Mark Cooney is a Professor at Western Michigan University Cooley Law School, where he chairs the Research & Writing Department. He is editor in chief of The Scribes Journal of Legal Writing and has served as a plain-language consultant on the Michigan Supreme Court’s Model Criminal Jury Instructions Committee and the State Bar’s Standard Criminal Jury Instructions Committee. Professor Cooney’s book,Sketches on Legal Style, collects his “Plain Language” columns from the Michigan Bar Journal. His articles on legal writing have also appeared in The Scribes Journal, Student Lawyer, and TRIAL magazine. Before teaching, Professor Cooney spent ten years in private practice and chaired the State Bar’s Appellate Practice Section.