After graduating from UCLA School of Law, Andrea Susnir Funk clerked for a federal district court judge and then practiced law in both state and federal courts for six years before joining the faculty at Whittier Law School. Dean Funk served as a full-time legal writing professor for three years and has directed the Institute of Legal Writing and Professional Skills since 2000.

Dean Funk’s passion is teaching students how to practice law. To that end, she has designed and implemented a comprehensive legal writing and professional skills curriculum that prepares students to transition from student to lawyer. Dean Funk believes that lawyers must write well and act professionally. Through the Institute, her goal is to impress the importance of these two principles upon her students with the hope that they will carry them into practice — and to life — once they graduate.

Editorials and Commentaries

• Private Plaintiff May Sue for Restitution Under RCRA, Volume 1995, Issue No. 4, California Environmental Law Reporter (April 1995).

Works in progress

• Article, Starting from the Top: Using a Capstone Course to Begin Program Assessment in Legal Education (co-author).

• Measuring Student Learning Outcomes in Law School: An Empirical Study of a Capstone Legal Writing Course, Central States Regional Legal Writing Conference, The John Marshall Law School, Chicago, September 2011.
• Measuring Student Learning Objectives in a Capstone Writing Course, ALWD Conference, University of the Pacific, McGeorge School of Law, June 2011.
• Using Exams as Assessment Tools in First-Year Writing Courses, Rocky Mountain Legal Writing Conference, William S. Boyd School of Law, UNLV, March 2011.
• Integrating Legal Writing in Advanced Doctrinal and Skills Courses, 2010 Biennial Conference of the Legal Writing Institute, Marco Island, Florida, June 2010.
• Are We Getting It Right? Strategies to Measure Student Learning Outcomes in a Four-Semester Legal Writing Program, ALWD Scholars’ Forum, March 2010.
• E-munication: Should Lawyers and Professors Tweet? Rocky Mountain Legal Writing Conference, The University of Arizona James E. Rogers College of Law, March 2010.
• Legal Writing 101: Back to Basics, Southeast Regional Legal Writing Conference, Stetson University College of Law, September 2009.
• Notes from the Editing Floor, National Conference of Law Reviews, March 2009.
• A Legal Writing Hybrid: Advanced Legal Writing Skills and the Performance Test, Rocky Mountain Legal Writing Conference, Arizona State University, Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law, March 2009.
• Hosted Entertainment Law Presentation, March 2009.
• Hosted Public Interest Law Presentation, October 2008.
• Pilot Program, Legal Education at the Crossroads: Ideas to Implementation Conference, University of Washington School of Law, September 2008.
• TeachingLaw.Com Roundtable, AALS, January 2008.
• Hosted Institute of Legal Writing and Professional Skills Legal Writing Conference, Rancho Mirage, August 2006.
• The Substantive Edit, National Conference of Law Reviews, March 2002.
• Persuasive Writing, Orange County Bar Association, June 2001.

• 2011 — ALWD Annual Survey Committee
• 2011 — ALWD Conference Committee
• 2011 — AALS Annual Meeting Poster Committee
• 2010 — Present Member, Scribes
• 2000 — Present Member, Association of Legal Writing Directors
• 1997 — Present Member, AALS Section of Legal Writing, Reasoning, and Research
• 1997 — Present Member, Legal Writing Institute
• 1997 — Present Member, Orange County Bar Association
• 1990 — Present Member, American Bar Association
• 1990 — Present Member, State Bar of California
• 1990 — 1997 Member, Los Angeles County Bar Association