WIDENER UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF LAW
Widener University School of Law in Wilmington, Delaware has a rigorously graded three-semester Legal Methods program in which our more than 300 first year students take Legal Methods I and II, followed by Legal Methods III in either semester of their second year. In all three semesters, class size is approximately twenty-five students; full-time professors normally teach two sections each semester. In our first year program, we use full-time Legal Methods professors, occasionally adding carefully selected adjuncts when enrollment requires creation of additional Legal Methods sections. In our third semester program, a blend of full-time Legal Methods professors, adjuncts, and full-time doctrinal professors teach sections of approximately twenty-five students. All eleven of our full-time Legal Methods professors, and our tenured director, practiced law before teaching. Our group includes professors with law firm, solo practice, public defender, and in-house counsel experience. Three of us clerked for federal district court judges; one of these three also clerked for two judges on the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. Five of us have published in law reviews or other law-related publications. We are proud of our diversity; our ranks include two African Americans, two men, and the current President of the Hispanic Bar Association of Pennsylvania. We have no cap on the number of years of service; our most recent turnover occurred when two professors moved on to tenure track, doctrinal positions—one of them here.
Our Legal Methods faculty collaboratively designed and continually updates a curriculum in which each semester’s lessons build upon and deepen students’ prior writing experiences. The first semester strongly emphasizes case reading and analytical skills. We work through exercises introducing and practicing the production of structured legal analysis generated through various case synthesis techniques. This work culminates in application of these skills to the cases to be used in the students’ first graded writing assignment, which is a closed memorandum. Before the closed memoranda are due, students submit drafts of their discussion sections; professors review and provide feedback on those drafts to guide students’ progress in case reading, synthesis, and analytic structure. Upon completion of the closed memoranda, we turn to teaching research skills as a natural extension of analytic skills. As they work on their second graded project for the first semester—a research memorandum—students learn case research techniques from their Legal Methods professors and apply them to their memoranda by working through a research roadmap that is assigned with the open memorandum. These roadmaps generically guide students through the steps of an organized research process, simultaneously modeling and keeping students on track with that process. Completed research steps are discussed in class sessions so that professors can efficiently guide and give feedback to students as they work on their research. In the second semester, we introduce persuasive writing skills and computer assisted as well as statutory research; we also continue work on analytic and synthesis skills in the context of persuasion with multiple classroom writing experiences and exercises. The semester’s main graded project is an appellate brief. Midway through the brief-writing process, we devote a week to individual conferences in which every student has an “oral report to the partner” experience. In these one-on-one sessions with their professors, students must explain their research progress and prospective arguments. This exercise permits us to identify and guide students who are having difficulty with the assignment, and gives students a “real practice” simulation. At the second semester’s end, all students engage in oral arguments judged by alumni, many of whom have judged and mentored our students for years. In the third semester, we focus on acculturating students to law practice. Students begin the semester with a graded client letter assignment. Within the scope of this assignment, they perform legal research to prepare for and conduct a simulated client interview. Through the interview, they collect the facts they need to draft the letter. After students submit their client letters, they continue work on the same “matter” with a complex memorandum of law in support of or opposition to a motion for summary judgment. This closed universe project, which includes extensive simulated materials such as business records, documents, deposition testimony, and expert reports, is designed to deepen students’ mastery of persuasive writing and fact analysis skills. Class sessions concurrent with this project explicitly focus upon these skills.
If you have questions, contact Mary Ellen Maatman, Associate Professor of Law and Director of the Legal Methods Program for Widener University School of Law in Wilmington, Delaware. My e-mail address is: MaryEllen.Maatman@law.widener.edu.
Our Legal Methods faculty collaboratively designed and continually updates a curriculum in which each semester’s lessons build upon and deepen students’ prior writing experiences. The first semester strongly emphasizes case reading and analytical skills. We work through exercises introducing and practicing the production of structured legal analysis generated through various case synthesis techniques. This work culminates in application of these skills to the cases to be used in the students’ first graded writing assignment, which is a closed memorandum. Before the closed memoranda are due, students submit drafts of their discussion sections; professors review and provide feedback on those drafts to guide students’ progress in case reading, synthesis, and analytic structure. Upon completion of the closed memoranda, we turn to teaching research skills as a natural extension of analytic skills. As they work on their second graded project for the first semester—a research memorandum—students learn case research techniques from their Legal Methods professors and apply them to their memoranda by working through a research roadmap that is assigned with the open memorandum. These roadmaps generically guide students through the steps of an organized research process, simultaneously modeling and keeping students on track with that process. Completed research steps are discussed in class sessions so that professors can efficiently guide and give feedback to students as they work on their research. In the second semester, we introduce persuasive writing skills and computer assisted as well as statutory research; we also continue work on analytic and synthesis skills in the context of persuasion with multiple classroom writing experiences and exercises. The semester’s main graded project is an appellate brief. Midway through the brief-writing process, we devote a week to individual conferences in which every student has an “oral report to the partner” experience. In these one-on-one sessions with their professors, students must explain their research progress and prospective arguments. This exercise permits us to identify and guide students who are having difficulty with the assignment, and gives students a “real practice” simulation. At the second semester’s end, all students engage in oral arguments judged by alumni, many of whom have judged and mentored our students for years. In the third semester, we focus on acculturating students to law practice. Students begin the semester with a graded client letter assignment. Within the scope of this assignment, they perform legal research to prepare for and conduct a simulated client interview. Through the interview, they collect the facts they need to draft the letter. After students submit their client letters, they continue work on the same “matter” with a complex memorandum of law in support of or opposition to a motion for summary judgment. This closed universe project, which includes extensive simulated materials such as business records, documents, deposition testimony, and expert reports, is designed to deepen students’ mastery of persuasive writing and fact analysis skills. Class sessions concurrent with this project explicitly focus upon these skills.
If you have questions, contact Mary Ellen Maatman, Associate Professor of Law and Director of the Legal Methods Program for Widener University School of Law in Wilmington, Delaware. My e-mail address is: MaryEllen.Maatman@law.widener.edu.
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