LAWR Newsletter

ISSUE PRESENTED: LAWR In Brief: What’s going on in the Legal Analysis, Writing, & Research Department NOV. 15, 2019 | VOL. 1, ISSUE 1

New Name: Same Focus

In this newsletter: New Name: Same Focus Page 1 Online Writing Center Page 1 Writing Tips Page 1

This fall, RWA (Research, Writing, & Advocacy) changed the name of the department to better reflect what we teach. Our new name, Legal Analysis, Writing, & Research (LAWR) not only focuses on writing and research, but better reflects an important aspect of this course — how to do legal analysis.

Online Writing Center Now available to all students is an Online Writing Center which includes articles, videos, and other information to assist students in all aspects of their writing. In addition to materials on grammar and Bluebook, also included are modules on how to read a case, the importance of good writing, and what it means to write like a lawyer.

Enroll today on Canvas!

Writing Tips

How LAWR Helped Me: An Interview with 3L Alicia Henry Page 2

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Remember who your reader is, and always write for the reader

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Typos, misspellings, and poor grammar undermine your credibility with your colleagues, your supervisor, and the court.

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Legal writing is precise and concise. Being too wordy, using “legalese,” or using words incorrectly, make your writing unclear and less persuasive.

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Determine the purpose of what you are writing.

Just don’t include a case because it “seems important.” Know why you’re including information.

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The Importance of LAWR: An Interview with a Successful 3L Alicia Henry is a current 3L, a Teaching Assistant in LAWR. Alicia and her partner, Eric Leeman, were the runners-up for the Best Brief Award at the UCLA Cybercrimes Moot Court Competition. Alicia also won Best Advocate, and she and Eric won first place overall. We asked Alicia to reflect upon her experiences in LAWR and how she thought LAWR prepared and benefitted her during law school.

On average, how many hours a day did you spend on writing and research each semester?

her question with the legal authority as to how I came about my answer. It was an extremely beneficial exercise to show the importance of the correlation between research and writing in legal practice.

As cliché as it may sound, I spent as many hours as necessary to complete an assignment. There have been times when researching a topic didn't “click” How did your experience in LAWR translate to what right away and I needed to sit with you did this summer? my assignment and re-read my LAWR is one of the few practical research before moving forlaw courses we are able to take “[S]teps that seemed time ward. In regards to writing, I during law school. The skills and consuming in the short term, like to set aside chunks of time, knowledge I learned in LAWR were actually the most efficient such as three to four blocks, translated into my externship and time saving in the long rather than just working on an experience in a variety of ways, run.” assignment an hour here and including conducting client inthere. As we’re taught in LAWR, terviews, writing pleadings for proI break down assignments into stages to make the bate cases, and researching a wide array of topics. writing process more efficient. However, the process LAWR introduced me to all of the resources we have really is cyclical. I constantly go between researching, access to as a law student (LexisNexis/Westlaw). outlining/planning, and writing.

Knowing how to navigate through those resources to How did LAWR help you in your job last summer? find useful legal treatises and secondary sources How much research and writing did you do? [Alicia made me a more efficient extern when tasked with worked with a solo practitioner who specialized in new assignments. estate planning and probate.]

How did LAWR help you in your other classes?

Research and writing were a huge part of my externLAWR helped me with my other classes by increasing ship. I did both every day, ranging from drafting my ability to read and understand cases, furthering pleadings, to writing letters to clients, to writing cormy research skills, and making me feel more confirespondence to other attorneys. While my work expedent in my ability to solve a legal issue. My practical rience did not involve a lot of case law research or experience has shown me that lawyers are faced with brief writing, the skills I learned in LAWR were coma variety of legal issues every day. I want to leave law pletely transferrable. I drafted estate planning school feeling confident that I know how to employ and probate documents, all of which required me to the resources and strategies that I was taught in cross-reference statutes, local rules of court proceLAWR to solve those legal issues. dure, etc. I was fortunate to have a supervisor who invested time in my learning process. A few times a week she would pose a legal question about a file we were working on. I then had to provide an answer to

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When you did your Moot Court competition (for which you won runner up best brief, best oralists, and first place!), how did your experience in LAWR help you?

I competed in the UCLA Cyber Crimes Moot Court Competition during the Spring 2019 semester. I truly do attribute my success at the competition to the skills I learned in LAWR (...and to some of Ave's finest professors and my amazing competition partner, Eric Leeman!).

the writing process like I was taught, I was able to produce a writing product that I was proud to submit.

In reality, taking those additional steps, that seemed time consuming in the short term, were actually the most efficient and time saving in the long run.

Additionally, the oral advocacy we're taught in LAWR II & III helped me organize and present my arguments at the competition. The LAWR professors prepared me well for tackling challenging questions and hypotheticals.

I remember when my partner and I began writing our appellate brief for the competition, we felt overwhelmed and under a time crunch due to the stress of balancing our classes, extracurriculars, and the competition preparation. Admittedly, I tried to take a shortcut in the writing process and just sit down and write. I learned quickly that LAWR teaches us a writing process for a reason. The stress of the approaching deadline for my brief made me want to skip the research, pre-planning, and revision steps that I was taught in LAWR.

“I learned quickly that LAWR teaches us a writing process for a reason. Once I . . . used techniques such as outlining and making a case matrix, and went through the writing process like I was taught, I was able to produce a writing product that I was proud to submit.”

Once I took a step back, used techniques such as outlining and making a case matrix, and went through

WIN AN

GIFTCARD! (Details below) The first two students to correctly respond to the following question, will win a $10 gift card at Amazon.com. Email your answer to: LAWRCoordinator@avemarialaw.edu and include the subject line “Bluebook Answers.” [Full citation is required to win.]

Question: You want to include a pincite in your document. The online database includes the citation as follows: Wilton v. Grady, 374 U.S. 43,* 77 S. Ct. 606,** 99 L. Ed. 853,*** 1962 U.S. LEXIS 2055**** (1962). The pincites that you find within the document are listed as follows: [*46] [**607] [***857] [****6]. What is the official Bluebook citation for the pincite for this case?

Published by the Legal Analysis, Writing, & Research Department Editor: Wendy Tenzer Thanks to Val Oliver Eric Fleetham, Director and Assistant Professor of LAWR Wendy Tenzer, Assistant Director & Assistant Professor of LAWR Scott Daniels, Assistant Professor of LAWR Julie Simpson, Assistant Professor of LAWR Bruce Connolly, Assistant Professor of LAWR Jane Lipnic, LAWR Coordinator

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