Legal Profession Program
Legal Research and Writing Program
Our Legal Profession Program is a comprehensive two-semester, six-credit-hour sequence that you will take during your first year at the School of Law. These courses are devoted to building the legal research, analysis and writing skills used in today's law practice. Classes meet in small groups led by experienced full-time faculty who are at the forefront of trends in legal writing and research.
Our efforts to help you develop essential lawyering skills continue throughout the remainder of your legal studies. After your first year, you will continue to develop and refine your communication skills in other courses like Appellate Practice and Procedure, Transactional Drafting and in a capstone course during your final year of legal studies.
WSJ Law Blog
Professor Susan Wawrose and UDSL researchers conducted focus groups with legal employers to discover what is expected from law school graduates.
"Employers, particularly those with more years in practice, rely on new attorneys to be research experts. The employers in our focus groups have high expectations when it comes to new hires’ research skills, i.e., '[t]hey should be able to adequately and effectively find everything that’s up to the minute.'"
The time you spend in the program developing effective and persuasive writing techniques to develop clear and compelling arguments helps you stand out to a prospective employer.