Legal Drafting Program Expanded with Specialized Writing Courses

June 20, 2008

For the past four years, Capital law students have been required to take legal drafting in their final year of law school. The course gives students practical experience drafting documents that they will likely encounter in the practice of law, such as client opinion letters, wills, contracts, complaints, interrogatories and trial court motions. When the Law School implemented this course and requirement in 2004 it made Capital one of the first law schools in the country to require a final year legal writing course.

Now, the program is being enhanced with the addition of specialized legal drafting classes in transactional and criminal law.

“We have been listening to our students and they are requesting more courses tailored to their interests,” says Professor Risa Lazaroff, director of the Legal Drafting Program. “These courses give them greater hands-on experience going into their fields of practice and a more competitive-edge in the job market.”

The transactional course is being taught this summer by Professor Jeff Snapp. In this course, students are engaged in the process of negotiating and drafting contracts such as settlements, land installments, residential leases, employment agreements and multiple forms in a consumer transaction.

Professor Scott Anderson, former staff attorney for the Ohio Criminal Sentencing Commission, is teaching the criminal legal drafting practicum this fall. Students will draft an indictment, a bill of particulars, a motion to suppress evidence, and a guilty plea.

“Our Legal Drafting Program is on the cutting-edge of law schools and is nationally recognized,” says Dean Jack A. Guttenberg. “I’m very impressed with our legal writing faculty and their creativity in making Capital’s program one of the strongest across the country. In four out of their six semesters at Capital, our law students are engaged in supervised legal writing. We know how much firms, courts and organizations value good legal writing skills and we take seriously our students’ preparation in this regard.”