About
JILL BARTON is a law professor and author of three books on legal writing. She serves as a professor and the legal writing director at the University of Miami School of Law, where she has taught for more than 15 years. A former journalist, she published thousands of news articles for The Associated Press and other news organizations before pursuing law. She began her legal career as an appellate judicial clerk.
Her latest book, The Supreme Guide to Writing (Oxford University Press 2024), draws on a five-year study of U.S. Supreme Court opinions to describe a revolution in legal writing—one where the justices cast aside stiff formality in favor of approachable, vivid language. She previously wrote So Ordered: The Writer's Guide for Aspiring Judges, Judicial Clerks, and Interns (Wolters Kluwer 2017), a guide for the courts’ newest writers.
She also co-authored The Handbook for the New Legal Writer, a popular law school textbook. Its forthcoming fourth edition takes on the question now facing every lawyer and law student: what AI means for the profession’s most essential skill. Alongside the foundations of clear, persuasive legal writing, the new edition will offer nuanced, practical guidance for navigating the technology reshaping law practice—how to critically evaluate, edit, and supervise AI-generated work, or forgo it entirely and trust your own voice.
In the classroom, Jill teaches courses that put students inside the work of the nation's highest court—from drafting their own Supreme Court opinions to briefing and arguing cases pending before the justices. She also created SupremeGrammar.com, an interactive platform that turns her empirical research into hands-on writing practice.
Jill has won awards for her journalism from The Associated Press, Scripps Howard, and the New York Times Co., and for her legal writing from the National Association of Women Lawyers. She has led writing workshops for law firms across the country, presented at national conferences, and trained lawyers and judges alike—becoming a leading voice on best practices in legal writing.
