Law Commons^™

Writing Lessons From Abroad: A Comparative Perspective On The Teaching Of Legal Writing, Adam Todd

School of Law Faculty Publications

With a few exceptions, American legal writing pedagogy has not been adopted in any meaningful way in foreign countries. At most, it has garnered some attention in Legal English courses, but has otherwise received scant reception in foreign universities and little academic interest by continental and other civil law academics.

The reason transplantation, or “borrowing,” of American legal writing pedagogy has not occurred is due to the deep structural differences between the American legal education system and the education system found in most other countries, especially civil law countries. For example, many law schools in Western Europe require up to …

Teaching “Scholarly Writing” In The First-Year Lwr Class: Bridging The Divide Between Scholarly And Practical Writing, Adam Todd

School of Law Faculty Publications

At a time when there are calls to make legal education more practical and less theoretical, this essay bucks the trend. This piece proposes that there is a need to include an appreciation for “academic” or “scholarly writing” alongside the “practical writing” taught in first-year legal writing classes.

Survey Of Cooperation Among Clinical, Pro Bono, Externship And Legal Writing Faculty, Susan Wawrose, Sarah E. Ricks

School of Law Faculty Publications

Recent surveys by a committee of the Legal Writing Institute (LWI) show that many legal writing faculty around the country are engaged in exciting and creative collaborations with their colleagues in clinics and in externship and pro bono programs. Faculty from these different programs work together around course and curriculum planning, on large and small teaching initiatives, and on scholarship. Whether the proper metaphor for this type of collaboration is collision or something more constructive, the inspiring fact is that these collaborations are taking place.

Neither Dead Nor Dangerous: Postmodernism And The Teaching Of Legal Writing, Adam Todd

School of Law Faculty Publications

This article explores postmodernism and its relation to the teaching of legal writing. Postmodernism is an undeniably important theory in literary criticism, composition and rhetoric and has provoked much debate in areas of legal scholarship, but it has seldom been addressed directly by legal writing scholars.

The teaching of legal writing has been greatly affected by postmodernism and can be characterized as a postmodern class in what is otherwise a modernist academy. Legal writing teachers generally teach in a modernist paradigm which seeks to normalize the law and create unitary meaning from the morass of texts and ideas which is …

Exam Writing As Legal Writing: Teaching And Critiquing Law School Examination Discourse, Adam Todd

School of Law Faculty Publications

This article adds to the growing body of scholarship on legal writing and its role in the legal academy. It addresses an area of legal discourse that is of importance to law students, the legal academy and the bar admissions process, yet has been neglected in legal scholarship. The article is a call for legal writing faculty members and other legal writing specialists to become more involved in the process of teaching about and critiquing the discourse involved in traditional end-of-semester doctrinal law school exams. This article suggests how law school legal writing programs, by deliberately teaching about exam writing, …