University of Maine School of Law
The Legal Research and Writing Program at the University of Maine is unique in several ways. The program offers integrated legal research and writing instruction, led by a team of two full-time writing professors, two reference librarians, and six third-year students. The two-semester, six-credit program focuses on teaching objective writing in the fall and advocacy in the spring. The first-year class is divided into six writing groups of approximately fourteen students who are taught once a week by a professor, who focuses on legal analysis and writing skills, and once a week by a third-year legal writing instructor, who works with a reference librarian to teach research, citation, and legal writing skills. Although students turn in individual assignments, they are each assigned a writing partner with whom to collaborate throughout the year. Students are actually required to exchange papers and give each other feedback as a part of the course. We believe that teaching students the skills of collaboration is an important part of our mission.
Involving third-year student instructors who are both outstanding legal writers and role models for the first-year students is a cornerstone of our program. Because of our small class size, students learn in groups no larger than fourteen from both a professor who has experience practicing law and a third-year student who understands the challenges of law school. At the University of Maine, the legal writing instructors are involved in all aspects of the program, not just teaching certain skills like citation. They read the first drafts of student papers and help the students get oriented before the professors read their interim and final drafts.
During the first semester, students are introduced to a case currently on appeal before the Maine Supreme Judicial Court. The lawyers actually arguing the appeal come to class to discuss the case with the students, who must write two drafts of a closed universe bench memo on the case. After the bench memos are handed in, the whole class attends the oral argument and talk with the attorneys afterward, right in the courthouse. This program is only possible through the outstanding relationship our program maintains with the Court. Each fall, the director of the program chooses a case from those filed with the Court, and the Clerk of the Court schedules the argument at a time that is convenient for the legal writing class.
While the students are preparing their bench memos, they are learning research skills in preparation for their other assignments in the fall: an open-universe objective memo, based on the research they have been conducting, and a client letter, explaining their conclusions to a hypothetical client. In the fall, students also learn citation through practice sessions--“Citation Feud”--based on the television program “Family Feud.” We also coach them on exam-taking techniques toward the end of the semester.
In the spring, students write a brief and argue a case currently pending in the United States Supreme Court. Panels of lawyers and judges from the community hear their oral arguments and critique their performances. In preparation for Moot Court, several judges always talk to the class, including the Chief Justice of the Maine Supreme Court, Hon. Leigh I. Saufley, and the Senior Judge of the First Circuit Court of Appeals, Hon. Frank M. Coffin, both good friends of the school and the Legal Writing Program. Often a Maine lawyer who has argued in the United States Supreme Court will talk to the students as well.
Although Maine is a small, public law school that lacks many of the resources available to larger, private schools, we are proud of the way we have been able to enrich our students’ learning experience by enlisting lawyers and judges from the community to help. In addition, we offer many opportunities for students to meet individually, with their writing partner, or in small groups with the professors in the program. Students are also required to meet once each semester for an individual conference with their writing instructor. This combination of real world wisdom and close personal attention are the hallmarks of our program. Although our faculty does not yet have tenure-track status, the director of the program, now in her tenth year, is on a long-term (five-year) renewable contract. Our other faculty member, the Legal Writing Fellow, is in a two-year capped position.
For more information, contact Prof. Nancy Wanderer (207) 780-4096, wanderer@usm.maine.edu.
Involving third-year student instructors who are both outstanding legal writers and role models for the first-year students is a cornerstone of our program. Because of our small class size, students learn in groups no larger than fourteen from both a professor who has experience practicing law and a third-year student who understands the challenges of law school. At the University of Maine, the legal writing instructors are involved in all aspects of the program, not just teaching certain skills like citation. They read the first drafts of student papers and help the students get oriented before the professors read their interim and final drafts.
During the first semester, students are introduced to a case currently on appeal before the Maine Supreme Judicial Court. The lawyers actually arguing the appeal come to class to discuss the case with the students, who must write two drafts of a closed universe bench memo on the case. After the bench memos are handed in, the whole class attends the oral argument and talk with the attorneys afterward, right in the courthouse. This program is only possible through the outstanding relationship our program maintains with the Court. Each fall, the director of the program chooses a case from those filed with the Court, and the Clerk of the Court schedules the argument at a time that is convenient for the legal writing class.
While the students are preparing their bench memos, they are learning research skills in preparation for their other assignments in the fall: an open-universe objective memo, based on the research they have been conducting, and a client letter, explaining their conclusions to a hypothetical client. In the fall, students also learn citation through practice sessions--“Citation Feud”--based on the television program “Family Feud.” We also coach them on exam-taking techniques toward the end of the semester.
In the spring, students write a brief and argue a case currently pending in the United States Supreme Court. Panels of lawyers and judges from the community hear their oral arguments and critique their performances. In preparation for Moot Court, several judges always talk to the class, including the Chief Justice of the Maine Supreme Court, Hon. Leigh I. Saufley, and the Senior Judge of the First Circuit Court of Appeals, Hon. Frank M. Coffin, both good friends of the school and the Legal Writing Program. Often a Maine lawyer who has argued in the United States Supreme Court will talk to the students as well.
Although Maine is a small, public law school that lacks many of the resources available to larger, private schools, we are proud of the way we have been able to enrich our students’ learning experience by enlisting lawyers and judges from the community to help. In addition, we offer many opportunities for students to meet individually, with their writing partner, or in small groups with the professors in the program. Students are also required to meet once each semester for an individual conference with their writing instructor. This combination of real world wisdom and close personal attention are the hallmarks of our program. Although our faculty does not yet have tenure-track status, the director of the program, now in her tenth year, is on a long-term (five-year) renewable contract. Our other faculty member, the Legal Writing Fellow, is in a two-year capped position.
For more information, contact Prof. Nancy Wanderer (207) 780-4096, wanderer@usm.maine.edu.
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