General Rules

A paper intended to satisfy the Legal Writing Requirement must be substantial, meaning a length of at least 20 typewritten pages of double-spaced text (at least 4,000 words, not counting appendices). If in the judgment of the supervising faculty member, two or more pieces of written work cumulatively are the equivalent of a substantial piece of legal writing, they may jointly qualify to satisfy the Legal Writing Requirement.
The student’s research and writing for the paper should reflect the student’s own individual effort. It should be the student’s original work. A writing that is in whole or in part a product of plagiarism does not meet the standards of this requirement, much less the rules related to Academic Integrity set out in Regulation II (F), which should be reviewed by the student at the outset and which governs the student’s conduct. The student may not receive any assistance on the paper from anyone, unless the supervising faculty member has given the student express permission. The paper, or substantially the same paper, must not have been submitted for credit in any previous course. If in extraordinary circumstances, a student is authorized to submit the same work, or parts of the same work, in satisfaction of more than one requirement, written consent of all persons to whom the work is to be submitted must be obtained in advance and be on file with the Academic Services Office. To assure compliance with the rules related to academic integrity, and in order to submit a paper to satisfy the Legal Writing Requirement, each student should be given a copy of this Legal Writing Requirement and shall certify before undertaking it that the student has read and understood the Legal Writing Requirement, including the rules relating to Academic Integrity (Regulation II (F)).
Each student should use The Bluebook, A Uniform Manual for Citation or its equivalent for all citations.
The student’s paper must demonstrate proficiency in writing skills and a mastery of the subject matter. In assessing whether the student has succeeded, the following criteria will be relevant:
1. the quality of the student’s research;
2. the manner in which the student treated and examined open questions;
3. the creativity of the student’s ideas or synthesis of those of others;
4. the organization of the paper;
5. the clarity of the writing;
6. the quality and accuracy of the analysis;
7. the editing and proofreading of the paper;
8. the student’s understanding of the topic; and
9. the degree to which the student’s paper concisely and simply communicates the student’s ideas and analysis.
In the discretion of the supervising faculty member, the faculty member may consider other factors in determining the student’s proficiency in writing skills and a mastery of the subject matter, including the student’s failure to meet any of the established requirements, procedures or deadlines.
Each student must file a form with the Academic Services Office by the student’s last semester prior to graduation, indicating the manner in which the Legal Writing Requirement will be satisfied and making the required certification. It is strongly recommended that students complete the Legal Writing Requirement no later than their next to last semester prior to graduating. A student may satisfy the Legal Writing Requirement in only one of the following ways:
1. Full-time faculty supervised writing: A student may satisfy the Legal Writing Requirement by writing a paper under close supervision or oversight by a member of the full-time faculty, certified by the faculty member as meeting the standards of the Legal Writing Requirement. For example, a paper written for a course or seminar, or work as a directed study project or work prepared as a research assistant to a full-time faculty member, may qualify.
2. Adjunct faculty supervised writing: A student may also satisfy the Legal Writing Requirement by writing a paper under close supervision or oversight by a member of the adjunct faculty in a course or seminar, with the approval of an Associate Dean, and certified by the adjunct faculty member as meeting the standards of the Legal Writing Requirement.
3. Journal writing: If the student is a member of the Journal of High Technology Law, Journal of Health & Biomedical Law, Law Review, or Transnational Law Review, the student may satisfy the Legal Writing Requirement by writing a case comment, note, or other document that has been approved by that publication's Faculty Advisor(s), by writing it under close supervision or oversight by a member of the full-time faculty, certified by the faculty member as meeting the standards of the Legal Writing Requirement. The submitted writing must be accepted for publication or certified by the Board of Editors as of publishable quality. If the student is not a member of an Honor Board, a student may satisfy the Legal Writing Requirement by writing a case comment selected through the summer author competition and accepted for publication.
4. Moot Court writing: If the student is a member of the Moot Court Board, a student may satisfy the Legal Writing Requirement by completing a bench memorandum, brief, or other writing under close supervision or oversight by a full-time faculty member and certified by the faculty member or the faculty advisor to the Moot Court Board as meeting the standards of the Legal Writing Requirement. Other writing may include writing for the Journal of Trial and Appellate Advocacy, if it is accepted for publication in the Journal, or certified by the Board of Editors as of publishable quality, and otherwise meets the standards of the Legal Writing Requirement.
5. Writing for competition: A brief prepared for an interscholastic moot court competition may be used to satisfy the Legal Writing Requirement only if such work is completed under close supervision or oversight by a full-time faculty member and is certified by the faculty member as meeting the standards of the Legal Writing Requirement. If the rules of a competition prohibit faculty involvement in a student’s preparation of a brief for the competition, then that brief may not be used to satisfy the Law School’s Legal Writing Requirement, unless the brief is substantially revised under the close supervision of a faculty member after the conclusion of the competition. No student may use a co-authored or team brief to satisfy the Legal Writing Requirement unless the supervising faculty member certifies that the student wrote a distinct portion of the brief that independently meets the standards of the Requirement.
6. Restriction on fulfilling the Experiential Learning requirement: A course that is used for the Legal Writing Requirement may not also be used to satisfy the Experiential Learning requirement.