Advanced Writing: Interpretation and Application of Statutes

Limit: 16 students.

Description: Statutes and administrative rules touch almost every aspect of the practice of law. Accordingly, lawyers need to develop the skills necessary to advise clients and advocate on their behalf regarding their rights and obligations under complex statutory and regulatory schemes. This seminar will help students develop skills that lawyers use regularly, including developing strategies for assessing statutory and regulatory schemes, refining research skills, using interpretive tools, and developing methods for writing a sound legal analysis.

Using case files, students will research and analyze statutory or regulatory provisions and will draft both objective and persuasive documents analyzing the law on behalf of a client. Students will gain experience analyzing the role of text, context, legislative history, precedent, and extrinsic sources in statutory and regulatory interpretation. Other topic areas may include judicial interpretation of laws enacted through initiative and referendum and the interplay between constitutions, statutes, regulations, and common law.

Students will write three assignments, receive written feedback and confer individually with the professor. Based on feedback provided by the professor, students must rewrite one of the assignments. During the semester, time is spent considering the principles of good writing and how to evaluate written documents for organization, sound analysis, and clarity of ideas. Students also have opportunities to evaluate, edit, and revise the written work of practicing lawyers and evaluate the work of their peers. Assessment of written work includes assessment of organization, analysis, clarity, precision, professionalism, and the ability to use feedback to revise their work.

Meets the WIE writing requirement.