Curriculum Guide · Courses

Professor Elizabeth Ewert

J.D. Seminar 1104 | 2 credit hours

This seminar is designed to reinforce and ensure mastery of the legal writing skills initially taught in Legal Research and Writing. Students will draft a variety of documents based on a single fact pattern, including emails, an inter-office memo, a client letter, and a motion. Students will complete multiple drafts of documents, meet in group conferences and individually with the instructor to discuss certain drafts, and engage in peer editing of classmates' papers with the goal of improving their own writing and editing.

Writing assignments, both inside and outside class, will involve exercises, initial drafts, peer review, and final revisions with students building a portfolio of their work during the course of the semester. Discussion topics will include litigation strategy, writing techniques, and professional demands and concerns. Students will have opportunities to work in small groups and in team pairs, to strategize and write individually and collaboratively, and to write in the way they will be expected to write in practice, including using email correspondence, preparing drafts for colleagues, and ultimately finalizing work product for a client and the court.

Prerequisite: Legal Research and Writing.

THIS COURSE REQUIRES PROFESSOR PERMISSION TO ENROLL. Students should email Professor Ewert (ee3@law.georgetown.edu) with a short explanation of their interest in the seminar no later than 5:00 p.m. on Friday, June 14, 2013.