Teresa Kissane Brostoff

Professor Teresa Brostoff is the Director of Legal Writing. She researches, writes, and lectures on legal writing methodology and pedagogy. She teaches Legal Analysis and Writing to first year law and LLM students. She is the co-author, with Professor Ann Sinsheimer and Professor Emeritus Nancy Burkoff, of Legal Writing: A Contemporary Approach, published in its second edition by West Academic Publications. 

Professor Brostoff created, with her colleague Ann Sinsheimer, the English for Lawyers Program, now titled U.S. Law and Language for which they co-authored the text Legal English, now in its third edition and titled as United States Legal Language and Culture, published by Oxford University Press. She taught this law school preparation course for many years at the University of Pittsburgh to classes of international lawyers, many of whom went on to LLM or SJD programs around the country. She has written and lectured on methods of teaching international students. In addition, Professor Brostoff has taught English for Lawyers in Serbia, Ukraine, and Kosovo under State Department auspices, in Iceland as a distinguished Fulbright Scholar, in Japan, Poland, and Ethiopia as an invited lecturer, in Belgium as a Fulbright Senior Specialist and member of the EU LLM faculty. She has also taught Bahrain, Oman, and UAE under Department of Commerce sponsorship. Most recently, Professor Brostoff taught the U.S. Law and Language course in X’ian, China. Professor Brostoff has served two five year terms on the Fulbright Specialist roster, and when not on the roster, has served on the Fulbright Peer Review Selection Committee in Law.

Professor Brostoff is also a certified meditation teacher, and she offers meditation in the law school on a weekly basis. She has written and spoken on the value of meditation and mindfulness practices to those who study and practice law. She is a member of the AALS Balance in Legal Education Section Executive Board.

Prior to joining the Pitt Law faculty, Professor Brostoff clerked for the Honorable Justin M. Johnson on the Pennsylvania Superior Court. She is also a registered nurse.