First Year Study Aids: Lawyering Skills

Like the inaugural edition, this second edition of A Short & Happy Guide to Legal Writing provides a full concept of the history and practice of legal writing in the briefest of formats. The author recounts the theory of written laws from our British roots to the present American legal court system. The guide then transitions into teaching the framework and construction for written legal communication, explaining the underlying theory of citation, how to read precedent opinions. Complete with samples of case briefing, a useful paradigm for organizing predictive and persuasive analyses, complete interoffice and e-memos, updated, annotated examples of real appellate briefs, and more, this book packs a big punch in a small footprint.

This book provides a five-step guide to clear, precise, and effective legal writing and analysis for law students, other legal writers, and experienced lawyers. The guide includes keys to writing legal memoranda and briefs, organizing analysis, crafting clear and concise sentences, using legal language accurately, using grammar and punctuation properly, and writing persuasively using classical rhetorical techniques. The book describes a method for analyzing and improving individual writing style. It also includes new material on using inclusive language and how to effectively and appropriately use the assistance of Artificial Intelligence for legal documents and new sample legal documents in the Appendix to illustrate effective writing techniques.

This outline covers court systems, precedent, case reporting system (including regional and state reporters, citations, and case findings), statutes, constitutions, administrative agencies (including regulations), legislative history, and secondary sources (including treatises, law reviews, digests, and restatements). The outline also discusses Shepard's Citations and KeyCite, as well as headnotes and the West Key Number System. An introduction to the evolving role of artificial intelligence in legal research has been added, along with updates on computerized legal research, including Westlaw and Lexis. This edition also contains chapters on reading and understanding a case (including briefing a case), basic guidelines for legal writing, organizing your research, writing a memorandum of law, writing a brief, and writing an opinion or client letter.

This legal writing book is designed to help students learn and remember the basic elements of writing a legal memo. It focuses on the type of assignment that many young lawyers are given, which is to write a memo answering a specific legal question. It discusses each step in completing such an assignment, providing specific instructions and explanations. Students can also use this book as a reference when they begin practicing law.

Learning legal citation is one of the difficult (and sometimes admittedly annoying) tasks that students new to the law face. This book is designed to ease that task. It initially focuses on conventions that underlie all accepted forms and systems of legal citation. Building on that understanding and an explanation of the process of using citations in legal writing, the book then discusses and illustrates the particular rules of The Bluebook and the ALWD Citation Guide for citing cases, statutes, and all other major legal sources. Its unique appendices provide a useful reference resource to aid students in formulating citations.

Principles of Legal Research provides comprehensive yet concise coverage of resources and research methods suitable for all researchers. It explains the latest features of the major legal research platforms as well as hundreds of other free and subscription online resources. An introductory survey of research strategies is followed by discussion of major secondary source types, thorough treatment of the sources of U.S. law created by each branch of government, chapters on specialized resources for practitioners, and an overview of international and foreign law. This wholly revised edition adds coverage of artificial intelligence and its use in legal research, and other features include summary introductions to the book's parts, a reorganized case research chapter, and an expanded section on American Indian law. Legal citation tips and instructive illustrations are included throughout, and an appendix lists multivolume treatises by topic.

Finding and using legal resources effectively is an essential skill for lawyers. This comprehensive but succinct guide covers research procedures using major online services, free Internet resources, and library materials. The most heavily used commercial databases and authoritative, free online sources are discussed and placed in context for effective and productive use in research. Discussion includes coverage of primary and secondary legal resources, as well as legislative history, administrative law, specialized and interdisciplinary resources, and research in international and comparative law. Appendices list state research guides and leading treatises by subject.

The Fourth Edition of Examples & Explanations: Legal Writing explains what many professors consider to be effective writing, following the organization of typical first-year legal writing courses, and provides concrete examples for students to test their understanding of key legal writing concepts. Each chapter includes a checklist that can be easily transformed into a grading grid as well as chapter-by-chapter vocabulary that integrates your classroom instruction with these examples. This book--whether the entire book, selected chapters, or subsets of chapters--can accompany any legal writing textbook or materials you provide for your students.