Our Lawyering Process Program consists of a required nine graded credits, taught primarily by full-time unitary tenured and tenure track faculty dedicated to the field of legal writing. Our robust curriculum demonstrates our faculty’s commitment to a building a strong foundation in legal writing and lawyering skills.

Lawyering Process I
In the first semester of their 1L year, students are enrolled in a three-credit introductory course on legal writing, analysis, research, and skills. Our faculty design their own curricula, but each focus on the core skills of objective legal analysis, legal writing structure, basic legal research, and professional writing style. We also strive to expose our students to a variety of skills in their first semester, including client interviewing and counseling.

Lawyering Process II
In the second semester of their 1L year, students are enrolled in a three-credit legal writing course focused on preparing persuasive court-focused documents. Assignments in Lawyering Process II include demand letters, motions, research summaries, and appellate briefs. This semester builds on the foundation created in Lawyering Process I, and includes exposure to advanced legal research methods, additional sources including legislative history and regulations, and rhetorical methods. At the end of their second semester, each student prepares and delivers an appellate oral argument based on the assigned appellate brief problem.

Lawyering Process III
In their 2L and 3L years, students are required to enroll in an elective, upper-level, three credit legal writing course of their choice. The menu of choices is varied and gives students a chance to personalize their legal writing instruction. This approach also allows faculty to develop courses close to their own interests and permits for exceptional local practitioners to design and offer specialized courses on an adjunct basis. Lawyering Process III courses include topics such as: Transactional Drafting; Advanced Advocacy; Rhetoric and Persuasion; Judicial Opinion Writing; Legislative Drafting; Negotiation and Legal Writing; Drafting and Document Design; and more. 

The Value of Writing
The quality of a Lawyering Process Education at Boyd has been recognized both regionally and nationally by judges and employers.