Alexa Z. Chew
Clinical Professor of Law

Areas of Expertise
- Legal Education
- Legal Research
- Legal Writing
Biography
Alexa Chew is a Clinical Associate Professor of Law at the University of North Carolina School of Law. She joined the faculty in 2012. She teaches Research, Reasoning, Writing, and Advocacy I and II; Foundations in U.S. Common Law; and Writing for Practice. She is the author of “The Complete Legal Writer” (a textbook, with Katie Rose Guest Pryal) and three articles about legal citation: “Citation Literacy,” “Stylish Legal Citation,” and “Citation Stickiness” (with Kevin Bennardo). She frequently presents her work at legal writing conferences. In 2015, UNC Law awarded her the Robert G. Byrd Award for Excellence and Creativity in Teaching. And in 2017, UNC Law awarded her the Charles E. Daye Award for Excellence in Faculty Service.
Professor Chew earned her A.B. with honors from Princeton University in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. She graduated from the Duke University School of Law, where she was a member of the Duke Law Journal and the Asian Law Students Association. Following law school, she practiced corporate law in Boston at Bingham McCutchen LLP. She later returned to North Carolina as a law clerk for the Honorable Rick Elmore at the North Carolina Court of Appeals, where she served for six years. Before joining the faculty at UNC, she taught Legal Research and Writing at Campbell University School of Law. Professor Chew is licensed to practice law in North Carolina and Massachusetts.
Education
- J.D., Duke University (2005)
- A.B. (cum laude), Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, Princeton University (2001)
Selected Publications
Citation Stickiness, 20 J. APP. PRAC. & PROCESS 61 (K. Bennardo & A. Chew), (2019).
Westlaw | Lexis/Nexis | SSRN | Hein | BEPress
THE COMPLETE BAR WRITER (A. Chew & K. Pryal) (Carolina Acad. Press, 2020).
KF303 .C44 2020
THE COMPLETE LEGAL WRITER (A. Chew & K. Pryal) (Carolina Acad. Press) (2nd ed., 2020).
KF250 .C46 2020
Stylish Legal Citation, 71 ARK. L. REV. 823 (2019).
Westlaw | Lexis/Nexis | SSRN | Hein | BEPress
Citation Literacy, 70 ARK. L. REV. 869 (2018).
Westlaw | Lexis/Nexis | SSRN | Hein | BEPress
Border-Crossing: Genre Discovery and the Portability of Legal Writing Instruction (A. Chew and C. Smith), 25 PERSP.: TEACHING LEGAL RES. & WRITING 8 (2016).
Westlaw | Document Link