Legal Research and Writing (LLM Only - Compressed) (LAW-580L-001)
Jessica Tannenbaum
Meets: 04:00 PM - 07:00 PM (Tu) - Warren - Room N102
Enrolled: 13 / Limit: 40
Notices
There are no notices at this time.
Description
Legal Research and Writing will introduce LL.M. students to practical American legal writing, research, and analysis and develop skills that are necessary to practice in the U.S. legal system. By the end of the course, students will be able to read and brief US cases, conduct US legal research and analysis, draft client communications, identify legal issues in facts and apply rules to facts, construct legal arguments, and incorporate the results of their legal research into legal memoranda using proper formatting and legal citations.
Key learning outcomes:
• Understand the US legal system and the sources of US law
• Read, summarize, and brief US cases
• Develop a thesis statement and craft a legal argument
• Understand court rulings and synthesize legal rules
• Analyze cases and statutes and write a legal memo
• Cite legal sources using Bluebook format
Textbooks and Other Materials
The textbook information on this page was provided by the instructor. Students should use this information when considering purchases from the AU Campus Store or other vendors. Students may check to determine if books are currently available for purchase online.
Required Texts:
Laurie Currie Oates and Anne Enquist, Just Memos (4th ed. 2014).
THE BLUEBOOK: A UNIFORM SYSTEM OF CITATION (Columbia Law Review Ass'n et al. eds., 20th ed. 2015).
Recommended Reading List
These books should be available in the WCL library but you are also welcome to borrow them from Professor Tannenbaum for short periods of time.
Practical Legal Writing for Law Students:
Richard K. Neumann et al, Legal Reasoning and Legal Writing (8th ed. 2017).
Laurie Currie Oates and Anne Enquist, Just Memos (4th ed. 2014). [Required text for this course.]
Advanced Academic Research and Writing for Non-Americans (includes section on writing for exams):
Nadia E. Nedzel, Legal Reasoning, Research, and Writing for International Graduate Students (4th ed. 2016).
Writing Class Papers:
Eugene Volokh, Academic Legal Writing: Law Review Articles, Student Notes, Seminar Papers, and Getting on Law Review (5th ed. 2016)
Elizabeth Fajans and Mary R. Falk, Scholarly Writing for Law Students: Seminar Papers, Law Review Notes, and Law Review Competition Papers (5th ed. 2017).
Practice-Oriented Writing:
Elizabeth Fajans et al, Writing for Law Practice: Advanced Legal Writing (3rd ed. 2015).
Ian Gallacher, A Form and Style Manual for Lawyers (2005).
Legal Reference:
BLACK’S LAW DICTIONARY (Bryan A. Garner, ed., 11th ed. 2019).
THE BLUEBOOK: A UNIFORM SYSTEM OF CITATION (Columbia Law Review Ass'n et al. eds., 20th ed. 2015). [Required text for this course.]
General Style and Grammar:
THE CHICAGO MANUAL OF STYLE (U. Chi. Press eds., 17th ed. 2017). [Note: While the Chicago Manual does provide citation formats, citations for law school classes should always be in Bluebook format, not Chicago Manual format.]
Lynne Truss, Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation (2003).
William Strunk Jr. and E.B. White, The Elements of Style (4th ed. 2019).
First Class Readings
Just Memos chapter 1
Syllabus
Use your MyAU username and password to access the syllabus in the following format(s):
Microsoft Word 2007 (DOCX)