Legal Research and Writing for Non-Lawyers

This class will teach students how to perform legal research, writing, and analysis. Students will learn how to identify, use, and analyze primary and secondary legal authorities to solve legal problems and how to structure and draft legal memoranda, letters, oral presentations, and other professional communications.

By the end of this course, students should be able to:

Demonstrate a general knowledge of the structure, components, and functioning of the US legal system.
Comprehend and explain the reasoning and rules contained in legal authorities and apply them in a variety of client situations.
Understand when and how to employ simple strategies and technologies to retrieve, use, and manage well-known and commonly used research materials and information.