By Anne M. Enquist
Why are some law students successful in their legal writing
classes while others are not? To identify the secrets to
success, I did a case study of six second-year law students as they
wrote a motion brief and an appellate brief for their second year
legal writing course. Based on performance during their first
year legal writing course, two of these students were predicted to
be highly successful, two were predicted to be moderately
successfully, and two were predicted to be only marginally
successful. The study, involving interviews with the study
subjects, daily records of all of their activities related to
writing the briefs, drafts of their briefs, and the professor’s
critiques of their work, reveals not only the results of working
harder but the specifics of working smarter. The secrets to
working smarter included the following: utilizing note-taking and
note-reviewing strategies; knowing how to divide one’s time between
researching, drafting, revising, editing, and proofreading;
researching and reading cases efficiently; using efficient time
management techniques; organizing one’s research and staying
organized while writing; and accessing the professor as a primary
resource. Pitfalls to avoid included procrastination, poor
management of distractions, and scapegoating.