Carolyn V. Williams is an Associate Professor of Law at the University of North Dakota School of Law where she teaches legal writing, research, advocacy, and generative AI courses. She has authored the ALWD Guide since its seventh edition. She co-founded the Legal Writing and Generative AI Convo Group, which now includes more than 500 law professors nationwide who meet monthly to explore issues surrounding AI in legal education. She also founded the Generative AI and Legal Citation Brain Trust to encourage dialogue between law professors, law librarians, and practitioners regarding the purpose and parameters of legal citation and acknowledgment when researching, writing, and brainstorming with AI. The UND School of Law awarded her the 2023–24 Randy H. Lee Faculty Teaching Award and the 2025 Association of American Law Schools Teacher of the Year for UND.

In law school, Carolyn was Editor-in-Chief of the Arizona State Law Journal, and a Teaching Assistant for legal writing courses. As a professor, she became the faculty advisor for the Journal and mentored subsequent EICs. She is now an Article Editor of the Journal of Appellate Practice and Process, a faculty-edited law review that has used ALWD Guide citation format since 2000. Carolyn is also a sought-after consultant who frequently teaches continuing legal education courses for those in the larger legal community. She holds positions in each of the national legal writing organizations, including ALWD, the Legal Writing Institute, and the Legal Writing, Reasoning, and Research Section of AALS.

Before joining academia, Carolyn spent eight years in big firm practice where she litigated a range of complex commercial and land use matters, including cases involving condemnation, data breach class actions, complex judgment collections, and shareholder disputes at the state and federal levels. Super Lawyers named her a Rising Star in 2016, an honor bestowed on no more than 2.5 percent of the lawyers in Arizona.