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Susan McMahon

Professor of Lawyering Skills
Susan McMahon

Expertise:

Legal Analysis and Communication; Legal Education; Criminal Law; Mental Health

Background:

Joining the Law School’s acclaimed lawyering skills program, Professor Susan McMahon is a national leader in the field of legal writing and lawyering skills.  

Prof. McMahon’s scholarly work is widely recognized and centers on lawyering and legal education, with a particular focus on how lawyers can drive change within legal systems. She is also an expert on the intersection of mental disability and the criminal system, and she has written on topics such as competence restoration, involuntary medication, and stigma against individuals with mental illness.  Her scholarly work has found a home in journals such as the Minnesota Law Review, Georgetown Law Journal, American Criminal Law Review, and University of Pennsylvania Journal of Law and Public Affairs. Her most recent scholarship includes the article, “What We Teach When We Teach Legal Analysis,” 107 Minn. L. Rev. 2511 (2023), which won the Legal Writing Institute’s 2024 Teresa Godwin Phelps Award for Scholarship in Legal Communication. She is also the co-author of “Legal Writing in Context” (Carolina Academic Press, 2nd ed. 2024) (with Sonya G. Bonneau).   

Active in national organizations, Prof. McMahon currently serves on the Board of the Journal of the Legal Writing Institute. Among other activities, she previously has served on the program committee of the AALS Section on Legal Writing, Reasoning and Research; as an assistant editor of the Journal of the Legal Writing Institute; as a member of the scholarship development committee of the Legal Writing Institute; as a member of the conference committee of the Rocky Mountain Legal Writing Conference; and as peer reviewer of Legal Communication & Rhetoric (Journal of the Association of Legal Writing Directors). 

Prof. McMahon joins UC Irvine School of Law from the Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law at Arizona State University. Prior to that, she taught at the Georgetown University Law Center for ten years. Before entering academia, Prof. McMahon was a litigator at Debevoise & Plimpton, where she represented clients in securities litigation, intellectual property disputes, and federal criminal cases. She also represented, pro bono, several Guantanamo Bay detainees in their habeas corpus petitions before federal courts. From 2008 to 2009, she clerked for the Honorable Richard J. Leon of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.  

Prof. McMahon received a J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center, and a B.A. from College of the Holy Cross. Before attending law school, Prof. McMahon was an award-winning reporter. 

Current Courses:

Lawyering Skills I

Prior Courses:

Legal Method & Writing; Legal Advocacy; Legislative Advocacy; Persuasion; Judicial Writing

(Log in to view full course descriptions in the UCI Law Course Catalog)

  • Sonya Bonneau & Susan A. McMahon, Legal Writing in Context (2d ed. 2024).

  • Susan A. McMahon, What We Teach When We Teach Legal Analysis, 107 Minn. L. Rev. 2511 (2023).

  • Sherri Lee Keene & Susan A. McMahon, The Contextual Case Method: Moving Beyond Opinions to Spark Students’ Legal Imaginations, 108 Va. L. Rev. Online 72 (2022).

  • Susan A. McMahon, Pandemic as Opportunity for Competence Restoration Decarceration, 2 Ariz. State L.J. Online 207 (2020).

  • Susan A. McMahon, Reforming Competence Restoration Statutes: An Outpatient Model, 107 Geo. L.J. 601 (2019).

Professor McMahon’s Scholarship on SSRN

  • Panelist, Rhetoric of Disagreement, AALS Annual Meeting, Jan. 4, 2024.

  • What We Teach When We Teach Legal Analysis, Western Regional Legal Writing Conference, Aug. 26, 2023.

  • Panelist, How to Integrate Issues of Diversity into the Legal Writing Curriculum, Association of Legal Writing Directors Biennial Conference, Jul. 13, 2023.

  • Invited Presenter, What Is Competency to Stand Trial: A National and Arizona Perspective, Legal Competency & Restoration Conference for Mental Health Professionals, Arizona Supreme Court, Aug. 10, 2023.

  • Invited Panelist, Mental Health and the Courts: What Can New Science & Technologies Offer?, ASU’s 8th Biannual Law & Neuroscience Conference, Dec. 9, 2022.

  • Invited Panelist, Leaving Langdell Behind: Redesigning the Law School Curriculum, Minnesota Law Review Symposium, Oct. 7, 2022, available at Video: 5 Minnesota Law Review v107 Symposium.

  • Invited Panelist, Competency Determinations: Increasing Diversions and Improving Caseflow Management, Conference of Chief Justices and Conference of State Court Administrators Annual Meeting, Jul. 25, 2022.

  • Recipient of the Legal Writing Institute’s 2024 Teresa Godwin Phelps Award for Scholarship in Legal Communication for her article, “What We Teach When We Teach Legal Analysis,” 107 Minn. L. Rev. 2511 (2023)