Professor Bonneau teaches and writes in the areas of legal analysis, communications, rhetoric, culture, and the arts. She regularly teaches Legal Practice and an upper level writing seminar, and has taught seminars in Art Law and Judicial Opinion Writing. Her scholarship takes a cultural approach to the law and its language, focusing on conflicts involving the arts, authorship, and free expression. She has published in the Tulane Law Review, receiving the John Minor Wisdom Award, the Columbia Journal of Law & the Arts, and the St. John’s Law Review. Professor Bonneau is also the co-author of Legal Writing in Context, now in its second edition.

Prior to teaching, Professor Bonneau practiced commercial litigation at Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP, and at Hancock & Estabrook, LLP, including its appellate practice. She was a law clerk for Hon. Norman A. Mordue at the United States District Court of the Northern District of New York. Professor Bonneau has a BA in English and Art History from Cornell University and received a JD from the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law.

Scholarship

Books

Sonya G. Bonneau & Susan A. McMahon, Legal Writing in Context (Durham, N.C.: Carolina Academic Press 2d ed. 2024). [BOOK]
Sonya G. Bonneau & Susan A. McMahon, Legal Writing in Context (Durham, N.C.: Carolina Academic Press 2017). [BOOK]

Contributions to Law Reviews and Other Scholarly Journals

Sonya G. Bonneau, The Romantic Author as Compelled Speaker, 97 Tul. L. Rev. 53-96 (2022).
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Sonya Bonneau & Susan McMahon, Disruptive Lawyering 101, 25 Legal Writing 37-43 (2021).
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U.S. Supreme Court Briefs

Motion for Leave to File and Brief for Amici Curiae Art Scholars and Historians in Support of Petitioner, Knox v. Pennsylvania, No. 18-949 (U.S. Mar. 6, 2019).
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