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Alpha transparency layerAn Indiana Law professor writes on the blackboard during class.

Faculty Profile

Lisa Farnsworth

Director, Graduate Legal Studies, and Senior Lecturer in Law
Contact Information
farnswor [at] indiana [dot] edu  
(812) 855-0919  
Law Building 220
 
Education
B.A. at Indiana University, 1977
J.D. at Indiana University Maurer School of Law, 1982
Courses
Legal Writing & Research Methods for LLM and MCL Students (B530)
Academic Legal Writing for LLM Students (B560)
Graduate Practicum (B790)
Background
  • Section Chief—Contracts, Administrative Agency Counsel & Constituent Services Sections for the Office of the Indiana Attorney General, Indianapolis (1993-1995)
  • Deputy Public Defender, Office of the Monroe County Public Defender, Bloomington, Ind. (1984-1988)
  • Law clerk to the Honorable James B. Young, Indiana Court of Appeals, Indianapolis (1983-1984)
  • Two-time recipient of TERA award for excellence in teaching
Biography

Professor Farnsworth joined Indiana Law with 12 years of criminal litigation and general practice experience. Following her clerkship with the Indiana Court of Appeals, she litigated at the trial and appellate levels for five years. She subsequently supervised three sections of attorneys in the Indiana Attorney General's Office in the areas of agency services, contracts and constituent services, and she advised boards in administrative proceedings and state agencies in state and federal litigation.

Lisa Farnsworth

Upon returning to the Law School, Farnsworth taught Legal Writing to JD candidates and has taught Juvenile Law, Criminal Law and Criminal Procedure as an adjunct professor in the Indiana University Criminal Justice Department.

She began her term as director of the Graduate Legal Studies Program in 1994. In that role, she teaches legal writing to international students as one of the most experienced professors in that field nationwide. Through her courses, graduate students gain a foundation in writing and analysis, with an emphasis on exam-taking skills. International students in the LLM thesis and SJD programs benefit from a course she designed on academic legal writing, and her practicum students participate in the American legal process and study legal writing forms specific to the practice of law.


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