Sunday, October 14, 2007
Legal Research and Writing
The legal research and writing course is perhaps the most important aspect of the first year curriculum, because it spans all the remainder of the curriculum and provides the foundation upon which everything else depends. One of the crucial lessons of the course is that the best lawyer reads everything for herself, anew and with care, rather than relying on summaries or memories -- or others. Laypeople (and lazy lawyers) often describe statutes, regulations, and case law, sometimes with a fair amount of accuracy. Even a good summary is still a summary, a memory a memory.
Yet what is crucial is the precise language and the entire text. There are cases that turn literally on a comma, or the difference between “and,” “or” and “and/or.” A lawyer must know the law to apply it, and one must look with care at the words to see ambiguities that allow for argument. Even a senior lawyer who is experienced depends on a more junior lawyer whom she has trained at her peril: it is why supervisors seem so demanding in legal practice, because they must know not only what a person knows but how they have come to know it (about which more later).
If nothing else persuades you to do your own work, consider your client. After all, your client is paying your bill because she would like your expertise – not your reliance on someone else’s opinion.
