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Legal Advocacy, Research, and Communications

ILRAC

Emory Law teaches its students to think and communicate clearly, both orally and in writing.

The First Year

In their first year, students take Introduction to Legal Advocacy, Research, and Communications, a two-semester course that introduces the tools and techniques essential to law practice and legal scholarship.

Through experiential learning exercises and one-on-one sessions with our seven full-time writing faculty members, students learn to construct and analyze legal arguments, perform research efficiently, properly cite every source, and write legal memoranda using clear and persuasive arguments.

During the spring semester, students continue to hone their research skills while learning the techniques of written and oral advocacy. Students learn by drafting an appellate court brief and presenting an oral argument before a bench of three judges.


The Second and Third Years

After the first year, all students are required to write a substantial research paper and to participate in the Kessler-Eidson Program for Trial Techniques. In addition, second- and third-year students may take two writing electives. Students may also hone their writing, editing, advocacy, and research skills through

  • serving on the student-run journals with close faculty supervision of journal comments for Emory Law's student-run journals
  • taking a faculty-led workshop on scholarly legal writing
  • working one-on-one with professors on scholarly research and book projects as research assistants
  • competing with the Moot Court and Mock Trial teams
  • working in our clinics and centers
  • participating in Technological Innovation: Generating Economic Results, or TI:GER, a multidisciplinary partnership with Georgia Tech that focuses on intellectual property and technology commercialization issues