As a result of a generous gift, the University of Texas School of Law’s legal-writing program is now the David J. Beck Center for Legal Research, Writing, and Appellate Advocacy. (David Beck is a well known lawyer and alumnus.) I will become the Director of the Beck Center.

The Center’s primary focus is the required, first-year course in legal research and writing—now entering the third year of an expanded curriculum made possible in part by Mr. Beck’s gift. The Center also includes several other courses: a new course on legal writing for foreign LLM students, upper-division courses (Transactional Drafting, Writing for Litigation, and Advanced Legal Writing), two judicial-clerkship-preparation courses, and the Law School Writing Center. In addition, the Beck Center coordinates interscholastic moot court, and my colleague Gretchen Sween will become Director of Interscholastic Moot Court.