Areas of Expertise
- Legal Writing
About Melody Daily
Melody Richardson Daily teaches Legal Research & Writing, Advocacy & Research, Education Law, and Client Interviewing & Counseling. She also provides one-on-one writing instruction to law students through the Mizzou Law Writing Center.
As the Externship Director for 19 years, Daily supervised more than 500 law student externs who provided 50,000 hours of unpaid work for judges, federal and state government agencies, public defenders, prosecuting attorneys, and public interest organizations. She also taught six summer programs for CLEO (Council on Legal Education Opportunity), which were hosted by the Law School.
She has received the Loyd E. Roberts Memorial Prize in the Administration of Justice; the Spurgeon Smithson Award for outstanding contributions to the legal profession by members of Missouri Bar; Blackwell Sanders Peper Martin Distinguished Faculty Achievement Award; the Disability Mentoring Award; the Gold Chalk Award for Excellence in Professional Student Education, Training and Development; and the Board of Advocates Faculty Achievement Award.
Daily has served on the Editorial Board of Legal Communication and Rhetoric: J ALWDsince 2005. She is an active member of the Legal Writing Institute and the Association of Legal Writing Directors. She regularly presents programs on legal writing at regional and national conferences.
Daily received her BA in English, her MA in English, and her JD from Missouri University. Before attending law school, she taught English composition to high school and university students. She practiced law in Glasgow, Missouri.
Latest Publications from Melody Daily
- Damages as Narrative
- Damages: Using a Case Study to Teach Law, Dispute Resolution, and Lawyering (symposium) (with Chris Guthrie and Leonard L. Riskin)
- Imagine [A Response to “A Liberal Education in Law: Engaging the Imagination Through Research and Writing Beyond the Curriculum” By: Carol M. Parker]
- Liberty and Justice : The Story of the Kansas City Metropolitan Bar Association
- When the Best Defense is No Defense: The Future of State-of-the-Art Evidence in Product Liability Actions in Missouri