LAW COURSE DESCRIPTIONS

LAW-2265 Advanced Legal Writing Prof. Dyane O'Leary, Prof. Herbert N. Ramy, Ms. Ann McGonigle Santos, Prof. Philip C. Kaplan, 3 credits day; 3 credits evening. A comprehensive review of the principles of good legal writing. Major assignments include drafting a legal document and writing a brief. Individual conferences supplement the lectures. STANDARDS FOR ADVANCED LEGAL WRITING COURSES The faculty has voted to encourage all students to take an advanced legal writing course during their upper-class years at the Law School. Advanced legal writing courses are courses that meet the standards set forth below. Ordinarily, an advanced legal writing course will satisfy the Upper Level Skills Requirement. See Law Suffolk University Law School website, www.law.suffolk.edu/academic/jd/skills/cfm. If so designated, it may also be used to meet the Upper Level Legal Writing Requirement. See Law School Academic Rules and Regulations 2H. 1. Advanced legal writing courses include a significant writing component. This will include at least three practice-oriented writing assignments--such as a legal memo or brief, writing exercises, a draft of a transactional document, or an opinion letter based on an analysis of appropriate legal materials such as cases and statutes. 2. The three writing assignments will total at least fifteen pages of written work or twenty pages if the course is designated as one that can be used to meet the Upper Level Legal Writing Requirement. The written work shall be completed independently by each student in the course. 3. Students will receive extensive written feedback, on each major writing assignment, covering the substance, analysis, and writing issues reflected in the student’s work. 4. Students will receive the opportunity to re-write one of the assignments, which may increase their final grade for the entire assignment. 5. The professor will have an individual writing conference with each student on at least one of the three writing assignments. 6. The professor will discuss a sample memorandum for at least one of the assignments, after the student papers have been handed in. 7. The grades for the writing assignments shall constitute at least fifty percent of the course grade. 8. The syllabus for the course shall include the three practice-oriented writing assignments and the approximate due dates for each. 9. The faculty member is encouraged to discuss legal writing skills and techniques with the students throughout the course. 10. Courses that provide substantially equivalent practice oriented writing experiences may be certified by the Legal Writing Subcommittee of the Curriculum Committee as Advanced Legal Writing Courses. Faculty comments : Attorney Janda: My advanced legal writing class requires students to draft a substantial appellate brief (typically 35-45 pages). More specifically, I give students a transcript and defendant’s appellate brief from an actual case and require them to draft, in the role of an assistant district attorney, the Commonwealth’s brief in response to the defendant’s brief. In addition to the format and structure of a brief, the class lectures focus heavily on legal analysis