FCSL Certificate in Research, Writing and Drafting General Description The Research, Writing and Drafting Certificate Program will allow students to specialize in the legal analysis, research, oral advocacy and writing skills needed for success in law practice. Students will produce a bound portfolio which they may use to not only market their skills to potential employers, but also as a reference for use in practice. This portfolio will consist of documents created in the process of completing the certificate courses (such as an appellate brief, motion, real estate transaction, etc.). No other law school in Florida offers students such a certificate. To receive a Research, Writing and Drafting Certificate, students must 1) successfully complete Lawyering Process I and II; 2) be designated by the School as second- or third-year students; 3) successfully complete the Legal Editing course; 4) successfully complete nine additional graded credits in the program s designated courses described below; and 5) achieve a 3.0 grade point average in all certificate courses (excluding LPI and LPII). For instance, a B- in one three-credit certificate course, a B in a second three-credit certificate course, and a B+ in a third three-credit certificate course would achieve the 3.0 overall average required. Verification of eligibility for the certificate: Please forward a copy of your unofficial transcript to Professor Leigh Scales (lscales@fcsl.edu) or Professor Cynthia Stroud (cstroud@fcsl.edu) when you have completed the course requirements for the certificate so that your eligibility may be verified. Upon receipt of verification of your eligibility, the Registrar will designate the award of the certificate on your transcript and order your certificate, which will be mailed to you. Certificate Curriculum Required Courses: The following courses must be taken: Legal Editing 1 credit Elective Courses: The courses listed below may be counted toward the 9 credit hours required for the certificate. The courses marked with an * are courses in which students may satisfy the ALWR requirement. The courses marked with a + may satisfy the school s Skills requirement. Some of the courses may be offered as either ALWR or Skills courses, so it is important to check the schedule of offerings each semester to determine which option applies. ELECTIVE COURSES CREDITS Advanced Legal Research+ 3 Appellate Advocacy* 3 Ethical and Professional Legal Writing* 3 Judicial Writing* 3 Persuasive Legal Writing* or + 3 Pretrial Litigation Drafting* or + 3 Transactional Drafting+ 3 Course Descriptions
Advanced Legal Research (3 credits, graded)-prerequisites: Lawyering Process I and II. This skills course surveys primary and secondary resources, both print and electronic, available to the law practitioner. On-line research strategies and cost-effective techniques are discussed. Students prepare a Research Pathfinder on an approved topic of interest incorporating the research tools learned over the term. Class presentations will be given on the Research Pathfinder. Appellate Advocacy (3 credits, graded)-prerequisites: Lawyering Process I and II. This course also satisfies the School s Advanced Legal Writing Requirement (ALWR). Students in this course gain experience in the appellate process by writing appellate briefs and making appellate oral arguments. Ethical and Professional Legal Writing (3 credits, graded)-prerequisites: Lawyering Process I and II. This course also satisfies the school s ALWR. In this course students will learn to identify and resolve the types of ethical and professional issues related specifically to legal writing and associated with particular types of documents, including predictive memoranda, client letters, demand letters, complaints, briefs and drafted documents. Students will prepare a series of smaller research papers addressing ethical and professional obligations for particular types of legal writing. These original research papers will integrate theory and application, identifying various ethical and professional issues in the context of specific written work attorneys produce in both litigation and transactional settings. Judicial Writing (3 credits, graded)-prerequisites: Lawyering Process I and II. This course also satisfies the school s ALWR. This course will teach students to write in formats and styles unique to clerking or judging, i.e., the bench brief, judicial majority and dissenting opinions, and per curiam opinions. Through a series of writing assignments, students will learn how to improve, shorten and achieve clarity of expression in a style that is simple and understandable to those who read judicial documents. Additionally, the course is designed to provide students with a deeper understanding of the thought process that goes into the creation of legal precedent and the development of legal theory and social engineering that underlie the process. Legal Editing (1 credit, Pass/Fail) Prerequisites: Lawyering Process I and II. This course is required for the Research, Writing and Drafting Certificate. This course will help students develop advanced critiquing and legal editing skills. Each week, several students will provide the class with copies of a legal document that they have produced in other classes or in clerkships. The class will then review each student s work and provide extensive feedback, after which the students will rewrite their work and present the documents for a second review by the class. Students must also pass a proficiency examination as a part of successfully completing this course. Persuasive Legal Writing (3 credits, graded)-prerequisites: Lawyering Process I and II. This course may be designated to satisfy the School s Skills requirement or ALWR requirement. This course will teach advanced aspects of persuasion and specific techniques to make legal writing more persuasive. These techniques are based on principles relevant to persuasion that have been identified in other disciplines, such as classical rhetoric, psychology and literary theory. This class will give students multiple opportunities to participate in a variety of skills exercises designed to put into practice the advanced persuasion techniques addressed in the assigned text reading and class discussion. The types of exercises include: 1) performance exercises that require students to employ a specific persuasive writing strategy; 2) analysis
