law School

Adjunct professor of law, 2018—2019
  • Taught advanced legal writing, research, and practice

University of Nevada, Las Vegas, William S. Boyd School of Law

Adjunct professor of law, 2015—2017
  • Adjunct/visiting professor of the year, 2017
  • Taught legal writing including judicial writing and appellate advocacy
  • Coached SOA moot court teams 
  • Bar exam lecturer on all major subjects
  • Regularly advised judicial clerkship applicants
  • Founded and operated the Pro Se Bootcamp

Appellate Advocacy Blog, a member of the Law Professor Blogs network

Co-editor and columnist
  • Write bi-monthly column on all aspects of legal writing and research
  • Select articles with over 80,000 readers; total readership over 300,000
  • Three-time Tech Lawyer blog award winner

Pro Se Boot Camp

Founder, 2015—Present
  • Founded and manage organization that teaches practical legal skills to
    high-risk members of the community

Great Lakes Environmental Law Center

Fellow, 2016—Present
  • Research, write, and collaborate with leading experts on cutting-edge-water-law issues

Institute of Higher Learning

Bar exam teacher; law school doctrinal and writing teacher, 2013-2019
  • Taught students who have been unsuccessful on the bar exam
  • Created and teach law school success programs

Clerkships and Professional Appointments

Write.law

Co-founder, 2015—Present

Thompson Reuters

Consultant, 2019-2020

King & Spalding LLP

Associate, 2018-2019

Sidley Austin LLP

Associate, 2017-2018

United States District Court, District of Nevada

Honorable Judge Jennifer Dorsey and Andrew Gordon
Judicial Law Clerk, 2016-2017

United States Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit

Honorable Judge Jay Bybee
Judicial Law Clerk, 2015-2016

United States District Court

Honorable Judge Andrew Gordon
Judicial Law Clerk, 2014-2015

Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati

Summer Associate, 2012; Associate, 2013-2014

Univ. of Michigan, Office of General Counsel

Law Clerk, 2011-2013

Lewis Brisbois Bisgaard & Smith, LLP

Law Clerk, 2011-2012 

Works in Progress

Learning the Legal Writing Moves: One Step at a Time (Book)

  • Identifies 100 effective legal writing techniques based on (1) sampling from over 70 major legal writing texts, (2) sampling from over 150 major writing texts, (3) techniques that have support in cognitive science, and (4) common techniques identified in a sample of over 200 legal documents authored by successful advocates
  • Teaches these tools using the latest educational theories, including real-world examples and prompts to drill each technique

Applying Industrial Organizational Psychology to Legal Teams (Journal Article)

  • Addresses core problems that plague legal-writing teams, including advocacy bias, differing feedback behaviors, poor feedback systems, lack of psychological safety, role ambiguity, group think, selfconsistency bias, lack of voice, and cognitive dissonance

Collaboration in the Trial Courts: Using Stare Decisis to Improve the Quality of Judicial Decision-making (Journal Article)

  • Proposes a modified stare decisis model to encourage collaborative decision-making between trial court judges and develops data suggesting that that trial court collaboration would improve the quality of decision-making

Technology as a Skill: Strategies for Mastering Tech (Journal Article)

  • Proposes a framework for learning and teaching legal technology as a skill rather than a product

