Fall 2019 Notes

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Syllabus

September 1st, 2019

Georgetown University Law Center

Prof. Frances C. DeLaurentis

LEGAL PRACTICE: WRITING AND ANALYSIS

Sections 50 and 51

FALL 2019

COURSE POLICIES, PROCEDURES, AND SYLLABUS

I. COURSE INFORMATION, GOALS, AND ASSESSMENTS

A. General Information 

Telephone Number:        (202) 662-9526

Email Address:        [fcd@law.georgetown.edu](mailto:fcd@law.georgetown.edu)  (Preferred Method of Communication)

Office:          Room 544 McDonough

Office Hours:        Tuesdays 3:30-5:00 p.m., and by appointment

Class Meetings:

Tuesdays and Thursdays:        Sections 50: 9:00 a.m. – 9:55 a.m.  Hotung 1000

                                Sections 51: 10:05 a.m. – 11:00 a.m. Hotung 1000

         Canvas site:  Legal Practice:  Sections 50&51 (LAWJ005-51) DeLaurentis

B. Texts

Required texts:

A Uniform System of Citation (20th ed. 2015) ("The Bluebook")

Kristen Tiscione, Rhetoric for Legal Writers, The Theory and Practice of Analysis and Persuasion (2ded. 2016)

Diana Donahoe, Teachinglaw.com

You may purchase access to Teachinglaw.com by clicking on this link: https://teachinglaw.com/help

Recommended texts (as references for those who need more basic writing or grammar instruction):

Mary B. Ray & Jill J. Ramsfield, Legal Writing: Getting It Right and Getting It Written (6th ed. 2018)

Joseph M. Williams, Style: Lessons in Clarity & Grace

Additional Course Materials are provided on the course Canvas site.

C. Course Description

Legal Practice: Writing and Analysis is the course that introduces you to the language, expectations and skills of the legal discourse community. The goal of this course is to usher you into that community, to teach you how to analyze the law, research the law, and communicate about the law. This course will teach you the language of the law, as well as its conventions, methods, traditions and nuances. Lawyers are professional writers and this course will help you hone your craft. You will devote considerable time and energy to this course. In exchange for that effort, you will learn how to recognize legal issues and problems, ask the right questions, efficiently find the solution to the problems, and effectively communicate that solution to others. The research and writing skills that you learn in this course are directly transferable to any kind of legal work that you may encounter. In this course, we teach techniques that are essential to you throughout your legal career, both as a student and as a lawyer. We spend classroom time developing techniques in critical reading, legal analysis, research, writing, and oral advocacy.

D. Course Goals/Student Learning Outcomes

The Legal Practice course is designed to enable you to do the following:

  1. Find and use the fundamental sources of U.S. legal research, including constitutions and statutes, cases and digests, secondary sources, administrative law, legislative history, and citators. Our course builds on the information conveyed during assigned library research trainings sessions.

  2. Work comfortably with the analytical paradigms customarily used by U.S. lawyers: identifying and presenting legally significant facts, interpreting statutes, deriving rules from cases, synthesizing rules from disparate sources, analogizing and distinguishing cases, synthesizing policy discussions, and predicting outcomes based on precedent.

  3. Create research strategies for using sources for maximum speed and accuracy.

  4. Identify the demands of the legal reading audience, including purpose, form, scope, stance/tone, accuracy, and especially depth of analysis.

  5. Employ the conventions of the Bluebook for accurate citation and credibility.

  6. Practice and review English usage for legal purposes.

  7. Develop into a critical legal reader of your own writing.

E. Formative Assessments and Grading Policies

1. Formative Assessments

You will receive multiple forms of formative assessment in this course:

