Ah, another Friday, another week of law school behind me. Am I looking forward to this weekend as a chance to relax, watch ND lose to Michigan, and do a little bit of reading?
No, and the reason for this is the evilness that is known as Legal Writing.
This is, by far, the most annoying course in my law school lineup (and not just because it meets at 8am). The amount of work assigned for that class is vastly disproportionate to the number of credits designated (2). But at least there is some warning on the syllabus as to how much must be accomplished, right? Not when our professor continually adds assignments. Sometimes these assignments come as barely intelligible emails, but more frequently she decides to throw them at us after class (which tends to run 10 minutes late as it is).
Frequently these assignments have little to no direction, leaving us to fumble around trying to do what is asked and earning only a "No, that's not right," come next class period. The textbook and course packet offer little in the ways of suggestions, and when one tries to follow the meager guidelines they do contain, the result is often the same rebuke as above.
We've now been given all the materials for our office memo, and a collection of "closed universe" cases to use. We briefed these cases for class yesterday. We then spent the entire class period discussing the cases and talking in circles about the relative merits of each case. The general class consensus seems to be that half the cases we've been given have virtually no applicable value to our fact pattern. Another student kept trying to use cases referenced by the cases we have (which lie outside of our little closed universe). In short, we were unable to determine a "rule of law" during class. Then came the assignment. By Sunday (that's two days before our next class) we are to synthesize all 8 cases to develop a single rule of law to apply to our case, then write up about half of the entire memo and email it all to her.
Ordinarily, this would just be a pain. But this weekend is a little bit different: it's Michigan weekend. The better part of our class has friends and family coming in from out of town, and there's a pretty good chance that few people will get much done. In light of these facts, one student asked if the due date could be pushed back to Tuesday. Our prof responds, "I don't want to hear those kinds of reasons." Another student shot back, "What reasons would you prefer? That we're swamped with work and reading from other classes? What are the magic words you need to hear?"
To this our prof said, "Well whatever you choose to do is up to you. But if you don't get it in by Sunday I won't be able to give you feedback on Tuesday. The memo is due on the 23rd. It's your grade."
The class itself is frustrating and out of step with the rest of my classes. In briefing a case for my other classes, we simply need to get a sense of what happened and what the result was. We're responsible for relevant facts. In LegWri, you'd better know all the minute details. The number of the statute, the exact height of trees, the defendant's wife's cousin's dog's middle name. For one class, we were to write out a brief. I briefed the case as I'd been briefing cases for my other classes (and successfully, I might add), and was told that my brief was not detailed enough. I use my briefs to refresh my memory on what the case was about and to list the relevant facts. Arguably, my brief didn't include all the minutiae she asks for, and maybe I'd need a few more details to write about it. But without any direction, were we supposed to simply know, intuitively perhaps, to do all this?
Finally, we never seem to accomplish anything in class (and this is not just because it's held at 8am). At best we talk in circles. At worst, students ask questions to which she never seems to have an answer and instead relies on other students to suggest several options, and the matter is never fully resolved. In other classes, a certain sense of ambiguity is expected and even encouraged as a type of philosphical discussion. Yet in LegWri, we're supposed to miraculously figure it out on our own.
So the workload is on the heavier side. Fine, it's to be expected in law school. Notice is an issue, too. Ok, it throws my schedule for a loop but I can manage the occasional new assignment due in a short period of time. But it'd be nice if we received some input on how to do what we're assigned.
We're constantly told how important it is to be able to write well as a lawyer. How are we supposed to do that without direction? And if we're simply expected to pick it up by jumping in and doing it (without instruction save, possibly, learning from our mistakes), our prof could be a bit more understanding if we don't magically get it right the first time around.
Ok, so I seem pretty worked up about this. In all, I just find it to be annoying and needed to vent a bit of frustration. Things aren't all that bad, but there is a sense that I'm lost and not sure of what I'm doing. Thanks for your patience and any words of advice/comfort you care to post. I'll read them eventually, but for now it's back to toiling in the law library over this assignment due Sunday night...