Selected Publications and Presentations

Long-form articles
Using Tech to Edit Writing, The Advocate, (Winter 2020)
Joseph Regalia, A New Water Law Vista: Rooting the Public Trust Doctrine in the Courts, KENTUCKY LAW JOURNAL, Vol. 108, No. 1, 2019.
Why Mississippi’s Plea to the Supreme Court That It “Owns” Its Water and That Tennessee Is "Stealing" It Is Just Wrong, THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO LAW REVIEW ONLINE, October 8, 2019
Leveraging Technology in Student Feedback, Perspectives: Teaching Legal Research and Writing (forthcoming winter 2019) (coauthored)
“Waters of the State”: What Does it Mean?
59 Nat. Resources J. 1 (2019) (coauthored)
Bringing Counsel in from the Cold: Reconciling Ethical Rules with the Quagmire of Insurance Defense Practice, 48 N.M. L. Rev. 452 (2018) (coauthored)
Interstate Groundwater Law Revisited: Mississippi v. Tennessee
34 VA. ENVTL. L.J. 152 (2016) (coauthored)
Lines in the Sand: Interstate Groundwater Disputes in the Supreme Court
Nat. Resources & Env't, Fall 2016, at 8 (coauthored)
The Common Law Right to Information
18 RICH. J.L. & PUB. INT. 89 (2015)
Navigating the Law of Ex Parte Communications with Treating Physicians
31 J. CONTEMP. HEALTH L. & POL'Y 35 (2015) (coauthored)
Select short-form articles and briefs
Note: I regularly pen articles at Write.law on various topics. Below is a sample of short-form articles I've published outside of Write.law 
Lawyers Need to Share the Technology Love
Law Insider, 2020
Resume Building is Great, but Mentor Building is Better
LinkedIn Career Series, 2020
Tech Competence Today
Legal Tech Center, 2020
Are You Ready for Internet Courts?
Appellate Advocacy Blog, 2019
7 Steps to Appeasing Your Skeptical Legal Readers
Appellate Advocacy Blog, 2019
Using Innovative Tools Instead of Letting Them Use You
Appellate Advocacy Blog, 2019
The Productive Lawyer Redux
Appellate Advocacy Blog, 2019
Simple Tools to Avoid Confounding Legal Writing
Appellate Advocacy Blog, 2019
Elegant variation: Spicing up some lawyerisms
Appellate Advocacy Blog, 2019
Naming Day: Two Simple Tricks To Make Your Points Memorable
Appellate Advocacy Blog, 2019
Learning from BriefCatch: Using Technology to Unearth Your Writing Blind Spots
Appellate Advocacy Blog, 2019
Reinventing the Legal Writing Classroom with Legal Tech
Appellate Advocacy Blog, 2019
Section Starts: Simple Tools to Introduce Your Brief Sections with Style
Appellate Advocacy Blog, 2019
Playing to the Crowd: Simple Tips for Crafting Custom Legal Writing
Appellate Advocacy Blog, 2019
An Eye For Legal Writing: Five Ways Visuals Can Transform Your Briefs
Appellate Advocacy Blog, 2019
Simple Tools For Telling Stories in Your Legal Writing
Appellate Advocacy Blog, 2019
Want People To Actually Read Your Legal Writing? Use Two Types of Variety
Appellate Advocacy Blog, 2019
The strength of the start: How to Craft Killer Beginnings in Your Legal Writing
Appellate Advocacy Blog, 2019
Four ways to harness the power of words in your legal writing
Appellate Advocacy Blog, 2019
Legal Writing Like an Entrepreneur
Appellate Advocacy Blog, 2019
Edify Your Editing
Appellate Advocacy Blog, 2019
The Power of Tech and Legal Writing
TeachLawBetter, 2019
Amicus Brief in Mississippi v. Tennessee
Lead Author, 2019
8 Ways to Leverage Tech as a Laywer
ABA Before the Bar, 2019
Life Science, Health-Care Firms Should Beware Telephone Consumer Protection Act
Bloomberg Law, 2019
Three Personas to Create as a Legal Writer
ABA Before the Bar, 2019
Head(ings) I Win, Tails I Lose
Appellate Advocacy Blog, 2018 
The Power to Move Your Readers: Empathy
Appellate Advocacy Blog, 2018  
Grammar Bots Can Help Fix Your Legal Writing
Appellate Advocacy Blog, 2018 
Building Rules Instead of Finding Them
Appellate Advocacy Blog, 2018 
The Pitfalls and Power of the Paragraph
