Writing sample from scratch Forum

[cofc2008]

3L here. Basically, I want to create a writing sample that is more focused on the sector I want to go into (Energy regulation/law). How should I approach that?

I was thinking picking a topic I am familiar with like Carbon Capture and Storage, and writing up a memo like like 1L LARW(absent a fact pattern). I figure that 5-10 pages of analysis of the legal and regulatory framework for an emerging issue in the energy world be a good writing sample.

Thoughts?

[cofc2008]

I guess to narrow this down a bit, I'm really asking whether it will matter that the memo is something I did on my own rather than as part of a clerkship.

Has anyone done this, or been told not to do this?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

[A. Nony Mouse]

I've never heard anyone be told not to do this, but it's just never come up in my experience. I think the biggest problem would be lack of application of law to facts. That's always seemed to me that most significant part of analysis in a traditional legal memo - here's all the legal stuff, but what does it mean for this case specifically?

That said, if you couched it as something that would appear in a bar association publication - maybe as an explanation of the issue to practitioners in field who would need to know about it/understand it for reasons x/y/z - it might work.

I suppose it depends in part of what your alternative writing sample is.

[LAWYER2]

Nony is right, the lack of facts would make it difficult. Maybe find a specific case with positive facts and lift the storyline. I usually redact party names & certain specific facts in my submitted writing samples anyway so it wouldn't be that far a stretch.