Contemporary Lawyer Poets
United States
[The poets
whose brief bios appear on this page are either practicing lawyers,
or obtained their law degree and pursued other interests.]
M-to-Z
A-to-L
Cassie MacDonald
Cassie MacDonald is a lawyer but is no longer involved in legal work. She now lives in Philadelphia, by way of Portland, Oregon. She received her B.A. from the University of Northern Colorado, her J.D. from Lewis and Clark Law School and returned to Philadelphia to in 1998 to write her family history.
James P. MacElree II
Judge MacElree is a Chester County, Pennsylvania Common Pleas Judge. He has, according to an article which appeared in The Legal Intelligencer (Vol. 221, September 22, 1999), been writing poetry since he was seven years old.
Samuel D. Magavern
Sam Magavern teaches law at the University of Buffalo Law School.
He was born and raised in Buffalo, graduated from Harvard College and UCLA Law School. His poetry has appeared in Poetry, Paris Review, Partisan Review, Beloit Poetry Journal, Green Mountains Review, Salamander, Antioch Review, College English, Mudfish, River Oak Review, and New Press Quarterly. His non-fiction book, Primo Levi's Cosmos, will be published by Palgrave Macmillan in 2009. [faculty profile] [poetry]
Michael Maguire
Michael Maguire is a Texas lawyer and poet.
Lori L Mach
Lori Mach grew up in small-town, rural Iowa and graduated from Drake University. She then moved East to attend Yale Law School, where she graduated in 1995. Following graduation, she moved to Philadelphia and became a Philadelphia Lawyer—a public defender. She has been with the Defender Association of Philadelphia for nine years. For the first seven years, she was a trial attorney, handling all types of criminal cases. For the last two years, she has been in the appellate unit. She co-hosts a weekly case-discussion forum for attorneys in the office and coaxes participation through e-mails that attempt to be topical, witty and occasionally, poetic. Because she is a mother of young children, she has no free time or hobbies.
Mach was
born 1970; obtained her B.A. at Drake University; and admitted to practice law in 1995. [Poem]
Michael Maguire
Michael Maguire, of Austin and Marfa, is a Texas lawyer and poet.
Mary Claire Mahaney
| Mary Claire Mahaney was born in 1954 in Warren, Ohio. She received her B.A. from the College of Mount Saint Joseph in 1976, and her law degree from the University of Cincinnati College of Law in 1979. |
|
 |
She practiced law in Cincinnati and taught business law at the University of Cincinnati and the University of Michigan. She has, for over 20 years, been a resident of McLean Virginia. She is the author of Osaka Heat, a novel, and various short stories, essays, and poems. [Mary Claire Mahaney] [Photo used with permission of Mary Claire Mahaney.]
Ginger Mance
Ginger Mance is a Chicago lawyer. Her poetry has appeared in various literary magazines and in Say That the River Turns: The Impact of Gwendolyn Brooks (Third World Press, 1987).
William L. Manchee
Manchee was born on August 22, 1947 at Ventura, California.
He was educated at the UCLA, receiving his B.A. degree in 1969.
He received his law degree from Southern Methodist University in
1975. He began the practice of law in Dallas in 1976 and now operates
the firm, Manchee &
Manchee, in Dallas. Manchee served in the U.S. Marine Corps
in 1970. He is the author of mystery, suspense and adventure novels
including Undaunted (Top Publications, 1998), Brash Endeavor
(Research Triangle Publishing, 1998); Twice Tempted (Top
Publications, 1999), Death Pact (Top Publications,
1999), Second Chair (Top Publications, 2000), Trouble
in Trinidad (Top Publications, 2001), Ca$h Call (Top
Publications, 2002), Plastic Gods (Top Publications, 2003).
A collection of Manchee's poetry, Case Call Mystery was published
in 2002. Manchee is also the author of Yes, We're Open Defending
the Small Business Under Siege (Top Publications, 2003) a how-not-to-do-it
book for small business owners. [Bio]
W. Adam Mandelbaum
Mandelbaum is a New York attorney, from Oyster Bay, practicing
in the fields of criminal and divorce law. He is also the author
of The Psychic Battlefield: A History of the Military-Occult
Complex (St. Martins, 2000), the first extensive history of
psychic spying. His poetry has been aired nationwide on "The Romantic
Hours," a syndicated show, and has appeared in various publications
and on the web. [W.
Adam Mandelbaum Page] [ Dust to Dust"] ["Dark
Dreamer"] ["Obituary
Orbit"] ["Reflections
in a Dead Eye"] ["To a Lady"]
Jordan L Margolis
Born 1954; admitted to law practice in 1979; University of Illinois, B.A.; Northwestern University, J.D. [Margolis curriculum vita] [The Margolis Law Firm] [poetry]
Eric T. Marin
[Eric T. Marin website]
Barry S. Marks
Barry Marks was born in Boston, Massachusetts on February
24, 1952. He is now a Birmingham, Alabama corporate lawyer specializing
in equipment leasing and specialized financing with Baker,
Donelson, Bearman, Caldwell & Berkowitz, PC. Marks was raised
in Miami and spent summers as a youth in the Appalachian mountains
in South Carolina. He attended Emory University where he obtained
his B.A. in 1974 and in 1976, his J.D. from the University of Florida.
In 1985 he obtained an LL.M. in Taxation from Emory University.
Marks' poetry has appeared in The Lyric, Folio, Word
Wrights, Black River, Poetry Motel, Jewish
Spectator, Calliope and other literary journals. He has
recently served as President of the Alabama State Poetry Society.
[Source: Personal communication with Barry S. Marks] [Poems—Legal Studies Forum] [Two Poems]
Walter Maroney
Walter Maroney is a lawyer, poet, short story writer, and novelist (his work in this genre awaits publication). He lives in Manchester, New Hampshire. Maroney describes himself as: "Lawyer, poet, failed comedian, dilettante." [Nine Short Poems from the Bible] [blog]
Al Marquis
Practicing trial lawyer with the Las Vegas law firm, Marquis & Aurbach for some 25 years; author of Frivolous Cowboy Poetry: "These Here Stories Are All True (Mostly)."
Philip M. Marston
Philip Marston is an Alexandria, Virginia lawyer.
Esteban A. Martinez
Martinez practices law in Thornton, Colorado. He obtained his law degree
earned his law degree from the University of Denver College of Law and a Master's Degree in English from the University of Colorado.
His first novel, In Memory of Gods and Heroes, was published in 2002. One of his poems, "Old Addicts," was published in 34 (4) The Colorado Lawyer 27 (2005). He has served as a Colorado Assistant Attorney General and taught legal writing, and law & literature at the University of Denver College of Law. [Esteban A. Martinez] [Esteban's Blog] ["Child of Mine"] ["I Don't Know Any Angels"—short fiction]
Alys Masek
Alys Masek was born in Los Angeles, California and grew up in various locales in southern California. She graduated from the University of Califonria-Riverside and attended the University of California Hastings College of the Law in San Francisco where she lived for many years. Currently she practices environmental law and lives in San Diego. She has previously published her poetry in Noe Valley Review and City Works Journal.
Leo Masursky
Public defender's office, Tucson, Arizona
Jill Mattoon
Jill Matton is a judge in the Administrative Hearings division of the Colorado Department of Personnel & Administration in Pueblo and has served that office since 1999. Mattoon graduated from the University of Colorado in 1981 and from California Western School of Law in 1984. She previously served in the Pueblo District Attorney's Office from 1985 through 1993, and in 1994, she joined the law firm of Petersen, Fonda, Farley, Mattoon, Crockenberg & Garcia, P.C. Her poem, "Untitled," was published in 34 (4) The Colorado Lawyer 27 (2005).
Joy Maulitz
"Joy Maulitz lives in San Francisco, where she practices criminal law and hosts an author interview program on a community ration station." Rattle No. 27 (Summer, 2007).
David May
"David May is a jazz bassist, entertainment attorney and personal manager for film composers in the Los Angeles area. Her performs regularly with pianist/composer, Geoffrey Aymar, in the original jazz group, aymar/may, as well as with such jazz artists as Barbara Morrison, Sam Most, Ron Eschete, Thelma Jones and Sherwood Sledge . . . . Born in 1956, he is [a] graduate of Augustana College and USC Law School, married, and father of eight children." [Source: David May, Love and the Persistence of Illusion (AuthorHouse, 2005)]
Bill Mayo
Arkansas lawyer; self-described "avid amateur" poet;
attended law school at the University of Arkansas; publisher of
a poetry journal, Poesia; founder of Indian Bay Press; Mayo was born in 1953, admitted
to practice in 1980; practices and resides in Fayetteville, Arkansas. [Source Arkansas Democrate-Gazette (Little Rock), March 14, 2004]
We have in hand, thanks to Mr. Mayo, issues of Poesia and it turns out to be fine little journal, most pleasing to the eye and it feels right in the hand reading it. The issues we've previewed leave us nothing to do but subscribe!
