Inspired by the aha moments

Stark, who joins the UB School of Law faculty this fall, is working on a different level entirely now, as a lecturer in the Legal Analysis, Writing and Research (LAWR) program. But he’s still loving the aha moments that come with teaching.

“I operate on the hope that just about anyone can learn the deductive format that lawyers often write in,” he says. “I learned the most in law school and in practice from my peers, and from mentors who were well-organized. I would compare understanding the organization of legal writing to those times in grade school where you’re learning a new method of math and all of a sudden one day it clicks.”

Stark, whose J.D. is from Creighton University School of Law in Omaha, cum laude, won awards for his legal writing in law school and served on the Creighton Law Review. After clerking in U.S. District Court and a period in private practice, he most recently taught at his law school alma mater, including courses on the federal court system and legal research and writing. He also taught as an adjunct at the University of Nebraska and at Bellevue University, also in Nebraska, and held several roles with the U.S. District Court in Omaha. A native of Utah, he studied economics at the University of Utah. While there, he ran track at the Division I level.

It was while he was in private practice, Stark says, that he discovered his love for teaching. “One of my favorite parts of practice was to do training, either with clients or associates or presenting CLEs,” he says. “That’s where the itch started; I just really wanted to teach. I especially loved teaching lawyering skills and legal writing, either to classrooms or working with other attorneys and interns in my office.”

Stark is building a curriculum for his new LAWR classes, with an emphasis on personal attention. “One of the most important settings we have for teaching is one-on-one conferences or small groups,” he says. Throughout the pandemic, “I’ve found that there were a lot of ways that having those meetings over Zoom, or even just being available to students over Zoom, was very effective. That process of helping the student individually, looking together at a piece of writing on screen, has the potential to be even more collaborative than if you’re sitting next to them.”

Beyond the nuts and bolts, Stark sees the potential to influence his students’ professional development—to build their character as lawyers. He was active in Creighton’s moot court programs, for instance, and puts special emphasis on going out into the community for education and service experience. “Moot court and clinical experiences are so valuable to the students,” he says, “not just to see what the real world is like, but students gain so much competence and confidence. There’s a lot to learn from those experiences.”

Likewise, he says, “as officers of the court we have a certain duty to teach, and so many of our civic duties as citizens cross the law or have a foundation in the law. We need to show that we can be relied upon to teach accurate principles.”

Growing out of his U.S. District Court experience, Stark focuses his scholarly work on issues in the federal courts, and on civil procedure. “There are a lot of places where there might be access-to-justice issues that collide very closely with civil procedure issues,” he says. “For example, a lot of districts in the country require a very meticulous and detailed statement of facts when you’re moving for summary judgment. Some of these rules are so detailed and complex that small practitioners or individuals representing themselves are at a huge disadvantage just to comply with the rules. I like to be able to explore those kinds of issues in an academic context.”

In addition to the professional challenge, Stark says, moving to Western New York with his young family has an exciting benefit for his children: they have cousins just down the Thruway in the Rochester area.