Sophie Sparrow
UNH Law Students voted Sophie Sparrow as the 2018 Teacher of the Year, and in 2018 UNH awarded her the university-wide three-year Class of 1938 Professorship Award, which recognizes a UNH faculty member for excellence in teaching. Sparrow won the Inaugural Award for Innovation and Excellence in Teaching Professionalism in 2004, taught as a Fulbright Scholar in India in 2012, and has conducted teacher-training programs overseas for the American Bar Association’s Rule of Law Initiative since 2014. An innovator since she started teaching law in 1998, Professor designed and ran UNH School Law’s writing program for ten years (1998-2008) and helped design UNH Law’s Daniel Webster Scholar Program, an alternative bar exam program integrated into UNH Law's second and third year curriculum. She was one of the founding members of Arizona Summit (formerly Phoenix) ½ðÁ«Ö±²¥ (2005-2006), and was a visiting professor at Harvard Law School in spring, 2016, and The John Marshall ½ðÁ«Ö±²¥ in spring, 2012.
To her teaching, Professor Sparrow brings her experience practicing law, directing the UNH ½ðÁ«Ö±²¥â€™s Career Services Center and teaching students ages 5 to 60. She learned about the transformative strategy of team-based learning a few years ago, and now uses it in her Torts and Remedies courses. Before joining UNH Law, she worked as a staff attorney for New Hampshire Legal Assistance and as an associate with a New Hampshire law firm. Her best teachers are her two children.
Courses Taught
- LDWS 942: Pretrial Advocacy
- LGP 951: Professional Responsibility
- LGP 952: Property
- LGP 960: Torts
- LRS 905: Independent Study
- LSK 953: Writing for Practice
- LSK 960: Law Journal Staff
Education
- J.D., Harvard Law School
- B.A., Government & Politics, Harvard University
Selected Publications
Sparrow, S. M. (2018). Teaching and Assessing Soft Skills. JOURNAL OF LEGAL EDUCATION, 67(2), 553-575. Retrieved from
Sparrow, S. M., Hess, G. F., & Schwartz, M. H. (2017). Teaching Law by Design for Adjuncts (2nd ed.). Durham, NC: Carolina Academic Press. Retrieved from
Schwartz, M. H., Sparrow, S. M., & Hess, G. F. (2017). Teaching Law by Design: Engaging Students From Syllabus to Final Exam, (2nd ed.). Durham, NC: Carolina Academic Press. Retrieved from
Scallen, E. A., Sparrow, S. M., & Zimmerman, C. (2014). Working Together in Law: Teamwork and Small Group Skills for Legal Professionals. Durham, NC: Carolina Academic Press. Retrieved from
Sparrow, S. M., & Sova McCabe, M. (2012). Team-Based Learning in Law. Legal Writing: The Journal of the Legal Writing Institute, 18, 153-208. Retrieved from