Greg McBride
Greg McBride was born in San Diego, California, in 1945, and left
five weeks later to begin a peripatetic childhood following his
Army father throughout the U.S. and overseas. McBride is a graduate
of Princeton University (1967), a Vietnam veteran (where he served
as an Army photographer in 1969), a graduate of Georgetown University
Law Center (1974).
A 2003 Jenny McKean Moore Fellow in Poetry at George Washington University, McBride is a former wrestler, and wan Army photographer in the Vietnam War. He retired December 31, 2004 from his position as Deputy Chief Counsel of the Federal Transit Administration, at the U.S. Department of Transportation.
McBride began his non-legal writing in his mid-50s.
His poems have appeared in Poet Lore, Baltimore Review,
Potomac Review, Aethlon: The Journal of Sport Literature,
Minimus, and WordWrights. His poetry has also appeared
in two anthologies: A Common Bond: Poetry and Prose by American
and Vietnamese Veterans of the Vietnam War (Founders Hill Press, 2002) and the Cabin Fever: Poets at Joaquin Miller’s Cabin, 1984-2001 (Word Works, 2003).
His essay on winning a Pennsylvania state wrestling championship
in 1963 appears in the autumn 2003 issue of Gettysburg Review.
McBride is editor of The Innisfree Poetry Journal: An Online Journal of Contemporary Poetry. [Source: Personal communication with Greg McBride] [Greg McBride] [Poems—Legal Studies Forum] [Poems]
RJ McCaffery
McCaffery is a second year law student at Georgetown Law School. Since he has not, as yet, graduated and does not hold himself out to be a lawyer, we have decided to give him an 'honorary' place on the website until such time as he graduates from law school which we are confident he will do.
R.J. McCaffery's poetry includes Anchor Ice (2003), The Hymnal Week (2002), and Chaos Theory and the Knuckleballer (2000). We had read his essays on poetry with considerable admiration well before he learned that their author had taken up the study of law.
McCaffery is a graduate of
Providence College,
and obtained an M.F.A. at Sarah Lawrence. His poetry has been published in Ploughshares, New Books, The Atlanta Review, and the online edition of The Norton Anthology of Literature. [RJ McCaffery] [Scoplaw-a blog] [Source: Personal communication with McCaffery]
Wallace McCall
McCall is a personal injury lawyer practicing in Jupiter, Florida.
His first collection of poetry, Armadillo Armageddon and Other
Collected Poems was published in 2003.
McCall was born on February 12, 1947 in Greensboro,
North Carolina but grew up in West Palm Beach, Florida. He obtained
his degree in political science from the University of the South,
Sewanee, Tennessee in 1969 and his J.D. from Stetson University
School of Law in 1979. [Source: Personal communication
with Wallace McCall]
James McCobb
Portland, Oregon attorney [source: Melody Finnemore, Versus to Verses, Oreg. St. B. Bull. (July 2006)]
Shaunna Oteka McCovey
Shaunna McCovey
holds a degree in environmental law and is a staff attorney for the Yurok Tribe in Humboldt County. MocCovey grew up on the Yurok Indian reservation in Northern California. She attended Humboldt State University, and obtain a Master's Degree from Arizona State. Her law degree is from Vermont Law School. McCovey is the author of a chapbook, Swim You Every River, and a collection of poetry, The Smokehouse Boys (Heyday Books). [Native Wiki][bio]["Capitalists?"] ["Conspiracy Theory"]
Thomas W. McDaniel
McDaniel was born in 1946, obtained his undergraduate degree
from Rhodes College and his J.D. from the University of Memphis.
He is now a lawyer in Memphis.
Theodore N. McDonald, Jr.
Partner in the law firm, Smith, Gambrell & Russell in Atlanta,
Georgia; received his B.A from Davidson College in 1979, his M.S.W.
from the University of Georgia in 1982, and his J.D. from Emory
in 1987. ["Vanishing"]
Betsy McKenzie
Betsy McKenzie is Professor of Law and Director of the John Joseph Moakley Library, Suffolk University Law School. She is a 1981 law graduate of the University of Kentucky. [Poyetry-a blog]
Patricia McMillen
Oak Park, Illinois ["Forgiveness"]
John M. McNally
John McNally attended the University of Pennsylvania (B.A., 1972)
and obtained his law degree from Georgetown University (1976). He
was admitted to practice in 1976 and is now a member of the Washington,
D.C. law firm, Hawkins, Delafield & Wood. McNally is the author
of Northern Lights, a collection of poetry published by Washington
Writers' Publishing House in 1977. [For a newspaper article on McNally and other Washington, D.C. area lawyer/poets, see Myra Mensh Patner, "Motions and Meter Lawyers as Poets," Washington Post, March 13, 1980, p. D5]
Mark McPherson
Writer, poet, lawyer; received his J.D. from Harvard; author of
Your Best Face: Looking Your Best Without Plastic Surgery
(Hay House, 2002)(with Brandith Irwin). [Poems]
Mark C. McPherson
Attorney with Hillis Clark Martin & Peterson, Seattle Washington [Mark C. McPherson]
Michael McPherson
McPherson was born in Hilo, Hawaii in 1947. He obtained his B.A.
(1974) and M.A. (1976) degrees from the University of Hawaii at
Manoa. He edited and published the literary journal HAPA on Maui,
1980-1983. He is the author of a poetry collection, Singing with
the Owls (Petronium Press, 1982) and a novel, Rivers of the
Sun (2000). In 1988 the Hawaii House of Representatives honored
McPherson for his contributions to Hawaii literature while he attending
his first year of law school at Lewis & Clark in Portland, Oregon.
His poetry, short fiction, essays and reviews have appeared regularly
in Hawaii's literary journals and anthologies since 1979. McPherson
is a solo practitioner in Hawaii concentrating in criminal defense.
["Misogyny"]
[Source: Personal communication with Michael McPherson] [Poems—Legal Studies Forum]
John McVeigh
Portland, Maine lawyer; partner at
Preti Flaherty [law firm profile]
Sofia Memon
Sofia Memon lives and works in Philadelphia, Pennyslvania where she practices law in the areas of public benefits and language access. She received her J.D. from Northeastern University School of Law (2000) and a B.A. from New College of Florida (1996). She was born in St. Petersburg, Florida but was raised in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. She is a second generation Pakistani-American. [Poems—Legal Studies Forum (2006)]
Allen Mendenhall
Allen Mendenahll is a first year law student at West Virginia University where he will also pursue a degree in English. He was raised in Marietta, Georgia and attended Furman University. His poetry has appeared (or is forthcoming) in The Aroostook Review, Tributaries, The Echo, Splizz, and LSR.
Ellen Mendoza
Ellen Mendoza resides in Portland, Oregon; attorney with Legal Aid Services of Oregon for 23 years (as of 2006) and pro tem judge for domestic violence restraining orders (1994-2004); graduated from the Univrsity o Oregon law school in 1982 [source: Melody Finnemore, Versus to Verses, Oreg. St. B. Bull. (July 2006)]
Darrel Menthe
Graduate of Stanford Law School, 1996
Kristin Messner
Kristin Messner received a B.A. in Creative Writing with an emphasis
in poetry from the University of Pittsburgh in 1996. She attended
Pennsylvania State Dickinson School of Law and obtain her J.D. degree
in 2001. Messner lives in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania where she practices
consumer bankruptcy law with her mother and sister. [Source: Personal communication with Kristin Messner] ["Word"]
Joyce Meyers
Joyce Meyers received her M.A. in English Literature from Syracuse University and her law degree from the University of Pennsylvania. She practices law in Philadelphia, where she focuses on First Amendment and intellectual property rights law. Her poetry has appeared in White Pelican Review, Philadelphia Poets, Mad Poets Rview, Endicott Review, and Schuylkill Valley Journal of the Arts.
Her chapbook Wild Mushrooms was published by Plan B Press in 2007. She lives in Wallingford, Pennsylvania.
Jeffrey Michelman
Michelman is an intellectual property lawyer with Blumenfeld, Kaplan & Sandweiss, PC, in St. Louis. He received his B.A. from Pennsylvania State University (1964), and his master of engineering from WashingtonUniversity in 1975. His J.D. is from Villanova University (1967). He has a collection of poetry, titled Peanut Butter on Bagel or Breast.
