Legal Writing Academy Upper Year Seminars

[Can Satisfy the Major Paper Requirement]

The Dean’s Research and Writing Fellows Program is a unique and challenging opportunity open to top achieving upper-year students with strong writing skills and demonstrated leadership abilities. Successful applicants must have excellent research and communication skills and superior academic achievement. Dean’s Fellows work with a lawyer-mentor on an advanced and realistic research problem, and receive intensive writing instruction from Professor Melanie Mallet.  Dean’s Fellows learn new, more efficient research skills and produce a high quality written work that showcases their writing skills. Fellows will lead small tutorial sessions of the first year course, Principles of Legal Research, CML 1101. If you have questions, please contact Professor Mallet (mmallet@uottawa.ca). For details on how to apply on go to the  forms repository.

April 29-May 17 Session:  counts as a Fall 2019 course.  Apply by March 29, 2019

Fall Term 2019 and January Term sections.  Apply by June 1 , 2019

Are You a Good Candidate to be a Legal Writing Academy Leader?
Want to Sharpen Your Legal Writing Skills and Learn To Self-Edit?
Need a Writing Sample for Your Ideal Legal Job?

Legal Writing Academy Portfolio and Leadership is a three-credit course for twelve upper-year students with excellent writing and interpersonal skills. The course is given in English only.

Students will produce high-quality pieces of legal writing to showcase to future employers. Students who demonstrate outstanding writing and interpersonal skills will be eligible to become paid Legal Writing Academy Peer Mentors during the academic year. Contact Professor McRae (Virginia.McRae@uottawa.ca) for more information.  ).

For details on how to apply on go to the forms repository.

Fall (No Application Required)

Learn how to apply your legal knowledge and writing skills In the Legal Writing and Social Justice Seminar you will pick a social justice writing project of practical use to the community, a non-governmental organization, a charity, a government entity, or a vulnerable group. You will polish your legal research and writing skills through in-class exercises, legal memos, and a persuasive document.  You will also complete a legal writing project aimed at a social justice goal as your final assignment. 

Writing to promote social justice issues means using your legal knowledge of the rights in issue and your writing skills to fit the context and audience of your social justice message and purpose.

You choose the document for your final project. You could write to a Parliamentary committee to promote awareness of a social problem in a legislative measure or a policy under consideration by legislators, or write a policy brief to a Minister to advocate for legislative change, or write submissions to an international decision-making body on some issue it is examining.

Here are some examples of legal writing other students have done:

• A brochure for social assistant recipients on their appeal rights
• An Op-Ed on legal issues in refugee policy
• A speech promoting an increase in veterans’ benefits
• A guide for individuals or groups that want to sponsor a refugee under current legislation
• A policy brief on the taxation of disability benefits
• An article in a popular magazine on human trafficking and the needed legal system responses

Fall and Winter Term (No application required)
Eight Seminar Sections

You will hone your writing skills through exercises, writing assignments, and drafting legal documents. The limited enrolment small group format is designed for intensive feedback.  Your writing skills will soar!