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Writing sample from scratch
Posted: Wed Jul 03, 2013 9:47 am
by 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?
Re: Writing sample from scratch
Posted: Wed Jul 03, 2013 12:16 pm
by 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.
Re: Writing sample from scratch
Posted: Wed Jul 03, 2013 12:58 pm
by 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.
Re: Writing sample from scratch
Posted: Wed Jul 03, 2013 6:25 pm
by 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.