Jan Michelsen
Michelsen is a native of Chicago, attended Bradley University
where she received a degree in journalism in 1977. She worked at
Bradley University until 1982 as director of publications, when
she became director of hospital relations at Indiana University
medical Center. She obtained her law degree in 1994 and joined Baker
& Daniels in Indianapolis, and then became associated with the
Indianapolis office of Ogletree Deakins. Michelsen's verse appears
on greeting cards, posters, and even coffee mugs. [Source:
Anthony Schoettle, "Lawyer Stirves for Poetic Justice,"
22 (29) Indianapolis Business Journal 67A (October 1, 2001)]
C.M. Millen
Cynthia Millen was born on October 28, 1955. She received her undergraduate
degree from Bowling Green State University in 1977 and her J.D.
from Northern Kentucky University in 1983 where she was editor-in-chief
of that school's law review. Millen was an instructor at the University
of Toledo College of Law (1983-1984) and guardian ad liteum for
the Toledo Juvenile Court (1984-1985). In 1986 she became house counsel
for St. Vincent Medical Center in Toledo. She has been a full-time
poet and writer since 1991. She obtained an M.Litt. from Trinity
College (Dublin) in 1997. She resides in Toledo, Ohio. She is the
author of Ulster Out Loud! (Project Children, 1994), Symphony for the Sheep (Houghton Mifflin Company,
1996), Between the Rhymes: A Collection of Poems (H.O.T.
Graphic Services, Inc., 1998), The Low-Down Laundry
Line Blues (Houghton Miffin Company, 1999), Blue Bowl Down:
An Appalachian Rhyme (Candlewick Press, 2004).
Alyce L. Miller
Alyce Miller is a professor in the English department, at Indiana
University and an attorney practicing animal law. She teaches graduate
and undergraduate creative writing courses in fiction and creative
nonfiction, and courses in contemporary literature, American literature,
women's literature, and screenwriting.
Recent poems have appeared in Ascent, New
Letters, Witness, River Styx, Seneca Review,
Slipstream, Puerto del Sol, Mangrove, and Graffiti
Rag. She is the author of more than fifty short stories, with
publication in Kenyon Review, New England Review,
Southern Review, Prairie Schooner, and other literary
journals. Her collection of stories, The Nature of Longing was published
by University of Georgia Press in 1994, with subsequent publication
in paperback by W.W. Norton in 1995. Her novel, Stopping for Green
Lights, was published by Doubleday in 1999. Miller's essays
and non-fiction have appeared most recently in Iowa Review, Massachusetts Review, Fourth Genre, New Letters, Cream
City Review, Brevity, The Most Wonderful Books (Milkweed), Spirit and Place (Indiana University Press), River Styx, and Creating Fiction (an anthology published
by Story Press).
Her latest collection of stories, Water, by Sarabande Press, was published in 2007.
Miller obtained her J.D. from Indiana University School
of Law in 2003; her MFA in Writing is from Vermont College, and
she has an M.A. in Film and an M.A. in English literature from San
Francisco State University. Her B.A. in English is from Ohio State
University.
Miller resides in Bloomington, Indiana and Sonoma
County, California. Miller was born in Zurich, Switzerland, and
lived most of her life in the San Francisco Bay area. [Source: Personal communication with Alyce Miller] [Professor
Alyce Miller] [Poems—Legal Studies Forum] [Wikipedia] [Water-- a collection of short stories -- 2007]
Wayne Miller
Wayne Miller
was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, studied at Oberlin College, and worked in the Manhattan District Attorney's Office. He received an MFA from the University of Houston and is the author of Only the Senses Sleep (New Issues Poetry Press, 2006).
Robert D. ("Jake") Miller
Assistant U.S. Trustee for the Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern
District of Washington (Spokane). [Poem—Legal Studies Forum]
Thomas C. ("Doc") Miller
Doc Miller is a criminal defense lawyer; he obtained his law degree from the University of Denver. [See: Thomas C. ("Doc") Miller, "Living With Witches," 35 (9) The Colorado Lawyer 42 (2006)]
Janet T. Mills
Janet Mills serves in the Maine House of Representatives. She was born and raised in Farmington, Maine She recieved her J.D. from the University of Maine Law School. In 1980 she was elected district attorney, reputedly the first woman district attorney in the northeastern United States. In 1995 she began the practice of law in Skowhegan, Maine with her brother, S. Peter Mills. Mills, who serves in the Maine Senate. Mills has published poetry.
Paul L. Mills
Paul Mills is a 1990 graduate of Columbia University. He obtained his law degree from UCLA.
He is a sole practitioner civil rights and criminal defense trial lawyer and poet.
Mills, was associated with Fusion Magazine in Boston, and was a Greenwich Village night club and street performer of poetry under the name Poez in the early 1980's. [poezthepoet.com]
Bill Mitchell
Mitchell is a Tampa, Florida lawyer, and poet. [Source: Angela Moore, "Poets Share Their Living Art," St. Petersburg Times, April 13, 2001].
Mitchell was born in 1947; obtained his B.A. from the University of Washington, and his J.D. from the University of California.
Joseph Mockus
Joseph Mockus is a San Francisco Bay area criminal defense lawyer. He is also a rock 'n roll drummer and a poet. His poetry, as we learned of it, appeared in r-kv-r-y: a quarterly literary journal (2004). Mockus was born in 1952, and admitted to law practice in 1986. He obtained his B.A. from the University of California and his J.D. from Hastings College of Law. [Poems] [Poems]
Sonia Alisa Montalbano
Sonia Montalbano was born in 1969. She obtained her B.A. degree
from Hunter College of the City University of New York, and her
J.D. degree from Northwestern School of Law. She was admitted to
practice in 1997 and now resides in Portland, Oregon where she works as a litigator for Portland's Elliott Ostrander Presto. [Source: Personal
communication with Sonia Montalbano; Melody Finnemore, Versus to Verses, Oreg. St. B. Bull. (July 2006)] [Poem—Legal Studies Forumj]
Travis Montez
Travis Montez, a native of Nashville, Tennessee is now a New Yorker and a performance poet. He obtained his law degree from
New York University School of Law. Montez is the author of Reluctant Poet (Lulu, 2006). [Travis Montez]
Bel-Ami Jean De Montreux
Montreux obtained a J.D. degree from the University of Utah in 1991.
He has published a collection of French poetry titled La
Chanson de Bel-Ami. While at the University of Utah, Montreux
edited the Utah Foreign Language Review and the Neo-Analyst
and wrote for the Daily Utah Chronicle. Montreux practices
law at the Montreux Law Offices in Salt Lake. [Source:
Personal communication with Bel-Ami Montreux]
Montreux is a former seminarian at the St-Vincent Foundation in Cap Haitian, Haiti. His legal practice consists of complex criminal defense, Constitutional litigation, and Title VII litigation. de Montreux studied at Texas A&M, Westminster College, and the University of Utah. At the University of Utah, de Montreux was editor-in-chief of the Utah Foreign Language Review, senior editor of the Journal of Contemporary Law and the Journal of Energy, Natural Resources, and Environmental Law. His poetry and fiction have appeared in Poèsie I and Rimbaud-Neruda in France, and Le Nouvelliste in Haiti; his poetry appears in several anthologies of Haitian poets.
Jim Moose
Jim Moose
is a retired lawyer; he was an administrative law judge in California state service for 37 years. He is active in the Sacramentao Poets group.
Alexandra Moses
Alexandra Moses is sculptor, lawyer and poet. She studied poetry and art at Mills College.
Lois Moses
Lois Moses was born in Philadelphia. She is a 1997 graduate of Temple University School of Law, and has a degree in clinical psychology from LaSalle University. Moses has self-published three collections of poetry: Not Just Another; Black/Woman, Missing Pages; Women Behind the Glass Door, A Timely Trinity. [Lois Moses]
William Mosolino
Lawyer, author, poet, actor; Orwigsburg, Pennsylvania; born September
14, 1933; obtained his A.B. degree from Muhlenberg College and his
law degree from the University of Pennsylvania; admitted to law
practice in 1962.
Jesse Mountjoy
Jesse Mountjoy is a native of Horse Cave, Kentucky and a 1965 graduate of Centre College of Danville, Kentucky, and a 1969 graduate of Vanderbilt University School of Law. His first job out of law school—after being admitted to the bar in 1970—was a four year stint as senior trial attorney for the Internal Revenue Service, Regional Counsel’s Office, Cincinnati, Ohio where he tried cases in the U.S. Tax Court. After working with the IRS, Mountjoy moved to Owensboro, Kentucky, where he has practiced tax law in the same firm for thirty-one years.
