Legal Analysis, Research, and Writing Program
Duke Law School's first-year Legal Analysis, Research, and Writing Program evidences the Law School's strong commitment to writing and research excellence. The Program, supplemented by the Legal Writing website, emphasizes the integration of legal analysis, writing, and research, and helps students to understand and consider the legal audience for whom they are writing. The research and writing faculty are paired for each section of students, providing opportunities for team-teaching and specialized instruction throughout the yearlong course. In their writing assignments, which range from short office memos to trial and appellate briefs, students master sophisticated research skills, complex analysis, careful construction of legal arguments, and the special requirements of legal prose. The intertwined research and writing tasks additionally enhance the retention of research skills and promote more effective research strategies.
The Legal Analysis, Research, and Writing Program is also distinguished by its use of writing faculty with substantial past law practice experience who have moved into the teaching of writing as their primary professional commitment and research faculty who are part of the Law School’s professional reference librarians, all of whom are also lawyers. Duke was one of the first top-tier law schools to employ writing faculty whose first professional commitment is teaching; at many other top-tier schools, these courses are still taught by upperclass law students, recent law graduates, or practitioners who serve as adjunct professors. The blend of academic strength and first-rate practical experience in the Duke Law Program results in a rigorous but richly rewarding experience.
To further enhance the instructional experience, the law school employs a writing specialist, Dr. George Gopen, who presents a series of lectures designed to make students better editors of their own writing. Dr. Gopen also holds weekly office hours at the law school to provide students with additional personalized assistance on their writing.
In the upper-level curriculum, the law school's advanced legal writing courses provide students with opportunities to hone further the legal writing skills taught in the first year. These courses are geared to specific subject-matter or legal writing settings, taught by the first-year writing faculty in small seminars, and include substantial feedback to students on their written products. Some of these courses also involve continued instruction in legal research.