Teresa Brostoff is Professor and Director of Legal Writing. She researches, writes and lectures on legal writing methodology and pedagogy. She teaches Legal Writing to first year students and Advanced Legal Writing to upper level students. She also works with Pitt's MSL students and teaches their core course, Introduction to Law and Legal Reasoning. Professor Brostoff has also taught Legal Writing during four CLEO Institutes hosted at Pitt Law.
Professor Brostoff created, with her colleague Ann Sinsheimer, the English for Lawyers Program for which they co-authored the text Legal English, which is now in its second edition and is published by Oceana Publications, a division of Oxford University Press. She teaches this law school preparation course each July at the University of Pittsburgh to a class of international lawyers, many of whom go on to LL.M. or S.J.D. programs around the country. She has written and lectured on methods of teaching international students. In addition, Professor Brostoff has taught English for Lawyers in Belgrade, Serbia, Donetsk and Kiev, Ukraine and Pristina, Kosovo under State Department auspices, in Reykjavik, Iceland as a distinguished Fulbright Scholar, in Tokyo, Japan, Lodz, Poland, and Addis Ababa, Ethiopia as an invited lecturer, in Ghent, Belgium as a Fulbright Senior Specialist and member of the EU LL.M. faculty, and in Manama, Bahrain under Department of Commerce sponsorship. She also has recently been appointed to the Fulbright Peer Review Selection Committee in Law.
Prior to joining the Pitt Law faculty, Professor Brostoff clerked for the Honorable Justin M. Johnson on the Pennsylvania Superior Court. She is also a registered nurse.
Education
Currently Teaching
- ADR Advanced Legal Writing
- Advanced Legal Writing
- English for Lawyers
Programs
Program Director - Legal Writing Program
Specialization
- Legal Analysis and Writing
- Law and Medicine
Selected Publications
Books:
- Legal English: An Introduction to the Legal Language and Culture of the United States, (3rd rev. ed., with Ann Sinsheimer, Oxford Univ. Press, 2012).
Articles:
- Welcoming the Student on the Autistic Spectrum into the Legal Writing Classroom, 22 The Second Draft 13 (Spring 2008.)
- Using Culture in the Classroom: Enhancing Learning for International Students, 15 Michigan State Journal of International Law 557 (2007).
- A Glimmer of Insight, 20 The Second Draft 10 (Aug. 2005).
- Using Negotiation to Improve Thinking and Writing in the First Year, Teaching the Law School Curriculum (Steven I. Freedland & Gerald F. Hess eds., 2004).
- English for Lawyers: A Preparatory Course for International Lawyers, 7 Legal Writing: Journal of the Legal Writing Institute 137 (2001).
Essays and Other Writing:
- English for Lawyers-A Global Endeavor, Pitt Law Magazine (Spring 2008).
Presenations
- "Succeeding in Teaching Legal Writing to International Law Students," AALS, (Jan. 2012).
- Co-presenter, "Interpreting Statutes in the Common Law," Global Legal Skills Conference, (Mar. 2012).
- Co-presenter, "Enrich Your Life and the Lives of Others-Be a Fulbright Specialist," Legal Writing Institute Biennial Conference, (May-June 2012).
News
Awards and Honors
- 2005-2006 - Fulbright Senior Specialist (two year grant)-University of Ghent, Belgium
- 2003-2004 - Fulbright Senior Specialist (two year grant)-University of Ghent, Belgium
- 2002 - Fulbright Distinguished Scholar-University of Iceland
Selected Professional Activities
- Director, Legal Writing Program, Univ. of Pittsburgh School of Law.
- Peer Reviewer, Fulbright Senior Specialist Program.