Mountjoy’s poetry has been published in Open 24 Hours, Wind Magazine, The Sow’s Ear Poetry Review, Kentucky Poetry Review, Approaches, Adena and The Small Pond Magazine of Literature. Mountjoy claims a fondness for Flaubert’s assertion that “Every lawyer carries within himself the debris of a poet.” He tells us, by way of a paraphrase of Wallace Stevens: If in fact as a lawyer I am a ‘rationalist,’ I have at least abandoned ‘square hats’ for ‘sombreros.’
[Poems—Legal Studies Forum]
Linda Moye
San Antonio, Texas
Sandra C. Muñoz
Sandra C. Muñoz is an East L.A. poet, playwright and civil rights
lawyer. Muñoz is the author of Free Metal Woman (Red Calacarts, 2004).
Alicia Nails
Professional fund raiser and events planner; attorney; Emmy Award winning television producer; she resides in Detroit; currently a freelance writer and producer.
Philip Tajitsu Nash
Philip Nash was born on December 3, 1956 in New York City. He is a
civil rights activist, lawyer, teacher, and writer. Nash received
a degree in Urban Studies and Economics from New York University
and his J.D. from Rutgers University School of Law. Nash has written
short stories, plays, and poetry. [Source: "Philip
Tajitsu Nash," in Notable Asian Americans (Gale Research,
1995)]
Michael Nava
(Michael Nava, a third generation Mexican-American, was born
in 1954 and who grew up in Sacramento, California. Since 1986 he
has authored a series of mysteries based on a California-based gay
Mexican-American attorney, Henry Rios. Four of the first six books
in the series won Lambda Literary Awards. Nava attended Colorado
College where he obtained his BA degree in 1976. He received his
law degree from Stanford University in 1981. He served as deputy
city attorney in Los Angeles from 1981 to 1984 and then entered
private practice (1984-86). From 1986 to 1995 he served as research
attorney with the California Court of Appeals. Nava moved to San
Francisco in 1995. [Source of Biographical Information: UCLA Department of Special Collections] [See: Three Poets: James Byers, Michael Nava, David Owen
(Colorado Springs: BON Press, 1975)]
J. Alan Nelson
J. Alan Nelson, former journalist, is a lawyer in Waco, Texas. We found his poem, "String Theory," in Red Cedar Review (vol. 42, 2007). Nelson's work has been published in Cottonseed Digest, Wittenburg Door, South Carolina Review, Wisconsin Review, Pegasus Review, Hawai'i Review,
Adirondack Review,
and Ilya's Honey.
Nehru Rodriquez Nelson is a lawyer, poet, lyricist, songwriter, jazz enthusiast, and composer. He was born and raised in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and currently resides in Cheltenham. He has been writing and performing poetry for over thirty years. He is also currently working on a collection of poetry, tentatively titled The Street is My Father. [Three poems]
Paul Nemser
Paul Nemser is a poet and translator. He is associated with the Boston law firm,
Goodwin Procter. [law firm profile]
Robert Newman
Robert Newman is a attorney and poet. He resides in Rogers, Arkansas. [Source: Contibutor's bio, 3 Poeisa 56 (January, 2005)]
Newman was born in 1965. He attended State University of New York at Albany, and received his J.D. from Ohio Northern University. He was admitted to practice in 1995.
Alan Nichols
Alan Nichols practiced law in San Francisco for some 50 years and served as president of the San Francisco School Board and City College of San Francsico. Nichols was born in 1930. He was educated at Stanford and recieved his law degree from the Stanford Law School. He has taken an active interest in the affairs of Tibet, and has written articles, poetry, a screenplay, and other publications on Tibet. [Alan Nichols]
Robert R. Nielsen
Salinas, California attorney, photographer and poet; born in
1944, obtained his A.B. degree from Stanford University and his
J.D. from Columbia University; admitted to practice law in 1971.
Timothy J. Nolan
Timothy Nolan was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota in 1954. He graduated
from the University of Minnesota in 1978 with a B.A. in English.
He and his wife Kate moved to New York City in 1978 where he obtained
an M.F.A. degree in writing from Columbia University, worked as
an archivist at the Whitney Museum, and read the poetry slush pile
for Paris Review. He returned to Minnesota in 1985 and received
his J.D. degree from William Mitchell College of Law in 1989. His poems have appeared in The Nation, Ploughshares,
and Poetry East, and other journals. In 2001, Nolan published
an article in the South Dakota Law Review entitled "Poetry
and the Practice of Law." [Source:
Personal communication with Tim Nolan] [Poems—Legal Studies Forum] [Poems—Legal Studies Forum] [Poems—Legal Studies Forum (2006)][Tim Nolan Reading]
Peter Noterman
Peter Noterman is a choreographer, lawyer, and poet. He resides
in the Washington, D.C. area.
Carol Novack
Carol Novack
graduated from University of Rochester in 1969, and from New York Law School in 1983. She began her legal career as an associate appellate counsel with the Criminal Appeals Bureau of the Legal Aid Society. She then became an associate for an attorney representing a defendant in the famous Pizza Connection trial (SDNY). Later, as a solo practitioner, she initiated a constitutional action on behalf of visual artists, prevailing in a seminal first amendment case, Bery v. City Of New York.
In 2004, Novack obtained her Master's Degree from Hunter College School of Social Work. The title of her mini-thesis was: "Exploring a Dramatic Group Work Approach to Meet the Psychosocial Needs of Distressed, Public-Interest Minded Attorneys." After obtaining her master's degree, and years of writing little else beside legal briefs and motions, Novack returned to poetry and fiction writing. Before becoming a lawyer, Novack authored a book of poetry in Australia, Living Alone Without a Dictionary (Maker Press, 1974). Her writings have appeared in The Penguin Book of Australian Women Poets, American Letters & Commentary, Action Yes, First Intensity, Gargoyle, LIT, Notre Dame Review, Diagram, Big Bridge, BlazeVOX, Del Sol Review, 5_trope, Journal of Experimental Fiction, Knock, La Petite Zine, MILK, Orphan Leaf Review, Otoliths, Salt River Review, Segue, and Word Riot. Novack currently teaches lyrical fiction writing and publishes the offbeat multimedia e-journal Mad Hatters' Review. Novack blogs at http://www.carolnovack.blogspot.com. Her inventions may be heard at http://www.myspace.com/madhattercarollers.
Charisse Carney-Nunes
"Charisse Carney-Nunes, freelance writer and attorney, is a [an] alumna of Lincold University in Pennsylvnaia—the nation's oldest historically Black college, where she was the Poet Laureate of the University for two years. She is also a graduate of Harvard University's JFK School of Government and the Harvard Law School. . . . . [She] resides in Wahsington, D.C. . . ." [Source: Charissee Carney-Nunes, Songs of a Sistermom: Motherhood Poems (Brand Nu Words, 2004)]
Robert H. Nunnally, Jr.
Nina Nuyorican
Nina Nuyorican was raised in the Hudson Valley (New York) and spent her summers in the Lower East Side with her abuelita). After graduating from Columbia Law School she took up residence in Florida. She is currently editing a collection of poetry and in 2005 became an adjunct professor at Florida State University. Her academic work focuses on human rights, genocide and international adjudication. From 2003 until 2005 she hosted the Dia de los Muertos poetry readings at Columbia University. [blog]
Jamie Nye
Jamie Nye was a lawyer iu the San Francisco Bay area practicing in the area of intellectual property and general commercial litigation when she decided to change careers. She began working at the University of California-San Diego in student services in 2005. She writes both poetry and screenplays.
Jim Nye
Albuquerque, New Mexico; lawyer, poet, & essayist. Nye's collection
of Vietnam War poetry, After Shock: Poems and Prose from the
Vietnam War (Cinco Puntus Press, 1991) will take those willing
to get close to the carnage of war, as close as poetry can take a reader. [Poems]
Shari O'Brien
Shari O'Brien is a lecturer in English at the University of Toledo and a practicing attorney. She obtained her M.A. from the University of Michigan, and her Ph.D. from Bowling Green State University. Her law degree is from the University of Toledo. She represents neglected and abused children. O'Brien's Uncaged, a collection of poems, was published by Shadows Ink Publications in 2006. She began writing poetry in 2004; her poems have been published in Chaffin, The 13th Moon, Wavelength, Poesia, The Iconclast, Illya's Honey, Blue Unicorn, Crosscurrents, and in the Meridian Anthology of Contemporary Poetry. Source: Personal communication with Shari O'Brien]
Gloria Catherine Oden
Gloria Oden was born in Yonkers, New York on October 30, 1923. She
is a graduate of Howard University (1944) and its law school (1948).
