By: Professor Adam Eckart Legal Writing Matters Blog   When you think of persuasive writing, what type of legal document comes to mind? For many students (and lawyers), litigation-specific documents such as briefs and motions come to mind. While these documents are persuasive, many other legal documents can be persuasive as well. In fact, transactional… Continue Reading Convincing Contracts: Employing Persuasive Drafting Techniques in Transactional Documents

By: Sabrina Defabritiis Each year, from mid-summer until fall, thousands of law school graduates’ lives are put on hold  as they await their bar results.  Then one day, with the click of a mouse, opening of an email, the wait is over.  For those that pass, the feeling of joy is instantaneous.  For those that… Continue Reading You Failed the Bar Exam, Now What?

By: Conley Wouters Visiting Assistant Professor of Legal Practice Skills Successful lawyers are successful storytellers. Nearly all legal practice skills share important commonalities with storytelling. Persuasive written advocacy may come to mind first. In an appellate brief or a dispositive motion, lawyers submit to the court competing tales of a single dispute. Even a brief’s… Continue Reading Legal Storytelling and Legal Writing

By: Aubrie Souza For me, legal writing is a technical build. Instead of researching local laws to write a memo or brief I’ve spent my law school internships teaching a computer how to write for a lawyer. I have never written a contract, but I did program the automation for one. Automated drafting tools are… Continue Reading How to code a contract

By Prof. Kathleen Elliott Vinson With restrictions lifting and vaccines widely available, we emerge from the pandemic full of hope and possibilities for the upcoming academic year. Will we return to the ways things used to be? Was the old “normal” effective for all in the first place? What worked and what didn’t? Can the… Continue Reading The Pandemic and Post-traumatic Growth

By Edward Twohig (Suffolk Law Student) Most law students, whether transitioning straight from undergraduate studies or a professional role, arrive on their first day of Legal Practice Skills (LPS) with assumptions about their writing skills, and what constitutes “good” legal writing. Because of this, often times law students are disappointed when they receive a lower… Continue Reading 5 Strategies for Overcoming Early Challenges in LPS

By: Haesoo Yoon It was Monday, August 17th, and I was incessantly checking the time and converting EST (Eastern Standard Time) to KST (Korea Standard Time). Since the New Student Orientation began at 9:30am EST and ended at 6:00pm EST, I would be participating from Monday 10:30pm to Tuesday 7:00am in Korea. Little did I… Continue Reading Five Tips for Learning Across Timezones (and at Home)

By: Joe Murphy If you’re talking about the Rule Against Perpetuities – let’s hope not.  If you’re talking about the research skills, case synthesis, and memo formatting you learned in your Legal Practice Skills (LPS) course – then probably.  And if you are a judicial intern this summer or ever practice law – then definitely.… Continue Reading Will I ever use any of this stuff?

By: Harmony Decosimo One of the greatest compliments I receive from students at the end of 1L year is that because of our LPS class, they feel “so much more confident” to tackle their summer internships. And they should! The goal of the Legal Practice Skills Program is to equip our students with the practical… Continue Reading Do This, Not That! Tips for Summer Success

by Prof. Adam Eckart In the Broadway blockbuster, Hamilton, Alexander Hamilton praises Aaron Burr’s trial advocacy skills in “Non-Stop,” a song where Hamilton describes Burr as “incredible in court; succinct, persuasive.” While these attributes – and others – make for effective litigators, such attributes are important outside the courtroom too. After all, effective oral advocacy… Continue Reading Oral Advocacy: Not Just for Litigators

By: Mary Levine Beginning law school is no easy task, but the addition of a global pandemic forcing many law schools to adhere to remote learning has not make the task any easier. With that being said, law schools across the country, including Suffolk, have developed numerous programs and initiatives to ensure that your quality… Continue Reading Maximizing Legal Practice Skills Online

By: Sam Cote The best piece of advice I got from upper-level students during orientation was to create a buffer between the time I dedicated to school and the time I allocated for myself. My strategy was quite simple, don’t leave the library to go home until I finished all my work for the day.… Continue Reading Demarcate Your Day: Avoid Burn Out While Learning Remotely

By: Adam Eckart Despite the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, many legal writing courses like Legal Practice Skills finished this past semester on-track and on-topic by discussing persuasion, submitting persuasive memoranda, and presenting oral arguments. Often overlooked by students, one important skill developed in a persuasive semester is learning how to draft advocacy letters –… Continue Reading Transferability: Applying Principles of Persuasive Writing to Transactional Matters