Legal Writing and Research

Simply put, great lawyers are great writers. Our legal research and writing courses and skills training will teach you how to find the law, how to analyze it accurately for an employer or a judge, and how to communicate it persuasively to help your clients achieve their goals. Honing these essential skills will let you set yourself apart.

Communication skills and writing well are crucial to lawyers. Michigan Law’s Legal Practice Program offers a strong skills-based foundation in the first year that is reinforced throughout the rest of your legal education. Our goal is to prepare you to practice at a high level from the day you graduate. 

To help you develop these essential communication skills, the Legal Practice Program will be a central component of your first year. It reflects our commitment to begin preparing you for the practice of law starting on your first day of law school. By limiting class size to around 20 students, the program offers individualized and interactive instruction in legal research and analysis, legal writing, oral advocacy, negotiation, and transactional drafting. 

You will have many more opportunities to build your skills. We offer numerous upper-level electives like practice simulations, clinics, and externships, as well as extracurricular activities like student-run law journals and litigation and transactional competitions. These all help reinforce the skills you’ve already learned and let you develop new ones