She taught at the New School for Social Research (1966), University
of Maryland—Baltimore (1971-1996). Before she took up academic
life, Oden worked as an editor of technical magazines, scientific
and language arts books (1961-1972). Her poetry has been published
in various periodicals and is anthologized in Robert Hayden's Kaleidoscope:
Poems by American Negro Poets (Harcourt, Brace &
World, 1967). She is the author of
The Naked Frame, A Love Poem and Sonnets (Exposition Press, 1952), and three collections of poetry: Resurrections (Olivant Press, 1978); The Tie That Binds (Olivant Press, 1980), Appearances (SARU, 2003). Oden lives in Cantonsville, Maryland.
[Source: Personal communication with Gloria Oden]
Thomas H. Oehmke
Thomas Oehmke (his name is pronounced em-kee) was born on November
13, 1947 in Detroit Michigan. He did graduate work at Michigan State
University and obtained his law degree in 1973 from Wayne State
University. He was admitted to the Michigan Bar in 1973 and formed
the law firm Oehmke Legal Associates in Detroit the year he was
admitted to the bar. From 1973 to 1979 he served as political economist
and project director for New Detroit, Inc., and beginning in 1978,
publisher of the American Law Research Institute (a law book publishing
company). He has served on various commissions and conducted seminars
and lectured on law and business topics. Oehmke has written numerous
texts for legal practitioners and is editor of Herman Hesse,
Poetry of Siddhartha (Labyrinth, 1981). He has contributed short
fiction and poetry to various journals.
Wilson Reid Ogg
Wilson Ogg is a poet, lyricist, lawyer, arbitrator, mediator, educator, and curator-in-residence of Pinebrook, an historic house and garden in the Berkeley Hills, Berkeley, California. He was educated at the University of California and Boalt Hall School of Law, Berkeley. His poetry is published in anthologies in America and abroad. Ogg was born in 1928. [Homepage] [Wilson Ogg]
Adrian Oktenberg
Adrian Oktenberg was born in Oakland, California in 1947.
She has produced a radio show, taught law courses, lectured on women's studies, and owned a bookstore. She was educated as both a poet and a lawyer. She now resides in Northhampton, Massachusetts.
She is the author of three collections of poetry, Drawing in the Dirt (Malachite & Agate, 1997), The Bosnia Elegies (Paris Press, 1997), and Swimming With Dolphins (Bucknell University Press, 2002). Her poetry, criticism, and reviews have appeared in Ploughshares, Kenyon Review, Prairie Schooner, Quarterly West, The American Voice, Women's Review of Books, New Letters and The Devil's Millhopper. [Swimming With Dolphins] [Review of The Bosnia Elegies] [Poems—Legal Studies Forum (2006)]
Daniel A. Olivas
Daniel Olivas is a deputy attorney general with the California Department of Justice
specializing in land use and environmental enforcement. He makes his home in the San Fernando Valley with his wife and son. He received his B.A.
from Stanford University and his J.D. from
the UCLA.
Olivas is the author of five books: Anywhere But L.A.: Stories (forthcoming, Bilingual Press, 2008), Devil Talk: Stories (Bilingual Press, 2004), Assumption and Other Stories (Bilingual Press, 2003), The Courtship of María Rivera Peña (Silver Lake Publishing, 2000); and the children's book, Benjamin and the Word / Benjamin y la palabra (Arte Público Press/Piñata Books, 2005). Olivas is also the editor of Latinos in Lotusland: An Anthology of Contemporary Southern California Literature (Bilingual Press) and poetry that has appeared in various journals and anthologies. Olivas is a book critic for the El Paso Times and other publications. [Source: Personal communication with Daniel A. Olivas] [Daniel A. Olivas] ["Gato"] ["Western Wallflower"] ["A Good Job"] ["The Hope" & "Writer?"] ["Pico Boulevard, October 1972"] Stories: ["Driving To Ventura"] ["Buridan's Ass"] ["Black Box"] ["Weatherman"] ["Painting"] ["Muy Loca Girl"] ["Third Person Omniscient"]
Danitra Oliver
Associate, Weil, Gotshal & Manges; spoken-word poet
Jim Olsen
Jim Olsen is an environmental lawyer in Traverse City, Michigan.
Megan Oltman
Meg Oltman is a New Jersey writer, lawyer, business woman, and poet.
She practiced law for 14 years, specializing in family law and civil
litigation. [Source: Personal communication with
Megan Oltman]
John R. O'Malley
[John R. O'Malley]
Matthew J. O'Neill
Matthew O'Neill is an Albuquerque poet, activist, and lawyer. He was born in 1969.
David Orr
David Orr is a poetry critic for the New York Times and Poetry magazine. He is a part-time lawyer and is working on a book about poetry. Orr obtained his undergraduate degree from Princeton in 1996 and his law degree from Yale in 2000. [Source: Monica Finch, David Orr—In a Grand Tradition, 77 New York St. B. J. 11 (July/August 2005); Martindale-Hubbell; Princeton Alumni Weekly]
Raymond Zachary Ortiz
Raymond Ortiz was born October 2, 1953 in Santa Fe, New Mexico. He is
an attorney and writer, named for his grandfathers who were both
poets at heart. He received his B.A. in English at the University
of Notre Dame and his J.D. from the University of California, Berkeley.
After clerking for the new Mexico Supreme Court, he joined a local
firm, first as an associate then as partner. He continues to practice
law the Santa Fe firm of Roth, VanAmberg, Rogers, Ortiz, Fairbanks
& Yepa, LLP. Recently his practice has primarily been in the
areas of real estate, commercial law, real property, family law
and Indian law. His poetry and stories have been published in the
Southwestern U.S. and in Great Britain. He lives in Santa Fe with
his wife Margaret Avila Storey and son Zach. [Source:
Personal communication with Ray Ortiz] [Poems—Legal Studies Forum]
Mark Oursler
Carol Elizabeth Owens
Carol Owens is an attorney at the Bullard Law Group in Rochester,
New York. She is a graduate of Howard University and Albany Law
School where she graduated in 1997. At Albany, Owens served as President
of the Black Law Students Association. She began writing poetry
as a teenager. [Carol
Elizabeth Owens]
Edward Packard
Edward Parkard was born in 1931 in Huntington, New York. He is a lawyer, essayist, poet, and author of children's books. He graduated from Princeton University and Columbia Law School.
Clemson N. Page
Clemson Page is a Wyomissing, Pennsylvania lawyer.
Lolita Paiewonsky
Lolita Paiewonsky is a graduate of Howard University School of Law, and an Ed.M. candidate at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. She has published several small volumes of poetry.
Kimberly Townsend Palmer
Kimberly Palmer was born in Beverly Hills, Los Angeles in 1960 (in what she
reminds us was the Year of the Rat and the month of Scorpio) and
grew up in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. She received her undergraduate
degree in psychology in 1982, her law degree from the University
of Florida in 1985. She is a fourth-generation lawyer. She now lives
in Gainesville, Florida, with her husband and two daughters. Her
poetry and short fiction has appeared in Adirondack Review,
Absinthe Literary Review, Blue Fifth Review, Cenotaph,
Charlotte Poetry Review, CrossConnect, Earth's
Daughters, Eclectica, Exquisite Corpse, Images
InScript, New Laurel Review, The Panhandler, Paumanok
Review, Poetry.St Corner, Red River Review, Snake
Nation Review, Snakeskin, Stark Raving Sanity,
Stirring: A Literary Collection, and Xavier Review.
Townsend is the editor and publisher of Truth-the-Magazine.
["Dreams
& Wishes & the Plain Truth"] ["Twelve
Songs for a Broken Ankle"] ["Love
Kills"] [Poems] ["The
Defenestration of Prague "] ["Two
Summers After the Divorce "] ["The
Conductress of Milk"] ["Chin
Pu (Mimetic Consumption) "] [Kimberly Townsend Palmer]
Roger Pao
Roger Pao is agraduate of Duke University. His poems have appeared in Allegheny Review, Concrete Wolf, Glass Tesseract, Gumball Poetry, The Independent Weekly, and Poetry Depth Quarterly. [blog]
Michael Parish
Michael Parish is a Wall Street lawyer. His poem, "First Daughter,"
appears in Ploughshares,
Volume 7 (2), Summer, 1981. [Poems-Legal Studies Forum]
Jung E. Park
Jung Park is a Korean American who grew up in a small Mexican
border town. She studied at Harvard & Radcliffe Colleges and obtained
her law degree from UC Davis Law School. She is currently an improv,
sketch and standup comic in the Los Angeles area. Jung is also an
actress, writer, poet, psychic, artist, singer/songwriter and lawyer,
although she is no longer practices law full-time.
