UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA SCHOOL OF LAW

Three full-time Legal Research and Writing professors teach the required first-year legal research and writing course. Each professor is eligible for the equivalent of 405(c) status after six years (two of the current legal writing professors have achieved that status) as well as promotion to the rank of Professor (currently, two have achieved that rank). The legal writing professors participate fully in the academic and administrative life of the law school, including voting rights (save for tenure decisions), law school committee assignments, and university-wide committee work. Our three professors have a combined 34 years of experience in teaching legal research and writing and 20 collective years of practice in law firms. Upperclass electives taught by them include Advanced Legal Writing, Pre-trial Litigation, Ethics, Professional Responsibility, Germs and Justice, and Biomedical Ethics and the Law. Publications include articles on bioethics and a CD-rom multimedia lecture series on the legal system.
Each legal writing professor teaches four sections of 30 students and works closely with upperclass students (Dillard Fellows) who assist in critiquing the students’ assignments and in holding conferences with each student. Students submit 11 assignments in the fall semester, including research exercises (tied in to the memoranda assignments), citation exercises, preliminary outlines, and three memoranda of increasing length and complexity. Two of the memoranda assignments require a rewrite. In the spring semester, the focus is on appellate advocacy. The students first submit an appellate brief (a draft and rewrite) and then present an oral argument in front of a panel of three judges consisting of a Dillard Fellow and two alumni/professors. The first-year legal writing curriculum is augmented by upper-class advocacy, researching, and oral communication courses.

Contact person: D. Ruth Buck, Professor, Legal Research & Writing; 434-924-1042; drb7c@virginia.edu.