Legal English and Intro to US Law - Complete Overview Course

This lecture will introduce the skills course framework and this particualr skills course. It will also provide an overview of the major topics that the course covers.

This lecture introduces a legal dictionary and how it is different from a general dictionary. It also introduces various open-access online resources that can enable continued practice and learning outside of this class. It also emphasizes the importance of grammar and its heightened importance for lawyers and paralegals.

This lecture discusses the Plain English approach to legal writing and communication. It provides brief historical coverage of the broader plain language movement, which has influenced government communications and publications. It emphasizes the value of clarity in legal writing and legal communication. Students can incorporate this valuable perspective early on in their Legal English learning journey so that they are both effective and efficient communicators.

This lecture enables students to describe the key features of a common law legal system. It also discusses unique aspects of the U.S. legal system, which includes federalism and extensive enacted laws. The lecture discusses the adversarial approach in the U.S. system and the unique role of judges and juries.

This lecture describes the basic hierarchy of courts in the U.S. including the trial courts, intermediate appellate courts, and courts of last resort. It specifically discusses the federal courts and illustrates the break down of circuit courts. It provides an overview of the rules and principles that affect court procedure and outlines major types and categories of court cases. 

This lecture defines and distinguishes an area of law and area of practice. It illustrates the relationship between the common law, enacted law (statutes), and contemporary case law. It explains how these sources of law interact in U.S. legal systems. It introduces the core areas of practice, which are usually studied in the first year of accredited law school programs in the United States.

This lesson introduces the types of practice in which lawyers engage. It also describes the various different organizations and entities that provide legal services. It also describes the role of legal departments and units within public (governmental) and private (business) organizations.

This lesson provides a basic overview of the educational path that many people take in the U.S. on their way to becoming a qualified and licensed attorney. It also briefly introduces one potential path for individual who may have a qualified foreign law degree who want to seek admission in a jurisdiction that both recognizes such credential and allows a path.

After this lecture, you will be able to describe the role of oral communication in the legal setting vis-à-vis writing and other methods of interaction. You will be able to differentiate the various settings in which oral communication takes place, including: internal and external to the law office or department. Discussion includes general public oral communications as well as potential client, clients, legal team members, office team members, adverse and external counter-parties, and formal settings such as hearing, trials, and other proceedings.

After this lecture, you should recognize the importance of focused, concise, and purpose-driven communications, including in email, the most frequent type of written communication. Specifically, discussion includes techniques and best practices for draft fast, organized, and concise emails. The lecture also discusses the role of more formal communication and correspondence, including when they're most appropriate and what distinguishes them from emails and other forms of written communication.

After this lecture, you will be able to define legal research and explain why it is an integral step in legal writing and legal services in the United States. Specifically, discussion notes the need and importance of legal research in a common law legal system where sources of authority can come from enacted laws as well as published prior case opinions that have binding power. The lecture also introduces the primary and secondary source dichotomy of authorities and describes how, functionally, relying on one (secondary authority) ultimately leads to the other (primary). Illustrations and conceptual examples bring this lecture's message even more clarity. Finally, we introduce the function and basic elements of case briefing as well as the "IRAC" method of taking notes with respect to relevant prior case opinions.

After this lecture, you should be able to define a contract in relation to agreements, more generally. This includes the ability to define and describe the basic common law contract elements of offer, acceptance, and consideration. The lecture will also describe the various remedies the legal system provides in the case of a material breach of a valid contract. Finally, the lesson puts the principles of contract law into context by explaining how state law defines the specific requirements of contracts and that it can modify the common law foundational elements.

After this lecture, you should be able to describe the concept of property and ownership generally, and how common law legal systems implement it more specifically. This includes describing the core property rights of possession, use, exclusion, and disposal (transfer). Next, you will appreciate the major dichotomy of real and personal property (chattel) which categorizes estates in land and fixtures as well as things (or intangible things), respectively. Finally, the lesson covers the concept of intellectual property (IP) and specifically the concept of copyright and patent and the more general type of commercial asset: the trademark. 

After this lecture, you should have a basic understanding of the area of tort law. This includes the basic concept of duty owned, the elements of negligence, and the reasonableness standard. The areas of intentional and strict tort liability will also be introduced.

After this lecture, you should understand the role of criminal law in defining acceptable conduct and prescribing punishment for violations. We note that state statute (enacted law) constitutes the major or base body of criminal law, often based on the principal offenses adopted from the common law. Uniquely, the U.S. system also has a body of national or federal criminal law that applies concurrently. We also note the importance of mental state and intentionality of the requisite act for each specified crime and its relationship to mental health and mental illness. Finally, we highlight the key constitutional provisions that protect the accused from arbitrary, partial, or defective process.

After this lecture, you should understand the role and basic sections of the U.S. (federal) Constitution. This includes the major articles which establish the basic powers of the legislative (Congress), executive (President), and judicial (Supreme Court) branch. You will also gain a basic appreciation of the composition and role of the U.S. Supreme Court as well as the various analytical conventions that have emerged in the body of constitutional case law defining the levels of scrutiny the Court applies when various rights are at stake. Finally, you will have a sample set of landmark Supreme Court case citations that you can retrieve and read after the lecture for continued learning.

After this lecture, you will understand the role of the rules that define the requirements and progression of civil proceedings in court. Specific focus will be given to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure (FRCP). We will explore the goals of the FRCP and correlative state rules to balance procedural protections (guaranteed by the Constitution) with the need for judicial economy and efficiency.

After this lecture, you will have a basic understanding of organizational frameworks in law offices and legal departments in the United States. Notably, you will understand the difference between attorney and non-attorney legal team members. You should appreciate how professional independence of attorneys and responsibility rules for paraprofessionals sets the framework for most reporting structures. You will also understand the other supporting roles that enable a law office to provide legal services through its attorneys.

After this lecture, you will walk away with a basic understanding of the similarities and differences between general office meetings and meetings in law offices and legal departments of organizations. You will appreciate that, generally, meetings in law offices in the U.S. tend to be formal and brief. You will be able to distinguish case progress meetings from professional development meetings, seminars, and the like.

This lesson reviews some of the most salient key points from the numerous lectures and sections in this course. If you have made it all the way to this final lecture, it is wise to make sure you have completed any exercises in the prior sections and saved handouts and other resources. Legal English skills continue to develop with practice and experience. This course provided both an introduction to some basic principles and concepts in the U.S. legal system as well as legal education and the legal industry and is a great starting point for your learning journey in legal English.