Writing Assignments to Use with A Lawyer Writes

A Lawyer Writes would be useless if students were not practicing their legal analysis and writing skills directly after reading about those skills. Thus, this book will be useful only if accompanied with writing assignments. That raises the question of what kinds of writing assignments should accompany A Lawyer Writes.

Because no student can absorb everything at once (how many of us simply jumped onto a bicycle and rode off into the sunset?), we start small. Our initial assignments teach what we believe to be the core skill of legal analysis and writing: building one legal argument (a.k.a. one IRAC, one CREAC, one CREXAC, one CRRPAP). In subsequent assignments, students practice that core skill and add one or two additional skills to their repertoire.

Thus, a typical semester might have the following five writing assignments.

• Draft One Legal Argument

Skill being added: Draft one legal argument (IRAC, CREAC, CREXAC, CRRPAP) that is one paragraph long.

• Draft One Legal Argument with a Counter-argument

Skills being repeated for practice: Drafting one legal argument (on a new topic).
Skill being added: A counter-argument.

• Draft Part of a Memorandum (Closed Memorandum)

Skills being repeated for practice: Drafting one or two arguments (on a new topic), at least one of which has a counter-argument.
Skill being added: An introductory roadmap to those legal arguments; thus, students will have written at least part of a Discussion section of a memo.
Note: Usually this is a closed universe assignment because students have not yet developed the research or analytical skills to find and sort through the necessary authorities.

• Revise and Complete the Memorandum (Containing the Closed Memorandum)

Skills being repeated for practice: Discussion section of a memo, which includes an introduction and two to three legal arguments with counter-argument(s) (at least some of which have been commented upon by the professor).
Skills being added: Statement of Fact and a Final Conclusion.

• Independently Draft a New, More Analytically Complex Memorandum (Open Memo)

Skills being repeated for practice: Statement of Facts, Discussion section of a memo, which includes an introduction and several more complex legal arguments one or more of which has a counter-argument; and a Final Conclusion.
Skill being added: Question Presented and Brief Answer.
Note: Assuming students have developed sufficient research skills, they can conduct the research for this assignment.

These assignments act like concentric circles. At the core is the single legal argument (IRAC, CREAC, CREXAC, CRRPAP). Each assignment builds on the core by adding one or two additional elements.

Obviously, different professors might add skills in a slightly different order. Some professors might want students to write a Statement of Facts with the very first assignment. The above description is not meant to dictate a definitive order, but to illustrate one way in which a professor might start with core analytical and writing skills and build from there.

Designing effective problems is no easy task. To that end, we have provided some initial assignments to help you teach core skills: how to develop one legal argument and how to develop one legal argument with a counter-argument. You can find those assignments and exercises on the webpage for Chapter 6.

With respect to the more complex, closed and open memorandum, we recommend that you visit the Legal Writing Institute's (LWI) Idea Bank. The Idea Bank is a repository for assignments designed by legal writing professors from across the nation. The Idea Bank is the best source for both closed and open memorandum. It is, however, password protected. New teachers can get a password by e-mailing submissions@ideabank.rutgers.edu. More senior LWI members can receive a password if they or someone at their school submits a problem to the idea bank.

If after looking through problems in the Idea Bank you have not found a problem to your liking, you can send an e-mail to the LWI's e-mail list. To gain access to the list, you must first go to the LWI's website and register as a member. Then, you can send an e-mail to lrwprof-L@listserv.iupui.edu and describe the kind of writing assignment you are looking for. You are likely to get many possible assignments.