  • Research Projects: The answer keys to the research projects will be posted after each project's due date. Please read these answer keys carefully for accuracy of your answers, suggestions for research trails, and for correct bluebook citation.
  • Written Feedback: Throughout the course, you will be submitting written documents, such as memos, and you will receive written feedback on these projects. You are responsible for carefully reviewing that feedback before your conference on that document. In addition, you may receive written feedback directly on Canvas on shorter submissions. You are responsible for reviewing this feedback and incorporating the suggestions in your next version of the document.
  • Oral Feedback: There are multiple conferences scheduled on the syllabus. You are responsible for signing up for these conferences and your attendance is mandatory. You should be prepared with your questions and any rewriting requested.
  • Annotated Samples: annotated samples of some assignments will be posted on Canvas so that you can see the strengths and weaknesses of a document. You should review these samples and apply the feedback on these samples to your own document.
  • Interactive Bluebook Citation (ICW) Exercises: You are expected to complete the ICW exercises as noted on the syllabus.
  • com Quizzes, Self-Assessments, and Practice Tests: Your online textbook contains a number of assessment tools such as the Grammar and Bluebook Self-Assessments, Practice Tests, and Quizzes. It is recommended that you utilize these assessments especially with respect to topics with which you are struggling.

The above assessments will not be formally graded, but your timeliness, preparedness, and completeness will factor into the 10% participation grade listed below.

2. Grading

This is a year-long, four-credit course. Your transcript for the Fall semester will reflect "IP," or "In Progress." Your final grade will appear on your spring transcript. IF YOU EARN A FAILING GRADE, YOU MUST REPEAT THE ENTIRE COURSE.

Minimum requirements for passing the course include:

  • Timely and satisfactory completion of all course assignments;
  • Regular attendance at class;
  • Attendance at any additional research training sessions as well as a Supreme Court Institute moot;
  • Satisfactory performance on all course exams

Your course grade will be determined as follows:

a. Your grade for the fall semester will be worth 50% of your course grade. Your grade for the spring semester will be worth the remaining 50% of your course grade. Your raw score for the fall semester will be added to your raw score for the spring semester. Based on that final combined raw score, you will be assigned a letter grade for the course.

b. Your fall grade will consist of the following components:

  • Class participation, attendance at classes and satisfactory completion of all assignments is 5% of your overall grade;
  • Multiple choice examination is 10% of your overall grade: and
  • Take home examination is 35% of your overall grade.

Your exams for the fall semester will be given on the following dates:

Fall open book, one-hour, multiple choice exam:

    November 15, 2019

Fall take-home memorandum exam:

Available on November 15, 2019; due November 25, 2019.

The Registrar will provide you with your exam number before each exam and will inform you of exam procedures as the dates approach. Any questions that arise during the course of the exams for this course should be directed to the Registrar.

II. COURSE POLICIES AND PROCEDURES

A. Submitting Assignments

  1. Timeliness: Unless otherwise specified, all assignments are due at the start of class. A copy of all research projects as well as major writing assignments (Case #1, Case #2 draft, and Case #2 final) must be filed electronically in your Section Assignment Folder on the class Canvas site by the time and date specified on the syllabus. Hard copies of major** writing **assignments must also be turned in at the beginning of class. LAW FELLOWS CANNOT GRANT EXTENSIONS FOR ASSIGNMENTS OR WAIVE ANY REQUIREMENTS FOR THE COURSE. If a serious illness or emergency prevents timely submission of your work, notify the Professor (ideally) before the assignment is due. You must submit all late assignments directly to Professor DeLaurentis. Unexcused lateness of assignments will have a negative impact on your course grade.

  2. Formal requirements: All assignments should be typed, double-spaced, on 8-1/2 by 11" white paper. Fonts should be professional, easy to read and should use at least 12-point type. All pages should have a page number at the bottom center of the page. Use a 1" margin on the left and on the right, which gives the Law Fellows and Professor DeLaurentis room to write comments. Make sure the right margin is not justified; right justification may destroy your citation form. Please make sure that your name is on all documents submitted. When you post your assignment on Canvas, please ensure that your last name appears in the document name uploaded, e.g., delaurentisdraftcase1. Also, please take the time to make sure that you post your document in the correct assignment and section folder.

  3. Length: Most assignments will have a length limit based upon the number of words in your written work. You will be responsible for providing a certification at the end of each assignment, certifying the precise word count of your assignment – a word count that does not exceed the maximum word limit. For example, you must certify 1344 words; merely stating that the document does not exceed the 1350 word count is not sufficient. (By submitting a document with a certified word count, you are "signing" that certification.) If you are using Word, you can ascertain the word count by clicking on "Tools" and then "Word Count." Also, please note that the numbers and abbreviations in citations count as words for purposes of the word limitation. Footnotes are also included within the word count.

