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Legal Analysis, Writing & Research

Legal Analysis Writing & Research
LAWR Department Rules - August, 2008


Legal Analysis, Writing & Research is nationally recognized. U.S. News & World Report ranks Rutgers - Camden Legal Writing # 11, as voted on by other legal writing professors from around the country. As part of the Lawyering Programs, Legal Analysis, Writing & Research is integrated with the school's clinics, competitive moot court, and pro bono programs. This interdependence and client-centered focus is reflected in the collaboration among faculty. Many legal writing faculty teach extensively in or work with the clinical and pro bono programs.

The first-year legal writing courses focus on predictive interoffice memos in the fall and briefs and oral advocacy in the spring. In both semesters, students write multiple drafts of assignments. Students also have the opportunity to receive individualized feedback from their professors during scheduled conferences. Classes have a student-teacher ratio of approximately 18 to 1. Teaching assistants are an integral part of the first-year program, earning academic credit and grades for their work. The upper-level curriculum is designed to enhance the depth of student knowledge and also to introduce students to more sophisticated techniques of persuasion, drawing on classical rhetoric, psychology theory, creative writing, and visual design theory. The law school also offers multiple sections of writing courses each summer.

Legal writing faculty are dedicated to both teaching and scholarship. They present regularly at national and regional conferences and serve on the boards and committees of national legal writing organizations. Many of the legal writing faculty have also received competitive grants for their teaching and scholarship. And several faculty members have been selected to attend scholarly writing workshops and to be facilitators at those workshops. They regularly conduct continuing legal education seminars and publish scholarship on the practice and teaching of law.

In 2006, the Legal Writing Institute selected Rutgers - Camden as the host of the LWI Idea Bank. With nearly 2,100 members, LWI is the world's largest organization dedicated to advancing the field of legal writing. Click here for the LWI website. Professor Ruth Anne Robbins is the current president of the Legal Writing Institute.

For more information about the Legal Analysis, Writing & Research, please contact the current Chair of the Legal Analysis, Writing & Research, Professor Sarah E. Ricks, at: sricks@camden.rutgers.edu.


Jason K. Cohen
Cynthia Covie Leese
Patricia Legge
Alison Nissen
Sarah E. Ricks
Ruth Anne Robbins
Sheila Rodriguez
Bob Sachs
Meredith L. Schalick
Linda Shashoua
Deborah Shore
Carol L. Wallinger

Writing Specialist - by appointment/faculty referral
Pam Mertsock-Wolfe
First-Year Curriculum
Legal Analysis Writing & Research I
Legal Analysis Writing & Research II
Upper-Level Curriculum
Advanced Brief Writing
Advanced Legal Research
Advanced Legal Writing
Advanced Legal Writing: Constructing Narratives
Legal Drafting
Persuasion in Legal Writing
Teaching Assistant
Public Interest Legal Research & Writing


Writing Resources:
Barger on Legal Writing
WIRE, Writing in Rutgers Education
The Writing Center
Charlotte School of Law
Appellate Brief Writing (pdf)

Win More Cases
Other Links:
LRW Teaching Asst. Application(pdf)
LRW Teaching Asst. Application(doc)
Link to information about plagiarism (we aren't trying to set a tone but just be helpful)
NSU Law
Legal Writing Scholarship
Hieros Gamos Legal Directories




Conference Persuasion Conference

In September 2008, the LAWR department organized a conference about the theories and scholarship of persuasion in legal writing and lawyering. The conference was sponsored by both Rutgers School of Law - Camden and Wyoming College of Law. The speakers were invited from law schools around the country.






Conference Persuasion Conference Description of Presentations
Persuasion Conference Schedule at a Glance