OLDFall 2022 Law School Course Evaluations

In what way(s) did this course benefit your professional or intellectual development? Dean Santos gave personal feedback and advice to strengthen my writing. Her ability to evaluate and provide suggestions was straight-forward and beneficial to my writing. This class was incredibly useful and on point for what I needed to learn. I was able to improve my writing while learning more about different pieces of criminal procedure. It was great practice in legal writing. She used an actual case she worked on and had helpful examples throughout the time we talked about the case. She gave us flexibility if we reached out like a supervisor or court would. She treated us like legal professionals! Not only did Dean Santos teach us how to write a legal memorandum, but she incorporated many ethical rules and real world situations into the course to help illustrate how the criminal justice system plays out in practice. She explained prosecutorial duties and along with the duties of defense attorneys. Although she has the prosecutorial background, she was able easy and effectively to present necessary information that both sides need to be aware of. I needed more practice with my writing and I do feel as though I got that. It was beneficial that we had the opportunity to practice two different, yet equally practical, types of legal writing in this course. We began the semester by writing a concise memorandum to update a supervisor on the law in a particular area, and then during the rest of the semester, we worked on writing a formal memorandum on behalf of a represented party to submit to a court. This class really helped developed my memo writing skills beyond what I learned in LPS as a 1L and enhanced my persuasive writing. It taught good organization and structure, and how to make a memo both legally sound as well as enjoyable to read. It has allowed me to feel much more confident in any memos I write going forward and for my future employment as an ADA. Dean Santos is a great professor and was so helpful the entire course, always effectively answering questions, and really helped me improve my writing overall.

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