Nicole M. Downing

Clinical Associate Professor of Law
Assistant Director for Public Services

Work
(919) 843-9734
Office
4025 Van Hecke-Wettach Hall

Areas of Expertise

  • Legal Research

Biography

Nicole Downing is a Clinical Associate Professor of Law and the Assistant Director for Public Services at the Kathrine R. Everett Law Library. In addition to managing reference and access services for the law library, she oversees the upper-level legal research curriculum and teaches courses such as Advanced Legal Research and Transactional Law Research. Her scholarly interests include legal research pedagogy and the integration of generative AI into legal education. Her most recent article, “Using Content and Tone to Deliver Effective Feedback on Legal Research” won the 2023 AALL/LexisNexis Call for Papers Award.

Professor Downing previously worked as the Reference and Instructional Services Librarian at the University of Miami Law Library. She earned her B.S. in Marketing Communication and Writing, Literature & Publishing from Emerson College. She then completed her J.D. at the University North Carolina School of Law. After law school, she earned her M.S.L.S. at the University of North Carolina School of Information and Library Science and worked as a Graduate Assistant at the Kathrine R. Everett Law Library.

Education

  • M.S., Library Science, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (2014)
  • J.D., Law, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (2012)
  • B.S., Marketing Comm. and Writing, Lit. & Publishing, Emerson College (2009)