Legal Writing at Law School
Learning to write like a lawyer is perhaps the greatest challenge
of legal education. The writing faculty support Law students in
all of their writing endeavors, helping them to develop and perfect the
skills necessary to produce top-quality legal writing.
First-year Legal Analysis, Research, and Writing Program
Law School's first-year Legal Analysis, Research, and Writing
Program evidences the Law School's strong commitment to writing and
research excellence. The Program, supplemented by the
Legal Writing Resources
website, emphasizes the integration of legal analysis, writing, and
research, and helps students to understand and consider the legal
audience for whom they are writing. The research and writing faculty are
paired for each section of students, providing opportunities for
team-teaching and specialized instruction throughout the yearlong
course. (The writing faculty for the first-year course are listed
below.) In writing assignments, which range from short office memos to
trial and appellate briefs, students master sophisticated research
skills, complex analysis, careful construction of legal arguments, and
the special requirements of legal prose. The intertwined research and
writing tasks additionally enhance the retention of research skills and
promote more effective research strategies.
The Legal Analysis, Research and Writing Program is also
distinguished by its use of writing faculty with substantial past law
practice who have moved into the teaching of writing as their primary
professional commitment and research faculty who are part of the Law
School's professional reference librarians, all of whom are also
lawyers. Duke was one of the first top-tier law schools to employ
writing faculty whose first professional commitment is teaching; at a
number of other top-tier schools, these courses are still taught by
upperclass law students, recent law graduates, or practitioners who
serve as adjunct professors. The blend of academic strength and
first-rate practical experience in the Duke Law Program results in a
rigorous but richly rewarding experience.
Upper-Level, Advanced Legal Writing Courses
Law School's upper-level advanced legal writing courses provide
students with opportunities to hone further the legal writing skills
taught in the first year. These courses are geared to specific
subject-matter or legal writing settings, taught by the first-year
writing faculty in small seminars, and include substantial feedback to
students on their written products. Some of these courses also involve
continued instruction in legal research.
Legal Writing in Civil Practice
Professor teaches this course which helps prepare
students for the rigors of legal analysis and writing in general civil
practice by providing a variety of writing experiences including opinion
and demand letters, pleadings, motions, and trial briefs. It culminates
in oral arguments on motions before members of the bench and bar.
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Contract Drafting
Professor teaches this
two-credit course which introduces the components of contracts, a formal
vocabulary for discussing them, and the skill of translating business
deals to the page. Contract Drafting features writing exercises that
will be done both in and outside of class. In addition, extensive peer
and instructor editing will be used. While the skills taught will be
basic, they will also apply to more sophisticated contracts, including
those that Duke Law students can expect to see and draft in practice.
While this writing-intensive course fulfills the upper-level
professional skills requirement, because performing significant
independent legal research is not a part of it, it does not fulfill the
upper-level writing requirement.
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Writing for Publication
Professor teaches this course in a collective
"workshop" setting where students produce a scholarly paper of
publishable length. The course is intended to appeal to students who are
interested in pursuing an academic writing opportunity apart from or in
addition to those otherwise available through Duke's journals, seminars
devoted to particular areas of law, or independent study, and in
particular to students considering careers in academia.
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Judicial Writing
Professor teaches this two-credit course, which is
intended to appeal to any student who is interested in or who’s already
been hired for a judicial clerkship. The course offers each student the
opportunity to focus on and assess the writing style practiced by the
judge for whom each will be clerking (or another whose opinions she or
he admires). In addition, the students will practice forms of legal
writing that they, as clerks, will be drafting for their judges—a bench
memorandum, a majority opinion, and a concurrence or dissent. The focus
here is on organized, clear, effective formal writing, which is the
focal point of both.
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Writing: Electronic Discovery
Professor teaches this advanced writing seminar that
helps prepare students for the types of writing that are common to all
civil litigation, while introducing them to electronic discovery.
Writing assignments will all surround one hypothetical federal lawsuit
that raises electronic discovery issues that arise in most civil
litigation. Students will be associates in a hypothetical law firm and
will handle the electronic discovery aspects of the firm’s defense of
the lawsuit.
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Writing: Federal Litigation
Professor teaches this introduction to several
different types of persuasive writing used in federal litigation. The
course will focus on one hypothetical matter involving federal law.
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Legal Writing in the Context of a Complex Criminal Trial
Professor teaches this writing intensive
exploration of complex criminal litigation.
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Workshops
Student Early Stages
This workshop provides students the opportunity to share their
scholarship with other students. Students present their writings and
receive feedback from peers and guidance from faculty advisors.
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Legal Writing for LLM Students
Legal Analysis, Research, and Writing for International Students
Duke Law School recognizes that LLM students will be writing in
English for US lawyers and clients during their careers. It therefore
requires as part of the LLM curriculum a one-semester legal analysis,
research, and writing course. The course trains students in US-style
reasoning and analysis, preparing them for law school exams. It teaches
them how to locate US law in hard copy and electronic resources. It
challenges them to write in the direct, succinct style preferred by US
lawyers and business people. Students improve their written English
through numerous opportunities to review and revise their work. Taught
in small sections by faculty who have practiced law and have extensive
experience with international lawyers, the course prepares international
LLM students for a transnational career.
Advanced Legal Writing Workshop for LLM Students
In their second semester, LLM students may attend the Advanced Legal
Writing Workshop for LLM Students. The Workshop gives international
students additional instruction on US-style writing. Topics of the
workshop include standards for academic research papers, letters, and
contracts.
Summer Institute for Law, Language and Culture
The Summer Institute for Law, Language and Culture is a four-week
intensive course introducing students to legal English, the U.S. legal
system, and the law school experience. Through small-group class
interaction, encounters with lawyers, judges, and teachers, visits to
courtrooms and law firms, and interaction with popular media, students
will learn to read and produce good legal writing, to study and
understand U.S. law, and to make the best possible use of their U.S. law
school experiences. Because the study of law is a language-intensive
task, SILLC is designed to increase proficiency in reading and hearing
English, to develop confidence and skill in speaking and writing, and to
facilitate personal adjustment to the culture of U.S. legal education.
Small class size and individual attention from the instructors give
students a concentrated and tailored teaching experience.
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