Legal Writing Requirements/Thesis Paper or Project - Legal Innovation & Technology

Legal Writing Requirement Papers or Projects

Completion of the Concentration's legal writing requirement may be accomplished with:

• A paper that meets the standards of the Law School's legal writing requirement, and has been written for an approved Legal Innovation & Technology Concentration course
• A paper that meets the standards of the Law School's legal writing requirement and has been written for an approved as part of a Directed Study project with a full time faculty member
• A law journal piece or moot court brief whose subject matter comes within the scope of a Concentration course, and has been approved by the Faculty Director(s) of the Concentration, or
• A project that has been created for an approved Legal Innovation & Technology Concentration course, created as part of a Directed Study project with a full time faculty member, or created in relation with external work or volunteer initiatives by a student; for example, a new document assembly tool, work on a guided interview platform, data analysis project, etc.
  Please note: a student who satisfies the concentration requirement with a project would still need to fulfill the Law School’s general legal writing requirement for graduation
  Any project submitted for satisfaction of this requirement must be approved by the LIT Concentration Director

Thesis

Students who are enrolled in the Legal Innovation & Technology Concentration may opt to write a Thesis paper. (Alternatively, students may choose to satisfy their Concentration's legal writing requirement by meeting the Law School's Legal Writing Requirement  as noted directly above.) Specific rules relating to Concentration theses are:

• Students who choose the Thesis option must write a Thesis of publishable quality, supervised and approved by a resident faculty member in consultation with the LIT Concentration Director
• The standards applied to the Thesis are beyond those applied to satisfaction of the Law School's legal writing requirement, and are determined by the supervising resident faculty member
• If a Thesis fails to meet the standard applied by the supervising resident faculty member, the course will be changed from a Thesis to a Directed Study on the student’s transcript
• The Thesis must be completed by the time of graduation, but arrangements for faculty supervision and topic approval, as well as significant work on the project, should be initiated at least two semesters before anticipated graduation
• Thesis topics must relate to the area of LIT Concentration, and must be approved by the Concentration Faculty Director(s) and the supervising resident faculty member.
• Students who complete a Thesis to the satisfaction of their supervising resident faculty member are eligible to receive their Concentration with distinction, as long as all other Concentration requirements are met
• The Thesis is taken for two (2) credits and may be either graded or taken pass/fail, at the student’s election. Students who elect to write a Concentration Thesis may not also receive credit in the same semester for honor board credit, a Directed Study, Research Assistantship, or participation on a moot court team