A Lawyer Writes: A Practical Guide to Legal Analysis

by Christine Nero Coughlin, Joan Rocklin, Sandy Patrick

Like the very popular first edition, this second edition puts the reader in the place of a first-year attorney faced with real life assignments. In doing so, it teaches law students not only how to succeed in law school, but also how to succeed in the practice of law. Using graphics and visual samples, the book shows best practices in both traditional and electronic environments. Speaking to its readers in a straightforward manner, A Lawyer Writes communicates essential skills and theories so that they will be retained for a lifetime of legal practice. There are two significant changes in the second edition of A Lawyer Writes. First, two new chapters have been Chapter 17, Client Letters , and Chapter 19, The Transition from Objective to Persuasive Writing . (What was Chapter 17, Professional E-mails, will appear as Chapter 18.) In addition, section 8.3, Applying the Counter-Analyses , has been re-organized, but the content has remained the same. All other updates to the book are smaller edits that fix errors, create consistency, or further clarify an existing idea. A teaching website is available. To request the link and login information, please email meade (at) cap-press (dot) com. The following book reviews are from the first edition. " A Lawyer Writes made a great difference in my teaching this year. The book explains concisely the expectations of lawyers regarding organization of legal analysis and then explicitly shows law students how to meet those expectations. The frequent examples are a great complement to the clear and accessible text." ― Suzanne Rowe, Luvaas Faculty Fellow 2008-09, Director, Legal Research and Writing, Associate Professor of Law, University of Oregon "One of the best parts of A Lawyer Writes is its chapter explaining rules. After my students read that chapter, they really seemed to understand the concept that rules can be stated implicitly in the cases, and that it was their job to make those rules explicit for their readers. The book also provides a number of excellent, easy-to-understand examples in every chapter, which the students found very helpful." ― Alison Julien, Associate Professor of Legal Writing, Marquette University Law School " A Lawyer Writes is the perfect book for the first semester of Legal Writing. It explains the foundations of legal reasoning, illustrates those foundations with practical examples, and is an exemplary model of its own lessons about good legal writing." ― Steve Johansen, Professor of Law, Lewis & Clark Law School

Genres: Law, School, Writing, Legal, Nonfiction

404 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 2013

Reviews

[Anayis Doolittle]

free from the shackles of LP 😌😌😌

[Kathryn LaMontagne · Rating 5 out of 5]

BORING!!!! But extremely practical and helpful with legal writing

[emilia borg · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book got me through writing my memos fr, will be using in the future

[Berk · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is the best thing that has ever happened to me.

[Rr M · Rating 4 out of 5]

Yes I’m that person that reviews textbooks….def not my first choice to read, but a decent guide for a starter I think

[Sophia]

Read this for school idc I’m still counting it❤️

[Olivia Aboulhosn]

Does this count as a book I’ve read

[cass · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ron Wesley you will always be famous (AND FREE) !

[Jen]

If I haven't finished this book, I've gotten close and made up for it by the fact that I read law books all day

[Titus Daughtry · Rating 1 out of 5]

Boo!

[Maddie Grace Rogers · Rating 3 out of 5]

Making it count for something fun 🤷‍♀️

[An Hosek · Rating 2 out of 5]

The lowlight of my 1L year. Absolutely despise this book. I’m sure it can be good for some people but I just can’t learn this way….. every Monday night would end with me like fuckkkkkkkk I forgot to read a lawyer writes at like 1am after doing all my other work…… I’m happy I’ll never have to open this again

[Indira Wolf · Rating 3 out of 5]

this was actually a good overview and some detail of how to write. good book to use for reference

[Heather · Rating 4 out of 5]

Absolutely would not have survived legal writing without this book. Examples are great.

[KC Read-Fisher · Rating 5 out of 5]

I mostly hate reading about how to write, but given how absurdly technical legal writing can be, I found this book incredibly useful!

[Isabella Chiraini]

i read every page of this book so by god i am counting it

[zoe]

boo law school (1L)

[Noah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Cannot recommend enough for those who want help writing a legal memo. I was number 5 in the class on objective memos.

[Baker Roy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent textbook

[Alex · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pretty good for what it is. Though did get confusing at parts, the examples were very helpful. I do wish they had more examples for the more complicated memos.