Appellate Advocacy Blog, 2018 
Your Legal-Writing Voice and the Quotations that Drown it Out
Appellate Advocacy Blog, 2018 
Of Robots and Law School
Appellate Advocacy Blog, 2018 
The Approaching Legal Writing Disruption?
Appellate Advocacy Blog, 2018
Technology Shouldn't be a Legal Writer's Trigger Word
Appellate Advocacy Blog, 2018 
What a Doctor of Design Can Teach You About Legal Writing
Appellate Advocacy Blog, 2018 
The Art of Legal Writing: The Sentence
Appellate Advocacy Blog, 2018 
Pulling at the judicial heartstrings
Appellate Advocacy Blog, 2018 
Lawyers should not always write like Hemingway
Appellate Advocacy Blog, 2018 
Who cares about the law? Legal writing with emotion
Appellate Advocacy Blog, 2018  
Make Sure You're the Lawyer That the Judge Can Trust
Appellate Advocacy Blog, 2018 
Playing well (as a legal writer) with others
Appellate Advocacy Blog, 2018
Writer's Block and Productivity: The Lawyer's Edition
Appellate Advocacy Blog, 2018 
Evidence-based legal writing: Is it possible?
Appellate Advocacy Blog, 2018 
Making conciseness work: the power of content-word editing
Appellate Advocacy Blog, 2019 
Big ideas in small packages
Appellate Advocacy Blog, 2019 
Technology Shouldn't be a Legal Writer's Trigger Word
Appellate Advocacy Blog, 2017
What a Doctor of Design Can Teach You About Legal Writing
Appellate Advocacy Blog, 2017
The Art of Legal Writing: The Sentence
Appellate Advocacy Blog, 2017 
Pulling on the judicial heartstrings: emotion-laden language in legal writing
Appellate Advocacy Blog, 2017
Who cares about the law? Legal writing with emotion.
Appellate Advocacy Blog, 2017 
Make Sure You're the Lawyer that the Judge can Trust
Appellate Advocacy Blog, 2017 
Writer's Block and Productivity: The Lawyer's Edition
Appellate Advocacy Blog, 2017 
Playing well (as a legal writer) with others
Appellate Advocacy Blog, 2017 
Evidence-based legal practice--is it possible?
Appellate Advocacy Blog, 2017 
Big Idea in Small Packages
Appellate Advocacy Blog, 2017
Find the right answers, then ask the right questions
Appellate Advocacy Blog, 2017 
Issues issues everywhere, but not a one makes sense
Appellate Advocacy Blog, 2017  
The Immutable Rules
Appellate Advocacy Blog, 2017 
Leveraging Technology as a Legal Writer
Appellate Advocacy Blog, 2017 
Programming your Writing Intuition
Appellate Advocacy Blog, 2017 
Editing Alchemy
Appellate Advocacy Blog, 2017
Hello Judge! It's me, Lawyer!
Appellate Advocacy Blog, 2017
Reprogramming your Writing Intuition
TeachLaw, Summer 2017
An Associate’s Most Important Writing: Emails
Before the Bar, ABA Publishing, Summer 2017
Second Time’s a Charm: A Day in the Life of a Bar Failer
Before the Bar, ABA Publishing, Summer 2017
Do State Governments Own Water?
ABA Gov. Law, Summer 2016 (co-authored)
Bringing Ethical Challenges Against Insurance Defense Counsel
ABA Gov. Law, Summer 2016 
Social Media Practice Pitfalls
ABA Gov. Law, Summer 2015 
Disaster Law: What you Need to Know
ABA Gov. Law, Summer 2015
California’s Fight to Fill the Climate Change Gap Meets a Roadblock
MICH. J. ENV. L., Online Edition, Spring 2013
A Supreme Court Case: How Safe is the Silvicultural Rule?”
MICH. J. ENV. L., Online Edition, Spring 2013
Setting the Curve: Mastering Essays and Academic Success in Law School
Amazon Publishing (2016)
Select workshops, CLEs and presentations
Note: I regularly lead trainings and give talks on technology, legal writing, and other topics to law firms, courts, and other organizations in my role with Write.law. Below is a sampling of talks I do outside of Write.law
Robo-Law
William S. Boyd School of Law Justice Douglas Prelaw Program, 2020
Teaching Legal Technology Skills
American Association of Law Schools, 2020
The UNLV Virtual Lawyering Bootcamp
William S. Boyd School of Law, 2020
The Future of Legal Research
