Insegnamento a.a. 2022-2023

Students will strengthen their skills and confidence as counsel in domestic and international matters by:

Upon completing this course, students should have the confidence to tackle any writing assignment they encounter in their careers as lawyers, and to continuously build their skills as legal writers. The writing assignments arise from common situations that lawyers encounter. For example, in one assignment, students receive confidential instructions from their clients on what they desire in a contract. After a brief negotiation with the other side’s counsel, students will draft the contract clauses that reflect the agreed terms, and submit this to their counterpart for review. Both the course instructor and the counterpart provide feedback on the proposed text.

 Using a workshop format, class sessions typically are in three parts:
1. Discussion of key concepts,
2. Student interaction in negotiating and drafting legal content, and
3. Practical exercises to build skills in writing that is smooth, easy to understand, and persuasive.

Each class concludes with a short writing assignment so that the instructor can provide feedback before the next lesson.

The writing assignments are not graded, but they must be completed in order for the student to build skills and confidence as a writer (and also to receive course credit).

• Individual assignment (report, exercise, presentation, project work etc.)

• Group assignment (report, exercise, presentation, project work etc.)

• Active class participation (virtual, attendance)

There is no exam. The goal of the course is to make a substantial leap in the student’s legal writing ability. The instructor devotes considerable time to reviewing and discussing with each student the materials that they draft during or after the classes. Because the course is a workshop format - focusing on practical, real-life challenges - most of the writing assignments arise from short negotiations or role-playing that take place during class. Therefore, attendance provides students with the opportunity to obtain real, hands-on skills with the problems that lawyers typically face when writing.

There are only eight meetings of the class, with each is focused on particular skills and types of legal documents. While students can make up for one or two absences by coordinating with classmates and the professor on the content, missing more than this detracts from the student’s ability to get the most out of the course and receive timely and useful feedback from the instructor.

REQUIRED:  A.B. GARNER, Legal Writing in Plain English, A Text with Exercises, Univ. Chicago Press 2013, second edition, available in both paper copy or e-book (Kindle).

OPTIONAL:  M. Mcilwrath & G. Moser, Negotiating International Commercial Contracts (Eleven Int’l Publishing 2020).

ADDITIONAL:  The instructor will also make available briefing and other materials for assignments that will be uploaded in advance of each class meeting.