Post Written by: Hether Macfarlane
The Association of Legal Writing Directors and the Legal Writing Institute announced today that Professor Ian Gallagher, Professor of Law and Director of Legal Communication and Research at Syracuse University School of Law, is the 2018 recipient of the Thomas Blackwell Award.
The Award is given annually to someone who has made outstanding contributions to the field of Legal Writing, both in the classroom and within the profession. The award will be presented during the AALS annual meeting, on Friday, January 5, at the Marriott Marquis San Diego Marina, 8:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m.
Ian has always been one of the truly nice people in a field crowded with nice people. I honestly cannot remember when I first met Ian, but from the beginning he impressed me as a gentle soul with great intelligence and many talents. I was fortunate enough to be asked to review one of Ian’s law review articles as part of his promotion to Associate Professor at Syracuse. While we have many interesting and talented people in the field, I don’t know of anyone else who could have written an article entitled Conducting the Constitution: Justice Scalia, Textualism, and the Eroica Symphony. I found it enlightening on both Justice Scalia and the art of conducting. While Ian’s book “A Form and Style Manual for Lawyers” is somewhat less “enlightening,” it is full of sound advice on writing in general, on writing mechanics such as punctuation, and on practice-oriented formatting advice for both litigation and business documents. Given Ian’s broad interests and many accomplishments, it’s no wonder he was chosen for this year’s Blackwell Award.