Alumnus Joe Fore '11 Joins UVA Law Legal Research and Writing Program Faculty

Alumnus Joe Fore '11 has joined the University of Virginia School of Law faculty as assistant professor and co-director of the Legal Research and Writing Program.

Fore joins a team of professors teaching writing that includes D. Ruth ("Ruthie") Buck, Karen Moran and Sarah Stewart Ware. In his new role, Fore will teach legal writing to first-year students and promote writing and oral advocacy at the Law School. Students taking the required legal writing class in their first year at the Law School don't just polish their writing skills; they also learn legal reasoning, research and advocacy by conducting analysis, writing memos and appellate briefs, and defending their legal positions in oral arguments.

Fore will also help students improve their writing outside of their first-year course, such as by advising students on writing samples they submit when applying to jobs and judicial clerkships.

"Working with students is what I'm most excited about," Fore said. "I hope my having some familiarity with the curriculum and how it fits in with the first-year experience will help me better understand what concerns students might have."

Fore most recently worked as an associate with BakerHostetler's Orlando and Washington, D.C., offices, practicing commercial litigation, both at the trial and appellate levels. He also taught a seminar course in advanced oral advocacy skills as an adjunct instructor at Barry University's Dwayne O. Andreas School of Law in Orlando. Fore is a member of the Florida and Washington, D.C., bars.

Fore said he aims to build on the school's strong tradition of intensive training in writing.

"The ability to write and communicate well is central to everything that lawyers do," he said. "Communicating is lawyering. No matter how much knowledge you have, if you can't communicate that knowledge effectively, you can't advocate for your clients."

While a student at the Law School, Fore was a notes editor for the Virginia Law Review, a semifinalist in the William Minor Lile Moot Court Competition, and a research assistant for Professor A. E. Dick Howard. Outside of the classroom, Fore interned for U.S. District Court Judge John Antoon II of the Middle District of Florida, served as a legal fellow in the Counsel's Office for the governor of Virginia, and represented the Law School on the softball field as a member of the Men's Blue team.

He received his undergraduate degree in public policy studies and biology from Duke University. Before entering the Law School, Fore taught English with WorldTeach in the Republic of the Marshall Islands.

The return to Charlottesville will be something of a homecoming for both Fore and his wife, Ashley (Rubinstein) Fore, who is also a University of Virginia alum. She received her master's degree in nursing in 2010.