This comprehensive legal writing text for international LL.M. students reflects the author's experience as a lawyer, professor of legal writing to international LL.M. students, and applied linguist who taught academic English as a Second Language to international university students. The book has a unique set of features: It introduces the common-law system in the U.S. and contrasts it with the civil-law system, while teaching legal reasoning and writing skills that international students need, such as how to draft memos, contracts, emails, and letters to clients, opposing counsel, and colleagues, as well as how to do legal research; It teaches law-school skills such as how to read cases and write case briefs and outlines, and how to take final exams; It helps students to address their second-language difficulties with targeted material that provides specific advice related to common student grammar issues, legal English vocabulary, the use of plain English, and the rhetorical style of U.S. legal writing; It discusses current legal practice, by describing the culture, hierarchy, and economics of law firms, what partners expect from associates, and how to communicate with colleagues; and It provides an extensive selection of real writing samples redacted from actual attorney work product. The eBook version of this title features links to Lexis Advance for further legal research options. PowerPoint slides are available to professors upon adoption of this book. Dowload sample slides from the full 119-slide presentation here. If you have adopted the book for a course, please contact [email protected] to request the PowerPoint slides.

Business letter writing, including sample letters and useful phrases Legal writing instruction, including contracts, briefs, "irac" format Reading and vocabulary building strategies Readings and writing exercises in legal contexts with a focus on law school preparation: Essay structures and rhetorical modes Advanced grammar and exercises Research writing.

This text provides real-world case files designed to reinforce foundational legal reasoning skills. Students work through practical problems, each of which is set in the context of a different basic law school subject. Commentary throughout the text guides students toward more sophisticated comprehension of the factual and legal materials, and more nuanced legal analysis, all while introducing common forms of practice-based writing. Each chapter then takes the rules introduced in the case file and illustrates ways they might be applied to an essay examination question and multiple-choice question. Additional practice questions and suggestions for classroom exercises are included in the extensive accompanying teacher's manual.

Legal Reasoning, Research, and Writing for International Graduate Students, Fifth Edition, helps international students understand and approach legal reasoning and writing the way law students and attorneys do in the United States. With concise and clear text, Professor Nedzel introduces the unique and important features of the American legal system and American law schools. Using clear instruction, examples, visual aids, and practice exercises, she teaches practical lawyering skills with sensitivity to the challenges of ESL students. New to the Fifth Edition: Streamlined presentation makes the material even more accessible. Chapters are short, direct, and to the point. Five chapters on reasoning and writing, including exam skills, office memos, and rewriting. Full chapters on contract drafting and scholarly writing. New flowcharts provide a concise, visual overview for each chapter. Citation coverage updated to new 21st edition of The Bluebook. Simplified examples and exercises. Three thoroughly revised chapters on legal research, including non-fee legal research and technological changes in the practice of U.S. law. Professors and student will benefit from: Comparative perspective informs readers about the unique features of American law as compared to civil law, Islamic law, and Asian traditions. Explanations of practical skills assume no former knowledge of the American legal system. U.S. law school necessary skills explained immediately: case briefing, creating a course outline, time management, reading citations, and writing answers to hypothetical exam questions. Short, lucid chapters that reiterate major points to aid comprehension. Clear introductions to writing hypothetical-based exams, legal memoranda, contract drafting and scholarly writing. An integrated approach to proper citation format, with explanation and instruction provided in context. Discussion of plagiarism and U.S. law school honor codes. Practical skill-building exercises in each chapter. Research exercises are primarily Internet-based Charts and summaries that are useful learning aids and reference tools

This book introduces international students to the characteristics of legal education in the United States and helps them develop the linguistic, analytical, and cultural skills to thrive at a U.S. law school. Part I focuses on the academic legal writing skills needed to write in law school. It guides students in reviewing their own writing skills and helps them to adapt to the conventions of academic legal writing at the whole text, paragraph, and sentence levels. It also gives students guidance in effectively presenting their ideas in writing so that a reader can quickly grasp their reasoning and meaning. Part II introduces students to common law and legal analysis. Following a brief introduction to the U.S. legal system, the book focuses on the skills required to read, discuss, and write about legal cases in a U.S. law class. Cases in torts and criminal procedure law provide an opportunity to apply these skills while also teaching high-frequency legal vocabulary. Throughout the book, students can read clear and concise explanations and practice the skills they are acquiring with detailed practice exercises. Professors and students will benefit from: Clear explanations of academic legal writing expected of law students on written assignments, such as exams and papers Straightforward definitions and explanations about how the common law system in the U.S. works Guidelines and practice in reading, discussing, and writing about legal cases Authentic tasks and exercises for all key concepts

Offers a new perspective on international law and international legal argumentation: to what event is international law a belief system?

