John Schunk joined the Santa Clara Law faculty in 1996. He served as the acting director of Santa Clara’s Legal Analysis, Research, and Writing program and as the faculty advisor to its Honors Moot Court Board from 2001-2004.
Prior to beginning his teaching career, Schunk served as a panel attorney for the Sixth District Appellate Program from 1991-2000, accepting appointments to represent indigent criminal defendants before California’s Sixth District Court of Appeal. In 1991, Schunk opened his own law practice in Santa Clara County. He practiced trial and appellate litigation, including civil and criminal appeals and writs, wrongful termination claims, real property issues, and soil and groundwater cost-recovery actions. After graduating from law school, Schunk joined Ball, Hunt, Hart, Brown & Baerwitz (now known as Carlsmith Ball) in Southern California as an associate attorney in its litigation department, where his practice focused on business and real property litigation.
J.D., magna cum laude, University of California Hastings College of the Law, 1988
B.A., Saint Mary’s College of California, 1985
Articles
Can Legal Writing Programs Benefit from Evaluating Student Writing Using Single-Submission, Semester-Ending, Standardized, Performance-Type Assignments?, 29 Hamline Law Review 307-335 (2006) | Link to Digital Commons | Link to Full Text
Other Articles
Simultaneous Catches and Infield Flies: Legal Writing Techniques in Sportswriting, 22 Perspectives: Teaching Legal Research and Writing 42-45 (2013) | Link to Digital Commons
"Be the Ball": Caddyshack's Ultimate Legal Writing Tip, 20 Perspectives: Teaching Legal Research and Writing 112 (2012)
What Can Legal Writing Students Learn from Watching Emeril Live?, 14 Perspectives: Teaching Legal Research and Writing 81-82 (2006)
A Legal Writing Lesson from Brown v. Board of Education, 19 The Second Draft 7 (Dec. 2004)
Reviewing Student Papers: Should the "Broken Windows" Theory Apply?, 13 Perspectives: Teaching Legal Research and Writing 1-4 (2004)
Winning and Losing with the 3-Point Shot, 63 Scholastic Coach 70 (Jan. 1994)
Rewriting Roe into Statute, The Recorder 8 (January 26, 1993)