Adams, Cynthia M.

Cynthia M. Adams is a Clinical Professor of Law at Indiana University School of Law - Indianapolis. She has worked with non-native English-speaking (ESL) law students for many years and has taught law courses in contracts, contract drafting, and legal writing to ESL LL.M. students. For over twenty years Professor Adams has taught law courses, including courses in advanced contract drafting, basic drafting, legal writing, civil procedure, trusts and estates, and legal process. She directs clinical corporate externships with major Indianapolis-based corporations. Before joining the law school faculty, Professor Adams practiced law at an Indianapolis firm; her practice focused on acquisitions and mergers, commercial loans, general business law, and trusts and estates. She works on the Law School’s international exchange program, serving as a program director and developer of exchange programs in Latin America. In 2008, Professor Adams coauthored a book entitled The International Lawyer’s Guide to Legal Analysis and Communication in the United States, which teaches lawyering communication skills to ESL law students. She was the 2009 Chair of the American Association of Law Schools’ Section on Graduate Programs for Foreign Lawyers and is the Chair of the Legal Writing Institute’s Committee on Global Legal Writing Skills/International Outreach. She also manages a listserv on teaching ESL law students with worldwide membership. At national and international conferences, Professor Adams has made numerous presentations related to teaching contracts and contract drafting to ESL law students. Professor Adams has been invited by Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China, to teach a course in contract drafting at its law school in 2010. Professor Adams is co-authoring a book with Peter K. Cramer (her co-presenter at this conference) tentatively entitled Drafting International Contracts in Legal English.