Congratulations to Drake Law Professor Melissa Weresh, the 2023 recipient of the Association of Legal Writing Directors’ (ALWD) Linda Berger Award for Excellence in Legal Writing Scholarship. The Berger Award is ALWD’s highest award recognizing scholarship in the field of legal writing. It specifically recognizes the recipient’s lifetime dedication to and advancement of legal writing scholarship.

Weresh is the Dwight D. Opperman Distinguished Professor of Law and the Herb and Karen Baum Chair of Ethics in the Professions at Drake University. Her scholarship examines the art, science, and ethics of persuasion and advocates for the modernization of law school teaching. Mel has championed the professionalization of the legal writing discipline, including improving status for legal writing faculty. She has previously served as president of the Legal Writing Institute, chair of the AALS Teaching Methods Section, member of the LexisNexis Law School Publishing Advisory Board, and member of the Editorial Boards of both Legal Communication & Rhetoric: JALWD and The Journal of Legal Education. In 2017, she was awarded the Thomas F. Blackwell Memorial Award for Outstanding Achievement in the Field of Legal Writing.

— Theresa Howard, Law School