Of the many types of correspondence that lawyers write, demand letters are one of the most common, but demand letter assignments seldom appear in legal writing courses. Adding a demand letter to a legal writing course creates opportunities for the professor to reinforce persuasive writing skills, to discuss ethics and professional responsibility, and to teach professionalism and civility. This essay walks through these benefits and discusses how a professor can add a demand letter assignment to an existing course.

The two most prominent citation manuals for legal writing, the Bluebook and the ALWD Guide to Legal Citation, tell us that we may place full citations to legal authority in a

Most students come to law school with a vague sense of the acronym IRAC (the traditional legal writing format of issue, rule, analysis, and conclusion), and some reluctant willingness to use it: they know they are graded on writing in IRAC form and they want to get good grades, so they try to use it.

Each fall, I tell my incoming class of law students that succeeding at legal writing will require them to shed many of the writing habits that they acquired in college. I tell them that the process of learning to be an effective legal writer will start in my class but will continue throughout their careers. I tell them not to get discouraged because learning to write like a lawyer is hard work.

I’ll admit it: I was afraid to try peer review in my Legal Practice class. I’ve been teaching legal analysis, writing, and research for 17 years. I know all of the benefits of peer review. I’ve read plenty of scholarship about why and how to do it well. I have space in my syllabus to incorporate it into my teaching. But I’ve been reluctant. I worried that students would be averse to sharing their work with a classmate. I worried that the exercise would embarrass students who felt self-conscious about their writing.

Introduction

When I am sitting on my lime green yoga mat in the

In July 2016, I moved my family—my husband, my two daughters (both toddlers), my two grouchy cats, and me—from Miami to Brooklyn. This move and its challenges have informed my teaching in small, but significant, ways ever since.

“It’s in the syllabus!”

I can’t even remember the number of times I’ve wanted to shout those words at my computer screen when reading an email from a student asking what my late assignment policy is or when an assignment is due. The seemingly endless stream of reply emails telling students to “please see the syllabus” ate away at my time to do other important tasks and caused me needless frustration.

An Idea Is Born

I felt stupid.

Sitting in a small classroom, with classmates I’d just met, avoiding eye contact with a teacher I couldn’t understand, I felt stupid.

I’d started this venture feeling smart, motivated, and confident. I was eager to master new skills, and my past educational experiences indicated that my hard work would bring success.

But no.