Law, Literature and Creative Advocacy (Lai)
Faculty
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| Alicia Laialicia.x.lai@gmail.com |
Additional Information
Skills Training
Expository Writing
Grading
50% Participation,
50% Paper
Yes
Class meets in person.
Course Continuity
Students are encouraged to stay home if you are ill or experience flu-like symptoms. If you miss a class for any reason, it is still your responsibility to make up the work missed.
I offer the following to students who miss class due to illness:
- If you are absent, due to illness or some other unavoidable circumstance, email me and I can ask for volunteers among your classmates to share their notes with you.
- I will make PowerPoint slides or other class materials routinely available on the course site to everyone in the class.
- When you are better, please make an appointment to meet with me and I will review/answer questions about what you missed.
Meeting Times/Location
M 6:40PM - 8:40PM
Tanenbaum Hall 142
Category
Seminar
Credits
3.0
The narrative arc of a case does not start and end in a courtroom. Just as rigorous legal analysis is paramount to strong advocacy, so too is creative thinking and captivating rhetoric in mounting a persuasive argument. Students will take a literary lens to law—considering, for instance, the neuroscience of trial, a narrator's credibility in confessions or victim impact statements, or the legal fictions adopted by different countries. By engaging with a variety of written forms—from short fiction to headline legal complaints—students will also dissect rhetorical and literary devices employed by great writers, enhancing their creative writing skills. This seminar will also feature award-winning authors, trial lawyers, and other specialists as guest speakers. Students will develop their creative voices as a crucial tool for contemporary fiction writing, brief writing, academic writing, op-eds, and other forms of legal advocacy.
All reading materials will be provided online; no additional textbooks will be needed. Students will be graded on the basis of class participation (50%) and a final paper (50%).
Skills Learning outcomes: Demonstrate an understanding of the individual course skill; Demonstrate the ability to receive and implement feedback; Demonstrate an understanding of how and when the individual course skill is employed in practice.
Perspectives on the Law Learning outcomes: Demonstrate an understanding of how the law affects, and is affected by, the individual course topic; Perform legal analysis in the context of the individual course topic; Communicate effectively on the legal and other aspects of the individual course topic; Demonstrate the ability to use other disciplines to analyze legal issues relevant to the individual course topic, including economics, philosophy, and sociology, as appropriate.