Roger Williams University School of Law

The administration and faculty at Roger Williams University School of Law place great value on teaching students legal research, writing, and lawyering skills. Students at Roger Williams take four required semesters of Legal Methods during their law school career. During their first year, students take Legal Methods I in the fall, in which they learn legal research, predictive legal writing, and analysis through a series of six required assignments, culminating in two drafts of an open-universe office memorandum. During the spring of the first year, students take Legal Methods II, in which they learn persuasive legal writing, trial brief writing, written and oral appellate advocacy, client interviewing, and negotiation skills. The spring semester assignments include a short predictive writing assignment, a trial brief memorandum, and a client letter, culminating in two drafts of an appellate brief and an oral argument before a panel of judges comprised of local attorneys and judges. Students receive extensive written and oral feedback on each assignment and have several opportunities to revise their papers. Moreover, as part of the oral advocacy unit, the Legal Methods faculty has led a trip for 30 first-year students to hear oral arguments before the United States Supreme Court and participate in a private question and answer session with Associate Justice Sandra Day O’Connor. In addition to the required first-year course, students must take two more semesters of Legal Methods, choosing from a menu of courses including Legal Drafting, Advanced Legal Writing, Advanced Legal Research, Advanced Appellate Advocacy, ADR, and Client Interviewing and Counseling. All Legal Methods classes are taught in seminar-size classes of 12-15, and total student loads for full-time faculty members are kept small to allow for frequent and extensive individualized feedback.

The first-year Legal Methods classes are taught by seven full-time, long-term contract Professors of Legal Writing, all of whom are committed to the school, the development of the Legal Methods program, and to careers teaching legal writing. Each member of the Legal Methods faculty attends and participates in regional and national legal writing conferences and list discussions, and several regularly present and publish in the area of legal writing pedagogy. Upper-level methods classes are taught by both Legal Writing Professors and tenured, doctrinal faculty members. Professors of Legal Writing are fully integrated into the faculty at Roger Williams. They serve on law school committees, attend faculty meetings, receive book and travel budgets, are eligible for summer research grants and sabbaticals, and teach other courses, including non-methods seminars. In addition, Legal Methods faculty and students at Roger Williams are supported by a full-time writing specialist and a full-time director of academic support. The writing specialist supports the Professors of Legal Writing in the classroom; holds optional group sessions on legal writing topics, such as grammar and sentence-level writing, editing techniques, and implementing the TRRAC format; and meets with students one-on-one to work on their writing.

Contact person for more information on the program:
jelliott@rwu.edu

To access biographies and further information on the Legal Methods faculty members (Cecily Banks, Elizabeth Colt, Jessica Elliott, Lisa McElroy, Jane Rindsberg, Ellen Saideman, and B. Mitchell Simpson) see: http://www.law.rwu.edu