Sean McLernon is an Assistant Professor of Legal Writing and teaches the required first-year course Legal Analysis & Writing. Before joining the faculty at Pitt Law, Professor McLernon was a Visiting Assistant Clinical Professor of Law at Cornell Law, teaching in the Lawyering Program. He has also previously taught Lawyering & Legal Writing at Cardozo Law School and Introduction to Legal Analysis and Writing at Yale Law School.
After graduating cum laude from Georgetown University Law Center, he worked as a litigation associate at Kelley Drye & Warren LLP in New York representing a wide range of clients in a variety of civil litigation matters, including bankruptcy, intellectual property, employment, estates, consumer class actions, and commercial contract disputes. He also maintained an active pro bono practice, which has included habeas litigation for a client imprisoned in Guantanamo Bay, filing claims against the U.S. government for a refugee family detained and separated after seeking asylum, and advising victims of police misconduct.
Prior to law school, he worked as a journalist for several publications, including Law360, the York (Pa.) Daily Record/Sunday News, and the Charlottesville (Va.) Daily Progress. He has won writing awards from the Pennsylvania Newspaper Association, the Pennsylvania Associated Press Managing Editors, and the Virginia Press Association.
He also served in the United States Peace Corps as a Municipal and Community Development Agent in West Africa and a Youth Development Advisor in the Caribbean.
Professor McLernon is a member of the New York Bar and the Legal Writing Institute. He is also admitted to practice in the United States District Courts for the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York.
- JD, Georgetown University
