Chicago-Kent College of Law
First Year Program
Chicago-Kent College of Law has a two-semester, five-credit, graded LRW program, taught by full-time, highly credentialed faculty. We have the luxury of spending considerable time on basic research and writing because we require a total of five semesters of LRW. Thus, the first semester introduces students to predictive writing and research, in classes of not more than 32 students per full-time faculty member. Each first-year class also has a teaching assistant, a third- or fourth-year student who works with the professor.
In first semester students write (and rewrite) a closed-universe memo. They are then introduced to both print and on-line research skills, and research, write, and rewrite a second memo. Last, after additional research training, students research a statutory problem, keeping a detailed research diary, and write a ?mini-memo? on that problem.
In second semester, students are introduced to persuasive writing. First, they turn their statutory problem research into a memorandum of law to a trial court. Next they research and write an appellate brief, present an oral argument (after significant introduction to oral argument techniques), and rewrite the appellate brief.
Upper Level Programs and Courses
In Legal Writing III, which is required, students are introduced to representing clients in a non-litigation setting. They work on interviewing and counseling skills; write an engagement letter; and negotiate, write, and rewrite a contract.
The required Legal Writing IV course permits students to choose an advanced research and writing section keyed to their area of interest; LW IV sections range from Intellectual Property to Criminal Appellate Advocacy. LW IV provides advanced research training and a rigorous writing experience in the topic area.
Our final required course is a seminar, taken in the last year of law school. Students may choose among a broad range of seminars and are required to research, write, present their thesis to the class, and rewrite a scholarly project.
Faculty
Full-time faculty who teach the first-year and on occasion some of the upper-level courses are a mixture of 405(c) faculty (seven) and short-term, fellowship-type (five) faculty. Each faculty member has a teaching assistant, receives a research and travel budget, is ?housed? among all other faculty, and serves on committees. Only the seven faculty members with 405(c) status are permitted to vote in faculty meetings. Faculty teach one course per year in their doctrinal, non-legal writing area of interest; if LRW faculty choose to teach additional courses, we are given additional compensation. Most of the upper-level courses are taught by adjunct faculty, although several members of our clinical faculty also teach upper-level courses. Seminars are taught by a mix of tenure-stream, 405(c), and adjunct faculty.
Web Links
www.kentlaw.edu
Contacts
Mary Rose Strubbe
Professor of Legal Research and Writing
Director, Legal Research and Writing Program
Chicago-Kent College of Law
565 W. Adams St.
Chicago, IL 60661
(312) 906-5288
mstrubbe@kentlaw.edu