SYLLABUS
LLM WRITING AND SKILLS COURSE
FALL 2013 -- THURSDAY

Class meeting time:

Thursdays, 5:00 – 7:00
Room: TBD

Course text books:

All materials will be available on BlackBoard; additional materials will be distributed during the semester.

You will have a lot of different handouts since there is no required text book. Therefore, you are encouraged to be organized. Print up all the materials before the class starts, purchase a 3-ring binder and put all of the handouts and photocopies in one place so you can easily reference them throughout the semester.

Your life will be much easier if you are organized.

Instructor:

Karen Lundquist
Tel: 612-961-3940 kalundqu@umn.edu Assignments must be submitted to the following email address:

hereismyassignmentumnllm@gmail.com

Teaching Assistant:

Shuangqi (Joy) Wang
Tel: 740-565-0190
Wang4025@umn.edu

Course learning objectives:

After completing this course, students will be able to: * Understand and identify important concepts in English legal writing Create written analyses, summaries and paraphrasing of legal documents * Analyze, distinguish and compare court decisions and statutes * Identify technical legal English vocabulary related to specific areas of law * Describe, compare and contrast legal procedures and systems * Explain legal procedures and legal rules * Compose an office memorandum that illustrates understanding of IRAC method, outlines legal rules and analyzes and explains legal rules and facts

IMPORTANT INFORMATION FOR THIS CLASS:

The homework is listed on the date that is it assigned. It is due the following week by the beginning of class. For example, if the homework is listed for the class on October 1, that means that the homework is assigned on October 1. It is due by class time on October 8 (unless otherwise stated).

All homework must be submitted in electronic format to BOTH Karen and your teaching assistant. Use 12 point, Times New Roman font for your work. Your documents must be double-spaced and have 1” (2.54 cm.) margins on all side.

You must label your documents in the following way. If you label your documents this way, we can download, organize and correct your papers and assignments in a much more effective way.

FirstName-LastName-AssignmentName-Date

Jane-Johnson-FirstDraftOfficeMemo-October 262013
Richard-Drake-FollowUpLetter-September152013

Any unlabeled documents (e.g. Final Draft Memo) will not be opened and will not be read or graded. It is your responsibility to label the files so that we can easily file them onto our computers and return them to you.

The class is graded on the typical A-F grade scale that is used in schools in the United States. The graded assignments will be graded with an assessment form with a set number of points. The assessment forms provide guidance on what is expected in the assignment, thus we suggest that you look them over before beginning work on the assignment.

The final grades will be determined on a percentage basis from the highest points received during the semester. The percentages will be as follows:

100 – 90% A
89 – 80% B
79 – 70% C

A-, B+, B-, C+ and C- will also be given as grades (so A- will be from 90 – 95%, for example).

For any questions about your grade and your performance during the semester, speak with Karen. Unlike some law school courses, this course is not graded on a curve, which means that only a certain percentage of students will receive specific grade. Theoretically, all students could receive an A if everyone’s work was excellent.

In addition to written assignments, the course also includes oral exercises where you will be acting as an attorney. One of the oral assignments is a client meeting and the other is a negotiation. For both exercises, you are expected to dress and act as an attorney (or a client) in a professional setting. This means professional attire (jacket and