Professor Hillary Burgess collaborated with Academic Support and Legal Writing professors from South Africa's 17 law schools during the APPEAL (Academics Promoting the Pedagogy of Effective Advocacy in Law) conference co-hosted by Seattle Law School and the University of Pretoria.

The focus of the conference was integrating more writing and skills into doctrinal courses and the law school curriculum to better prepare law school graduates for the practice of law. Professor Burgess and her colleagues discussed pressing diversity issues and strategies designed to lesson the divide between students entering from private schools and students entering from rural and informal schools. Professor Burgess presented ideas about writing across the curriculum without increasing professor's grading workload.