New Paper on Writing and Teaching IP

Shameless self-promotion alert: I’ve posted a new paper to SSRN, titled “Writing to Learn Law and Writing in Law: An Intellectual Property Illustration.” It’s forthcoming in the St. Louis University Law Journal as part of a symposium on teaching intellectual property law. Here is the abstract:

This essay, prepared as part of a Symposium on teaching intellectual property law, describes a method of combining substantive law teaching with a species of what is commonly called “skills” training. The method involves assessing students not via traditional final exams but instead via research memos patterned after assignments that junior lawyers might encounter in actual legal practice. The essay grounds the method in the theoretical disposition known generally as “writing to learn.” It argues that students are likely to learn intellectual property law effectively if they learn to practice as intellectual property lawyers, and specifically to write as intellectual property lawyers.

Download it here.