University of Southern California

USC’s legal writing program has evolved greatly in the past few years. First-year students in the required course are taught in small sections of approximately 17 students each, ensuring that they get close attention. They are team-taught by an adjunct professor and an upper-level student legal writing fellow. Our adjuncts have included U.S. magistrate judges, Assistant United States Attorneys, law firm partners, in-house counsel, and public interest attorneys. Many of them return year after year to teach the class, gaining valuable experience in the classroom. Our student fellows (who are paid and receive course credit) play an integral role in the classroom, leading exercises and meeting with students in office hours. All of the papers are critiqued and graded solely by the adjunct professors, however. The class is worth two credits each semester and is graded, and the students’ grade counts in their overall GPA.

USC regularly offers advanced Legal Writing and Advocacy classes for upper-level students, in such subjects as contract drafting and appellate advocacy. In addition, USC offers legal writing classes for international LL.M. students, focusing specifically on the special training they need to learn legal writing American-style.

The director of the USC Legal Writing and Advocacy Program is Jean Rosenbluth. She can be reached at jrosenbl@law.usc.edu.