Teresa Bruce

Legal Writing Professor

401 UCB
2450 Kittredge Loop Drive
Wolf Law Building
Boulder, CO  80309
Office: 461
Phone: (303) 735-5002
E-mail: teresa.bruce@colorado.edu

Curriculum Vitae:  View (PDF format)

Bio:

Teresa Bruce grew up in the Denver metropolitan area. She earned a Bachelor of Science in mathematics, with honors, from Colorado State University, and a Juris Doctor, cum laude, from Cornell Law School. After law school, Professor Bruce clerked for the New York State Court of Appeals, New York's high court, in Albany, New York. She also practiced in the commercial litigation departments of three law firms: Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison, LLP, in New York, New York, The Kobayashi Law Firm, P.C., in Denver, Colorado, and Brownstein Hyatt & Farber, P.C., in Denver, Colorado. She has been admitted to practice law in Colorado and New York.

Professor Bruce has represented both plaintiffs and defendants on numerous contracts, products liability, and fraud cases, including the following:

Contract Disputes

  • Secured a plaintiffs' jury verdict of nearly one million dollars in a dispute over a partnership agreement to develop Texas real estate
  • Secured a defense verdict of zero dollars plus fees and costs in a $900,000 dispute over a loan agreement for a LODO nightclub

Products Liability Cases

  • Acted as defense counsel for a national bicycle manufacturer in disputes involving allegedly defective bicycles
  • Acted as defense counsel for a national electronics manufacturer in disputes involving allegedly defective thermal cut-off switches
  • Acted as plaintiff's counsel to an oil and gas operator in a multi-million dollar dispute involving defective oilfield equipment

Fraud Cases

  • Secured a plaintiff's verdict of a half million dollars plus costs in a dispute involving the fraudulent acquisition of computer hardware
  • Acted as plaintiff's counsel to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation in a dispute over a Boulder bank failure
  • Acted as plaintiff's counsel to a federally chartered bank in a dispute over a hundred-million dollar mortgage fraud


Selected Publications

The Architecture of Drama: How Lawyers Can Use Screenwriting Techniques to Tell More Compelling Stories, 23 J. Legal Writing Inst. 47 (2019).
Terrorism du Jour: How the Trayvon Martin Case Exposes an Endemic Regime of Fear That Keeps Black Males and Females of All Colors in a State of Subjugation, 21 UCLA Women?s L.J. 1 (Spring 2014).
In the Language of Pictures: How Copyright Law Fails to Adequately Account for Photography, 115 W. Va. L. Rev. 93 (2012).
Pornophobia, Pornophilia, and the Need for a Middle Path, 5 Am. U. J. Gender & L. 393 (1997).
Doing the Nasty: An Argument for Bringing Same-Sex Erotic Conduct Back into the Courtroom, 81 Cornell L. Rev. 1135 (1996).
Neither Liberty Nor Justice: Anti-Gay Initiatives, Political Participation, and the Rule of Law, 5 Cornell J. L. & Pub. Pol'y 431 (1996).
The Empathy Principle, 6 Tulane J. L. & Sexuality 109 (1996).

Courses:

Spring 2024 Legal Writing II LAWS 5223-802
Fall 2023 Legal Writing I LAWS 5226-802
Fall 2023 Advanced Appellate Advocacy LAWS 6213-801
Fall 2022 Legal Writing I LAWS 5226-802
Fall 2022 Advanced Appellate Advocacy LAWS 6213-801
Spring 2022 Legal Writing II LAWS 5223-802
Fall 2021 Legal Writing I LAWS 5226-802
Fall 2021 Advanced Appellate Advocacy LAWS 6213-801
Spring 2021 Legal Writing II LAWS 5223-802
Fall 2020 Legal Writing I LAWS 5226-802
Fall 2020 Advanced Appellate Advocacy LAWS 6213-801
Spring 2020 Legal Writing II LAWS 5223-802
Fall 2019 Legal Writing I LAWS 5226-802
Fall 2019 Advanced Appellate Advocacy LAWS 6213-801
Spring 2019 Legal Writing II LAWS 5223-805
Spring 2019 Advanced Legal Writing LAWS 6226-803
Fall 2018 Legal Writing I LAWS 5226-802
Spring 2018 Legal Writing II LAWS 5223-805
Spring 2018 Seminar: Advanced Torts LAWS 8425-001
Fall 2017 Legal Writing I LAWS 5226-805
Spring 2017 Legal Writing II LAWS 5223-804
Fall 2016 Legal Writing I LAWS 5226-804