Legal Research and Writing – 6002

This year-long course (Fall Law 6002 - 1 credit; Spring Law 6003 - 3 credits) covers the process of communicating about the law. Our goal is to teach students the building blocks of legal communication through multiple practice exercises so that students can repeat the process on their own after successful completion of the course. In the fall (one credit), we begin at orientation with a short written exercise, then move on to email, letter, and office memorandum exercises written in an objective/predictive mode. We focus primarily on common law. The semester also introduces legal research through training modules and tutorial instruction by the law library faculty and representatives from legal research databases. The semester also includes individual conferences with instructors, peer review, a mock oral report, and an exam.