Law Commons^™

Competent Legal Writing - A Lawyer's Professional Responsibility, Debra R. Cohen

Journal Articles

The legal profession is constantly evolving to keep pace with our increasingly complex society.' Today, the legal profession "is larger and more diverse than ever before." Despite this transformation, "the law has remained a single profession identified with a perceived common body of learning, skills and values." This common body of learning, skills, and values constitutes the fundamental elements of competent representation. Writing is one of the essential skills of competent representation.

"Law is a profession of words." Lawyers use words, both written and oral, in a wide array of contexts-to advise, to advocate, to elicit information, to establish legal …

Teaching Upperclass Writing: Everything You Always Wanted To Know But Were Afraid To Ask, Lissa Griffin

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

A survey conducted as part of this project reveals that law schools generally require their students to have an upperclass writing experience taught or supervised by non-writing tenured or tenure-track faculty. These teachers currently bear the responsibility for assigning, supervising, reviewing, and evaluating most of the writing by upperclass students, either through substantive seminars or independent study projects. In almost all schools there is no major curricular planning, systematic instruction, faculty training, or institutional support for upperclass writing.

From Product To Process: Evolution Of A Legal Writing Program, Diane Edelman

Diane Penneys Edelman

No abstract provided.

Teaching Writing Through Substance: The Integration Of Legal Writing With All Deliberate Speed, Michelle S. Simon

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

The stated pedagogical task of the first year of law school is to teach students to "think like lawyers." Legal writing, which is a traditional first-year course, serves this purpose by helping students develop writing and analytical skills that are essential to their ultimate success as lawyers. The greatest difficulty faced by those who teach legal writing, however, is communicating to students that legal writing is a means towards synthesizing the law and preparing them for the complex legal and human problems of modern law practice. To help overcome this difficulty, Pace Law School has developed a course that fully …

"Convention" And Critique, Drucilla Cornell

Cardozo Law Review

No abstract provided.