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.
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The American Bar Association accreditation standards require students to regularly attend the courses in which they are registered. Lewis & Clark expects students to attend classes regularly and to prepare for classes conscientiously. Specific attendance requirements may vary from course to course. Any attendance guidelines for a given class must be provided to students in a syllabus or other written document at the start of the semester. Sanctions (e.g., required withdrawal from the course, grade adjustment, and/or a failing grade) will be imposed for poor attendance.
Law Registrar is located in Legal Research Center on the Law Campus.
MSC: 51
email lawreg@lclark.edu
voice 503-768-6614
fax 503-768-6850
Registrar Tiffany Henning
Law Registrar
Lewis & Clark Law School
10101 S. Terwilliger Boulevard MSC 51
Portland OR 97219