Peter Cramer

Peter Cramer, a self-described “lawyer-linguist,” has been working in legal education for over 25 years. 

Experience & Education

Dr. Cramer has worked for a number of law schools across his career.

• He started his law school career at Indiana University Maurer School of Law.
• Later, he went to Georgetown University Law Center, where he served as the Associate Director of the Center for Global Legal English.
• For nine years prior to joining Spivey Consulting Group, Dr. Cramer worked as the Assistant Dean for Graduate and International Students at Washington University School of Law, where he focused primarily on admissions, course counseling, and instruction.

Trained in law in Germany, Dr. Cramer went to the USA to receive a degree in TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages); he earned a PhD in Language Education and also received an LLM. 

Dr. Cramer is a recognized specialist in Legal English. Some of his accomplishments include the following.

• He developed the first 2-Year LLM program in the US at Georgetown and a similar program at WashU.
• He has co-authored a book on drafting contracts in Legal English (a page turner).
• He has taught classes at Harvard, Cairo University, and Aoyama Gakuin University in Japan.
• From 2010 to 2023, he worked on the Washington University Selection Committee for Fulbright Scholarships for English Teaching Assistants (ETA) and Research and Study Fellows and worked closely with the Fulbright Program to review Fulbright applications of international applicants. In this capacity, he reviewed hundreds of applications and interviewed dozens of applicants. 

Over the course of his work at various law schools, he has reviewed thousands of applications of JD, LLM, JSD, and MLS students, written by native and nonnative speakers alike. 

Consulting Approach

Besides being able to point out dangling participles and other grammatical issues in an applicant’s statement, Dr. Cramer has developed a profound sense of knowing “what’s good, what’s bad, and what’s terrible.” His advice to any applicant is always to be as genuine and sincere as possible in telling their story.

Personal Note

In his free time, Dr. Cramer is an avid biker. He lives in a tiny home in Saint Louis and regularly travels abroad with his polyglot family.