Document Type
Article
Publication Title
Perspectives: Teaching Legal Research and Writing
Publication Date
2023
Volume
30
First Page
107
Abstract
(Excerpt)
In our settlement-dominated legal culture, it is no longer sufficient for legal writing courses to teach students how to write for the court alone. Instead, to be considered practice-competent it is necessary for students to also be able to write for non-adversarial, collaborative settings such as mediation. Mediation has become the primary dispute resolution process to settle legal cases, and it has become common practice for judges to strongly encourage litigating parties to try to settle their case in mediation. While the current legal writing curriculum teaches students how to draft legal memoranda, motions, and appellate briefs for court, students must also have proficiency and comfort drafting pre-mediation statements that align with mediation's goals. This discussion bridges the existing legal writing skills gap and recommends how pre-mediation statements could be included in the first-year legal writing curriculum.
Comments
This article originally appeared in Perspectives: Teaching Legal Research and Writing, published by Thomson Reuters. For more information please visit http://info.legalsolutions.thomsonreuters.com/signup/newsletters/perspectives/.