Legal Education's Perfect Storm: Law Students' Poor Writing and Legal Analysis Skills Collide with Dismal Employment Prospects, Creating the Urgent Need to Reconfigure the First-Year Curriculum

Viator, James Etienne

Abstract

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Legal Education's Perfect Storm: Law Students' Poor Writing and Legal Analysis Skills Collide with Dismal Employment Prospects, Creating the Urgent Need to Reconfigure the First-Year Curriculum

James Etienne Viator

Loyola University New Orleans College of Law

September 6, 2012

Loyola University New Orleans College of Law Research Paper No. 2012-14
61 Catholic University Law Review 735 (2012)

Abstract:
This article addresses concerns about the quality of legal education, specifically law schools’ perceived failure in teaching legal writing and critical thinking skills. The solution suggested is, instead of teaching rhetoric or legal reasoning as a separate course (or integrated with a school’s legal research and writing course), for law schools to adopt the Iowa model of integrating the teaching of these skills into first-year casebook courses.

Number of Pages in PDF File: 39

Keywords: legal education, legal writing, legal rhetoric, critical thinking

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Date posted: September 6, 2012 ; Last revised: January 1, 2013

Suggested Citation

Viator, James Etienne, Legal Education's Perfect Storm: Law Students' Poor Writing and Legal Analysis Skills Collide with Dismal Employment Prospects, Creating the Urgent Need to Reconfigure the First-Year Curriculum (September 6, 2012). Loyola University New Orleans College of Law Research Paper No. 2012-14; 61 Catholic University Law Review 735 (2012). Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=2142812

Contact Information

James Etienne Viator (Contact Author)

Loyola University New Orleans College of Law ( email )

7214 St. Charles Ave., Box 901
Campus Box 901
New Orleans, LA 70118
United States