‘Rethinking’ legal reasoning seems a bold aim given the large amount of literature devoted to this topic. In this thought-provoking book, Geoffrey Samuel proposes a different way of approaching legal reasoning by examining the topic through the context of legal knowledge (epistemology). What is it to have knowledge of legal reasoning?

The legal rights of Americans are threatened as never before. In No Contest, Ralph Nader and Wesley J. Smith reveal how power lawyers--Kenneth Starr perhaps the most notorious among them--misuse and manipulate the law at the expense of fairness and equity. Nader and Smith document how corporate lawyers File baseless lawsuits Use court secrecy to their unfair advantage Engage in billing fraud Nader and Smith sound the warning that this system-wide abuse is eroding our basic legal rights, and propose a positive, commonsense vision of what should be done to reverse the corporate-inspired corruption of civil justice. Timely, incisive, and highly readable, this is a book for all citizens who believe that prompt access to justice is the backbone of democracy, and a precious right to be reclaimed.

The audience for The Dimensions of Legal Reasoning is quite broad -- from legal beginners to seasoned practitioners. Although it begins with attention to some of the basics of legal thinking, it progresses quickly to fundamental issues of legal theory and current legal conflict. The book's goal is to delve deep into the thought process of lawyers and judges confronted with difficult controversies requiring sophisticated analysis. The book creates an ambitious four-part model of the most critical elements within legal reasoning -- nuances of language, varying circumstances, disputed values, and the roles of political institutions -- to demonstrate the inevitability, but structured predictability, of legal disagreement. To initiate its analysis of difficult decision making, the book uses a famous, and controversial, call by a baseball umpire, and then contrasts it with Justice John Roberts' famous comment that judges should simply "call the balls and strikes." The tension between these incidents is then referenced throughout the text to develop the special, and quite challenging, character of legal reasoning. The book argues that legal reasoning is unique in its simultaneous concern with several unstable analytic elements: language (our concern with the nature of texts), circumstances (both factual situations and legal categories), values (both individual rights and social outcomes), and political structure (the relationship between courts and legislatures). By using this approach, The Dimensions of Legal Reasoning seeks to improve the analytical perspectives at both ends of the professional spectrum. Law students will be able to appreciate earlier than they usually do the mental agility, rather than memorization prowess, that law practice will require of them. Experienced lawyers will gain a more explicit understanding of the professional acumen they bring to bear when they analyze issues and construct arguments, allowing them to deploy those skills more effectively and explain them clearly as they train their younger colleagues.

U.S. Legal Practice Skills for International Law Students is ideal for training international law students in the fundamental practice skills utilized by U.S. lawyers. It functions as a "global legal skills academy" for international students who have or are currently studying American substantive law, but desire a deeper understanding of legal practice basics such as professional responsibility, problem solving, interviewing and counseling, negotiation styles, and law firm and courtroom culture. It focuses on those practice skills necessary to perform the tasks common to international law students and lawyers working with American corporations, law firms, and individual American clients: drafting memoranda, contracts, and correspondence. For international students familiar with their own legal systems, the book systematically explains such distinctive elements of American common law as a dual court system, stare decisis, case synthesis, and case law reasoning. U.S. Legal Practice Skills for International Law Students incorporates a multicultural perspective, including discussions of cross-cultural considerations impacting the practice of law. The chapters are clear and concise, major points are summarized as bulleted highlights, and extensive use is made of headings and subheadings. Based on established legal skills pedagogy, each chapter begins with a client hypothetical and ends with a discussion of the application of the material to resolve the client's problem. The text also includes an extensive selection of sample documents, a glossary of U.S. legal concepts, a link to past Multistate Practice Tests with the bar examiners' test sheets, and a topically organized appendix of resources. The book reflects the authors' experience as lawyers, as professors of practice skills for international LL.M. students at the University of Michigan Law School, and as the creators and first visiting professors in the legal practice program for the first Western-style law school in China.