Legal Writing Faculty
Derek H. Kiernan-Johnson
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Legal Writing; Appellate Court Advocacy; Judicial Opinion Writing
University of Colorado Law School
448 Wolf Law Building
401 UCB
Boulder, CO 80309-0401
Phone: (303) 492-5863
E-mail: derek.kiernan-johnson@colorado.edu
Curriculum Vitae: View (PDF format)
Bio:
Derek Kiernan-Johnson studies how lawyers and judges write, why they write that way, and what can be done about it. In particular, he analyzes legal authors’ structural, stylistic, typographic, and narrative choices through the lenses of rhetoric theory and semiotics. These research interests inform his teaching, where he strives to help students gain confidence and fluency in the language of the law, chart authentic, meaningful, and sustainable legal career paths, and think critically about the role of law and lawyers in society. He currently teaches first-year legal writing, appellate advocacy, and judicial-opinion writing.
He received his undergraduate degree from Princeton University, where he studied religion, dramatic performance, and music. He brought these perspectives to bear in his work at the Raphael J. Moses Mesoamerican Archive, culminating in Experiencing Toxcatl: an Ixiptla’s Perspective (1996), a multi-disciplinary study of an Aztec sacrifice from the sacrificee’s point of view. He developed this approach further by traveling to Bayreuth, Germany, to study composer Richard Wagner and write Durch Sühn und Buß der Gnade Heil: Spiritual Suffering and Religious Salvation in the Operas of Richard Wagner (1997).
After completing his undergraduate work, he studied English cathedral architecture at Wadham College at Oxford University and then attended law school at the University of Michigan. His studies at Michigan focused on constitutional law, education law, and meaning and experience in the law, the last interest of which culminated in his 1999 study Meaning in Miranda. Following law school, he returned to Colorado to clerk for the Honorable Justice Michael L. Bender of the Colorado Supreme Court. He then practiced law for six years at Caplan and Earnest, LLC, where he practiced education law—counseling and advocating for public-school clients in a variety of general-counsel, transactional, and litigation settings.
He lives in South Boulder with his wife Eileen and son Ronan, where he enjoys hiking, birding, snowshoeing, and landscape and nature photography. He continues his musical interests by serving on the Boulder Philharmonic Orchestra’s Executive Board of Directors and chairing its Artistic Committee.
Courses:
| Spring 2010 | Appellate Court Advocacy | LAWS 5223-806 |
| Spring 2010 | Judicial Opinion Writing | LAWS 6236-001 |
| Fall 2009 | Legal Writing | LAWS 5226-806 |
| Spring 2009 | Appellate Court Advocacy | LAWS 5223-806 |
| Spring 2009 | Judicial Opinion Writing | LAWS 6236-001 |
| Fall 2008 | Legal Writing | LAWS 5226-806 |
| Spring 2008 | Appellate Court Advocacy | LAWS 5223-806 |
| Fall 2007 | Legal Writing | LAWS 5226-806 |
