Susan Smith Bakhshian
Director of Bar Programs and Academic Success
Clinical Professor of Law
Contact Information
Phone: (213) 736-1462
Fax: (213) 380-3769
E-mail: susan.bakhshian@lls.edu
919 Albany St.
Los Angeles, CA 90015-1211
Educational and Professional Background
BS, summa cum laude, California State University
Northridge
JD, magna cum laude, Loyola Law School, Order of the Coif
After graduating from Loyola Law School's evening program, Susan Smith Bakhshian practiced with a Los Angeles law firm for several years, representing clients in a variety of environmental and general litigation matters. Her clients ranged from multinational oil companies to a small chain of non-profit retail stores here in Southern California. As a litigator, she handled everything from million dollar contaminated property claims and oil company franchise disputes, to charges of false imprisonment of suspected shoplifters and slip-and-fall accidents. Before joining the faculty at Loyola, Bakhshian taught first year legal research and writing, and advanced writing classes including professional responsibility and litigation skills at Whittier Law School. She has been a member of the Loyola Law School faculty since 1997 and she became the Director of Bar Programs and Academic Success in 2011.
Professional Memberships & Activities
Presenter, Rocky Mountain Regional Legal Writing Conference, March 2011, “No Shirt, No Shoes, No Service: Interpreting the Academic Dress Code.” (Co-presenter Professor Allison Martin, Indiana University School of Law – Indianapolis)
Presenter, Rocky Mountain Regional Legal Writing Conference, March 2010, “Have your Power Point Slides Lost their Luster? Tone Up Your Slides to Teach Better.”
Presenter, Rocky Mountain Regional Legal Writing Conference, March 2009, and Empire State Legal Writing Conference May 2010, “Stop the Bleeding: Returning Legal Writing Assignments with Easy In-Class Exercises to Ease the Pain.”
Presenter, Central States Regional Legal Writing Conference, September 2009, “Heads I Win – Tails You Lose: How to Assign a Client in Persuasive Legal Writing Assignments.” (Co-presenter Professor Joel Schumm, Indiana University School of Law – Indianapolis.)
Presenter & Panelist, National Legal Writing Conference, July 2008, "Bar Exam Prep Courses: Legal Writing, Academic Support, Both, or Something Else"
Presenter, Central States Regional Legal Writing Conference, October 2007, "Teaching Professionalism from Day One"
Presenter, Rocky Mountain Regional Legal Writing Conference, March 2007, "New Tricks for Old Dogs" (teaching strategies for legal writing professors)
Presenter, National Legal Writing Conference, July 2006, "Wave of the Future or Low Tide: Offering a Bar Exam Writing Course for Credit"
Presenter & Panelist, Rocky Mountain Regional Legal Writing Conference, February 2006, "Too Much, Too Little or Just 'Write': What is the 'Right' Approach to Critiquing Student Drafts?"
Remedies, Civil Procedure II (California Civil Procedure), Law & Process: Privacy Torts, Ethical Lawyering, Legal Drafting, Legal Research and Writing, Introduction to Negotiation, Fundamentals of Bar Exam Writing