Legal Writing Faculty

Dedicated Teachers, Mentors and Advocates

Loyola’s legal writing faculty is comprised of experienced full-time clinical professors, all with outstanding academic credentials and a commitment to teaching legal writing. With well-over 50 years of combined experience in both civil and criminal practice, and an average of 10 years experience in the classroom, Loyola’s legal writing professors bring their extensive practice skills to the classroom and to the legal community. In addition to legal writing, the faculty teach a variety of other skills and doctrinal courses, and are active in the academic and Los Angeles legal community. 

Cindy Archer:  AB, Stanford University; JD Georgetown University Law Center. Archer began teaching as a teaching fellow in the Legal Research and Writing Program at Georgetown, and as a consumer law instructor in the District of Columbia Correctional Facility. After law school, Archer worked as a business and litigation associate with large law firms in Los Angeles and Detroit, Michigan. She spent the final seven years practicing with Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton (Orange County) specializing in commercial litigation, employment law and insurance. She has been a member of Loyola Law School faculty since 2000. She was appointed Director of Lawyering Skills in 2012. Website • E-Mail 

Sarah Rigdon Bensinger:  BA, cum laude, Yale University; MA Urban Planning and JD UCLA. After law school,  Bensinger practiced mainly in the areas of fair housing and employment law with the firm of Robinson, Curley & Clayton in Chicago. Prior to joining the Loyola Law School faculty in 1997, she was a Visiting Assistant Professor at Chicago Kent College of Law. She is a committed volunteer at the Harriet Buhai Family Law Center and trains externs and young attorneys there. Website • E-Mail

Robert Brain:  BS, Biology, Stanford University, with honors and with distinction; MS, Biochemistry, Stanford University; JD, Boalt School of Law, UC Berkeley.  Robert Brain began his legal career in the litigation department of Gibson, Dunn & Crutche. He later joined the faculty at Pepperdine University School of Law where he taught contracts, torts, constitutional law, sales and trial practice. While at Pepperdine, he co-taught a course on the history of the Supreme Court with Chief Justice Rehnquist. Thereafter, as a partner at the litigation firm of Howarth & Smith, he tried fraud, defamation, securities, products liability and assault matters. He joined the Loyola faculty in 2006.  Website • E-Mail

Mary Dant: BA, summa cum laude, UCLA; JD, Columbia Law School. While in law school, Mary Dant was a Stone scholar and articles editor for the Columbia Journal of Law and Social Problems. After law school, she practiced civil litigation at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, and specialized in appellate litigation with the firm of Horvitz & Levy in Los Angeles, where she handled appeals in the areas of medical malpractice, employment law and insurance litigation. She joined the Loyola Law School faculty in 2001. In addition to teaching, she also supervises the Loyola Writing Tutors Program.  Website • E-Mail 

Aimee Dudovitz:  BA, University of California, Santa Cruz; JD, University of California, Davis, School of Law. After law school Dudovitz served as a clerk in the federal courts. She began practice as an associate at Irell & Manella, where she practiced constitutional, entertainment and election law. Dudovitz spent her final six years of practice at Strumwasser & Woocher, specializing in election law and education law.  Her election law practice included both overseeing compliance with campaign finance and reporting requirements and litigating cases involving the constitutionality of ballot measures, and election contests.  As such, Dudovitz has extensive experience drafting briefs for trial, appellate and Supreme Courts in both the California and federal court systems.   She joined the Loyola Law School faculty in 2010.  Website • E-Mail

Judy Fonda:  BA, magna cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa, UCLA; JD, Order of the Coif UCLA School of Law. Fonda practiced criminal law in the L.A. Public Defender’s office, and criminal and entertainment law with the firm of Sklar, Coben and Stashower. Prior to joining the Loyola Law School faculty, she taught in the Clinical Program at UCLA and the SCALE program at Southwestern University of Law. In 1996 she joined the Loyola faculty as one of the first full time legal writing faculty members. At Loyola, she is renowned not only for her experienced legal writing teaching, but also for her expert and innovative use of technology in teaching interviewing and counseling, and trial advocacy.  Website • E-Mail

Christopher Hawthorne:  BA, Columbia University; JD, magna cum laude, Loyola Law School, Order of the Coif. Immediately after law school, Hawthorne was an associate with O'Melveny & Myers, practicing in their Litigation Department's White Collar Criminal Defense Practice Group. Prior to and during his legal and teaching career, he has written and produced motion pictures, for which he won the Writer's Guild of America Award, the Prix de Critiques at the Festival Avoriaz and the Silver Cairo at the Cairo Film Festival. One of his films was also nominated for an Emmy Award for Best Family Script. Hawthorne is also Co-Director of Loyola's Juvenile Innocence & Fair Sentencing Clinic.  Website • E-Mail

Jennifer Kamita: BS, University of Southern California; JD, cum laude, Loyola Law School, Order of the Coif. After graduation from law school, Jennifer Kamita practiced with the Beverly Hills law office of Emmett J. Gantz where she specialized in medical malpractice and products liability. Kamita joined the Loyola faculty in 1990 as the inaugural director of the Academic Support program. She has spent her career helping students navigate what is for many an academic minefield. She has transitioned full time to the legal writing faculty bringing her 20 years of expertise of working with struggling students. She has presentated nationally and regionally on issues realted to academic support and legal skills.  Website • E-Mail

Scott Wood:  BA, Loyola Marymount University; MA, California State University San Francisco; JD, cum laude, Southwestern University School of Law. After graduating from Southwestern University School of Law in 1976, Wood practiced as a civil litigator in Los Angeles at Gibson Dunn & Crutcher from 1976-98. In 1998, he joined the full-time faculty at Loyola teaching Legal Research & Writing, as well as numerous other courses and seminars. In respect to legal writing, Professor Wood has presented many times on the subject of persuasive writing for Los Angeles County Bar programs; he has also consulted and conducted continuing professional education programs on legal writing for law firms and individual lawyers.  He also wrote an on-line column, “Wood’s Words,” published by the L.A. County Bar. At Loyola, he also directs the Center for Retorative Justice.  Website •E-Mail        

Dan Martin, Library Director, and Director of Legal Research Instruction:  BA, Cedarville College; MLS, Indiana University; JD University of Texas, Austin. Martin joined the Loyola faculty in 2005, after having served as the library director at Pepperdine Law School. He is the author of Henke's California Law Guide published by Lexis Nexis. He is commited to making the law library such a great place to study and research that students would not consider going anywhere else. As director of legal research instruction, he leads a team of six teaching librarians.  Website •E-Mail  

Selected Publications and Activities

Brain, Sum and Substance—Contracts (7th ed., 2006). Dudovitz, Presentation, Western Regional Writing Conference, (August 2012). Hawthorne,  Co-Director of Loyola's Juvenile Innocence & Fair Sentencing Clinic.  Kamita, Guest lecturer, Bridge Program at the University of Arizona, Summer 1997-2007. Wood, Director, Loyola's Restorative Justice Program.