Joseph Hummel

Joseph Hummel joined the College of Law as an Assistant Professor of Law in 2021. He teaches first-year and upper-level legal writing courses.

Professor Hummel graduated from the Southern Methodist University Dedman School of Law in 2008. During law school, Professor Hummel served as an assistant editor with the SMU International Law Review Association and worked as a research assistant and a teaching assistant in SMU’s Legal Research Writing and Advocacy program. Professor Hummel received his undergraduate degree in English with a minor in American Studies from Boston College in 2005. At Boston College, Professor Hummel graduated summa cum laude and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa.

Prior to joining the College of Law, Professor Hummel served as in-house litigation counsel for one of the country’s largest tax services firms. Before that, Professor Hummel practiced commercial litigation with the Texas law firm Kane Russell Coleman & Logan PC. Texas Super Lawyers recognized him as a Rising Star in Business Litigation from 2015–2017 and included him among its “Up-and-Coming 100” in 2017.

Professor Hummel’s research focuses on legal pedagogy and the intersection between law, ethics, and the humanities. His scholarship has appeared in the Georgetown Journal of Legal Ethics, Texas Tech Law Review, Tulsa Law Review, International Lawyer, the North Carolina Banking Institute, and Perspectives: Teaching Legal Research & Writing, among other publications. In 2026, Professor Hummel received the UNT Dallas Faculty Senate Award for Excellence in Research.

Professor Hummel is a member of the Legal Writing Institute, the Association of Legal Writing Directors, and the Association for the Study of Law, Culture and the Humanities. He has presented at both regional and national conferences and serves on the Editorial Board of The Second Draft, a peer-reviewed legal writing journal. His professional service has also included editorial work for Legal Writing: The Journal of the Legal Writing Institute, peer review for Legal Communication & Rhetoric: JALWD, and article screening for Scribes.