Gonzaga University School of Law
Gonzaga has a required four-semester LR&W Program taught by seven experienced LR&W professors, who are eligible for long-term security, and have full voting rights and representation on faculty committees.
The first-year course, LR&W I & II, is a year-long, four-credit class. It focuses on developing and refining the following skills: legal analysis; legal research, both in print sources and on-line; and objective, predictive legal writing. Students work on a series of increasingly complex research and writing projects, i.e., legal memoranda and opinion letters. In the first semester, the first two projects are closed universe. The teachers fully critique these projects but do not assign a grade. Both projects emphasize legal analysis. Students then write at least one open research memo that is fully critiqued, but not graded in that semester. The final open research memo is fully graded. In the second semester, students focus on more complex resources such as constitutional provisions, statutes, legislative history, and administrative regulations. They write two open memos on complex issues and an opinion letter from one of their memos. Their final memo is graded. Students also take a graded research test at the end of each semester. In addition, throughout each semester, students are also writing shorter pieces and keeping research journals that are critiqued by the teachers. The goal is to teach the skill, critique the skill, and then grade the skill each semester. Individual conferences and rewrites are hallmarks of the first-year writing program.
The second-year classes (two credits) focus on transactional drafting and persuasive writing. The first-semester class, LR&W III, focuses on introducing students to transactional drafting with an ungraded contract drafting exercise. Students then move on to persuasive writing through a series of litigation documents. They start with a demand letter and then move on to a draft and a rewrite of a motion for summary judgment with supporting memorandum, exhibits, and affidavits. For the final semester, in LR&W IV, students work in pairs on an appellate brief. They then argue that brief either in a classroom setting or through our intra-school moot court competition that culminates in oral argument before members of the Washington, Idaho, Montana, and Alaska Supreme Courts.
The LR&W faculty are ranked professors and have the opportunity to apply for five-year, presumptively renewable contracts in their fourth year of teaching LR&W. LR&W faculty have full voting rights and representation on all faculty committees. LR&W teachers often chair faculty committees. The teaching load varies depending on enrollment. LR&W teachers may teach outside the LR&W curriculum and are eligible for sabbaticals and full research stipends. Finally, the LR&W Program encourages academic freedom. Although the LR&W teachers coordinate the number and types of formal assignments, each teacher is free to develop syllabi and select textbooks.
The first-year course, LR&W I & II, is a year-long, four-credit class. It focuses on developing and refining the following skills: legal analysis; legal research, both in print sources and on-line; and objective, predictive legal writing. Students work on a series of increasingly complex research and writing projects, i.e., legal memoranda and opinion letters. In the first semester, the first two projects are closed universe. The teachers fully critique these projects but do not assign a grade. Both projects emphasize legal analysis. Students then write at least one open research memo that is fully critiqued, but not graded in that semester. The final open research memo is fully graded. In the second semester, students focus on more complex resources such as constitutional provisions, statutes, legislative history, and administrative regulations. They write two open memos on complex issues and an opinion letter from one of their memos. Their final memo is graded. Students also take a graded research test at the end of each semester. In addition, throughout each semester, students are also writing shorter pieces and keeping research journals that are critiqued by the teachers. The goal is to teach the skill, critique the skill, and then grade the skill each semester. Individual conferences and rewrites are hallmarks of the first-year writing program.
The second-year classes (two credits) focus on transactional drafting and persuasive writing. The first-semester class, LR&W III, focuses on introducing students to transactional drafting with an ungraded contract drafting exercise. Students then move on to persuasive writing through a series of litigation documents. They start with a demand letter and then move on to a draft and a rewrite of a motion for summary judgment with supporting memorandum, exhibits, and affidavits. For the final semester, in LR&W IV, students work in pairs on an appellate brief. They then argue that brief either in a classroom setting or through our intra-school moot court competition that culminates in oral argument before members of the Washington, Idaho, Montana, and Alaska Supreme Courts.
The LR&W faculty are ranked professors and have the opportunity to apply for five-year, presumptively renewable contracts in their fourth year of teaching LR&W. LR&W faculty have full voting rights and representation on all faculty committees. LR&W teachers often chair faculty committees. The teaching load varies depending on enrollment. LR&W teachers may teach outside the LR&W curriculum and are eligible for sabbaticals and full research stipends. Finally, the LR&W Program encourages academic freedom. Although the LR&W teachers coordinate the number and types of formal assignments, each teacher is free to develop syllabi and select textbooks.
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