This CALI lesson will introduce you to the ethical considerations associated with writing appellate briefs. The lesson is intended for a first year law student currently taking a legal writing course. No previous knowledge of ethics is presumed.
Legal Writing
This exercise is to help users learn the rules of proper citation form for briefs and legal memoranda. It does not deal with proper citation form for law review footnotes. It is divided into three sections: Section A deals with cases, B with statutory materials and C with secondary authorities.
Client Advice Letters - Ethical and Professional Considerations
This CALI lesson will introduce you to the ethical considerations associated with writing client advice letters. The lesson is intended for a first year law student currently taking a legal writing course. No previous knowledge of ethics is presumed.
A series of explanations and questions will guide you through a basic introduction to the regulation of attorney conduct. You will then examine how ethical considerations influence the lawyering skills associated with the preparation of advice letters.
This exercise reviews the substance of contract law and demonstrates the application of the substantive law in the process of drafting. The exercise begins with a form contract. The student must rewrite the contract to suit the needs of the client. On completion, the student will have reviewed applicable principles from both the common law and the U.C.C. In addition, the student will have learned principles of drafting that can be applied either to revision of a form or to drafting from scratch.
A large percentage of litigation arising out of contracts results from poor drafting. In order to eliminate this litigation, it is imperative that law students master good drafting skills. One of the most important aspects of drafting a contract is the operative language—language that affects legal relationships. This lesson is designed to introduce law students to operative language commonly used in drafting contracts, in particular, language of obligation (shall), language of authorization (may) and language of condition precedent (must).
Drafters of contracts, wills and statutes are plagued with the ambiguities inherent in the use of these two connectors. This lesson is designed to identify these ambiguities and then help students to draft with conjunctions which eliminate those ambiguities.
Email Correspondence: Ethical and Professional Considerations
This is one in a series of lessons directed at the ethical and professional considerations associated with the production of particular lawyering documents. This lesson is intended to introduce first year law students to the ethical and professional considerations associated with email correspondence in law practice. No prior instruction in professional responsibility is required.
This is one in a series of lessons directed at the ethical and professional considerations associated with the production of particular lawyering documents. This lesson is intended to introduce first year law students to the ethical and professional considerations associated with the preparation of predictive, interoffice memoranda. It is assumed that students are familiar with predictive, interoffice memoranda. No prior instruction in professional responsibility is required.
This is an exercise designed to introduce first-semester law students to the basic elements of a typical case "brief" and to teach them general methodology for writing their own briefs. The exercise consists of three parts: (1) an introduction to the purposes and uses of a case brief; (2) a detailed examination of each of the ten components of a typical case brief (with examples); and (3) two actual cases that students are asked to read and then to brief, using the methodology described in this exercise.
This lesson will help you master legal citations using the California Style Manual, Fourth Edition (hereinafter "Manual"). This exercise is to assist you to master the specific rules of citation for your briefs and legal memoranda. It does not deal with proper citation formats for law review footnotes. Throughout this lesson, you will be asked to read specific portions of the Manual and apply that knowledge to answer interactive exercises.
Pages 
