Course Syllabus and Information
1st Year/Lawyering Process-Legal Writing/900-1 to 900-11
This course provides introductory treatment of legal methods, case
analysis, basic writing, legal writing, problem analysis, statutory
analysis, and legal research. The legal methods component, which
entails case analysis, synthesis and statutory analysis, exposes
students to: 1) a comprehensive technique of briefing judicial
opinions; 2) processes for synthesizing judicial decisions; 3)
concepts basic to the common law system, such as the functio of
courts, stare decisis, and holding versus dictum; 4) concepts of
relevance and the ability to distinguish relevant from irrelevant
facts; 6) the ability to identify and frame legal issues; 7) the
ability to abstract legal principles from cases and apply them to
other fact situations, and reason to sound conclusion; 8)
analogization techniques; and 9) the relationship between common law
and legislation>
The basic writing, legal writing and problem analysis components
entail: 1) development of an appreciation for the differences
between good and bad legal writing; 2) improvement of grammar,
sentence structure, paragraph and organization; 3) techniques of
persuasive prose; 4) techniques of answering traditional essay law
exam questions; and 5) strategies designed to enhance the ability to
answer multiple choice law exam questions.
The legal research component entails the development of the ability
to use the national reporter system, the digest system, legal
encyclopedias, Shepard citations, legal periodicals, loose-leaf
services and the Uniform System of Citation.
Syllabus for Lawyering Process-Legal Writing, All Sections
