I realize that I am not at a “Tier One” school where the focus is academic research. However, my school aggressively touted their legal writing program as a selling point and I bought it.
But now that I’ve been through a semester of it and I’m deep into the first assignment of the second semester. It’s become clear: this is not about writing; it’s about job training.
I don’t actually have a problem with that. But I do wish it had been billed that way. I understand the need to teach us how to structure memorandum, complaints, motions, memorandum in support of motions, briefs, etc. But the bulk of our time is spent going over rote procedural points that could, I think, easily been gleaned out of a text book or by example.
We don’t spend any time in class analyzing our thought processes, our word choice, the logical structure of our arguments. That’s sloughed off with the “Neumann Paradigm” which is to be committed to memory, and serve as the boiler plate for all of our writing moving forward. Fine. That’s all fine. It’s just a let-down.
But the kicker, the thing that actually bothers me is the constant, “the first assignment you’ll get when you join a firm.” Or, “this is how the partner you’re working for is going to want this.” Or, “the first few years at your firm are going to be spent doing this.”
God forbid any of us should want to start a solo practice. Or work for the state.
Or go into public service. Or consult. Or any number of things we could accomplish with our training.
This assumption that we’re all automatons gearing up to practice BIGLAW, go the traditional wage slave, er, associate route is *so* 1950. I know law is slow to change, but really, this is 2005. There are probably as many different reasons for being here as there are students. And a significant portion of us probably don’t want to practice BIGLAW. So fine, teach the course like we’re all going to end up the Anonymous Lawyer, but c’mon throw the rest of us a bone every now and then with an assignment that might actually pique our interest. And stop ramming the, “this is the way it will be” down our throat.
Dude, I hate to sound like a Limbaugh fan or sometime, but, well: Ditto! My experience in legal writing at a “tier one” school was exactly like this. I feel like I got some great professional training, but there was little to no focus on the mechanics of writing or the finer points. It was all about form, very little about substance. Still, I haven’t set foot one in BigLaw but I’ve done legal writing for several non-profits and the gov’t (public defender), and the mechanical/formal lessons of the legal writing class have been very useful in those places. Just because they only use BigLaw as an example doesn’t make the lessons inapplicable to other pursuits, I guess. That’s not really the point (the problem is the assumptoin that we’re all just greedy bastards), but it may be some comfort as you finish the class.