Andrea McArdle spoke at Valparaiso University School of Law on October 7 as part of the Scholars and Advocates in Residence Program lecture series, “Shaping the Public Dialogue.” McArdle presented “Forming a Professional Identity in Law through Writing: A Pervasive Approach.”
McArdle is Professor and Director of Legal Writing at the City University of New York (CUNY). Her speech focused on different writing techniques for professors in the classroom and writing techniques for students to use outside of the classroom.
McArdle explained that although first year writing is rigorous it is the core of professional formation for beginning law students. She explained the need to reinforce the deep learning that occurs in the first year and how the legal education should draw on a broader range of writing roles.
Some of her various approaches are specifically designed for professors to enhance students’ understanding of the law through writing, but there were also some points for students to take away. She explained that for students, especially in the first year, additional writing may seem impossible but it would be invaluable to a deeper understanding of the law.
McArdle explained that creative writing seems removed from legal writing but it allows students to step back while reinforcing a beneficial process for learning the law. There were two suggestions for students to try as a new approach to legal writing.
The first was to do legal writing separate from the legal form. Write about legal topics, cases and areas of the law in a free-flowing natural form and not in the form followed by typical cases briefs or memorandums. The second was to use the legal form but not the legal content. McArdle recommended taking the legal form and choosing a topic unrelated to the law.
She explained that by following that particular format students would gain insight and understanding of what legal concepts they were missing or the points they need to strengthen. She had a student who used the legal structure of writing but wrote about a relationship. A topic familiar to that particular student, but she followed a structure outside of her usual practice which enabled a deeper understanding of the points to cover in her own legal writing.
McArdle suggested to professors that affording space for this type of writing would be beneficial in learning the law and explained that law schools would do well to allow more pervasive writing in courses.
McArdle has shaped the development of the writing-intensive curriculum as director of the legal writing department at CUNY Law School. Before joining the law school faculty she taught in the Lawyering Program at the NYU School of Law where she guided development of its legal writing curriculum. In addition she was coordinator of the NYU Lawyering Theory Workshop, and developed an interdisciplinary faculty workshop series to provide a framework for thinking about how lawyers work.
Korin is a 1L and can be reached at forum@valpo.edu
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