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

39 Pages Posted: 6 Sep 2012 Last revised: 1 Jan 2013

See all articles by James Etienne Viator

James Etienne Viator

Loyola University New Orleans College of Law

Date Written: September 6, 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.

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

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: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2142812

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

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