Alison Mikkor

Expertise:

Legal Analysis and Communication; Civil Litigation Practice; Appellate Practice; Lawyer-Client Relationship; Client Interviewing and Counseling Skills; Professional Responsibility; Inclusive Excellence in Legal Education

Background:

Alison Mikkor teaches both first-year and advanced skills courses. Professor Mikkor developed her expertise in the practice of law as a litigator with the firm Debevoise & Plimpton LLP for nearly a decade. While in practice, Professor Mikkor represented American Airlines in In re September 11 Litigation. She also maintained an active pro bono practice and led a team representing incarcerated women who had been sexually assaulted by corrections staff in longstanding civil rights litigation. In between her time in practice and joining UCI Law in 2016, Professor Mikkor was a faculty member in NYU School of Law’s Lawyering Program. 

Professor Mikkor is particularly excited by and interested in the role of experiential learning in legal pedagogy. She seeks to integrate the realities of practice into the law school curriculum in ways that advance student learning in the present and equip students for life-long learning as professionals in the future. Professor Mikkor’s most recent work has focused on teaching interventions that create a more equitable and inclusive legal classroom, including developing approaches for countering the effects of trauma and stereotype threat on student achievement. 

Professor Mikkor’s areas of expertise and experience include Legal Analysis and Communication, Civil Litigation Practice, Appellate Practice, Experiential Learning, the Lawyer-Client Relationship, Client Interviewing and Counseling Skills, Professional Responsibility, and Inclusive Excellence in Legal Education. She has presented frequently on these topics at conferences and workshops hosted by the Legal Writing Institute (LWI), the Association of Legal Writing Directors (ALWD), AALS, and individual law schools. Professor Mikkor’s work has also been published in journals, such as the peer-reviewed publication Legal Writing.

Professor Mikkor is an active member in regional and national professional organizations promoting and supporting the work of lawyering skills as a discipline and has served on committees of LWI, ALWD and AALS.

Professor Mikkor is a graduate of McGill University in Montreal. She earned her J.D. from NYU School of Law. 

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