'The Most Important Course in Law School': Five Experts Offer a Roadmap for Success in First-Year Legal Writing

Abstract

This article came about in an unusual way. Co-author McClurg, writing a book for Thomson West on how to succeed in the first-year of law school (published as 1L of a Ride: A Well-Traveled Professor's Roadmap to Success in the First Year of Law School), was struggling with how to meaningfully impart advice to new law students about legal writing courses, which are part of the required curriculum at nearly all U.S. law schools. He found, to his surprise, that existing law school prep books devote little or no attention to the subject. While some doctrinal professors have been slow to acknowledge the importance of legal writing courses, McClurg approached the book from the perspective that legal writing is the most important course in law school. Commentators and practitioners alike have made this assertion. The 2007 Carnegie Foundation report on legal education emphasized the advantages of legal writing courses for training students in legal analysis. Other well-known studies of U.S. legal education, including the Crampton report, MacCrate report, and, more recently, the Best Practices for Legal Education report, have all called for more skills training, including in the area of legal writing. The American Bar Association law school accreditation standards elevate first-year legal writing by making “a rigorous writing experience” the only specific curricular mandate of the first year. Co-author David Walter captured the principal reason for the primacy of legal writing courses when he said: “Because this is what lawyers do every hour, every day, every year of their careers - they speak and they write - and when they’re not speaking and writing, they’re listening and reading.” McClurg contacted the five co-authors of this article for help, all of whom are legal writing professors, and posed a series of key questions about succeeding in first-year legal writing courses. Their answers form the bulk of the article.