Professor of Legal Writing, Director of Street Law
Program. B.A., Wellesley College (magna cum laude); J.D.,
Georgetown University Law Center (cum laude).
Before joining the law faculty in 2003, Professor Montana was a
litigation associate at the New York office of Latham &
Watkins. While at Latham & Watkins, Professor Montana
practiced complex civil litigation, concentrating on intellectual
property matters. She also committed considerable time to pro
bono work, including representing low-income battered women in
custody, child support, and divorce proceedings. Professor
Montana was also a member of the firm’s Paralegal Committee, which
hired, supervised, and trained
paralegals.
Professor Montana has also volunteered as a law teacher to
seventh-grade students at the Mott Hall School, an intermediate
school located in Harlem, New York. There,
she taught a practical law class designed to develop the
students’ problem solving, writing, and reading skills through
instruction of legal principles in the areas of criminal, tort,
family, and individual rights law.
In addition to her teaching at St. John’s, Professor Montana was
a visiting professor at Hofstra University School of Law during the
summer 2006, where she taught Legal Writing and
Research. She was also an adjunct professor in the
Legal Studies Department at Montclair State University in
Montclair, New Jersey in 2005 and 2006. There, she taught the
courses Foundations of Legal Research, Wills, Trusts
& Probate Law, and Legal
Writing.
At St. John's, Professor Montana currently teaches
Legal Analysis & Writing, Legal Analysis,
Research and Writing, and Federal Civil Practice
Seminar. She is also the founder and Director of the
current Street Law
Program. She teaches the Street Law: Legal Education
in the Community Seminar and oversees the Street
Law: Legal Education in the Community Placement. In
that program, law students teach a practical law course to high
school students in Queens, New York. While serving the Queens
community, law students develop practical legal knowledge,
professional responsibility, and important lawyering skills, such
as the ability to organize complex legal ideas and communicate them
effectively to an audience of non- lawyers.
In addition to those courses, Professor Montana has previously
taught the Summer Clinical Externship Seminar,
Introduction to the Law and Legal Profession, as well as
Legal Skills in the Summer Institute Program.
Professor Montana is a member of Phi Beta Kappa. She is
also a member of the New York, Connecticut, and Massachusetts Bar
Associations.