UIC Law in Chicago has appointed Teri McMurtry-Chubb as a tenured full professor. Before joining UIC Law, she was a tenured full professor at Mercer University School of Law.
McMurtry-Chubb researches, teaches and writes in the areas of legal history and discourse, critical rhetoric and genre analysis. She has lectured nationally on structural discrimination in educational institutions and the workplace and is a leader in designing curricula to facilitate diversity, equity and inclusion efforts. McMurtry-Chubb previously taught at Loyola Law School – Los Angeles, California State Polytechnic University at Pomona, The University of Iowa, Des Moines Area Community College, Drake University School of Law and Fairhaven College of Interdisciplinary Studies at Western Washington University. While at Fairhaven College, she was a co-founder and first director of Fairhaven’s Center for Law, Diversity and Justice.
McMurtry-Chubb served as a Visiting Distinguished Professor of Law at UIC Law for the 2019-2020 academic year and delivered the keynote lecture during the Law School’s 2020 Diversity Week. During Summer 2020, McMurtry-Chubb moderated a discussion for UIC Law with CNN commentator Bakari Sellers about race and injustice in America and joined other faculty for a virtual conversation about violence by police.
At UIC Law, McMurtry-Chubb teaches legal writing, and courses in Critical Race Feminism and Social Justice Lawyering. She is also developing modules that address structural racism to be used in core law school classes.
A national leader in legal writing, McMurtry-Chubb previously served as President of the Association of Legal Writing Directors, becoming the first person of color to ever head a national legal writing organization. She is a board member and officer-designate for Scribes—The American Society of Legal Writers. She also chaired the Legal Writing Institute Diversity Initiatives Committee, served as the Chair of the Iowa National Bar Association, the founding chapter of the National Bar Association, and as a gubernatorial appointee to the Iowa State Historical Society Board of Trustees.
McMurtry-Chubb is the author of the book Legal Writing in the Disciplines: A Guide to Legal Writing Mastery (Carolina Academic Press) and a contributor to Feminist Judgments: Rewritten Opinions of the United States Supreme Court (Cambridge University Press). Additional publications include The Rhetoric of Race, Redemption and Will Contests: Inheritance as Reparations in John Grisham’s Sycamore Row, 48 Univ. Memphis L. Rev. 889 (2018), for which McMurtry-Chubb received the Teresa Godwin Phelps Award for Scholarship in Legal Communication by the Legal Writing Institute.
UIC Law’s Lawyering Skills Program is ranked among the nation’s best by U.S. News & World Report. The Program, currently ranked at #7 in the nation, has continuously been in the top ten since the rankings began. It is known for its rigorous research and writing requirements and its robust faculty leadership. All students are required to take four semesters of lawyering skills courses, with options for specialization in the fourth semester.
