David Thomson

David Thomson is the author of Law School 2.0: Legal Education for a Digital Age, and Director of the Lawyering Process Program at the University of Denver, Sturm College of Law.

David Thomson joined the Sturm College of Law as a member of the faculty in 2003, but he had taught two courses over six years at DU Law as an adjunct professor in the 1990s, and already had extensive experience as a teacher before that. He practiced law for 20 years, starting at Patterson, Belknap, Webb & Tyler in New York City. After several years in New York, he moved to the Environmental Enforcement Section of the Land & Natural Resources Division at the U.S. Department of Justice in Washington, where he litigated pollution cases in federal courts all over the country for the EPA. David moved to Denver in 1990 to join the firm of Rothgerber, Johnson & Lyons, where he practiced environmental and construction litigation. Later, he joined a startup boutique litigation firm, which became known as Judson Thomson, LLC. While there, he litigated a variety of cases, including employment, construction and Native American rights matters. For two years, he represented the Northern Arapahoe tribe in a large tribal trust fund case against the United States.

The first time David taught the legal writing course was at Cardozo Law School in New York over 20 years ago. More recently, he taught the course as a member of the adjunct faculty at DU Law between 1991 and 1997. During that time, he also taught a course in pretrial litigation. Since 2003, David has been a member of the Lawyering Process faculty at DU, where he has taught two sections of LP, as well as developed four other courses that he teaches. The other courses he teaches are Discovery Practicum, Administrative Law, and two courses online for the MSLA program.

David is well known for his expertise in using technology in teaching, and has presented widely across the country on this topic over the last few years. He is a member of the LWI and ALWD, and chairs the Website Committee and the Idea Bank 2.0 Committee for the LWI and is on the Teaching Methods Committee of the ALWD. He is also an assistant editor of the Journal of the LWI. In 2007, David was invited to join the LexisNexis Law School Advisory Board, and he is also a member of the LexisNexis Publications Advisory Board. In connection with his work on those two boards, he consults with Lexis about the future of law school casebooks. David is the author of Law School 2.0: Legal Education for a Digital Age (LexisNexis/Matthew Bender 2009), which this blog supplements.

In 2008, David was appointed Director of the Lawyering Process Program at the Sturm College of Law.