2024-2025 Law School Catalog

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Legal Writing Requirement Policy

Prior to graduation each student must complete a substantial piece of legal writing that demonstrates both proficiency in writing skills and mastery of the subject matter, known as the “Legal Writing Requirement.” It is strongly recommended that students complete the Legal Writing Requirement no later than their next to last semester prior to graduation. To satisfy the Legal Writing Requirement, students must satisfy the rules, requirements, and procedures listed below.

1. General Rules

a. 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.

b. 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)).

c. Each student should use The Bluebook, A Uniform Manual for Citation or its equivalent for all citations.

d. 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.

e. 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.

f. 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.
2. Procedures, Requirements, and Deadlines

Fulfilling the Legal Writing Requirement requires due diligence and steady progress by the student involved. Every student must follow the procedures, requirements, and deadlines below in order to complete the Legal Writing Requirement, except as expressly modified by the supervising faculty member to fit the needs of a paper for a course or alternative described in section H (1) (f) (i-v). These procedures, requirements, and deadlines are ordinarily the minimum that students should be expected to meet. No student shall seek exemption from these Legal Writing Requirement procedures, requirements, and deadlines except for reasons of severe illness or for personal emergencies of the most serious nature. Prior to the due date of the paper, students must submit a signed request for extension to the supervising faculty member, which sets forth in detail the extraordinary circumstances believed to justify the exemption

In responding to the student submissions set out below, the supervising faculty member should offer feedback to assist the student’s success, including one or more opportunities for the student to meet with the supervising faculty member. The supervising faculty member may also respond by commenting on the submissions received, suggesting ways to improve the work, and requiring, when the supervising faculty member deems it appropriate, submission of additional work or drafts by the student.

a. Topic

The student must submit to the supervising faculty member for such member’s approval a brief topic statement (not exceeding one page) describing the topic selected and the scope and focus of the paper.

Suggested due date: By the end of the second week of the semester.

b. Research Plan and List of Authorities

The student must submit to the supervising faculty member a research plan that includes a list of authorities, relevant to the topic selected, which the student proposes to examine.

Suggested due date: By the end of the fourth week of the semester.

c. Outline

The student must submit to the supervising faculty member an outline of the paper, showing the organization of the issues relevant to the topic, including what the student will discuss and how that discussion will be organized; how the authorities are to be integrated into a discussion of the issues; and the basic structure of the student’s analysis and conclusions. (A detailed outline should essentially be a “skeleton” for the first draft of the paper, so that, for example, a mere list of authorities would not be adequate to meet this standard. At the same time, students whose research and analysis lead them into new directions should feel that they can improve on their outline for their first draft.)

Suggested due date: By the end of the eighth week of the semester.

d. First Draft

The student must submit to the supervising faculty member a first draft of the paper’s discussion and analysis of the topic with appropriate citations and footnotes.

Suggested due date: By the end of the tenth week of the semester.

e. Final Paper

The student must submit to the supervising faculty member the final version of the paper for evaluation by the supervising faculty member. Because meeting deadlines is an important professional obligation, and supervising faculty need the opportunity to submit student grades in a timely manner, no paper submitted after the last day of the grading period for that semester will be deemed to satisfy the Legal Writing Requirement. An exception may be made where late delivery occurs with approval of the supervising faculty member, after the student considers the student’s written statement of the extenuating circumstances and supporting documentation, which the student must submit with the paper for any requested late delivery to be considered. Late papers without such approval may receive an incomplete or unsatisfactory grade or other late sanctions of the faculty member as well as be deemed not to be in compliance with the standards to satisfy the Legal Writing Requirement.

Due date: No later than the last day of the grading period.