exercises that require students to compose an essay critically analyzing another writer s use of persuasive strategy in an existing legal document; and 3) combined performance/analysis exercises that require students to employ a specific persuasive strategy and compose an essay critically analyzing the effort. Pretrial Litigation Drafting (3 credits, graded)-prerequisites: Lawyering Process I and II. This course may be designated to satisfy the School s Skills requirement or ALWR requirement. Students in this course will use hypothetical case files to draft documents common to pretrial litigation, such as: complaints; answers; discovery; motions; trial briefs; joint pretrial memoranda; settlement agreements; jury instructions; and client interview outlines. The assignments will be designed to help students refine their writing skills and better understand the real life expectations they will encounter in a litigation practice. Students will also be exposed to more complex litigation strategies and problems throughout the course. Transactional Drafting (3 credits, graded)-prerequisites: Lawyering Process I and II and Contracts I and II. In this skills course students will learn specific contract drafting skills and techniques. Students will draft the documents common to transactional legal work, such as: letter of intent, promissory note and guaranty, LLC operating agreement, non-competition agreement, supply agreement, asset purchase agreement, settlement agreement and mutual release, and amendments and restatements. For each assignment, the student will receive (1) a letter of intent (or term sheet) containing hypothetical deal points made up and drafted by the professor and (2) a draft agreement that attempts to memorialize the agreement reached by the parties in the letter of intent. The student will mark-up and revise the draft agreement with three main goals in mind: (a) to be more clear and concise using plain English, (b) to more accurately reflect the deal reached between the parties in the letter of intent, and c) to provide for risks that the draft agreement and letter of intent do not contemplate. With the exception of an asset purchase agreement, which will be approximately 15-20 pages, each agreement will be approximately 3-5 pages in length. This course involves the study of some of the common problems encountered in contract drafting and how lawyers avoid them through proper planning and drafting. In the course of the drafting, the objective is for the student to protect the client by predicting what may happen and providing for that contingency. Certificate Program Faculty Full-Time FCSL Faculty Leigh Scales - Professor of Professional Skills/Co-Director of Lawyering Process B.S., cum laude, Florida State University; J.D., with honors, University of Florida Courses: Lawyering Process I and II, Pretrial Litigation Drafting, Professional Responsibility, Persuasive Legal Writing Professor Scales joined the FCSL faculty in 2001. Prior to joining the faculty, Professor Scales practiced litigation for seven years with the Jacksonville law firms of Rogers, Towers, Bailey, Jones & Gay, P.A. and Marks, Gray, Conroy & Gibbs, P.A. Professor Scales specialized in the areas of medical malpractice defense, products liability, employment law, municipal and governmental law, and marital and family law, including dissolution of marriage, surrogacy, adoption and prenuptial/postnuptial agreements. During her years of practice Professor Scales represented clients in numerous trials, argued before the First District Court of Appeal of Florida and represented clients at countless hearings, depositions and mediations. Professor Scales served
on the Board of Directors of the Young Lawyers Section of The Jacksonville Bar Association for four years. She also served on the Board of Directors of Learn To Read of Jacksonville, Inc. for six years. Professor Scales taught litigation at FCCJ for two years as well as high school English. She also interned in the Public Defender's Office. She is a member of The Florida Bar and is admitted to practice before all Florida courts, as well as the U.S. District Court, Middle District of Florida. Cynthia Stroud - Professor of Professional Skills/Co-Director of Lawyering Process J.D., Seton Hall Law School; B.A., M.A. in English, Youngstown State University Courses: Lawyering Process I and II, Pretrial Litigation Drafting, Ethical and Professional Legal Writing, Persuasive Legal Writing Professor Stroud is Co-Director of the Lawyering Process Program. Professor Stroud graduated from Seton Hall Law School, where she was Editor-in-Chief of the Seton Hall Legislative Journal; winner of the Seton Hall Appellate Advocacy Competition, including Best Respondent s Brief; and recipient of the Alumni Association Award for Outstanding Contribution to Clinical Programs. After law school, Professor Stroud served an appellate clerkship for the Honorable David S. Baime, J.A.D. in New Jersey. She practiced complex commercial litigation at Wilentz, Goldman and Spitzer; Pitney, Hardin, Kipp and Szuch; and Tompkins, McGuire and Wachenfeld in New Jersey, where she is admitted to practice. Professor Stroud joined the Florida Coastal School of Law faculty in 2002 after teaching at Michigan State University College of Law in 2001, where she also created and directed the law school s academic support program. In addition to her law school teaching, Professor Stroud, who also holds an M.A. in English, taught college English at universities in Ohio, New Jersey and New York prior to her legal career. She has made conference presentations and published articles on the teaching of writing. She is a member of the Legal Writing Institute and the Association of Legal Writing Directors. Sander Moody - Associate Professor of Professional Skills St. John's University School of Law, J.D. 1995; University of Virginia, B.A. 1992 Courses: Evidence, Contracts, Appellate Advocacy, Business Crimes, Business Associations While in private practice, Professor Moody s practice concentrated in the area of complex commercial litigation. He primarily represented clients in technology licensing litigation, antitrust litigation and international reinsurance disputes with large law firms in New York City and Jacksonville. In addition, while practicing in New York City, Professor Moody served on the New York County Lawyers Association Ethics Committee. As the faculty advisor to the Moot Court program, his teams have won state, national and international moot court competitions. Alma Nickell Nickie Singleton - Professor & Director of Library and Technology Center BA, MLS, JD, University of South Carolina. Courses: Advanced Legal Research, International Legal Research, Law Librarianship Professor Singleton joined the FCSL faculty in 2005 as Director of the Library and Technology Center. She has served as the Director of the Law Library at the University of Oklahoma College
of Law and was Associate Director of the University of Pittsburgh Barco Law Library where she participated in the development of the international and comparative law collection. From 2000-2004 she was co-moderator and presenter for the session on internet Resources for Indian Law at the annual Sovereignty Symposium sponsored by the Oklahoma Supreme Court. She was admitted to the South Carolina Bar in 1979, and is a member of the American Bar Association and the American Association of Law Libraries. Adjunct Faculty Nicholas Cristopolis, Esq. Barry Newman, Esq. Ada Hammond, Esq. Timothy Gillis, Esq. Gayle Petrie, Esq.