University of Houston Law Center Logo
HOME Faculty

Printable Version

Fall 2023

5397 Legal Writing - SIMMONS- 26085

Professor(s): Laurel  Simmons (CLINICAL FACULTY [405(b)])

Credits: 3

Course Areas: Foreign LLM 

Time: 10:30a-12:00p  MW  Location: 260 

Course Outline: This is a course in two parts: As a preliminary matter, this course focuses on an introduction to the American legal education system and the skills a student must possess to succeed. The curriculum will include instruction in the case method of the study of law in the United States, including briefing a case and recitation; the importance of outlining as a method of exam preparation; and actual exam writing skills, especially if a majority of students are more familiar with an oral exam tradition. Then this course shifts focus to a skills-based examination of the U.S. legal system. This curriculum will be problem-based, using fact-pattern simulations to develop oral communication, legal writing, research, and analysis skills essential to practice in the U.S. legal system.

Course Syllabus: Syllabus

Course Notes: (Face-to-Face)  The UH registration system instruction mode for this course is listed in parenthesis. After student registration opens, there may be instruction mode changes to this course up through two weeks before the first day of classes for the term, but notice of such changes will be sent to then-registered students. For this instruction mode, instructors and students are expected to normally be physically present in the classroom. If the course has a final examination, it will be in a classroom requiring your physical presence. Other assessment, such as a mid term exam, may also be in a classroom. Whether this instructor will offer “remote presence” (starting a zoom meeting from the podium computer to enable student remote access on an occasional basis) for part or all of the semester is not known, but students should not rely on an expectation that remote presence will be available.

For FLLM students only.


Prerequisites:  

First Day Assignments:

Final Exam Schedule:    

This course will have:
Exam:
Paper:


Satisfies Senior Upper Level Writing Requirement: No

Experiential Course Type: No

Bar Course: No

DistanceEd ABA: No

Pass-Fail Student Election: Unavailable (Required Course)

Course Materials

No book required for this course

Please refer to syllabus for further information.