Before founding Rosky Legal Education in 2003, Dianne taught legal writing and other lawyering skills in the Lawyering Program at New York University School of Law. Dianne is now an Adjunct Professor at NYU School of Law, where she teaches Legal English and U.S. Law to international LL.M. students.
Dianne has practiced commercial litigation at two leading New York firms: Sullivan & Cromwell and Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison. At Sullivan & Cromwell, she was selected as the firm’s Pro Bono Fellow to litigate prisoners’ federal civil rights actions. Dianne is a magna cum laude graduate of Harvard Law School, where she was an Editor of the Harvard Law Review. She served as a law clerk to the Honorable Robert W. Sweet of the Southern District of New York.
Before founding Rosky Legal Education in 2003, Dianne taught legal writing and other lawyering skills in the Lawyering Program at New York University School of Law. Dianne is now an Adjunct Professor at NYU School of Law, where she teaches Legal English and U.S. Law to international LL.M. students.
Dianne has practiced commercial litigation at two leading New York firms: Sullivan & Cromwell and Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison. At Sullivan & Cromwell, she was selected as the firm’s Pro Bono Fellow to litigate prisoners federal civil rights actions. Dianne is a magna cum laude graduate of Harvard Law School, where she was an Editor of the Harvard Law Review. She served as a law clerk to the Honorable Robert W. Sweet of the Southern District of New York.
Before law school, Dianne spent a year in Thailand studying women’s handicrafts as a Thomas J. Watson fellow. She has also spent several years traveling and working in France, Indonesia, Australia, and New Zealand.
Dianne has long been enamored with words and language. Before law school, she was an Editorial Assistant at Merriam-Webster, selecting and defining new dictionary entries. Dianne is responsible for putting carb and cash cow in the dictionary.
Our Valuable Team Members
Heidi Gilchrist
J.D. Legal Writing
Heidi is an experienced attorney, legal-writing teacher, and writer. She is a Lecturer-in-Law at Columbia Law School, where she teaches legal writing as part of the required Legal Practice Workshop. She also works as a Managing Editor at Wordsworth Publishing, writing and editing legal publications including American Jurisprudence, American Law Reports, and American Law of Torts.
Heidi practiced law at Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton in New York, where she focused on securities law and international law. She left private practice to serve in the federal government as an analyst and liaison to the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force in New York City.
Heidi served as a law clerk to the Honorable Judge Patterson in the Southern District of New York. She received her J.D. from Columbia Law School, where she was a Kent Scholar and an Articles/Submissions Editor on the Journal of Transnational Law.
Heidi’s interest in languages dates back to her undergraduate studies at Yale University, where she graduated cum laude with Distinction in Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations. After college, Heidi spent a year as a Fulbright Scholar in Damascus, Syria.
Margret Surovell, M.F.A.
Accent-Reduction & Speech Instructor
Margret Surovell is an experienced teacher of verbal presentation skills. Margret has provided speech coaching to professionals at major law firms and corporations, including Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom LLP; Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP; Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP; Patterson Belknap Webb & Tyler; American Express; Omnicom; and Merrill Lynch. She is currently teaching voice and speech at New York School of Film and Television, The Studio New York, and ACTeen. She has also taught voice and speech at Yale Summer Session, Rutgers University, Sarah Lawrence College, and the University of Georgia.
Margret studied voice and speech at Yale University, as an intern at the Yale School of Drama. She earned her B.A. from Temple University, where she studied speech and dialects for the actor. In 2005, she earned an M.F.A. in Acting from the University of Georgia, where she also studied speech and dialects. Margret is a certified associate teacher of Fitzmaurice Voicework.clerk for the Honorable Robert D. Sack of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.
Kristi Weiner
J.D. Legal Writing
Kristi Weiner is a seasoned litigation and regulatory attorney with extensive experience training junior associates in legal writing and other lawyering skills. She spent eight years practicing at Shearman & Sterling LLP and Cahill Gordon & Reindel LLP, where she primarily worked on regulatory and internal investigations, as well as enforcement matters involving U.S. and global regulators.
As a senior associate, Kristi was responsible for training teams of junior attorneys and supervising the development of their legal writing work, including effective written communication with clients, case teams, associates, and partners. Kristi graduated magna cum laude from New York Law School and served as an editor on the Law Review, which also published her work. Kristi earned her B.A. from the University of Delaware, where she worked as a Writing Fellow in the school’s Honors Program and assisted peers in developing writing skills through personalized tutoring. Kristi focused on each student’s individual needs, helping to develop proficiency in organization, grammar, content, transitioning, and drafting.
Kristi is a member of the New York bar.
Lara Pennington, J.D.
Legal Writing Coach
Since 2004, Lara Pennington has been an Adjunct Professor of legal writing and appellate advocacy at Seton Hall University School of Law in Newark, New Jersey. Lara is also an adjunct faculty member at the University of Pennsylvania Law School, where she teaches U.S. Legal Research and Writing to foreign lawyers in the International LL.M program.
Before starting her teaching career, Lara spent eight years in private practice, at Kelley Drye & Warren LLP in New York and Dillon, Bitar & Luther, LLC in Morristown, New Jersey, specializing in general litigation matters at both the trial and appellate levels.
Lara earned her J.D. with high honors from Chicago-Kent College of Law in 1996, where she was elected to the Order of the Coif. She earned her A.B. in psychology, magna cum laude, from Lafayette College in 1989. She is admitted to the bar of New Jersey.
Email Lara: lara.pennington@roskylegaled.com