LARW III Drafting for the General Practitioner - Research Guide

The purpose of this guide is to assist in research required for effective drafting of legal documents. The intended audience for this guide is Prof. Jim Kiser's LARW III Drafting for the Legal Practitioner course. 

The Law Library contains dozens of sources that include sample contracts and forms and that offer instruction and guidance in drafting legal documents. This guide identifies many, but not all, of these sources, as well as relevant databases and websites.

Legal drafting includes more than finding same forms and filling in the blanks with your client's information. To draft an accurate legal document efficiently, consider starting with the following steps:

1. Research the relevant law

• What are the parameters set by the law within which your document must comply

2. Find the appropriate precedent to use as a model. Many drafters use documents from earlier transactions as a template. You can usually find examples to use as a template in the following resources:

• Office/Client database
• Forms from industry associations, treatises, CLE's, and legal websites

**Note: Be wary of each resource as the quality may vary

3. Drafting without precedent - Drafters can borrow substantive provisions from other agreements and tailor them to fit the client's needs. 

• Drafting a Contract: The Sale of Goods [CALI] **
• Researching and Working with Transactional Forms [CALI]
• Transactional Lawyering: Sources and Tips [Harvard Law School Library]
• Forms Research Guide [Loyola Law School]
• Drafting Contracts: Formbooks and Drafting Resources [University of Washington Law Library]
• Drafting Documents for Transactional Practice [Lexis Advance]
  • Module 10

** Find CALI Registration and Instructions**