Community reader notes that 'Routine and Habit' is fresh, extraordinarily well-executed
Second-year law student Ryesa McGehee is this year’s winning entry for Belmont University College of Law's seventh annual Legal Fiction Workshop.
“Routine and Habit,” written by Ryesa McGehee, is a gritty story about one defense attorney’s willingness to follow her intuition wherever it may lead.
Belmont Law awarded McGehee a quill pen prize for winning the "Best Story Award" this year. Her work is still in the running for the ABA Ross Essay Contest, which will be decided near the end of the summer.
The story was chosen by Frank Toub, an outside community reader through an anonymized review process. Toub is a third-year associate with Royer Cooper Cohen Braunfeld in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania where he practices commercial litigation. Previously, Toub worked at Baker Donelson in Nashville in the litigation group after graduating from Belmont Law in 2023 summa cum laude.
While a student at Belmont Law, Toub participated in the 2022 Legal Fiction Workshop and won the national ABA Ross Essay Contest for Legal Short Fiction, making him the perfect person to judge this year’s competition.
In announcing his decision, Toub praised McGehee for presenting a classic tale in a fresh and extraordinarily well-executed fashion.
"The author tells the all too familiar story of an attorney who, in going the extra mile for a client, oversteps to her own detriment," he said. "The story’s plot is tightly written, and the author deftly uses imagery and dialogue to move the story forward. The author stuck the landing with an ending that ties everything together, leaving no doubt as to the conclusion, without spelling everything out for the reader."
A Case for Creative Writing
Belmont’s Legal Fiction Workshop is conducted over the spring semester as an extracurricular activity for a limited number of 2Ls and 3Ls. Taught by Professor Kristi Arth and alumnus Brandon Dragan (JD, '22), the workshop is an incubator for students to produce creative work capable of publication and to provide a needed creative outlet for busy law students.
The Legal Fiction Workshop shows Belmont's investment in law student success and flourishing beyond academic performance by creating opportunities that cultivate whole-person development.
Learn more about Belmont's College of Law.