Professor Robin Boyle Laisure co-authored a second edition of Becoming a Legal Writer: A Workbook with Explanations to Develop Objective Legal Analysis and Writing Skills, with Christine Coughlin (Wake Forest) and Sandy Patrick (Lewis & Clark). Carolina Academic Press (CAP) anticipates publication in May 2025.

The first edition was published in 2019 and is in its third printing. Becoming a Legal Writer helps develop two essential lawyering skills: objective analysis and writing. Becoming a Legal Writer provides a foundation in every chapter followed by short, targeted exercises. It is designed to complement any legal writing book or to be used as a stand-alone text for academic support or pre-law instruction.

The second edition contains new material and additional exercises including a pre-interview chart for client meetings, explanations and exercises on regulations and other federal authorities, a step-by-step process for analogical reasoning, a detailed chapter on counterarguments, and materials on using citations and avoiding plagiarism. Throughout the workbook, explanations and corresponding exercises are updated providing opportunities for students to articulate statutory and common law rules, revise roadmaps within thesis paragraphs, synthesize rules, illustrate cases, apply rules to facts, frame a question presented, state a brief answer, detail a longer conclusion, pose neutral facts, and edit and polish their work.

Professor Boyle is appreciative of faculty colleagues’ feedback. She is especially grateful for the suggestions from Professors Colleen Parker, Ashley Armstrong, and Catherine Duryea (who advised on administrative regulations).

Professor Boyle’s persuasive writing workbook was published by CAP in November: Persuasive Advocacy in Action: A Workbook for Law Students, with Laura Graham (Wake Forest).  Professor Boyle’s work extends to transactional drafting in her book, Teaching Contract Drafting  (Edward Elgar 2023).