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26 Legal Writing: J. Legal Writing Inst. 1 (2022)
Finding the Right Angle: Lessons from Mathematics for the Legal Writing Classroom

handle is hein.journals/jlwriins26 and id is 6 raw text is: FINDING THE RIGHT ANGLE: LESSONS FROM MATHEMATICS FOR THE LEGAL WRITING CLASSROOM Maria Termini* Abstract It is a common belief in the legal profession that many lawyers are not good at math and that math skills are not needed to succeed in the legal field. Many law students are happy to put their days of studying mathematics behind them. It is a mistake, however, for students to ignore their knowledge of mathematics as they take up the study of law and legal reasoning. Despite the aversion many lawyers feel towards math, legal analysis and mathematical analysis are deeply connected: they use many of the same types of reasoning, often have similar purposes, and frequently follow comparable organizational schemes. The author's previous article elaborated on those connections, explained why mathematics and the law are not as different as they may appear, considered possible explanations for the similarities, and drew lessons for legal reasoning based on its similarity to mathematical reasoning. With that theoretical work as background, this Article contributes further to the scholarship by suggesting ways in which the similarities between mathematical reasoning and legal reasoning can inform legal writing pedagogy. This Article argues that legal writing professors can use those connections between the two fields to help their students develop legal reasoning skills. Legal writing professors can show their students how the skills the students learned in their math classes are related to the new skills the students are developing in law school. Further, legal writing professors can borrow techniques from mathematics educators that help students hone their reasoning skills. * Associate Professor of Legal Writing, Brooklyn Law School. I am grateful for the helpful comments of Heidi K. Brown, Roma Perez, Jocelyn Simonson, and the members of the Brooklyn Law School Junior Faculty Workshop, and for the feedback I received at the AALS LWRR Newer Scholars Showcase. My thanks as well to Kathleen Darvil, Sue Silverman, Sophie Faulkenberry, Lauren Cedeno, Samantha Piper, and Hannah Rochford for their research assistance, and to the Brooklyn Law School Dean's Summer Research Stipend Program for financial support.

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