Northern Illinois University
College of Law

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Meredith Geller, formerly Meredith Stange, is the Director of the Legal Writing Program. She teaches Legal Writing I and II, Legal Methods, Legal Analysis: Skills and Strategies, Writing for Practice, and Health Law. She is also a coordinator for the NIU Law Academic Success Program. A graduate of Boston College Law School, she visited Loyola University Chicago School of Law during her third year of law school, where she earned a Certificate in Health Law and served as an Articles Editor for the Annals of Health Law.

Professor Geller is a member of the Legal Writing Institute (LWI) and a Board Member for the Association of Legal Writing Directors (ALWD). She is currently co-Chair of the LWI Diversity and Inclusion Committee, is a member of the Journal of the Legal Writing Institute Editorial Board, and, as an ALWD Board Member, serves as the Board liaison for the Adjunct Program Committee, the Publications Committee, and the Scholarship Grants Committee.  She has previously served as co-chair of the LWI One Day Workshop and the ALWD Web Redesign Committees, as a member on the LWI Plagiarism Committee, the ALWD Diversity Committee, and the ALWD Online/Distance Learning Committee. She serves as a brief judge for multiple national moot court competitions, is a peer reviewer for Legal Communication & Rhetoric: JALWD. As part of the NIU community, she is a member of the Committee for Academic Equity and Inclusive Excellence (CAEIE), University Council (UC), University Council Personnel Committee (UCPC), the Anti-Racism Collective (ARC), and the Presidential Commission on Interfaith Initiatives (PCII).

Prior to coming to the College of Law, Professor Geller was a litigation associate with Hinshaw & Culbertson in Rockford, Illinois, practicing in the area of medical malpractice and insurance defense. Her practice also included corporate health care issues, with an emphasis on the privacy regulations to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA).

Publications

• Writing for Law Practice: What They Didn’t Teach You First Year, with co-author Lisa Mazzie, Carolina Academic Press (forthcoming 2024).
• "The Art of Cutting Yourself Some Slack: Reinventing Yourself as an Online Teacher," in Law Teaching Strategies for a New Era: Beyond the Physical Classroom (Tessa Dysart and Tracey Norton, eds.), Carolina Academic Press, 2021.
• Burnout Doesn't Frighten Me, 25 L. Writing J. 131 (2021).
• Voting Like a Duck: Reflecting on a Year of Legal Writing Voting Rights, 24 L. Writing J. 55 (2020).
• Help Me, Help You: What You Should Know Before You Ask for Help, The Learning Curve (AALS Sec. on Acad. Support, Washington, D.C.), Winter/Spring 2019, at 32.
• 'Yo, Prof!' is Not the Proper Way to Address Me: Using a Status Email Assignment in First-Year Legal Writing to Address Issues with Student Correspondence, The Learning Curve (AALS Sec. on Acad. Support, Washington, D.C.), Summer 2016, at 19.
• Law Students Lie and Other Practical Information for First-Year Students, Law Tchr., Fall 2012, at 18.

Presentations

• Presenter, "The Gentle Art of Letting Go: How I Changed My 'Type A' Approach to Teaching," Legal Writing Institute Workshop, Seattle University School of Law (December 2022).
• Presenter, "The Front Line: Writing and the Bar Examination," Central States Regional Legal Writing Conference, UIC-John Marshall Law School, Chicago (September 2019) (with Jeanna Hunter).
• Presenter, "Making the Most of Your Seat at the Table: Reflections on the First Year of Legal Writing Voting Rights,” Association of Legal Writing Directors (ALWD) Biennial Conference, Suffolk Univ. Law School, Boston, MA (May 2019).
• Facilitator, Keynote speaker breakout sessions, Association of Legal Writing Directors (ALWD) Biennial Conference, Suffolk Univ. Law School, Boston, MA (May 2019).
• "Everything Old is New Again: Incorporating Basic Legal Writing Skills into an Upper Level Writing for Practice Course," Legal Writing Institute Workshop, University of Illinois College of Law (December 2018).
• "Yes, Virginia, there is Legal Writing on the Bar Exam: Teaching Writing and Bar Skills Together," Legal Writing Institute Workshop, University of Illinois College of Law (December 2018) (with Jeanna Hunter).
• "Exit Laughing: Ideas for a More Fun, Productive Classroom," Central States Regional Legal Writing Conference, Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law, Presenter (September 2017) (with Jeanna Hunter, Sandra Kupelian and Jay Streitz).
• "Teaching Ideas: Analysis and Writing," Association of Legal Writing Directors (ALWD) Biennial Conference, Panelist (July 2017) (with Joel Atlas and Robin Boyle).
• Breakout Sessions, Association of Legal Writing Directors (ALWD) Biennial Conference, Breakout Session Facilitator (July 2017)
• Breakout Sessions, Association of Legal Writing Directors (ALWD) Biennial Conference, Breakout Session Facilitator (July 2017)
• "Social Justice and the Legal Writing Classroom," Society of American Law Teachers Conference, John Marshall Law School, Panelist, (October 2016).
• “Entering Uncharted Waters: Using an Upper Level Writing for Practice Class to Reinforce 1L Writing Concepts,” Central States Legal Writing Conference, Presenter, (September 2015).
• "Iamsexy2252@yahoo.com is an Inappropriate Email Address for Professional Correspondence: Why NIU Law Added a Status Email Assignment to First Year Legal Writing," Legal Writing Institute's Preparing Practice Ready Students Workshop, Southern Illinois University School of Law, Presenter, (December 2014).
• “Welcome to the Study of Legalese: Teaching First Year Legal Writing as a Foreign Language,” Empire State Legal Writing Conference, Presenter, (May 2010).
• “Divided We Succeed: Teaching Legal Writing and Research as Separate, Collaborative Courses,” Central States Regional LRW/Lawyering Skills Conference, Presenter, (October 2009) (with Jeanna Hunter, Elsa Miller, Frank Lima and Therese Clarke).
• “Taking Risks in the Legal Writing Classroom,” Central States Regional LRW/Lawyering Skills Conference, Presenter, (October 2007).

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