- Lecturer in Law
- Room 16, Crown Quadrangle
Biography
Beth (Muffie) McLellan came to Stanford in 1995 as a Fellow in the 1L Legal Research and Writing Program, after two years of teaching first-year legal analysis, research, writing, and advocacy at Santa Clara Law School. While at Stanford, she also co-taught upper-division moot court at Santa Clara for one semester. After leaving Stanford in 1997, she returned in 2002 to teach LRW for four years. From 2006 to 2014, Muffie taught Advanced Legal Writing for American Practice. She also taught Introduction to American Law for five years and worked individually with JDs and international graduate students on legal writing. She taught Federal Litigation from 2015 to 2019. In 2017 she co-authored the fifth edition of Legal Writing and Analysis in a Nutshell with Lynn Bahrych and Jeanne Merino, the former Director of Stanford’s Legal Writing Program. Muffie continues to assist in curriculum development and to coach students individually on legal writing.
Muffie graduated from Stanford in 1972, receiving a B.A. in Art History, with distinction, and completing the requirements of the Humanities Honors Program. Her senior thesis analyzed selected works of Francisco Goya. She received a J.D., summa cum laude, from Santa Clara Law School in l979.
Muffie clerked for Justice Sidney Feinberg of the California Court of Appeal’s First District in San Francisco, and then served as an Assistant City Attorney in Albuquerque, New Mexico where she specialized in public property and land-use matters. She represented the City in both the state and federal courts at the trial and appellate levels, and counseled various city clients, including the Albuquerque International Airport, the Planning Department, and the Cultural Services Department, which included a museum, a theater, and a zoo. She is currently an active member of the California Bar and an inactive member of the New Mexico Bar.
Education
- BA, Stanford University, 1972
- JD (summa cum laude), Santa Clara University School of Law, 1979