Legal Writing Clerkship/Extern

Catalog description

This intersession course begins to bridge the gap between first-year legal writing and experiential learning opportunities such as summer internships and externships. It simulates a new associate's law office environment with daily meetings and research and writing assignments. Students will work on campus during standard business hours, starting the day with a case rounds meeting, discussing the morning's research during a lunch meeting, and reporting to the supervising attorney at the end of the day to discuss conclusions and review finished work product. By week's end, students will have a portfolio of short written assignments. The course strengthens research skills, provides feedback on analysis and writing, introduces new forms of work product, and raises some professional and ethical challenges that come with producing legal work product under timed conditions. Students will also have opportunities to discuss professional etiquette, workplace expectations, and many of the other "unwritten rules" of daily practice. Prerequisite(s): Legal Analysis, Research and Writing I. Graded.