Coleen Miller Barger
Communicator Advocating Strong Analysis and Reasoning
Like all professors, Bowen School of Law Associate Professor Coleen Barger provides tools for her students to use in their future careers. Barger’s tools, however, are also designed to improve those pupils’ skills in other classes. By teaching her students to read cases more quickly and effectively, as well as how to communicate clearly the analysis and resolution of legal issues, she prepares her students to shine as problem solvers in and out of the courtroom.
Barger imparts an appreciation for hard work, according to her students. She instills the work ethic and training necessary to be able to communicate effectively in a legal environment.
“Lawyers write every day, and every lawyer has to communicate with clients, other lawyers and the court,” Barger said. “It is rewarding to see my students grow and mature, and I know I’m helping them be better lawyers and more professional communicators.”
When they enter the workplace, students from the School of Law will compete against new graduates from all over the country. Barger not only integrates two of her own websites into her curriculum, she was also one of the first legal educators to use the West Education Network, an online course management and authoring tool. By integrating technology in her critical Reasoning, Writing and Advocacy class, Barger helps her students and other professors become more effective communicators at all levels.
Barger earned her bachelor of arts degree in French from UALR and earned her juris doctor degree at the UALR Bowen School of Law. She is a two-time winner of the Arkansas Bar Foundation’s Writing Excellence Award and is a member of the American Bar Association, the Arkansas Bar Association, the American Association of Law Schools, and the Association of Legal Writing Directors. She was also on the board of directors for the Association of Legal Writing Directors and the Legal Writing Institute.