Hardy Parkerson
Hardy Parkerson is a graduate of Tulane Law School (1966). He was in law practice for twenty years and then ventured into law teaching, and signed on with a start-up "university" in Lake Charles as Dean of the College of Law. When the university moved down courtry, Parkerson founded Southern Christan University which has had a law school since 1993. [The Web Poetry Corner of Hardy Parkerson of Lake Charles, La.]
Nina Parrilla
Cristina Velez writes under the pen name Nina Parrila. She obtained her J.D. from Columbia University. After law school she moved to Tallahassee, Florida where she was an Adjunct Professor at Florida State University teaching a course on Genocide and International Law, and working as an employment discrimination attorney. Currently, she is a Staff Attorney for the Second Judicial Circuit, Leon County, Florida. [Nina Parrilla]
E. F. Pasbach
E.F. Pasbach was born in Chicago, raised and educated in New England,
and presently resides in East Providence, Rhode Island where he
practices law. His collection of poetry, Perspectives was
published in 1993.
Charles Patterson
Charles Patterson, is a partner, at Morrison
and Forester, Los Angeles, California. Patterson's collection
of poetry is titled, The Petrified Heart (Signal Tree, 2002)(poetry relating to the Vietnam war). Patterson
received his undergraduate degree from the University of Kansas
in 1963, and his law degree from the University of Michigan Law
School in 1966. [Poems—Legal Studies Forum]
Gary Patterson
Gary Paterson graduated from the Stanford Law School in 1989.
He has given up the practice of law and published a book of poetry
(whose title and publisher remains a mystery).
Jerry Patterson
Jerry Patterson is a native of Arkansas and a graduate of Harvard. He obtained his law degree from Vanderbilt. He served as an Assistant Attorney General in Arkansas and during the 1950s was a company commander with the 8th U.S. Army in Korea. He is the author of a collection of poems, The Delta and Other Poems (International University Press, 1987). At the time The Delta and Other Poems was published, Patterson resided in the San Fernando Valley, in southern California.
Lawrence Lyman Pauley
Lawrence Pauley was born in 1930 in Hamlin, West Virginia. He served in the U.S. Air Force after graduating from high school and attended Marshall University. He obtained his law degree from West Virginia University in 958. He a retired Federal Administrative Law Judge. Pauley is the author of Mud River Talkes: A Collection of Stories in Rhyme (Discovery Press, 2000).
Sue Payne
Sue Payne is a Chicago attorney; her first published poem appeared in The Blue Moon Review; Payne was born in 1953; admitted to the bar in 1985; she obtained her
B.A. from Denison University, her J.D. from Northwestern University, J.D; she teaches law at John Marshall Law School .["Mother May I"]
Mary Margaret Penrose
Mary Margaret Penrose is a professor of law at the University of
Oklahoma College of Law where she joined the faculty in 2000. She
received her B.A. degree in history from the University of Texas-Arlington
(1989) and her J.D. degree from Pepperdine University (1993), and
her L.L.M. from Notre Dame in 1999.
We first learned of Professor Penrose's poetry by
way of a poem entitled, "I Said, 'No': For Those Who Would
Disallow Me the Freedom to Love," which appeared in 23 Harvard
Women's Law Journal 247 (2000). [Mary
Margaret Penrose]
Simon Perchik
Simon Perchik is a retired New York lawyer and one of the country's most widely published poets. [Simon
Perchik] [poems] [Poems-Legal Studies Forum] [James R. Elkins interview: Simon Perchik] [Poems—Legal Studies Forum (2006)]
John Perrault
John Perrault is a New Hampshire teacher, folksinger, musician, lawyer, and Poet
Laureate of Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Perrault was raised in Maine
and graduated from Providence College in 1965. He received his Masters
degree in Political Science from the University of New Hampshire.
He taught school for 10 years and then obtained his law degree from
Franklin Pierce Law Center. With John Ahlgren, he formed the law
partnership of Ahlgren & Perrault in 1982. Perrault has appeared
in concerts throughout New England singing his ballads. His music
albums include: Thief in the Night (1977), New Hampshire (1981),
Tenants in Common (1984), Country Matters (1988), Country Matters
(1995), PLM: Before You Go (1997). [Source: Personal
communication with John Perrault]
Perrault's poetry has appeared in the Christian
Science Monitor, Commonwealth, Key West Review,
and Poet Lore. His first published collection of verse, The
Ballad of Louis Wagner: & Other New England Stories in Verse
was published in 2003 by Peter E. Randall, Publisher. Perrault's latest collection of poetry, Here Comes the Old Man Now was published by Oyster River Press in 2005. [Source: Ballad
of the Barrister & Personal communication with John Perrault] [John Perrault]
[Poems—Legal Studies Forum] [John Perrault's Poetry] [Barrister Ballader—New Hamphsire Public Radio]
Alice Persons
Alice Persons has a B.A. and M.A. in English from the University
of Oregon. She moved to Maine in 1983 and received her J.D. from the University
of Maine School of Law in 1986. She has worked as an English teacher, legal secretary, copy editor, and singing waitress.
She now works for a legal publisher and teaches part-time.
She lives in Westbrook, Maine with her husband, dogs and cats. She is the author of chapbook titled, Be Careful What You Wish For; her poetry has been published
in Animus, Aurorean, Red Owl, Off the Coast
and other journals. In 2002 she co-edited A Sense of Place, an anthology
of Maine poetry. "Among its other virtues, Maine has a wonderful,
vibrant poetry scene," she tells us. She is, with former lawyer and poet, Nancy A. Henry of Gray, Maine, co-editor and publisher of Moon Pie Press. [Wikipedia] [Poems—Legal Studies Forum] [Poems]
[Source: Personal communication with Alice Persons] [Two Poems]
Marlene Nourbese Phillip
Kirk Pittard
Kirk Pittard was born January 20, 1973, at San Angelo, Texas.
He obtained his B.A. degree from Baylor University in 1995 and J.D.
from Baylor in 1999 and is currently an associate at Waters & Kraus,
LLP, Dallas, Texas. His practice areas include commercial litigation,
toxic torts, pharmacy law, and appellate practice. He is the author
of "Withstanding Batson Muster: What Constitutes A Neutral Explanation,"
50 Baylor L. Rev. 985 (1998); "Enforcement Procedures for the State
Board for Educator Certification and Texas Educators' Code of Ethics,"
Texas School Administrators' Legal Digest Vol. 17, No. 9, October
2001. [Source: Personal communication with Kirk
Pittard]
Judith Bluestone Polich
Judith Polich
is a lawyer, poet, and co-owner and manager of Heart Seed Bed & Breakfast, a retreat center and spa in New Mexico.
Elizabeth S. (Liz) Poliner
Liz Poliner's poetry and fiction
have appeared in Southern Review, Seneca Review, Tar
River Poetry, Other Voices, Ascent, and Kenyon
Review. She has been a fellow at Yaddo and the Virginia Center
for the Creative Arts, and is a former editor of Folio and
former co-editor of Poet Lore. She is the author of a novel of connected stories, Mutual Life & Casualty (Permanent Press, 2005).
Polinar was born in Middletown, Connecticut, January
28, 1960. She attended Bowdoin College, where she received her B.A.
in 1982, and American University where she received an M.F.A. in
1994. She received her legal education at the University of Virginia
and obtained her J.D. in 1988.
Frank Pommersheim
Frank Pommersheim teaches at the University of South Dakota School
of Law where his specialty is Indian Law. He is the author of Braid
of Feathers: American Indian Law and Contemporary Tribal Life
(1995) and numerous scholarly articles.
Pommersheim received his B.A. degree from Colgate
University, his J.D. from Columbia University and an M.P.A. from
Harvard University. Before joining the South Dakota faculty in 1984,
he lived and worked on the Rosebud Sioux Reservation for ten years.
Pommersheim currently serves on a number of tribal appellate courts
throughout Indian country, most recently named an Associate Justice
for the newly formed Mississippi Band of Choctaw Supreme Court.
Pommersheim has published three collections of poetry:
Snaps: Poetry and Prose From a Family Album (Rose Hill Books,
1994); Mindfulness and Home: Poetry and Prose From a Prairie
Landscape (Rose Hill Books, 1997); Haiku For the Birds: And
Other Related Stuff (Rose Hill Books, 2002).
