In this course, students will learn advanced legal research skills, persuasive and objective writing techniques and transactional drafting by following an employment law case through a variety of stages. Students will draft a variety of documents such as employee policies, a non-compete agreement, demand letters, risk/benefit litigation memos for the client and a litigation-based brief. An employment attorney who has both in-house and law firm employment law experience will guest lecture. The goal of this course is to provide students an experience similar to that which they would get working as an in-house employment attorney, while providing specific instruction to help them improve their research and writing skills.
STANDARDS FOR ADVANCED LEGAL WRITING COURSES
The faculty has voted to encourage all students to take an advanced legal writing course during their upper-class years at the Law School. Advanced legal writing courses are courses that meet the standards set forth below. Ordinarily, an advanced legal writing course will satisfy the Upper Level Skills Requirement.
See Law Suffolk University Law School website, www.law.suffolk.edu/academic/jd/skills/cfm. If so designated, it may also be used to meet the Upper Level Legal Writing Requirement. See Law School Academic Rules and Regulations 2H.
1. Advanced legal writing courses include a significant writing component. This will include at least three practice-oriented writing assignments--such as a legal memo or brief, writing exercises, a draft of a transactional document, or an opinion letter based on an analysis of appropriate legal materials such as cases and statutes.
2. The three writing assignments will total at least fifteen pages of written work or twenty pages if the course is designated as one that can be used to meet the Upper Level Legal Writing Requirement. The written work shall be completed independently by each student in the course.
3. Students will receive extensive written feedback, on each major writing assignment, covering the substance, analysis, and writing issues reflected in the student’s work.
4. Students will receive the opportunity to re-write one of the assignments, which may increase their final grade for the entire assignment.
5. The professor will have an individual writing conference with each student on at least one of the three writing assignments.
6. The professor will discuss a sample memorandum for at least one of the assignments, after the student papers have been handed in.
7. The grades for the writing assignments shall constitute at least fifty percent of the course grade.
8. The syllabus for the course shall include the three practice--oriented writing assignments and the approximate due dates for each.
9. The faculty member is encouraged to discuss legal writing skills and techniques with the students throughout the course.
10. Courses that provide substantially equivalent practice oriented writing experiences may be certified by the Legal Writing Subcommittee of the Curriculum Committee as Advanced Legal Writing Courses.
Faculty comments: In this course, students will learn advanced research skills, persuasive and objective writing techniques and transactional drafting by following an employment law case through a variety of stages. The goal of this course is to provide students an experience similar to that which they would get working as an in-house employment attorney, while providing specific instruction to help them improve their research and writing skills. Students will draft a variety of documents such as employee policies, a non-compete agreement, demand letters, risk/benefit litigation memos for the client and a litigation-based brief. An employment attorney who has both in-house and law firm employment law experience will guest lecture. The course will be taught using lecture, simulations, student collaboration and student participation. While class participation is not graded on its own, 10% of the student’s grade is based on “Professionalism,” which includes the quality of class participation and preparation. There is no final exam in the class; 85% of the student’s grade is comprised of three main writing assignments. The class may differ from other advanced legal writing classes in that it uses the employment law context to focus on both litigation-based and non-litigation document drafting, and that it will have significant input from an employment attorney who currently works full time as in-house employment counsel for a major Massachusetts-based company.
 Enrollment
is limited: 20
Elective
Course
Meets
Skills Menu Requirement
Meets
Civil Litigation Concentration Requirements
May
Fulfill Legal Writing Requirement
Meets
Advanced Legal Writing Standard
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<<Course Updated: April 08, 2013>> 
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