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Professor Joan Ruhtenberg, ’80, a magna cum laude graduate of IU McKinney, retired from her position as director of the Legal Analysis, Research, and Communication (LARC) program at the end of the spring 2014 semester.

Ruhtenberg became the LARC director at IU McKinney in 1981, after serving as a legal writing instructor during the 1980-1981 academic year. Under Ruhtenberg’s leadership, IU McKinney’s LARC program grew to become recognized nationally for its excellence; it has been ranked in the top 10 legal writing programs nationally for six consecutive years.

Part of what made that possible, Ruhtenberg said, was the decision years ago to enlarge the faculty so that legal writing classes could be made smaller, and therefore more effective.

Ruhtenberg graduated with honors from the Mississippi University for Women with a bachelor of arts in English, then took part in studies in Latin languages and literature at the University of Colorado. She did graduate studies in composition and rhetoric at the College of William and Mary, and graduate studies in English at IUPUI before enrolling at IU McKinney. She served as an articles editor for the Indiana Law Review during law school.

She plans to devote time to “reading all those books I’ve been meaning to get to over the years,” Ruhtenberg said, in addition to writing poetry, and gardening.

“Joan’s expertise and guidance of the LARC program at IU McKinney has been invaluable to the school,” said Dean Andy Klein. “The strength of our legal research and writing program is widely known, and Joan has been an integral part of its success.  We will miss her, but know that the framework she helped build will help keep the program strong going forward.”