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terrible legal writing grade
Posted: Wed Jul 10, 2013 10:05 am
by anori
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?
Re: terrible legal writing grade
Posted: Wed Jul 10, 2013 10:24 am
by YankeesFan
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.
Re: terrible legal writing grade
Posted: Wed Jul 10, 2013 10:28 am
by granger
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!
Re: terrible legal writing grade
Posted: Wed Jul 10, 2013 10:42 am
by sparty99
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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Posted: Wed Jul 10, 2013 1:35 pm
by Myself
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Re: terrible legal writing grade
Posted: Fri Jul 12, 2013 2:57 am
by eerie_erie
+1 to what people said.
Aim for improvement. Did you talk to your professor or other students who will give genuinely helpful advice?
Re: terrible legal writing grade
Posted: Fri Jul 12, 2013 9:19 am
by anori
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.
Re: terrible legal writing grade
Posted: Sun Jul 14, 2013 9:12 am
by Scotusnerd
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.
Re: terrible legal writing grade
Posted: Sat Jul 20, 2013 7:19 pm
by anori
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.