
Professor Emerita
Jill J. Ramsfield
B.A., Wellesley; B.M., University of Wisconsin; J.D., University of Wisconsin
B.A., Wellesley; B.M., University of Wisconsin; J.D., University of Wisconsin
Professor Ramsfield specializes in the study of legal discourse, both in the United States and abroad. By combining studies in linguistics, composition theory, and cognitive psychology, she has created a unique approach to teaching legal writing. She teaches continuing legal education courses nationally and internationally, helping lawyers to write better, faster. She also helped create Georgetown’s United States Legal Discourse, a course designed especially for international lawyers. She has assisted South Africa’s twenty-two law schools to create new four-year curricula that incorporated classes in legal discourse. She has also presented classes and workshops to many international lawyers and judges, including justices from Iceland, South Africa, and Slovenia; lawyers from Russia, France, Germany, Sweden, and Uganda; and legal educators from Italy, Australia, and New Zealand. She is the author of “Is Logic Culturally Based? A Contrastive International Approach to the U.S. Law Classroom.” 47 J. Legal Ed. 157 (1997), co-author with Mary Ray of Legal Writing: Getting It Right and Getting It Written (3d ed. 2000), and the author of The Law as Architecture: Building Legal Documents (2000).