Written Legal Analysis

Course is limited to 3L J.D. students only.  Application is required to enroll. Graded on a Pass/No Pass basis.
The course explores the fundamentals of effective written legal analysis. Through repetition and feedback, students practice committing sound legal analysis to writing in a clear and organized manner, with a strong emphasis on practice-oriented application of law to fact. Students must be prepared to complete several written assignments, assigned at weekly intervals throughout the semester. Topics to be covered include analyzing the types of issues presented; pre-writing issue analysis; response organization; rule articulation; presenting effective argument structure; developing explicit argument based on factual inferences; and writing and editing technique. Because students will not be focusing intensively on a single writing project, this course does not satisfy the Substantial Analytic Writing Requirement.