One Small Step for Legal Writing, One Giant Leap for Legal Education: Making the Case for More Writing Opportunities in the Practice-Ready Law School Curriculum

Legal writing is more than an isolated practical skill or a law school course; it is a valuable tool for broadening and deepening law students’ and new attorneys’ knowledge and understanding of the law. If experienced legal professionals, both professors and practitioners alike, take a hard look back at their careers, many will no doubt remember how their work on significant legal writing projects advanced their own knowledge of the law and enhanced their professional competence. Legal writing practice helps the writer to gain expertise in a number of ways: first, the act of writing itself promotes learning; second, close work on legal writing assignments provides a unique opportunity for less-experienced attorneys to engage in meaningful dialogue with more-experienced attorneys, with the assignment acting as a catalyst for the transfer of knowledge of law and legal practice from expert to novice; and lastly, meaningful feedback on legal writing provides an opportunity for more-experienced attorneys to evaluate and critique a less-experienced attorney’s thinking, including her analysis of substantive law and legal concepts, as well as her professional decision making. Indeed, legal writing projects afford legal novices an invaluable opportunity to apply their knowledge of the law, engage legal experts through work on discrete matters, and receive useful individual guidance on the substance of their work and their judgment on practice matters. While legal writing classes are well-established as fundamental courses in the modern law school curriculum, particularly during the first year, the many benefits of legal writing have not been fully realized in law school teaching. Given recent demands for law schools to produce students who are better prepared to meet the demands of legal practice, the time has come for law schools to take a fresh look at the role of writing in legal education. This Article articulates a plan for law schools going forward that will help bridge the gap that currently exists between legal theory and practice in legal education. The author argues that to better prepare law students for practice, law school teaching must consistently go beyond the acquisition of knowledge of the law, and more frequently include the application of this knowledge to a client’s legal problem. As legal writing provides a particularly useful opportunity for students to engage in the meaningful study of law and to apply their knowledge of law in a practice context, this article brings legal writing into the current “practice-ready” debate. This Article urges law schools to rethink the role that legal writing can play in preparing students for the challenges of today’s legal practice, and increase the quantity and quality of legal writing practice opportunities in their curricula

It Was the Best of Practice, It Was the Worst of Practice: Moving Successfully from the Courtroom to the Classroom

This article discusses some of the challenges that experienced attorneys encounter when they move from practice to academia and recommends ways for new professors to bring professional knowledge successfully into classroom teaching

One Small Step for Legal Writing, One Giant Leap for Legal Education: Making the Case for More Writing Opportunities in the Practice-Ready Law School Curriculum

While the practice of law is often equated with writing, many law courses involve little or no writing during the semester, and often only require writing in student assessment. While accredited law schools are required to offer both first-year legal writing instruction and a rigorous writing experience during the second or third year,2 few law schools infuse legal writing throughout a student\u27s three years of law school matriculation. While significant attention is given to the breadth of law taught in law school, more attention must be given to the depth of this knowledge and the application of this knowledge to discrete legal problems. Legal writing, particularly writing in a practice context, is a unique tool for learning about the law and building professional competence. Through writing, law students engage themselves, and often others, in discrete legal matters and are afforded an opportunity for individual critique and instruction. As such, the process of legal writing helps those new to the practice of law to further their knowledge of law and enhance their development as legal professionals. ... This Article discusses how legal educators can make better use of legal skills practice, specifically legal writing practice opportunities, to expedite the professional development of those new to the practice of law. While there has been significant discussion about expanding the existing law school curriculum, consideration should also be given to ways that law schools might improve upon current methods of teaching. Part I will define what law firms mean when they say that graduating law students should be more practice-ready, and consider whether this is in fact a viable goal. Part II will define good legal writing and explain what is required for a writer to achieve a high level of proficiency. Part III will discuss how legal writing practice helps legal novices not only to improve their basic writing abilities, but also to develop their professional expertise. Part IV asks legal educators to rethink the role of meaningful practical legal writing opportunities with expert guidance and critique as a tool for building practice competence. It further urges law schools to take a fresh look at the role of legal writing instruction in the law school curriculum, and to consider how they might make better use of legal writing opportunities to bridge the perceived gap between legal education and practice

The Traditional Legal Analysis, Research, and Writing Course: Does Subject Synthesis Serve Students Best?

Most law schools’ first-year curriculums include a course on legal analysis, research, and writing. At many law schools, the synthesis of these subjects into one course is considered the best way to teach first-year law students basic lawyering skills. Recently, however, law schools have begun to separate the topics into stand-alone courses. This presentation will review the different models law schools are currently using and will explore additional opportunities to remix the individual topics with other first-year courses

The Traditional Legal Analysis, Research, and Writing Course: Does Subject Synthesis Serve Students Best?

Most law schools’ first-year curriculums include a course on legal analysis, research, and writing. At many law schools, the synthesis of these subjects into one course is considered the best way to teach first-year law students basic lawyering skills. Recently, however, law schools have begun to separate the topics into stand-alone courses. This presentation will review the different models law schools are currently using and will explore additional opportunities to remix the individual topics with other first-year courses