Program Overview
Introduction to the Legal Writing Academy
The Legal Writing Academy at the University of Ottawa offers a comprehensive program designed to equip students with the practical writing skills necessary for a successful career in law. The academy's approach is centered on experiential and active learning, providing students with real-life writing tasks and personalized feedback.
Program Details
Practical Experiential Writing Instruction
The Legal Writing Academy integrates practical writing instruction throughout all three years of legal study. Students gain experience with real-life writing demands through credited writing courses, workshops, and modules integrated into first-year and upper-year substantive courses, free-standing workshops, and peer-mentoring conferences.
Modules and Workshops for First-Year Students
First-year students participate in interactive workshops delivered by writing professors in Torts, Criminal Law and Procedure, Introduction to Public and Constitutional Law seminar courses, and Legal Foundations. These workshops cover topics such as writing for a legal audience, understanding and organizing research and writing tasks, and the difference between predictive and persuasive writing.
Upper-Year Legal Writing Seminars
Upper-year students can enroll in seminars that provide targeted, personal feedback on their writing. These seminars include:
- CML 4307: Write with Purpose: Essential Skills for Lawyers, focusing on writing legal documents with effective analysis, clarity, style, correct grammar, and cultural and gender sensitivity.
- CML 4113: Legal Writing and Social Justice, where students work on a social justice writing project, polishing their legal research and writing skills through in-class exercises, legal memos, and writing a persuasive document.
Courses You Apply For
The Legal Writing Academy offers additional courses that students can apply for, including:
- CML 3174: Deans Research and Writing Fellows, a unique opportunity for top-achieving upper-year students to work with a lawyer-mentor on an advanced research problem and receive intensive writing instruction.
- CML 4113: Legal Writing Portfolio and Leadership, where students with excellent writing and interpersonal skills produce high-quality legal writing to showcase to future employers and learn self-editing and peer mentoring skills.
Resources
Point First Writing & Online Resources
The Legal Writing Academy provides access to Pointfirstwriting.com, a unique, interactive website supporting face-to-face classroom work and as a stand-alone, self-study resource. This website includes modules such as Legal Memos Made Easy and Edit Your Own Work, offering practical, five-layered approaches to editing any legal document.
Writing Conferences with Writing Leaders
Students can sign up for individual 45-minute Legal Writing Conferences with trained upper-year law students who serve as legal writing peer-mentors. These conferences provide legal writing and editing strategies, advice on overcoming writers block, and help with understanding writing assignments.
Faculty
The Legal Writing Academy is led by experienced professors, including:
- Angela Long, Director of Legal Research Programs
- Kate Kehoe, Visiting Professor
- Peter Aadoson, Part-time Professor
- Emma Costain, Part-time Professor
- Fiona Harper, Part-time Professor
Conclusion
The Legal Writing Academy at the University of Ottawa is committed to providing students with the practical writing skills and experience necessary to succeed in their legal careers. Through its comprehensive program, workshops, and resources, the academy supports the development of professional legal writers.