Legal Writing Fundamentals

Most people who struggle with legal writing were never taught the basics. They picked up habits from dense case law or overcomplicated templates, and those habits stuck. This course starts from the ground up — sentence structure, word choice, document organization — and builds from there.

What the course covers

We work through the core document types you will actually encounter: legal memos, demand letters, simple contracts, and client correspondence. Each session focuses on a specific writing problem — passive voice, ambiguous pronoun references, buried conclusions — and gives you a direct fix.

The format is four weeks, two sessions per week, with written exercises after each class. You get feedback on your own drafts, not just generic comments. By the end, you should be able to look at a dense paragraph and know exactly what is wrong with it.

Who fits this course

Law students in their first or second year, paralegals, and professionals who regularly draft legal correspondence but have never had formal instruction. No prior writing courses required.