University Of Minnesota
First Year Program
In the fall of the first year, students concentrate on common law legal analysis through a series of building-block, predictive writing exercises, followed by two drafts of a closed-research office memorandum relating to an issue presented by a contract scenario, followed by two drafts of a full open-research office memorandum (relating to an expanded version of the contract scenario). Students submit some kind of writing exercise virtually every week of the semester, receive individual feedback from instructors, engage in peer review, and give mock client advice.
In the spring of the first year, students concentrate on statutory interpretation and build upon their common law analytical skills through a series of building-block, persuasive writing exercises that lead up to a first draft and a rewrite of a full set of district court motion papers and two oral arguments of the motion. Students submit some kind of writing exercise during most weeks of the semester, receive individual feedback from instructors, engage in peer review, and engage in persuasive argument.
Students receive four credits for the year. There are ten or eleven students in each small section, taught by an instructor paired with an upper-level law student.
Upper Level Programs and Courses
The University of Minnesota requires students to complete a three-year writing requirement to graduate.
In the second year, we require a full-year appellate advocacy experience involving multiple brief drafts and oral argument exercises, except for any students who are participating as staff members on one of the scholarly law journals (for whom there are elective appellate advocacy offerings). Law Review staffers write pieces under individual faculty advisors who certify the nature and quality of the work.
In the third year, students may satisfy the writing requirement through designated, faculty-supervised moot court, law journal and senior seminar experiences.
Faculty
The legal writing and appellate advocacy programs are directed by a full-time faculty member with clinical tenure (a continuous appointment terminable only for cause or financial exigency). The director also teaches in the program. The small sections are primarily taught by adjunct attorney instructors, paired with upper-level student teaching partners. A couple of the appellate moot courts are taught by full-time faculty members. Various of the adjunct attorney instructors have anywhere from six to sixteen years of experience teaching at the law school in the program.
Web Links
Visit www.law.umn.edu, and click on the appropriate links.
Other Information
Over the last seventeen years, students from the programs have won three national and eleven regional moot court championships, five national and eighteen regional best brief awards, twelve regional best oral advocate awards, two national best speaker awards, three Burton legal writing prizes, and the Brown Award for Excellence in Legal Writing.
Contacts
Bradley G. Clary
Clinical Professor of Law
Director of Applied Legal Instruction
clary002@umn.edu