Squeezing Contract Drafting into the First-Year Legal Writing Course

Here’s a follow up to this recent post on how best to teach contract drafting at law school.

The indefatigable Lisa Solomon told me about this article in the legal-writing journal Perspectives. It’s by Sue Payne, a clinical assistant professor of law at Northwestern University School of Law, and it describes how in two 90-minute classes she teaches contract drafting to first-year legal-writing students. If you’re in charge of a legal-writing program and are contemplating adjusting it to fit the let’s-get-practical tenor of the times, you’d do well to read this article.

But absolutist that I am, I can’t say that I’m itching to teach such a class. And if anyone who wanted to were able to take a rigorous upper-level contract-drafting seminar, shoehorning three hours of contract drafting into the first-year legal writing class might be an unnecessary distraction.

About the author

Ken Adams is the leading authority on how to say clearly whatever you want to say in a contract. He’s author of A Manual of Style for Contract Drafting, and he offers online and in-person training around the world. He’s also chief content officer of LegalSifter, Inc., a company that combines artificial intelligence and expertise to assist with review of contracts.

1 thought on “Squeezing Contract Drafting into the First-Year Legal Writing Course”

  1. You are probably not alone in your conclusion; that's why the article was part of the regular series "Brutal Choices in Curricular Design."

    Reply

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