He received the University of South Dakota Belbas-Larson
Award for Excellence in Teaching in 1998 and the South Dakota Peace
and Justice Center Reconciliation Award in 2000. [Source: Personal communication with Frank Pommersheim] [Frank Pommersheim] [Poems—Legal Studies Forum] [Two Poems] [Poems—Legal Studies Forum (2006)] [Frank Pommersheim talking about being a poet]
Dennis Powers
Dennis Powers is an Asland, Oregon attorney and professor emeritus at Southern Oregon University. He is the author of The Raging Sea, an account of a tsunami that swept over Crescent City, California in 1964, Sentinel of the Seas (Citadel Press, 2007), poetry, and seven other nonfiction books. Powers is a graduate of Harvard Business School and the University of Denver Law School.
He was a full-time business attorney before he began teaching at Southern Oregon.
P.K. Price
Author (novels and non-fiction), poet, attorney (international law,
acquisitions and secured transactions); resides on her farm, Tortuga
Cay, La Quinta Paloma in Mission, Texas [Source:
Susan Fox Rogers, Solo: On Her Own Adventure (Seal Press,
1996)]
Susan Prospere
Susan Prospere was born on March 28, 1946 at Oakridge, Tennessee.
Her father, an FBI agent, had various postings and Prospere grew up
on the move—New York City, Niagra Falls, Memphis, and New Orleans,
among other cities. She attended Millsaps College and Louisiana
State University and obtained her undergraduate degree from Mississippi
State University. She graduated from Tulane Law School and obtained
an M.A. from the University of Houston. Prospere is the author of
Sub Rosa, a collection of poems published by W.W. Norton
in 1992. [Source: Biography
of Susan Prospere, The Mississippi Writers and Musicians Project, Starkville High School] [Norton promo
for Sub Rosa]
Prospere's poems have appeared in The New Yorker,
The Nation, Poetry, The American Scholar, Antaeus,
and Best American Poetry 1991 (edited by Mark Strand). She
lives in Houston, Texas and is now associated with Allen
Boone Humprhries, LLP, a law firm in Houston, Texas. Prospere
is a member of the the
Texas Institute of Letters.
Victoria Pynchon
Victoria Pynchon is
a Los Angeles attorney/mediator. Her poetry has appeared in Poet Lore, Kalliope, The Ledge, Southern New Hampshire University Journal, and Kudzu: Online Literary Journal. She is the editor-in-chief of R-KV-R-Y: A Quarterly Literay Journal. [Settle Now: Negotiation Blog]
John R. Quinn
Attorney, poet, and stage performer; lecturer at St. John's
University School of Law and the State University of New York at Stony Brook. [Source: John R. Quinn, Corpus Juris Tertium: Redemptive Jurisprudence in Angels in America, 48 (1) Theatre Journal 79-90 (1996)] [See also, John R. Quinn, The Lost Language of the Irishgaymale: Textualization in Ireland's Law and Literature, 26 Columbia Human Rights Law Review 553 (1995).
Burton Raffel
Barton Raffel was born in 1928; he is a poet, fiction writer, critic, translator, editor, and anthologist. He graduated from Yale Law School and spent two years practicing law on Wall Street before taking up his career as an educator, author, and scholar. He is the author of The Mia Poems (October House, Inc., 1968), Four Humours: Poems by Burton Raffel (Calcutta, India: Writers Workshop Publication, 1979), Grice: Poems of Grousing (The Trilobite Press, 1985), Beethoven in Denver and Other Poems (Conundrum Press, 1999). [Wikipedia]
Douglas Rainbow
Douglas Rainbow obtained both his undergraduate and law degree from the University of Minnesota. After law school Rainbow served in the U.S. Army Judge Advocate General's Corps and was appointed U.S. Claims Commissioner for Southern Thailand. After his JAG duties he entered private practice. Rainbow retired in 2003, moved to Florida, and found that he wanted to continue to work. He served as a real estate specialist for Palm Beach County, and then joined a law firm as a paralegal. He writes, and publishes, short stories and poetry. [Douglas Rainbow]
Robert E. Rains
Robert Rains is a professor of law at the Dickinson School of Law, Penn State University. His published verse includes: "A Slippery Slope," 8 Green Bag 2d 117 (2004); “Out on a Limb," , 82 Orgeon L. Rev. 933 (2003); “Nick-name," 25 Pa. Family Lawyer 121 (December, 2003); “Gerber v. Hickman, A Sperm Aside," 24 Pa. Family Lawyer 57 (July, 2002); “The Case of the Vanishing Law Student," 4 Green Bag 2d 463 (2002); Courting Canine Custody, A Domestic Doggerel," 24 Pa. Family Lawyer 112 (December, 2002); “When You Wish to Be an R," 4 Green Bag 2d 333 (2001).
Greg Rappleye
Greg Rappleye lives near Grand Haven, Michigan. His recent work
has appeared or is forthcoming in a variety of literary journals
and anthologies, including The Southern Review, Poetry,
Virginia Quarterly Review, Prairie Schooner, Mississippi
Review (where he won The Mississippi Review Prize in Poetry),
River Styx, Quarterly West, Bellingham Review,
Puerto del Sol, The Southern California Anthology,
MARGIE: An American Poetry Review, Sycamore Review,
New Poems from the Third Coast: Contemporary Michigan Poetry,
and The Pushcart Prize XXV: Best of the Small Presses. His
work has also appeared on the web at Poetry Daily and on
the National Poetry Month Website of the Academy of American
Poets. His first book of poems, Holding Down the Earth, was
published in 1995. His second collection, A Path Between Houses,
was published by The University of Wisconsin Press
in 2000.
Rappleye is a graduate of Albion College (1974), the
University of Michigan Law School (1976), and the MFA Program for
Writers at Warren Wilson College (2000). He is currently Corporation
Counsel for Ottawa County, Michigan, and teaches in the English
Department at Hope College. He has four children, three dogs, two
cats, and is married to the painter Marcia Kennedy. [Poems—Legal Studies Forum] ["A
Path Between Houses"] ["From the Vegas Cantos"] [Commentary
on A Path Between Houses] [Sonnets at 4 A.M. -- Blog]
Sean Reagan
Sean Reagan has taken a leave from his criminal law practice; his poetry appears in Rattle,
Main Street, Rag, Chiron Review, Yankee
Magazine, Black Bear Review and other journals; he resides
in Worthington, Massachusetts [three
poems] ["Theophany"]
Karl Thomas Rees
Karl Rees is a
web developer, technical writer, fpatent agent/attorney, poet, native Texan, and Brigham Young University graduate. [Karl Thomas Rees]
Carl Reisman
Carl Reisman was born, in 1961, at Rochester, New York. He graduated from the University of Illinois in 1981 and cooked for a living 1982-93. He briefly attended and then dropped out of the University of Oregon College of Law, 1984; graduated from the University of Illinois College of Law in 1996. Since then Reisman has worked as a small-town lawyer. He is now in a solo practice in an office that was once a Phillips 66 service station built in 1932. His practice is primarily petitioner's worker's compensation.
Reisman's poetry collections include Kettle (Hot Lead Press, 2005), Staying Home (1989), Bread and It's Shadow (1993), and One Week (1999). He also wrote the introduction to David Reisman's book of dream drawings, Foreign Objects, published by Hornbill Press in 2004.
Reisman tells us: "My current manuscript is called Home Geography. The title is taken from a primer I found at a garage sale. The primer was intended for use in a one room school house and was divided into brief lessons, which gave children such useful instruction as how to find their way home using stars if they were lost at night. The book was a remarkably kind orientation to living on earth and my collection of poems is intended, in a small way, to pay homage to this gentle approach to education of the human soul." [Personal communication with Carl Reisman, July 1, 2006] [Carl Reisman] [Reisman's website] [Reisman reading at a Law & Poetry conference]
Jendi Reiter
Jendi Reiter attended Harvard University and received her law
degree from Columbia University in 1996. After practicing law in
New York City for four years, she took a hiatus from the law to
focus on writing. She currently lives in Northampton, MA, she is
the Vice President of WinningWriters.com,
a comprehensive Internet resource for poets and poetry contests.
Her first book of poetry, A Talent for Sadness, was published
by Turning Point Books in November 2003. Reiter's poetry is also
featured in Miller, Reiter & Robbins: Three New Poets published
by Hanging Loose Press.
[Source: Personal communication with Jendi Reiter] [Poems—Legal Studies Forum] ["Meaning
and Nonsense: A Panel Discussion"] ["The
Ghost in Love"]
George F. Reitnour
George Reitnour was born in 1957. He lives in Chester County,
Pennsylvania where his family extends back many generations. Reitnour
attended Allegheny College and Duquesne University School of Law.
