University of Texas

Legal Research & Legal Writing is a graded, year-long course. We control our own courses but work together to promote consistency. We use student TAs in the course, and we select them based on academics and writing ability; they must take an advanced-writing course to prepare for the job.

Our strengths are our faculty and some recent changes that improved our program. Our faculty: Those who teach the required course have a combined 30 years of teaching experience, and all graduated from top-15 law schools. They include a former law-firm partner, a former federal judicial clerk, two holders of graduate degrees in other fields, and the author of a book and two dozen articles on legal writing. Recent changes: We now have long-term contracts. The required course is now graded. And reliance on student TAs has been reduced. Since we’ve been freed from that supervisory work, we now offer more electives, including courses on brief writing, transactional drafting, and litigation writing, plus a seminar on legal writing.