The legal marketplace demands that law graduates enter the
profession with strong research, analysis, and communication skills. To
prepare Rutgers students for mastery in this area, first-year students
participate in a yearlong program in legal analysis,
writing, research (LAWR), and oral argument. This 5-credit program consists of a graded 2.5-credit course each semester, taught by a talented group of
full-time, experienced faculty members. With a class size of
approximately 20 students, the course is designed to provide students
with extensive individual attention. Class time is spent primarily
learning skills and strategies necessary for conducting research
efficiently, drafting a complete legal analysis, and editing and
polishing the final product. The fall semester research and
writing course combines an introduction to the basic tools of legal
research with instruction and practice in legal writing and analysis.
Students are introduced to research using a fully integrated approach,
which from the first day of class combines computer-assisted research
with book research. Using both types of research tools, students
learn how to find and analyze primary legal authority, such as cases
and statutes, and secondary materials, such as treatises and law
reviews.
In the fall, students also write several
legal memoranda, some of which must be rewritten, and complete other,
shorter assignments. The memoranda require that students learn legal
analysis, legal writing style, format, and citation form. The legal
memoranda assignments are presented as simulated case files to provide
students with practical experience working with legal documents and
developing fact-analysis skills. Through these assignments, students
learn and practice their analytic ability, increase their substantive
knowledge, and reinforce research skills. The rewrites and required
conferences with writing professors and teaching assistants allow for
individual attention to each student's progress in mastering the
fundamentals of legal analysis and legal writing. Students also begin
developing their oral skills in mock briefings of a "supervising
attorney" on the legal issues in the memo assignments.
During
the spring semester, LAWR II builds on the research and writing skills
learned in the fall. Students switch from writing predictive, objective
memoranda to crafting persuasive legal arguments in written briefs and
oral arguments. Their major written assignment for the spring is a mock
brief to a court, which presents a new issue and requires extensive
research. In writing the brief, students learn the fundamental
rhetorical concerns and methods of persuading a judicial audience.
Students also participate in an oral argument based on the appellate
brief before a three-judge panel of writing faculty, practitioners, and
teaching assistants.
In summary, this yearlong program
of carefully supervised instruction helps students become responsible
for their own learning and helps them develop the competence and
attitudes needed for self-directed learning throughout their legal
careers.
All students are required to take a
2-credit, upper-level course in professional responsibility. The
course examines important practical and ethical issues for future
lawyers, such as attorney-client confidentiality, conflict of interest,
perjury, fee arrangements, advertising, and sanctions for frivolous
conduct.