After 17 years in private practice, he closed his law office in
2000 and became Vice President of Private Wealth Management at Investors
Trust Company. He maintains a website—reitnour.com—promoting poetry
and various charitable endeavors. [Source: Personal communication with Greorge Reitnour] [George
F. Reitnour] [Poems—Legal Studies Forum] [Poems—Legal Studies Forum]
Bessy Reyna
Bessy Reyna is a columnist at the Hartford Courant, editor
of El Extra Cultural, and for over a decade has worked as
Assistant Reporter of Judicial Decisions at the Connecticut Judicial
Department. Reyna was born in Cuba and raised in Panama and came
to the U.S. to attend college. She is a graduate of Mt. Holyoke
College and received her J.D. from the University of Connecticut.
Renya's collection of poetry published in the chapbook, She Remembers
(Andrew Mountain Press, 1997) won the 1996 Brodine Poetry Competition. Her most recent collection, The Battlefield of Your Body (El Campo De Batalla De Tu Cuerpo) was published by Hill-Stead Museum in 2005). [Source: Personal communication with Bessy Reyna] [Bessy Reyna] [Poems—Legal Studies Forum (2006)]
Charles Reynard
Charles Reynard is a circuit court judge, 11th judicial circuit, Bloomington, Illinois; from 1987-2002 he was state's attorney of McLean County, Illinois; graduate of St. Joseph's College; received his law degree from Loyola University-Chicago; editor (with Judy Valente) of Twenty Poems to Nourish Your Soul (Loyola Press, 2006) [We learned that Judge Reynard was a poet by way of a September 4, 2005 New York Times article about his wedding to the poet, Judy Valente.]
Gary Wayne Rhoades
Gary Rhoades was born in 1966. He is a managing attorney at Legal Services of Northern California. He attended the University of Missouri and obtained his law degree from the University of California-Davis. He joined the Legal Services Offcie in Sacramento in 1993 after he finished law school He moved to the Legal Services Office at Redding as managing attorney in 1997. He is co-host of literary evenings at Carnegie's Cafe.
Paul R. Rice
Paul Rice is a law professor at American University, Washington College
of Law. He was born in 1943 and spent childhood summers in Louisa,
Kentucky. He received his undergraduate degree from Marshall University,
his law degree from West Virginia University in 1968, and an LL.M.
(Masters of Law) from Yale in 1972. He was admitted to the West
Virginia bar in 1968 and clerked for Judge H.S. Boreman of the Circuit
Court of Appeals. He was a lecturer and co-director of the Legal
Clinic at Connecticut from 1969 to 1971 and then Associate Professor
of Law at Mississippi from 1972 to 1974. He visited American in
1974 and joined the faculty in 1976. Professor Rice teaches Civil
Rights, Criminal Law, and Evidence. He is the author of seven professional
books and numerous law review articles.
Rice studied poetry at the Washington Writer's
Center in Bethesda, Maryland and has a collection of poetry, largely
autobiographical, now in manuscript. He has also written a book,
"Grandfather's Admonitions" for his grandchildren. Rice is the author of a chapbook of poetry,
Walking Among Shadows: Searching For The Red Sunfish (Fishing Line Press, 2007) [Source:
Communication with Professor Rice; The AALS Directory of Law
Teachers 2000-2001]
Robert Rice
Robert Rice has abandoned the legal profession, earned an M.A. in International Affairs at American University, did graduate work in Latin American studies at the University of Florida, and has published several novels including The Last Pendragon, Agent of Judgment, The Nature of Midnight. His short stories and poetry have been appeared in various literary journals.
Jack Richbough
Jack Richbough is a Memphis lawyer.
Steven M. Richman
Steven Richman, a lawyer in Princeton, New Jersey, concentrates his practice
in the areas of international law, bankruptcy and commercial and
intellectual property litigation. He is former Chair of the Editorial
Board of New Jersey Lawyer Magazine, a member of the
board of trustees of the New Jersey State Bar Association, and president
of the Canadian-American Chamber of Commerce of New Jersey. His
legal publications include the chapter on "Conflicts" in New
Jersey Federal Civil Procedure and numerous scholarly essays
on "law and literature" topics, including essays on Edgar
Lee Masters,
Charles Reznikoff, Sidney Lanier, and William Cullen Bryant.
Richman is an adjunct professor of international business
law at The College of New Jersey. He received a New Jersey State
Bar Distinguished Legislative Services Award in 2000.
His poetry has been published in various literary
journals, and his photography is in various private and public collections.
He is currently preparing a book of photography on New Jersey bridges
for Rutgers University Press. [Source: Personal
communication with Steven Richmond] [Poems—Legal Studies Forum]
Beatriz Alba del Rio
Beatriz Alba-Del Rio
is a bilingual poet and lawyer. She has lived in Cambridge since 1982. She was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Her poetry has appeared in anthologies and literary magazines. [Poet del Rio
Rolf D. Ritschel
Rolf Ritschel, an attorney, was born in Germany in 1943, and came to
the United States when he was eleven. He resides in Victorville,
California. [Rolf
D. Ritschel]
Lee Robinson
Lee Robinson grew up in the Carolinas and practiced law for over 20 years in Charleston, S.C., where she served as the first female president of the Charleston Bar. Her poetry, short stories and essays have appeared in many journals and anthologies; she received a Poetry Fellowship from the Texas Writers League.
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Robinson is the author of a novel, Gateway (Houghton Mifflin, 1996)(a story of a custody battle told from a teenager's point of view) and a collection of poetry, Hearsay, published by Fordham University Press in 2004. |
Lee Robinson is now retired from the practice of law and lives on a ranch outside San Antonio.
She and her husband, physician Jerald Winakur, co-teach courses in medical and legal ethics at the University of Texas and the Center for Medical Humanities and Ethics in San Antonio. [Personal communication with Lee Robinson] [Lee Robinson] [Poems—Legal Studies Forum (2006]
Ruthann Robson
Ruthann Robson is a professor at City University of New York’s Queens College of Law. Her collection of poetry is titled Masks (The Leapfrog Press,
1999); her poetry has appeared in Calyx, Kalliope,
Florida Review, Madison Review, Nimrod, New
Letters, Conditions, Trivia, Common Lives/Lesbian
Lives. She is the author of four books of fiction, including the novels,
Another Mother (St. Martin's Press, 1995) and a/k/a
(St. Martin's Press, 1997); a short-story collection, Eye of a Hurricane. She is also the author of five books of non-fiction. [Ruthann Robson] [CUNY Faculty profile] [Conversation with James R. Elkins] [Poetry] [Masks-Robson's collection of poetry] [Interview] [Notes on My Dying] [Annotated Bibliography] [Essay on Robson and Her Influence] ["Satisfaction of Kimberly Bascomb: An Intervention into the World of Lowell Komie's Fictional Women Lawyers"--a story]
J. Andrew Rodriguez
J. Andrew Rodriguez is the author of Robins Facing South (Red Mountain Press, 2004). He was born and raised near Corpus Christi, Texas, and as an adult lived in Oklahoma, where he studied law at the University of Oklahoma College of Law. He obtained his undergraduate degree from the University of Texas-Austin. Rodriquez write poetry, fiction, and essays. His commentaries have appeared in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. Rodriquez lives in Seattle. ["Mississippi"]
Sojourner Kincaide Rolle
Sojourner Rolle is Santa Barbara, California community activist, mediator, poet, and lawyer.
Barbara B. Rollins
Barbara Rollins presides over misdemeanors, small civil cases, juveniles,
and probate in a Texas court. She figured out what she wanted to
be at forty, fifteen years ago when she ascended the bench. Before
that, with a B. S. from McMurry University, she taught Spanish and
English. With an M.A. from Scarritt College she became a Christian
Educator in a Fort Worth church. She set type for a publishing company
and gained an education as a legal secretary before she got a J.
D. from the University of Texas School of Law. While she waits for
lawyers to get ready, she writes. Her four book children's series
Forensic Crime Solvers will be published by Capstone Press
in the spring of 2004. She's researching and writing about pioneer
women judges of Texas in a work tentatively entitled She Who
Must Be Obeyed.
[Source: Personal communication with Barbara Rollins] [Poem-Legal Studies Forum]
Bill Romano
Bill Romano is San Francisco attorney.
Steven Rood
Steve Rood is an Okaland lawyer; he specializes
in real estate, business, and publishing matters. He sits on various
boards of organizations devoted to literary, ecological, and religious
affairs. [Source: Personal communication with Steven
Rood] [Poem]