Course Schedules
Fall 2009
5212 Advanced Legal Writing - MASELLI- 16762
added 3-11-09
Professor(s):
Jani Maselli (ADJUNCT)
Credits: 2
Course Areas: Practice Skills - (Research and Writing)
Time: 4:00p-6:00p W Location: BLB 209
Course Outline: Course Descriptions for the Legal Research and Writing Department
I. Required First Year Course
All first year students will take two semesters of Legal Research and Writing, two credits each semester. Class size will be 20 or under. In both semesters, a variety of teaching strategies will be used: lectures, guest lectures, interactive exercises, student presentations, library work, computer work, demonstrations, one-on-one student conferences, and both individual and small group work.
a. Legal Research, Analysis, and Predictive Writing is the first required semester of LRW. During the first semester, the emphasis will be on legal analysis and problem solving, introduction to legal research, and objective writing. The following specific skills are the focus: 1) researching, reading, and analyzing cases, other primary sources of law, and some secondary sources; 2) deriving and synthesizing rules of law; 3) assessing facts, applying legal rules to them, and analyzing outcomes; 4) statutory interpretation; 5) citation; and 6) producing and revising analyses in writing in seven to ten writings of various length and complexity.
b. Legal Research and Advocacy is the second semester of LRW. During the second semester the emphasis will be placed on 1) advanced analytical and problem solving skills (assessing facts, applying legal rules to them, and analyzing outcomes); 2) oral and written advocacy; 3) fundamentals of legal drafting and academic writing, with an emphasis on ethical considerations, particularly avoiding plagiarism; and 4) expanded research including use of legislative history and administrative regulations. The students will develop advanced skills in these areas by production and revision of five to seven writings of various complexity and length, as well as completion of increasingly complex research assignments throughout the semester.
II. Advanced Legal Writing
Advanced Legal Writing will be an upper level class intended to help students become more proficient, efficient, and effective at analyzing legal issues and composing and organizing written writings. The course content will build on concepts learned in the two required LRW semesters and will help students refine and further develop problem solving, factual investigation, and drafting skills. The goal of the course is to prepare students to undertake the writing tasks demanded of lawyers and expected by legal employers. The one-semester, two-credit course is available to second and third year students, and enrollment is capped at 25.
This class provides opportunity for students to refine and develop a variety of skills needed to represent and advise clients competently and ethically. Advanced Legal Writing builds on and reinforces skills introduced and developed in the first two semesters of LRW: 1) close and critical reading of primary and secondary sources; 2) legal analysis and problem solving; 3) comprehensive legal research; and 4) clear, concise, precise, and accurate legal writing and oral communication. Students draft writings such as contracts, engage in problem solving, conduct factual investigations, and organize and manage legal work.
To achieve the goals of the course, assignments will be created from the following categories:
1. researching, analyzing, and resolving complex legal issues;
2. drafting opinion and demand letters;
3. drafting attorney-client agreements, settlements, and other reflective writings;
4. drafting pleadings and motions;
5. conducting factual investigation in client interviews and in writing;
6. communicating orally in client interviews, motion hearings, and law firm meetings;
7. organizing and managing legal tasks; and
8. recognizing and resolving ethical issues.
III. Academic Writing
Academic Writing is designed to improve students’ abilities to recognize unresolved questions in the law as well as emerging patterns and trends in the development of legal principles, research legal and interdisciplinary topics, analyze legal issues, recognize and logically refute contrary views, assess ethical questions, and communicate their analyses and conclusions in clear, precise, and accurate writing. The one-semester, two-credit course will be available to second and third year students, and enrollment will be capped at 25.
The course focus will be on foundation skills required to produce a scholarly piece, including 1) selecting a manageable claim worth writing about, 2) determining whether the selected topic will be of benefit and interest to the legal community, 3) insuring judiciously comprehensive treatment of the subject, and making reasoned decisions as to what to omit, 4) developing interdisciplinary perspectives if desirable, 5) insuring academic honesty with proper citations, 6) connecting to broader, parallel, or subsidiary issues, 7) organizing the paper into mutually exclusive but connected parts that flow logically from beginning to end, presenting the unresolved problems and solutions, 8) editing, proofreading, and rewriting with a critical eye, and 9) using citation to enhance the scholarly piece and attribute proper credit to contributing sources.
To achieve the goals of the course, a variety of teaching strategies will be used: lectures, interactive exercises, library work, computer work, demonstrations, one-on-one student conferences, and both individual and small group work. Assignments will include research projects designed to help students identify and develop a topic, ethical questions that are resolved either in class discussions or in individual or small-group writings, several short topic-related writings that are faculty-critiqued in writing, peer evaluated, or assessed in individual student-faculty conferences, and a final paper.
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