Legal Analysis, Research, and Writing I Syllabus

Legal Analysis, Research, and Writing I
Fall 2011 – Sections 7 & 11
Professor John F. Murphy
[Quick links: TWEN | Assignment due dates | Reading assignments]
Online, always up-to-date version of this syllabus: goo.gl/pjgYi
Syllabus
Course Goals
This is the first of two required courses in legal analysis, research, and writing (“LARW”).
Students will learn to
● Read and “brief” judicial opinions;
● Extract, synthesize, and apply rules of law from opinions and statutes;
● Apply basic research techniques to find opinions and statutes;
● Write basic citations to opinions and statutes;
● Understand and apply basic grammar rules and advanced legal grammar rules;
● Organize legal writing around the CREAC model; and
● Write an objective, predictive office memorandum.
Class Meetings
Section 7: T/Th 1:30-2:45 p.m. in room 104.
Section 11: T/Th 6:00-7:15 p.m. in room 104.
Contact Information
Professor: John F. Murphy
Office: 175 (east end of the east-west faculty hallway)
Phone: 817-212-3936
Email: MurphysLARW@gmail.com. Email is the best way to reach me. I try to answer
all email within twenty-four hours. If you do not have an answer from me after twenty-four
hours, please remind me.
Office Hours
● T/Th 3:00-6:00 p.m.
● By appointment, which I will grant freely. Drop-ins welcome.
Teaching Assistants
Each section has a teaching assistant (“TA”)--a student who performed exceptionally well in my
class last year. Your TA is here primarily to help you with citation questions. Your TA will hold
weekly “office hours” in the library to answer your citation questions. Following is the contact
information for your TAs:
Section 7: Amy Hererra, 972-256-6918, biancaneve322@hotmail.com

Library hours: Wednesday 12:00–1:00 p.m.
Section 11: Brent Chapell, 817-658-1231, brentchapell02@gmail.com
Library hours: T/Th 5:00-6:00 p.m.
Required Texts
● Richard K. Neumann Jr. & Sheila Simon, Legal Writing 2d ed. (Aspen/Wolters Kluwer
2011);
● The Bluebook: A Uniform System of Citation (Columbia Law Rev. Ass’n, et al. eds., 19th
ed. 2009) (“Bluebook”);
● Manual on Usage & Style (Tex. Law Rev. Ass’n, 12th ed. 2008) (“the MOUSe”) (note: the
MOUSe will not arrive in the bookstore until early September); and
● Tracy McGaugh & Christine Hurt, Interactive Citation Workbook for The Bluebook: A
Uniform System of Citation (2011 ed.) (“ICW”).
Class Attendance and Preparation
Class attendance is required. Students must sign the class roster to be counted present.
Students arriving more than five minutes late will be counted absent. Students who leave the
classroom without permission before dismissal will be counted absent. Excessive absences
will result in the student’s involuntary removal from this class and (because this is a required
lockstep class) law school. Consult the Student Programs, Policies, & Procedures manual for
information regarding the maximum allowable absences.
Read your assignments before class. If the assigned pages include exercises, be prepared to
discuss the exercises in class. Some of the exercises may be assigned as writing exercises.
Class participation is worth 5% of your total grade. Participation is not the same as attendance;
to earn participation points, students must speak out in class, e.g., by asking or answering
questions.
Homework Policy; Penalties for Late Submissions
Students must complete all assigned homework. A student who does not submit all assigned
homework--even if the homework is late--will receive an “F”.
Every homework assignment has a submission deadline. Deadlines are strictly enforced. Failure
to submit assignments before the deadline triggers the following penalties:
Major writing assignments (memos I & II): Assignments submitted up to one hour after
the deadline incur a three-point penalty; assignments submitted one to two hours late
incur a six-point penalty; assignments submitted more than two hours late receive zero
points.
Interactive Citation Workbook (“ICW”) assignments: Each assignment submitted after
the deadline incurs a five-point deduction from the student’s score on the end-ofsemester
citation exam.

