Items related to Law Student's Manual on Legal Writing and Oral...
One of the foremost advocates of our time -- Edward D. Re, Chief Justice Emeritus of the U.S. Court of International Trade and Distinguished Professor of Law at St. Johns University -- provides law students and practitioners alike with authoritative guidance on the art of oral and written advocacy.
From the all important brief -- concise, comprehensive and effectively written -- to the delivery of powerful oral arguments, Judge Re demonstrates that there is an artful approach. Counsels success is measured by the ability to persuade and win, and this text clearly explains how to be an effective and persuasive legal writer and advocate. The main goal of this work is to bridge the gap between law school and the practice of law, and thus is ideal for students and novice practitioners, as well as practitioners who just want to brush up on their writing skills.
This new edition continues to improve on what has become a classic with modifications and additions from the expertise gained by its authors and their distinguished colleagues, and the incorporation of recent Rules of Court including current Federal Appellate Procedure and amendments for the Supreme Court. Judge Re is now writing with more than twenty years of experience as a trial judge in various U.S. Courts of Appeals.
The work provides new explanations of current matters relating to the appellate courts, including function, structure, standards of review, frivolous appeals and the imposition of sanctions.
This text also discusses the professional responsibilities of the lawyer, including legal writing and preliminary considerations, opinion letters and claim or demand letters, trial and post-trial briefs, memoranda of law, appellate brief writing, respondent and reply briefs, oral argument, and legal citation.
Useful appendices contain illustrative examples of legal documents attorneys will likely be required to prepare, and are formatted to be easily adapted for legal writing exercises in course use. Plus, the authors include the most current standards, explanations, and examinations of: stare decisis, legal reasoning, the analysis of cases, and the interpretation and application of statutes.
Along with overall writing instruction, this volume also instructs writers on the proper citation of most common legal documents. This text conforms to the latest edition of The Bluebook: A Uniform System of Citation.
"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.
About the Author:
Edward D. Re, Distinguished Professor of Law at St. John's University, Chief Judge Emeritus of the United States Court of International Trade, served in the administrations of both President John F. Kennedy and President Lyndon B. Johnson as Assistant Secretary of State for Educational and Cultural Affairs, and as Chairman of the Foreign Claims Settlement Commission of the United States. He was appointed a federal judge by President Johnson in 1968, and, by appointment of President Carter, served as Chief Judge from 1977 to his retirement from the federal bench in 1991. Among other books, he is the author of Remedies (Foundation Press), and Freedom's Prophet (Oceana Publications, Inc.) a liber amicorum in honor of Professor Zechariah Chafee, Jr.
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.:
Joseph R. Re is a graduate of Rutgers University College of Engineering, and St. John's University School of Law, where he was an editor of the Law Review. He served as law clerk to the Honorable Howard T. Markey, Chief Judge of the United States court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, and is a partner in the law firm of Knobbe, Martens, Olson & Bear of Newport Beach, California, where he manages an intellectual property litigation practice. He is a member of the New York and California bars.
From Part One, Legal Writing, Preliminary Considerations A. The Nature and Importance of Legal Writing
In order to attain competence in the law, the lawyer must be able to communicate. Hence, no skill can be of greater value to the law student than the ability to communicate by writing and speaking.
For law students, the ability to write well is an essential skill. All law schools today require students ot take courses to improve their writing skills. A law student who wants to write well must be willing to work at being a good writer. A law student cannot become a good legal writer without first becoming skilled in the use of language.
Professor Zechariah Chafee, Jr., a scholar of exceptional talent, once wrote: "Words are the principal tools of lawyers and judges, whether we like it or not." This observation on the relationship of law and language is confirmed by other scholars who have noted that "[t]he law is a profession of words," and that "words in their proper order are the raw materials of the law."
Once the function of language is appreciated, the lawyer's need for linguistic skill becomes apparent. Too often an effort is made to build a superstructure of legal draftsmanship upon the shaky foundation of a poor vocabulary and a deficient knowledge of English grammar. All writing requires knowledge of grammar and a command of words. The student who wrote effective essays, short stories, and compositions as an undergraduate should have little difficulty adapting this talent to the art of legal writing. B. Demands of the Legal Writing Process
Before beginning to write, all authors must answer two questions:
1. Why do we write, and
2. For whom do we write?
Differently stated, the author must think of the purpose of the composition, and the audience for whom it is written.
Too often law students, as well as lawyers, begin writing a document without knowing exactly what it is they wish to say or write. Hence, one cannot overemphasize the importance of giving careful thought to a writing project before the writing begins.
Is the document intended to be an objective presentation of the facts or law; or is it designed to persuade the reader to adopt a particular view of the facts or law? These are two very different forms of communication. The proper presentation of the material will depend on the objective that the writer seeks to achieve.
The legal writing process has additional demands. The lawyer author cannot take liberties with the text, which consists of the facts and the law. Hence, the legal writing process implies an exactness or precision that distinguishes legal writing from other literary compositions. The additional essential element is that of responsibility. Counsel can neither say nor imply that "the sky was well-lit and clear," when it was cloudy and dark, or that "plaintiffs walked calmly and normally," when they were running and pushed and shoved.
Hence, due to the demands of the legal writing process, legal composition may be more difficult than other forms of literary composition. In legal writing, the author is constrained to record what the facts accurately reveal and must conform to the restraints of style and form mandated by rules of court. C. Essentials of Legal Writing
The lawyer confronted with the task of writing a legal document would do well to remember what may be called the ABC's of legal writing. The letters represent three indispensable requirements of brief writing in particular and legal writing in general -- Accuracy, Brevity, and Clarity.
"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.
- PublisherOceana Pubns
- Publication date1991
- ISBN 10 0379204258
- ISBN 13 9780379204254
- BindingPaperback
- Number of pages354
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