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LAW-2265 Advanced Legal Writing
Prof. Dyane O'Leary, Prof. Herbert N. Ramy, Ms. Ann McGonigle Santos, Prof. Philip C.
Kaplan,
3 credits day; 3 credits evening.
A comprehensive review of the principles of good legal writing. Major assignments include
drafting a legal document and writing a brief. Individual conferences supplement the lectures.
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
: Attorney Janda: My advanced legal writing class requires students to draft a
substantial appellate brief (typically 35-45 pages). More specifically, I give students a transcript
and defendant’s appellate brief from an actual case and require them to draft, in the role of an
assistant district attorney, the Commonwealth’s brief in response to the defendant’s brief. In
addition to the format and structure of a brief, the class lectures focus heavily on legal analysis