Jill Barton

Jill Barton is a law professor and author of three books on legal writing. A former journalist, she has published thousands of news articles for The Associated Press and other news organizations. She currently serves as a professor and the legal writing director at the University of Miami School of Law. Her latest book, The Supreme Guide to Writing, was published by Oxford University Press in September 2024.The book details her findings in a five-year study of the U.S. Supreme Court. She previously authored So Ordered: The Writer's Guide for Aspiring Judges, Judicial Clerks, and Interns (Wolters Kluwer 2017). And she co-authored The Handbook for the New Legal Writer (Aspen 2023), a popular law school textbook now in its third edition, that aims to demystify the process of legal writing and inspire beginning and experienced legal writers.

Professor Barton earned her bachelor of journalism magna cum laude from the University of Missouri. She later received her M.S. in journalism from the University of Kansas, where she taught advanced reporting, and her J.D. summa cum laude from the University of Missouri-Kansas City. In law school, she received the West Publishing Award for Outstanding Scholarly Accomplishment and won the National Association of Women Lawyers student writing competition.