terrible legal writing grade
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terrible legal writing grade
1L, got a C in legal writing. I did have some genuine health issues this spring that made me have trouble concentrating, but it's still one full letter grade below ANY of my other grades. Am I doomed?
- YankeesFan
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Re: terrible legal writing grade
I ended up getting slightly below median in legal writing my first year and I went on to publish several law review articles and have a great reputation at my firm for my legal writing ability. Its all about what you take away from that C and how you can improve your writing. Take some writing heavy classes your 2L year, either paper classes or a drafting class, and work really hard in them. You should be able to improve dramatically.
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Re: terrible legal writing grade
I finished 1L with a 3.73, but had a C+ and B in LRW. I'd guess they came up in ~25% of my interviews. If you're a good interviewer you should be fine. (I'm not a good interviewer, so I can't really pinpoint the reason why I bombed OCI
.) My (generic) advice: come up with a good reason -- test it with friends, your CSO, etc. -- take advanced writing/research courses if your school offers them, and mention doing so if asked about your LRW grades. Good luck!

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Re: terrible legal writing grade
anori wrote:1L, got a C in legal writing. I did have some genuine health issues this spring that made me have trouble concentrating, but it's still one full letter grade below ANY of my other grades. Am I doomed?
If your overall gpa is bad, then yes. But if you are Top 30%, no. You better improve in your next legal writing class and make sure you have a solid writing sample.
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Re: terrible legal writing grade
+1 to what people said.
Aim for improvement. Did you talk to your professor or other students who will give genuinely helpful advice?
Aim for improvement. Did you talk to your professor or other students who will give genuinely helpful advice?
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Re: terrible legal writing grade
Thanks for the advice, everyone. I did contact my professor, but she's taking the summer off and it might take a while for her to see my e-mail. Meanwhile, I have a summer job, and I realized pretty quickly that I haven't learned much about real legal writing anyway.
- Scotusnerd
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Re: terrible legal writing grade
ajax adonis wrote:Just btw, don't let your legal writing grades make you think that you're a bad legal writer or that you can't write briefs properly in the future. There's probably very little correlation b/n your legal writing grade and how well you write in the future as an attorney.
For some reason, I don't think that the best mass tort lawyers all got A+'s in their Torts 1L class. I would think that same is for legal writing. Sometimes it just takes longer for some people to get a hang of it, or your prof may have not been very good.
This. I didn't learn much of anything about legal writing until I actually got out and did it in the real world. Don't worry too much. I'd take another class on writing or get on a journal to make up a slack. Also, if you're lucky, you might land a job with a ton of writing opportunities that you can use on your resume.
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Re: terrible legal writing grade
Just an update - I did get on a journal. Secondary, but I don't care about that. I guess I'm not the worst legal writer on the face of the planet.
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