Research and other assignments: Research assignments submitted up to one day late
incur a ten-point penalty. Those submitted one to two days late incur a twenty-point
penalty. Those submitted more than two days late receive no credit.
Interactive Citation Workbook (“ICW”) Assignments
Citation exercise assignments are assigned from the Interactive Citation Workbook. For each
exercise, you must score at least 70%. If you score less then 70% on an exercise, you must meet
with your TA and redo the exercises within seven days of the exercise’s due date. For each
exercise that you score less than 70% and fail to meet with your teaching assistant and/or redo
the assignment, five points will be subtracted from the citation exam portion of your grade. You
must work alone on the citation exercises. You must make a good faith effort on all exercises.
You must complete all assigned ICW exercises on or before December 10, 2011, or else you will
fail the course.
Grades
The following components comprise students’ final grades in this course:
Memo 1: 25%
Memo 2: 50%
In-Class Citation Exam: 10%
Research Assignments: 2% each (8% total)
Class Participation: 5%
Other Assignments: 3%
Electronic-Devices and Laptop-Computer Policy
The use of cell phones during class is prohibited. “Use” includes but is not limited to voice,
texting, and email. Students who violate this prohibition may be required to leave class and
receive an “absent” for the day.
I permit the use of laptop computers for note-taking; all other uses during class are prohibited,
including email, instant messaging, and web browsing. You may not connect your computer
to the Internet during class unless I specifically instruct you to do so. The TAs will monitor
computer use. Violators will be required to turn off their laptops and will be marked “absent”
for the day. I reserve the right to prohibit laptops altogether if students abuse the laptop-use
policy.

List of Major Class Assignments
I may assign additional homework during the semester; I will announce the due date for an
additional assignment in class and post it on TWEN. Hyperlinks point to the TWEN drop box for
that assignment.
Due Date Assignment
8/18 (Th) Maine Frames writing diagnostic
8/25 (Th) Federal cases; library audio tour
8/28 (S) ICW intro exercise
9/1 (Th) State cases
9/10 (S) ICW 1, 2, 3
9/13 (T) Memo 1.1
9/24 (S) ICW 4, 5, 16
10/6 (Th) Federal statutes
10/11 (T) Memo 1.2
10/18 (T) State statutes
10/25 (T) Memo 2.1 (QP, SA, FS)
11/5 (S) ICW 6, 7, 8
11/15 (T) Memo 2.2
11/17 (Th) Citation exam (in class)
Schedule and Reading Assignments
I may add to or change the reading assignments. I will announce changes in class and on TWEN.
The online version of this document will always be up-to-date.
Key to abbreviations: LW=Legal Writing; BB=Bluebook; MOUS=MOUS; ICW=ICW
Week Class Dates Topics Readings Due this week
0 8/13 Orientation: intro to
legal writing
Syllabus; LW 1-2

1 8/16, 8/18 Federal cases; intro
to citations; intro to
ICW
2 8/23, 8/25 State cases; policy;
Maine Frames review
3 8/30, 9/1 Statutory
interpretation; legal
terminology; Memo
1.1; analyzing cases
LW 5-6 Maine Frames
LW 2, 3, 7
BB: scan TOC, Bluepages; Table
T6
ICW 1
LW 9, 14, 15, 16
ICW 2-3
Fed cases;
library tour;
ICW intro
State cases
4 9/6, 9/8 TBA LW 11, 12, 13 ICW 1, 2, 3
5 9/13, 9/15 TBA ICW 4 , 5, 16 Memo 1.1
6 9/20, 9/22 CREAC revisited;
editing
7 9/27, 9/29 Fed statutes; multiissue
CREAC
8 10/4, 10/6 Umbrella/conclusion
paragraphs;
roadsigns; memo
subheadings
9 10/11, 10/
13
10 10/18, 10/
20
11 10/25, 10/
27
LW 17, 18, 19 ICW 4, 5, 16
LW 20, 21
State statutes; QP/SA LW 22, 23
QP/SA handout
Memo 2 tips; Multiissue
QP/SA
Memo 1 post
mortem; choosing
cases
Handout: Why a memo is like an
onion
Fed statutes
Memo 1.2
LW 24 State statutes
LW 26, 28
ICW 6, 7, 8
Memo 2.1
12 11/1, 11/3 1-on-1 conferences None ICW 6, 7, 8
13 11/8, 11/10 Review: memo
structure; editing
14 11/15, 11/
17
Citation review;
citation exam
Memo 2.2