I remember sitting at orientation before the start of my 1L and an I-R-A-C being presented to me for the first time. It was then that I had the realization that the writing style that I’ve been trained to perfect my whole life was not what I would be using in law school. Obviously, when we have been writing following the rules of MLA, APA, or Chicago (I know there is probably so many more, too) our whole lives, it is scary to realize that the world of IRAC’s and Bluebook exists. But luckily, the tools that the Legal Methods program at Widener Commonwealth gives us help the transition to becoming a strong legal writer be much smoother.
In Legal Methods I and II, you will learn how to write both objectively, like a judge and subjectively, like an attorney. You learn how to apply statutes and case law to factual scenarios to answer the issues of cases. And while doing so, you will learn how to write it in such a way that is simply different than what most of us have ever had to do.
I am an ASF for Legal Methods, and the two questions I get asked the most are “am I writing too much” and “am I actually going to have to use the bluebook after this class is over?”. As to the first question, the answer is usually yes. We are trained in K-12 and college to write as much as we can to prove our points and write with a lot of extra “fluff”. Legal Methods retrains our brains to only put in the pertinent information and to not overdo it. It is often tricky for us to understand that it is okay for our writing to not ramble and use confusing big words, and instead follow a CREAC. I often tell the students that legal writing is like doing a puzzle. By understanding each section that must go into our legal writing, the next step is just finding the correct information to plug in!
As to the second question, yes, you will likely always need to have a Bluebook handy. Now that I am a 3L, I have interned and externed in three very different types/areas of law. When I externed for a judge, I would draft Opinions in the way we learned how to do so in Legal Methods. I would use my bluebook to cite the relevant cases and the facts of the case. When I worked at private firms, the story was the same. When drafting briefs and memos, it was definitely important to have the tools of the bluebook at my fingertips.
So, moral of the story, your Legal Methods I & II courses that you will take as a 1L will serve you not only through the 9 months you are in the class, but for the rest of your legal education (and career!) While it might feel new and scary at first, taking seriously the skills you can learn in this class will make the rest of what you will do not feel as scary.
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