sanpiero wrote:legal writing should be pass/fail
I think some variant of a high pass, pass, low pass, fail system makes the most sense. It doesn't punish your GPA if you get unlucky in a top class or get screwed by a tight curve, but at the same time it still provides incentive to give at least a good faith effort on the assignment.
One of my friends got all A-s (maybe he had an A, I'm not sure, either way it was close to an A- average), likely good enough for top 10 % here, but got a B in legal writing and it dropped him in GPA pretty hard. His prof, according to everyone in his class, is pretty terrible, gives no feedback prior to the final grade and seems to grade arbitrarily with no commentary. The prof also claims to not have given above a B+ to anyone in the 12 person class last year.
My prof, on the other hand, is phenomenal. I really got lucky. Holds excellent classes, is extremely accessible outside of class, gives detailed and useful feedback and seems to grade very fairly, backing up her grading the whole way through your assignment with detailed notes explaining why points were added or deducted. She's very lawyerly about it, I guess.