Learning to write like a lawyer is perhaps the greatest challenge of legal education. The writing faculty support Duke Law students in all of their writing endeavors, helping them to develop and perfect the skills necessary to produce top-quality legal writing.
First-year 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 Resources 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. (The writing faculty for the first-year course are listed below.) In 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 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 a number of 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.
Workshops, Lectures & Consultations
Advanced Legal Writing
Professor Joan Magat offers a series of workshops for 2Ls and 3Ls who wish to hone their legal writing or editing skills. Workshops focus on topics such as cohesive writing, conciseness, clarity, and style. (more info)
Student Early Stages
This workshop provides students the opportunity to share their scholarship with other students. Students present their writings and receive feedback from peers and guidance from faculty advisors. (more info)
Legal Writing for LLM students
Professor Amy Davis offers a workshop for LLM students who are writing academic research papers or working on improving their legal writing in English. Students may attend this workshop in conjunction to taking the course Legal Analysis, Research and Writing for International Students (195.01).
Lecture Series: Writing from the Reader's Perspective
Professor George Gopen offers a series of lectures at the beginning of the second term on writing from the reader's perspective.
Writing Consultations
Professor Gopen holds regular office hours for consultations with students on style, mechanics, and argument structure in specific writing projects. (more info)
Faculty Resources
Please contact faculty with questions about writing workshops:
| Director of Legal Writing | Diane Dimond |
| Required First Year Writing Course | Allison Kort Hans Linnartz Sarah Ludington Jeremy Mullem Jo Ann Ragazzo |
| LLM Writing Course: Legal Analysis, Research and Writing for International Students | Jennifer Maher Amy Davis Deborah Ross |
| Legal Writing Workshop for LLM students | Amy Davis |
| Appellate Practice | Jeffrey Welty |
| Advanced Legal Writing | Joan Magat |
| Lecture Series: Writing from the Reader's Perspective Writing Consultations | George Gopen |