W&L Law Hosts Inaugural Writing Retreat Ten law professors from schools across the country participated in the event to advance scholarship covering private law topics.

By Law Communications
June 29, 2026

The Frances Lewis Law Center at Washington and Lee University School of Law welcomed an exceptional group of scholars for the inaugural Blue Mountain Writing Retreat. Ten law professors from schools across the country participated in the event to advance scholarship covering private law topics.

Kish Parella, James P. Morefield Professor of Law at W&L, helped organize and acted as co-host for the Retreat along with Professor Alexi Pfeffer-Gillett. The Retreat was held at the House Mountain Inn, located on a private, 1000-acre preserve in the mountains west of Lexington, Virginia. Parella said the location offered an ideal setting for intensive academic writing, meaningful peer engagement, and the cultivation of long-term professional relationships among the participating scholars.

“The Retreat exceeded our wildest hopes,” said Parella. “We brought scholars from across the country here so that they could learn what is special about W&L Law. They left inspired and enthusiastic about this place, its natural beauty and the community found here. Each of them was grateful for the opportunity to have spent some time here with us.”

The daily schedule for the four-day retreat included three dedicated writing blocks for scholars to develop their projects. Each day also featured opportunities to focus on wellness, including a nature walk led by Law Dean Melanie Wilson. In addition to events designed to build community, Parella led group sessions with guest speakers, featuring playwright William Duell and poet Greg Shaw, to explore the creative process across academic disciplines.  Parella invited these speakers to help legal academics grapple with the challenges and joys that all writers encounter, such as finding and cultivating new ideas and structuring time to write regularly. Parella teaches a course examining the lessons that legal professionals can learn from artists and she wanted to incorporate those insights into the Retreat experience.

The visiting faculty were uniformly positive about their experience at the Retreat and the space it provided for them to advance their work and build connections in the legal education community. Lauren Valastro, assistant professor of law at Texas Tech, ranked the gathering among best she has attended.

“The thoughtful curation of the schedule, from structured free time for writing and reflection to insightful conversations with local artists and our colleagues, perfectly met our need to advance our work and to be inspired,” said Valastro.

Sarah Lorr, associate professor at the University of Maryland, noted the great value derived from being in conversation with legal scholars from a variety of career stages.

“I found the range of conversations supportive and also substantively significant,” said Lorr. “I left with real ideas about how to expand and deepen my writing practice and how to think creatively within the constraints of the law review form.”

This inaugural Retreat focused on private-law scholarship, including such fields as Business Law, Family Law, Contracts, and Antitrust. The law schools at Columbia, Duke, Temple, Texas A&M, Maryland, Texas Tech, Georgia, Mississippi, and Chicago-Kent were represented at the gathering. Organizers plan to focus next year’s retreat on public law.

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