About Tom

About Tom

Biography


Resume and CV

[email protected]

Whittier, CA

Tom is an experienced attorney, educator, and writer. Before founding Thomas Holm Legal Consulting LLC, Tom served for nearly two decades as director and instructor for the Lawyering Skills Clinical Program at UCLA School of Law. He has fifteen years’ experience teaching advanced writing techniques at top law firms, public interest legal organizations, and in MCLE programs. He also provides individual coaching and critiquing services for attorneys seeking to improve their written advocacy, including working with firms, corporations, and other employers who want to give their attorneys additional writing support.


Tom attended the University of Minnesota School of Law, where he graduated magna cum laude and was selected for Order of the Coif. He served as Notes and Comments editor for the University of Minnesota Law Review and received the ABA’s Edward J. Devitt Scholarship for excellence in trial advocacy. He clerked for the Honorable Arthur L. Alarcon of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. After his clerkship, Tom practiced at the firm of Morrison & Foerster, a leading global law firm.


Tom then worked for nineteen years as director and instructor for the Lawyering Skills Clinical Program at UCLA School of Law. As director, Tom developed and significantly revised the Program’s curriculum, created teaching materials, and trained faculty regarding effective teaching and critiquing methods. In Lawyering Skills, Tom taught first-year law students practice-oriented legal analysis, legal writing, legal research, and other clinical skills. He also taught the Writing Advisor Seminar, an advanced legal writing and editing course associated with the Lawyering Skills Clinical Program. And he co-created and taught an academic success class titled “Introduction to Legal Analysis,” a legal methods course for incoming 1L students that provided an immersive experience in the process of legal argument.


Tom received the Rutter Award for Excellence in Teaching, the highest teaching honor for professors at UCLA School of Law. After receiving his Rutter Award, Tom authored A Journey of Faith, Love, and Teaching, a modified and expanded essay version of his Rutter Award speech that was published by the UCLA Law Review Discourse. Tom also received UCLA’s Distinguished Teaching Award, a university-wide honor.


Tom co-authored Cracking the Case Method: Legal Analysis for Law School Success, a respected guide for academic success in law school.  Cracking the Case Method helps students navigate often opaque law school pedagogy to develop the analytical skills and learning strategies necessary to excel on law school exams.  Cracking the Case Method is assigned reading in two top tier law schools and recommended reading in several other highly-rated law schools.


Tom serves as a volunteer attorney for the L.A. County Bar Association’s Domestic Violence Project, helping victims of domestic violence and elder abuse obtain restraining orders against their abusers. And he offers his writing programs pro bono to public interest legal organizations. He also volunteers at his alma mater, Carleton College, teaching and mentoring students in Carleton’s pre-law program.

Biography


Resume and CV

(323) 868-8640

[email protected]

Los Angeles, CA

Tom is an experienced attorney, educator, and writer. Before founding Thomas Holm Legal Consulting LLC, Tom served for nearly two decades as director and instructor for the Lawyering Skills Clinical Program at UCLA School of Law. He has fifteen years’ experience teaching advanced writing techniques at top law firms, public interest legal organizations, and in MCLE programs. He also provides individual coaching and critiquing services for attorneys seeking to improve their written advocacy, including working with firms, corporations, and other employers who want to give their attorneys additional writing support.


Tom attended the University of Minnesota School of Law, where he graduated magna cum laude and was selected for Order of the Coif. He served as Notes and Comments editor for the University of Minnesota Law Review and received the ABA’s Edward J. Devitt Scholarship for excellence in trial advocacy. He clerked for the Honorable Arthur L. Alarcon of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. After his clerkship, Tom practiced at the firm of Morrison & Foerster, a leading global law firm.


Tom then worked for nineteen years as director and instructor for the Lawyering Skills Clinical Program at UCLA School of Law. As director, Tom developed and significantly revised the Program’s curriculum, created teaching materials, and trained faculty regarding effective teaching and critiquing methods. In Lawyering Skills, Tom taught first-year law students practice-oriented legal analysis, legal writing, legal research, and other clinical skills. He also taught the Writing Advisor Seminar, an advanced legal writing and editing course associated with the Lawyering Skills Clinical Program. And he co-created and taught an academic success class titled “Introduction to Legal Analysis,” a legal methods course for incoming 1L students that provided an immersive experience in the process of legal argument.


