College of Law

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Marilyn Preston has been a Professor of Legal Research and Writing at The University of Toledo College of Law since 1995. Professor Preston is a graduate of Emory University (B.A.) and the University of California, Hastings (J.D.).

Prior to joining the faculty, Professor Preston taught legal research and writing at Wayne State University Law School from 1989-95. She also has served as judicial law clerk to Chief Justice G. Mennen Williams of the Michigan Supreme Court, worked at the prehearing division of the Michigan Court of Appeals, and was in-house counsel in the legal department of the Bank of America in San Francisco, California.

Professor Preston has been active in a number of professional and civic organizations, including the Michigan Appellate Assigned Counsel System, and was appointed to the State Bar of Michigan Committee of Libraries, Legal Research, and Legal Publications. She is a member of the Michigan and California Bar Associations, the American Bar Association and the Legal Writing Institute. Professor Preston presented at the Legal Writing Institute (LWI) Conference in Chicago, Ill. in the summer of 1994, “A How-To Manual on Drafting Problems for Research and Non-Research Legal Writing Assignments,” and co-presented at the 1998 LWI Conference in Ann Arbor, MI about the evolution and development of the University of Toledo’s Legal Writing Program. She was also part of a panel presentation at the 2000 LWI Conference in Seattle, WA on creating an Advanced Legal Writing course and was on a panel with Joseph Kimble and Mary Beth Beazley at the 2004 Great Lakes Legal Writing Consortium Conference at Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI. Professor Preston was the 2004 recipient of an Association of Legal Writing Directors (ALWD) Scholarship Research Grant for her proposal on teaching appellate mediation as part of an advanced appellate advocacy course.

Professor Preston is the Director of the Toledo site for the Law and Leadership Institute (LLI), a pipeline program supported by the Ohio Supreme Court and other organizations to promote diversity in the legal profession. LLI is a five week summer institute and year long program starting in the ninth grade. In addition, Professor Preston has directed the law segment of the University of Toledo Governor's Institute for Gifted and Talented High School Students and the High School Minority Summer Institute, both one week programs.

Besides teaching first year legal research and writing, Professor Preston created and teaches several upper level courses: Writing for Moot Court and Appellate Advocacy Seminar, which are focused on appellate brief writing and oral advocacy, and Practice Preparation, a course geared for bar exam preparation.

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Publications

Beyond the Basics: Practical Information for Attorneys on the Internet, 84 Michigan Bar Journal 56 (October 2005) [with Dianne Zyskowski]

Discovery and Administrative Due Process: A Balance Between an Accused's Right to Discovery and Administrative Efficiency, 8 Hastings Const. L.Q. 645 (1981)