Judicial Clerkships: Legal Methods in Motion

Book excerpt: Judicial Clerkships: Legal Methods in Motion can be the main text for any type of "clerking" course and also serve as a desk reference for judicial clerks and interns! Judicial Clerkships: Legal Methods in Motion teaches a combination of analytical and practical skills. With its three part focus, the book: • 1. Provides an introduction to clerking in both the trial and appellate courts; • 2. Explores clerking for an appellate court, including lessons in thinking and writing for these courts; and • 3. Offers a complete complete discussion of the analytical and drafting skills necessary for trial court judicial clerks. Judicial Clerkships: Legal Methods in Motion also is unique in that it: • Instructs students in drafting appellate opinions, both majority and minority, as well as trial court orders, judgments, and findings of fact and conclusions of law. • Helps students to examine fundamental concepts like scope of review, stare decisis, and the spectrum of law and fact. It provides the depth necessary for working with these concepts in a clerkship or internship; • Provides lessons and exercises in "clerking" or editing draft opinions; and • Offers concrete writing tips, based on actual appellate court opinions and trial court orders.