Tom received the Rutter Award for Excellence in Teaching, the highest teaching honor for professors at UCLA School of Law. After receiving his Rutter Award, Tom authored A Journey of Faith, Love, and Teaching, a modified and expanded essay version of his Rutter Award speech that was published by the UCLA Law Review Discourse. Tom also received UCLA’s Distinguished Teaching Award, a university-wide honor.


Tom co-authored Cracking the Case Method: Legal Analysis for Law School Success, a respected guide for academic success in law school.  Cracking the Case Method helps students navigate often opaque law school pedagogy to develop the analytical skills and learning strategies necessary to excel on law school exams.  Cracking the Case Method is assigned reading in two top tier law schools and recommended reading in several other highly-rated law schools.


Tom serves as a volunteer attorney for the L.A. County Bar Association’s Domestic Violence Project, helping victims of domestic violence and elder abuse obtain restraining orders against their abusers. And he offers his writing programs pro bono to public interest legal organizations. He also volunteers at his alma mater, Carleton College, teaching and mentoring students in Carleton’s pre-law program.

Tom is a/an


Resume and CV

(323) 868-8640

[email protected]

Los Angeles, CA

Tom received the Rutter Award for Excellence in Teaching, the highest teaching honor for professors at UCLA School of Law. Regarding his Rutter Award, Tom authored A Journey of Faith, Love, and Teaching, a modified and expanded essay version of his Rutter Award speech that was published by the UCLA Law Review. Tom also received UCLA’s Distinguished Teaching Award, a University-wide honor.


Tom co-authored Cracking the Case Method: Legal Analysis for Law School Success, a respected guide for academic success in law school. Cracking the Case Method helps students navigate often opaque law school pedagogy to develop the analytical skills and learning strategies necessary to excel on law school exams. Cracking the Case Method is assigned reading in two top tier law schools and recommended reading in several other highly rated law schools.


Tom attended the University of Minnesota School of Law, where he graduated magna cum laude and was selected for Order of the Coif. He served as Notes and Comments editor for the University of Minnesota Law Review, and received the ABA’s Edward J. Devitt Scholarship for excellence in trial advocacy. He clerked for the Honorable Arthur L. Alarcon of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. After his clerkship, Tom worked as an attorney at the firm of Morrison & Foerster, a leading global law firm. Tom is a member of the California Bar.

Selected Presentations

  • Convincing the Court: Writing Compelling Introductions and Statements of Fact

    Bird|Marella P.C., Los Angeles, California (March 13, 2016).

  • Legal Education Reform: Can LRW Faculty Take the Lead? (with Lindsay Sturges Saffouri)

    Association of Legal Writing Directors Conference, University of Memphis Cecil C. Humphreys School of Law, Memphis, Tennessee (June 5, 2015).

  • Law 101: Introduction to Legal Analysis – A Progress Report on the First Segment of UCLA School of Law’s 1L Curricular Reform

    Panelist. University of California, Los Angeles, School of Law, Los Angeles, California (August 25, 2014).

  • What (Some of) the Best (UCLA) Law Teachers Do

    Panelist. University of California, Los Angeles, School of Law, Los Angeles, California (February 10, 2014).

  • Cracking the Case Method: Using Lawyering Skills Teaching Methodology In Orientation Courses

    Association of Legal Writing Directors Conference, Marquette University Law School, Milwaukee, Wisconsin (June 27, 2013).

  • In Defense of the Objective Memo: Advancing Core Analytical Skills through Detailed Objective Analysis (with Amy Flynn)

    Legal Writing Institute, One-day Workshop ,University of California, Berkeley, School of Law, Berkeley, California (December 7, 2012).

  • Writing Problems: Reflections from the “Pros”

    Panelist. Legal Writing Institute, One-day Workshop, Loyola Law School, Los Angeles, California (December 2, 2011).

  • Translating Platitudes: Analytical Frameworks for New Practitioners (with Ezra Ross)

    Legal Writing Institute, Western Regional Legal Writing Conference, San Francisco, California (August 26, 2011).