Oral Advocacy for LL.M. Students, taught by professor and Director of Professional Skills David Oppenheimer, convened small-group practice sessions with critiques by experienced lawyers and judges. Readings, lectures, demonstrations, and discussions augmented the learning process. Public Law and Policy Workshop, taught by professors Amanda Tyler and John Yoo, examined public law papers by top scholars from Boalt and
FIRST-YEAR SKILLS PROGRAM NUMBERS 3: Office memoranda students complete in fall semester 3: Drafts of a brief students complete in spring semester 5-10: Cases students must cite and analyze when writing a legal memo 7: Full-time lecturers 60: Years of combined professional experience among the full-time faculty members
Social Enterprise Law, the brainchild of professor Eric Talley, was taught by attorneys Jordan Breslow and Susan Mac Cormac. Students learned about the legal, regulatory, and business aspects of social enterprise entities, the structures that regulate them, and the different types of available financing models. —Andrew Cohen
The Write Formula for Practice-ready Graduates
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nother year, another triumph. Success in writing competitions is nothing new for Boalt students, as evidenced by last fall’s national Adam A. Milani Disability Law Writing Competition. Margaret Dreschel ’15 and John Chamberlain ’15 placed first and second, respectively—the third time in four years that Boalt students have topped the contest. The winning formula? “We stress that students have to be thorough thinkers and writers,” says Lindsay Sturges Saffouri, director
Margaret Dreschel ’15 and John Chamberlain ’15 with Lindsay Sturges Saffouri (center), director of Boalt’s First-Year Skills Program. A WAY WITH WORDS:
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other schools. Students participated in workshops with the authors, whose topics focused largely on constitutional history and interpretation.
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of Boalt’s First-Year Skills Program. Dreschel credits the program with teaching her how to write and argue persuasively. “I tended to bury my most important points and use superfluous language,” she says. “Boiling my arguments down to talking points made my writing punchier and more effective.” She also improved her ability to frame cases relevant to her argument. “Instead of summarizing the case law in a purely academic way, I learned to seize on key points that either bolster my argument or distinguish it altogether.” Chamberlain was initially averse to the regimented structure of written legal arguments. Now he says he can’t do without it. “Not only does it facilitate clarity, the process of conforming my reasoning to that structure is itself a way to work through the legal landscape of my topic and identify strengths and weaknesses.” Most important for Chamberlain is how the skills program has prepared him for practice. “Though I still have a thousand things to learn about trying a case, I’m not paralyzed by fear at the prospect of briefing one on my own,” he says. “In fact, I’m quite looking forward to it.” —Ben Peterson
Jim Block
IN BRIEF