Legal Writing: A Contemporary Approach

This Legal Writing textbook guides first year law students and those new to legal writing through the thinking and writing process used in the legal profession. This book covers both predictive and persuasive writing in a way that is accessible to students. The text begins with an introduction on students' identities within law school and the profession and its impact on their educational journey. It builds skills gradually and introduces students to reading and briefing cases, gathering facts using various methods, drafting memoranda, client communications, transactional documents, and writing for the court. The text provides a concise introduction to citations, showing students how citation fits within the context of legal writing. The text delves into the art of giving and receiving feedback effectively so students will not only learn to edit their work and the work of others for style and substance, they will also learn how to communicate this information.The text gives examples for students to use as models and has many interactive exercises through which students can test their newly acquired skills, including an annotated example that compares a memorandum and an appellate brief. The online text has links to the cases that students will need, definitions, videos, and exercises to help them hone their writing skills. In addition to learning about written documents and how to communicate in the U.S. common law system, the authors provide an international perspective. Students will learn about civil law traditions through the comparative exercises included in this text. The text also addresses ways to stay focused and reduce stress during law school and in legal careers through the concept of mindful lawyering. Examples in writing and on video showing how judges and lawyers stay focused and mindful are linked in the text.

The third edition offers: New chapters on Feedback (how to give and receive it) and transactional drafting.
Updated student samples, including direct comparisons of the similarities and differences between a memo and an appellate brief.
A brief introduction to citations and how they fit within the context of legal writing.
An introduction to professional identity formation. See more