THE IMPORTANCE OF LEGAL WRITING SKILLS
THE IMPORTANCE OF LEGAL WRITING SKILLS
KATHRYN R. L. RAND Dean, University of North Dakota School of Law
Earlier this year, I had the opportunity to visit with an alum who is in-house counsel for a large financial corporation. As I often do with our alumni, I asked him what was the most important skill we could teach our students so they could follow in his footsteps. In other words, what should we focus on in our curriculum to equip our graduates for successful legal careers? He didn’ t hesitate with his two-word answer:“ Legal writing.”
In fact, that’ s what I hear consistently from lawyers across our state and nation, and from a cross-section of legal careers. Competent writing skills, backed up by efficient research and solid analytical skills, are always at the top of any list of the essential skills for attorneys.
The data supports what our alums are saying. In a 2013 survey, law firm partners in Minnesota rated effective written and oral communication skills as the second most important qualification they look for in hiring new associates.( The most important was integrity.) According to another recent survey of Midwestern law firms, legal employers value the fundamental practical skills of legal research and writing, along with interpersonal skills, most highly in hiring decisions.
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Further, legal writing, research, and analysis skills are central to the bar exam. Two written components – the Multistate Essay Examination( MEE) and the Multistate Performance Test( MPT)– focus on these skills:
The purpose of the MEE is to test the examinee’ s ability to( 1) identify legal issues raised by a hypothetical factual situation;( 2) separate material which is relevant from that which is not;( 3) present a reasoned analysis of the relevant issues in a clear, concise, and well-organized composition; and( 4) demonstrate an understanding of the fundamental legal principles relevant to the probable solution of the issues raised by the factual situation. The primary distinction between the MEE and the Multistate Bar Examination( MBE) [ the multiple-choice component of the bar exam ] is that the MEE requires the examinee to demonstrate an ability to communicate effectively in writing.
The MPT is designed to test an examinee’ s ability to use fundamental lawyering skills in a realistic situation and complete a task that a beginning lawyer should be able to accomplish. The MPT is not a test of substantive knowledge. Rather, it is designed to evaluate certain fundamental skills lawyers are expected to demonstrate regardless of the area of law in which the skills are applied.
Together, the MEE and the MPT account for 50 percent of the score on the Uniform Bar Exam, which is now used in 26 states, including North Dakota.
In other words, if the goal is to produce practice-ready law graduates who will be competitive on the legal job market, then our curriculum must provide high-quality teaching in legal writing, research, and analysis.
That’ s been central to our curriculum development for nearly two decades. In fact, UND School of Law was at the forefront in investing in the first-year legal writing program. We developed the two-semester sequence in Lawyering Skills over a decade ago and staffed it with full-time, tenureeligible faculty. Lawyering Skills is the core foundational practical skills course in the law school’ s curriculum. It is designed to provide students with a solid base of legal writing, research, and analysis skills.
Each year, faculty teaching in this area work to enhance the course. As Lawyering Skills is currently taught, the course focuses on effective written communication, factual analysis, legal analysis and reasoning, organization, and problem-solving. Students compete numerous assignments over the course of the year and receive extensive feedback on their work, including through one-on-one meetings with faculty.
Students then hone these basic skills throughout the second and third year curriculum, including through two new course requirements: the Intensive Writing Experience course requirement, where students work closely with faculty on writing projects with extensive individualized feedback, and the Intensive Legal Reading, Writing, and Analysis course, designed for students who are still building the