Legal Writing

University of Idaho College of Law’s comprehensive three-semester legal writing program, led by its team of career legal writing faculty, provides an ideal opportunity to develop the communication skills that are crucial to the practice of law. Our legal writing faculty are experienced attorneys who draw on their decades of combined practice experience to teach you how to apply the law to real-world legal problems.

Our legal writing courses and skills training will teach you how to analyze the law accurately for an employer or a judge and how to communicate your analysis persuasively to help your clients achieve their goals. Honing these essential skills will set you apart and prepare you for your legal career. The University of Idaho’s Legal Writing and Analysis Program offers small class sizes of approximately twenty students. Our low student-faculty ratios ensure that all students receive substantial individualized, high-quality instruction and feedback as you work to develop your legal analysis, legal writing, and oral advocacy skills.

During your first year at Idaho Law, you will spend two semesters cultivating the essentials skills needed for effective legal writing and oral advocacy. During the fall semester, you will take Legal Writing & Analysis, in which you will write objective legal memoranda and e-mails as you build foundational legal analysis skills. During the spring semester, you will take Written and Oral Advocacy, in which you turn to persuasive writing and oral arguments. During this semester, you will represent mock clients as you learn how to appropriately craft trial-level legal documents and present oral arguments in order to accomplish the client’s objectives.

In Advanced Advocacy, which is offered in the spring semester of your second year, you’ll have the opportunity to further develop and refine your legal analysis and communication skills—this time in the appellate context. Advanced Advocacy is taught by a team of adjunct faculty who bring a wealth of practice experience to the classroom. The timing of this course ensures that your skills are as sharp as possible before you start your 2L summer internships. And the additional legal writing and analysis training—above and beyond the first-year curriculum required at many other institutions—will help prepare you for the Next-Gen bar exam.

In addition to the courses detailed above, Idaho Law offers other opportunities to enhance your writing skills and prepare you for your legal career, including other simulation classes, participation on the Idaho Law Review or the Critical Legal Studies Journal, clinics, externships, and moot court competitions.