  4. Submission Method: As notedabove in A.1, all assignments must be filed electronically in your section assignment folder on Canvas. Please upload documents as a word document, not as pdf document. In addition, a hard copy of all major writing assignments must be handed in at the beginning of class.

B. Professional Responsibility for Completing Assignments

You must complete all assignments for this course independently unless Professor DeLaurentis expressly permits otherwise. You must independently research, organize, write, and edit your own work. Although you are free to consult with a reference librarian, you may not utilize file share features of electronic research sources including, but not limited to, such features on Westlaw, Lexis Advance, and Bloomberg.

If you adopt or rely upon the language of any source, you must provide a citation or other reference for that source. See the Georgetown University Law Center Statement on Plagiarism.

Failure to abide by the above two rules may result in a violation of the Student Disciplinary Code, failure of this course, or both.

C. Use of the Writing Center

Georgetown is one of the few law schools in the United States to offer you the services of a Writing Center especially designed for law students. You may consult a Senior Writing Fellow at any time during this semester except with respect to your exams. Senior Writing Fellows can assist you in doing the following:

  • Clarifying research sources and strategies
  • Formulating issues
  • Synthesizing cases
  • Using analogical reasoning
  • Updating sources
  • Developing analytical paradigms
  • Understading the Bluebook

As described above, you are required to do all of your own work. Senior Writing Fellows are neither secretaries nor proofreaders; they are guides as you move into the U.S. legal discourse community. Consequently, Senior Writing Fellows cannot assist you in doing the following:

  • Editing your document
  • Correcting citations
  • Proofreading your document
  • Fixing the document so it is acceptable to professors

D. Role of Law Fellow**

The Law Fellows team-teaching with Professor DeLaurentis this year were carefully selected from over 160 applicants. Law Fellows assist Professor DeLaurentis in the classroom, respond to your papers, and conference with you individually throughout the semester. While you will receive a great deal of guidance, feedback and constructive criticism from your Law Fellow and from Professor DeLaurentis, the process of encountering, recognizing, and resolving problems on your own is the most effective learning experience. Neither the Law Fellows nor Professor DeLaurentis can comment exhaustively on every aspect of your work or act as your "editors." While the Law Fellows and Professor DeLaurentis will guide you through the writing process, you are ultimately responsible for the quality of your own drafts and final papers.

Law Fellows have no authority to grant any extensions, excuse any absences, waive any assignments/requirements, or accept any late assignments. If you need an extension or if you are submitting a late assignment, you must contact Professor DeLaurentis.

Law Fellows have no input or role in your grade. Law Fellows know nothing about the course examinations and never read your examinations.

Each student will be assigned to a Law Fellow for the entire year. Law Fellow assignments are posted on Canvas.

E. Attendance and Class Participation Policy

Regular and punctual attendance is a requirement of passing the class. The Law Fellows

and/or Professor DeLaurentis will take attendance at each class. Absences will have a negative impact on your grade.

Engaged participation in class is essential to your research and writing process and thus a requirement of passing the class. In terms of grading, all students will begin each semester with a grade of 4 (out of 5) for class participation because Professor DeLaurentis is expecting engaged participation. Participation points will be deducted for absences, lack of meaningful participation, and failure to submit timely and complete assignments. Extraordinary (in terms of quality, not sheer quantity) participation may result in an addition of points.

F. Course Recording Policy

Per the Law Center policy, all classes are recorded. Students will be granted access to

all classroom recordings without restriction, per Option 1 of Georgetown's recording policy.

Please note that if you need to talk to Professor DeLaurentis about apersonal matter, you should do so out in the hall outside of the class or in her office so that your conversation isnot picked up on the recording.

G. Syllabus Changes and Joint Classes

While the overall structure of the syllabus will remain the same, there may be slight changes to reading assignments or the class schedule throughout the semester. Changes will be announced in advance on Canvas and the syllabus will be updated to reflect the changes. Your flexibility in accommodating these changes is appreciated. Also, please note that there are a number of joint classes listed on the syllabus. Please make note of these joint classes.

Students are expected to attend the class meeting for their assigned section. In the event that a student must miss a class and wants to attend the class meeting of the other section, the student should email Professor DeLaurentis in advance to seek permission to attend the other section's class.

III. COURSE SYLLABUS – CLASS ASSIGNMENTS

See printed syllabus.