Thompson Reuters, 2020
Legal Writing Bootcamp
The Nevada State Bar, 2020
The Future of the Legal Profession
William S. Boyd School of Law, 2020
Mastering the MPT
William S. Boyd School of Law, 2020
Legal Tech Skills in 2020
William S. Boyd School of Law, 2020
Persuasion Science and Legal Writing
The Nevada State Bar Family Law Section, 2020
Legal Writing Mastery Workshop
The Sands Corporation, 2019
Legal Writing for Foreign Lawyers
Loyola School of Law, Chicago, 2019
E-Discovery and Other New Frontiers for Lawyers
Cumberland Law School, 2019
Non-Legal Tech for Lawyers
Wester Regional Conference of Academic Support Professionals, Fall 2019
Legal Writing Basics
Loyola University Chicago School of Law School, Summer 2019
Legal Research Hacks
King & Spaulding LLP, Summer 2019
The Legal Writing Moves that Work
Nevada Attorney General’s Office, Summer 2019
Persuading to Win
King & Spaulding LLP, Spring 2019
The Science of Advocacy
Convention of Summary Associates, Spring 2019
Class Action Practice Caselaw Review
King & Spaulding LLP, Spring 2019
Legal Writing Bootcamp Orientation
Loyola University Chicago School of Law School, Spring 2018
Trial Writing
Nevada State Bar Conference, Summer 2018
Legal Writing Moves that Work
Hosted at John Marshall Law School
Cy Pres Today CLE
Sidley Austin, Summer 2018
Writing Well: Legal Writing Like the Best CLE
Sidley Austin, Summer 2018
Killing the Bar Exam
John Marshall Law School, Summer 2018
Killing the MPT
UNLV, William S. Boyd School of Law, Spring 2018
Writing Fundamentals for Foreign Lawyers
Loyola University Chicago School of Law School, Winter 2017
Succeeding at Academic Success, Successfully
Loyola University Chicago School of Law School, Fall 2017
Writing Well: Legal Writing Like the Best
Lewis Brisbois Bisgaard & Smith, Summer 2017
Killing the Bar Exam
Loyola University Chicago School of Law School, Fall 2017
Using Small Moves to Reprogram your Legal Writing
Ninth Circuit Legal Writing Series, Fall 2017 
Using Transitions, Introductions, and Thesis Sentences
Ninth Circuit Legal Writing Series, Fall 2017 
Rethinking How You Explain Rules
Ninth Circuit Legal Writing Series, Fall 2017 
Thinking Differently about Editing and Technology in your Legal Writing
Ninth Circuit Legal Writing Series, Fall 2017 
Good to Great: Never Stop Writing Better
Ninth Circuit Legal Writing Series, Fall 2017 
Reprogramming your Legal Writing to Win
Workshop series for law firms in the Las Vegas area, 2016-2017
Killing the Bar Exam
UNLV, William S. Boyd School of Law, Spring 2017
Academic Success in Law School
UNLV, William S. Boyd School of Law, Spring 2017
Pro Se Bootcamp Interview
KNPR Radio Show, Fall 2016
Mastering the MBE
UNLV, William S. Boyd School of Law, Fall 2016 
Mastering Bar Essays
UNLV, William S. Boyd School of Law, Fall 2016 
Appellate Writing to Win
UNLV, William S. Boyd School of Law, Fall 2016 
Mastering Academic Success in Law School
UNLV, William S. Boyd School of Law, Summer 2016

Professional Activities and Memberships

Illinois Bar; California Bar

Perspectives: Teaching Legal Research and Writing, Board member

American Association of Law School Technology Section, Committee member

Association of Legal Writing Directors

  • Scholars Fora Committee Member
  • Leadership Committee Member
  • Publications Committee Member
  • Teaching Workshops Committee Member
  • Visiting Scholars Committee
  • Diversity Committee 

UNLV Technology Committee 

American Bar Association, SEER Water Resources, Editor

Global Legal Writing Skills, Committee

Journal of Legal Writing Institute, Co-editor

American Bar Association 

  • Chair, Government Law Committee, 2014
  • Chair-elect, Government Law Committee, 2015
  • Committee Vice Chair, Government Law Committee, 2014

Scribes Journal of Legal Writing, Member

Certified Mediator