Lawyers are writers. Whether they are crafting briefs, drafting agreements or statutes, or simply sending emails, lawyers are routinely called upon to convey complex information clearly, powerfully, and in writing.
Starting in their first year, students learn not only how to think about legal problems, but also how to research and write about those problems in Legal Practice Workshop and LL.M. Research and Writing and through the First-Year Moot Court program. In their upper years, students continue to write, working alongside the Law School faculty to engage with legal concepts in both practice-oriented and academic contexts.
During their second and third years at the Law School, all students are required to complete at least two significant pieces of legal writing. Students satisfy these requirements through projects that address a myriad of legal questions in both practical and academic contexts. Through faculty-led seminars; participation in one of the Law School’s fourteen journals; and clinics, externships and other experiential courses, students hone their writing skills in areas about which they are passionate. The upper-year requirements emphasize the iterative nature of writing and the value of receiving, and responding to, feedback. For more information about major and minor writing credits, please consult the Academic Rules.
Office of Legal Writing and Moot Court Programs
Learn more about our program offerings.