About the Authors

Alexa Z. Chew, J.D.

Series Editor and Author of:

• The Complete Legal Writer (2d ed. 2020)
• The Complete Bar Writer (2021)
• The Complete Legal Editor (forthcoming)
• The Complete Legal Stylist (forthcoming)

Alexa Z. Chew is a Clinical Professor of Law at the University of North Carolina School of Law, where she teaches practical legal writing courses. She is an expert in legal citation (not to be confused with The Bluebook), and her citation scholarship includes “Citation Literacy,” “Stylish Legal Citation,” and “Citation Stickiness” (the last with Kevin Bennardo). 

She’s an active member of the two big professional organizations for legal writing—the Legal Writing Institute (LWI) and the Association of Legal Writing Directors (ALWD)—and is a frequent presenter at legal writing conferences. You can also find her, and many other #legalwriting and #LRW experts, on Twitter, where she mostly tweets about legal writing at @aznchew.

Awards

• UNC Law Byrd Award for Excellence and Creativity in Teaching (2015)
• UNC Law Charles E. Daye Award for Excellence in Faculty Service (2017)

Clerkship

• The Honorable Rick Elmore of the North Carolina Court of Appeals

Practice Experience

• Corporate associate at the late Bingham McCutchen LLP

Education

• J.D. from the Duke University School of Law
• A.B. from Princeton University, where she studied Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and wrote a senior thesis about her taphonomical analysis of a new dinosaur quarry in the Upper Jurassic Morrison Formation of Wyoming (i.e., how dinosaur bones got to where paleontologists found them). The thesis had many pictures in it.

Katie Rose Guest Pryal, J.D., Ph.D.

Series Editor and Author of:

• The Complete Legal Writer (2d ed. 2020)
• The Complete Bar Writer (2021)
• The Complete Pre-Law Writer (2022)
• The Complete Legal Editor (forthcoming)
• The Complete Legal Stylist (forthcoming)

Katie Rose Guest Pryal, J.D., Ph.D., is an Adjunct Professor of Law at the University of North Carolina School of Law where she teaches the Writing for the Bar course to third-year law students. She is also an Instructor in the Drexel University MFA program where she teaches narrative writing. She is an expert in legal writing, rhetoric, grammar, and style, and her scholarship on the subject includes “The Genre Discovery Approach: Preparing Law Students to Write Any Legal Document,” 59 Wayne Law Review 351 (2013). She has also written many books on the subject, including, with professor Ruth Ann McKinney, Core Grammar for Lawyers (4th ed. 2019) and Core Grammar for College (2d ed. 2020). She has taught university writing for over fifteen years.

She is also the author of many other books, including the bestseller Life of the Mind Interrupted: Essays on Mental Health and Disability in Higher Education (2017), The Freelance Academic: Transform Your Creative Life and Career (2019), winner of a Gold INDIE award, and Even If You’re Broken: Essays on Sexual Assault and #MeToo (2019) winner of a Gold IPPY award. She leads professional development seminars around the country and is a frequent keynote speaker at events and professional conferences.

Awards

• Independent Publisher Book Award “IPPY” Gold Medal
• FOREWORD Magazine INDIE Gold Medal  

Clerkship

• The Honorable Terrence W. Boyle of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina

Practice Experience

• Associate, The Hodgman Law Firm (Greensboro, NC)
• Currently Of Counsel, Gordon Rees Scully Mansukhani, LLP (Raleigh Office)

Education

• Ph.D. in Rhetoric and Composition from the University of North Carolina Greensboro
• J.D. from the University of North Carolina School of Law
• M.A. in Nonfiction Writing from the Writing Seminars of Johns Hopkins University
• A.B. in English and French from Duke University

Louis Di Leo, J.D., Ph.D.

Author of The Complete Pre-Law Writer (2022)

Louis Di Leo is an attorney, writer, and former Assistant Professor of English at Florida Southern College, where he taught introductory and advanced writing courses. As a law student, he traveled to the Cayman Islands to study international and Caribbean law under the Hon. Patrick Robinson of the International Court of Justice. He is an expert in legal discourse, English composition, law and literature, and environmental law, and his scholarship includes “The Polar Bear Ethic: The Reactionary Trend in Environmental Lawmaking and the Climate Change Imperative,” 28 Journal of Environmental Law and Litigation 347 (2014). His work has been recognized by The Best American Series.

Recently, he served as an Advisory Board Member of the Literature and the Law CLE series, for which he also moderated and presented at conferences in Jacksonville and New Orleans. He is a member of the National Council of Teachers of English, the New Jersey College English Association, and the Legal Writing Institute.

Awards

• Florida Southern College Faculty Service Award (2021)
• Notable Essay Listing in The Best American Essays 2015 for “The Polar Bear Ethic”

Practice Experience

• Currently Associate at Ruprecht, Hart, Ricciardulli, and Sherman, LLP (Westfield, New Jersey)

Education

• Ph.D., English, University of Southern Mississippi
• J.D., Law, Florida Coastal School of Law
• M.F.A., Creative Writing, University of Southern Maine
• B.A., English, Philosophy minor, Hartwick College

“She Longed to Swim” by Lauren Faulkenberry

Cover Artist, Lauren Faulkenberry

Many thanks to Lauren Faulkenberry of Firebrand Press for designing the cover artwork for our books. You can view more of her artwork in her Etsy Shop.