Overview
Learn from the best legal writing professors in the United States without traveling away from home. This course is open to lawyers, law students, and legal paraprofessionals in the U.S. and around the world. In the course, you will learn to write clearly, concisely and convincingly. We will focus on both the writing process and the nuts and bolts of effective Legal Writing.
The course starts with an overview of Legal Writing and the audience, purposes, and conventions for common legal documents. It then reviews of the basics of writing in English. After that, it moves addressing techniques for drafting clear sentences; for organizing a document and making your organization clear to the reader; and for writing concisely and persuasively. Along the way, you will receive practical tips for making each stage of the writing process more efficient and effective.
The course is asynchronous and self-paced. You will watch a series of recorded videos and complete exercises in which you practice the skills addressed in the videos. During the course, you will complete five short written assignments, and Professor Mimi Samuel will give you individualized feedback on each one of them. Professor Samuel has 26 years’ experience teaching law students in Seattle University’s top-ranked legal writing program, and she has taught legal writing to judges, magistrates, lawyers, and law students around the world, including in Uganda, South Africa, India, Sri Lanka, and China.
