Certificate Course in Introduction to Legal Drafting: Contracts, Petitions, Opinions & Articles

Legal drafting is an important skill for lawyers - it involves learning how to draft various kinds of petitions to be filed in court, drafting contracts for clients, preparation of legal opinions or ‘legal memos’ (not moot court memos). These skills enable a lawyer to perform different kinds of billable work for clients and provide them value. 

These skills are highly valuable, but they are either not taught or taught in a very limited manner in law school. 

Although we have courses focussing on different areas of law, ranging from criminal litigation, civil litigation, contract drafting, business laws for in-house counsels, arbitration, NCLT Litigation, M&A, etc., over the past few years thousands of learners have asked us for an introductory drafting course which enables them to get started with the practical side of law.  

We have decided to launch this course keeping in mind such requests. 

Legal drafting is crucial for any lawyer to perform client work effectively. As you gain more expertise, you may realize that drafting skills for different forums and different areas of law will differ. 

For example, petitions before a criminal court will be different from petitions before the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT), or from arbitration petitions. Similarly, a shareholders agreement will be very different from an employment agreement. 

However, basic legal drafting skills and practice is crucial for performing any kind of client work. When one starts learning, it is important to have a broad foundation. At this stage, it does not matter if you are not sure about which area of law you want to focus on and specialize in. 

What do these drafting skills comprise?  

Learning how to draft a handful of contracts, civil and criminal petitions. This will enable you to have a preliminary sense of how to provide a service to a client. 

These drafting skills and practice will enable you to build the confidence and feel equipped to understand and handle a variety of tasks assigned to junior lawyers. 

Later, if you want to learn about any specific kind of technical work, you can acquire specialized skills relevant to that area of practice.

How long will it take to learn these introductory skills? 

With our unique methodology, we are going to bet that you can learn them in 1-month.

Please don’t scroll down - there is more for you.

You might know of some senior practitioners in your network who are very knowledgeable and talented, but who are unable to build their clients. They are not able to enjoy the fruits of their knowledge because not enough people know about their expertise. 

Do you know why? They have not created a portfolio of work which is relevant and discoverable by their target audience.

We do not want you to face the risk of a similar fate.    
 
For this reason, article-writing skills are very important in today’s economy. You should have the ability to build a portfolio of expert-level articles in an area of your choice. Further, these articles should engage and be of interest to a reader, even if he or she is not a lawyer. For example, the reader could be a business owner, a working professional or manager, an individual who needs a lawyer or even a potential recruiter. 

We are clear that those who develop their article writing skills and create a published portfolio of work will enjoy a huge professional advantage in today’s world. Clients frequently search for young lawyers online, and the COVID-19 lockdown has drastically accelerated this shift. 

How can you start on this journey? The journey begins when you write one article in a time-bound manner, and send it for publication. 

What would it take for you to learn these skills?

Approximately 2 hours of study per day at your own time, and 2 hours of online classes with us.

We have identified a coaching framework for the same, and we will walk you through the journey of writing an article and sending it for publication, right from the point of identification of a topic to its completion. 

Guess what? All this can happen in a month.  Read on to find out more.

In fact, other professionals such as Chartered Accountants, Company Secretaries, etc. and others who advise clients on different aspects of secretarial and accounting issues can also benefit from learning basic drafting skills. 

Who should take this course?

• Young lawyers who want to be introduced to various aspects of legal drafting so that they can later specialize in their area of interest
• In-house counsels who frequently negotiate and draft contracts and deal with law firms and litigators at various forums 
• Professors who want to develop practical legal skills for teaching their students or to perform client work on the side
• Law students who want to get started with a broad range of practical skills and be equipped to handle tasks ranging from litigation, drafting and advisory work  
• Business owners and managers who have to frequently work and collaborate with lawyers in connection with legal work of their organization
• Chartered Accountants, Cost Accountants, Company Secretaries and others who want to familiarize themselves with the most frequent tasks performed by lawyers 
• Individuals who want to personally argue their own case or deal with lawyers more effectively

What is the career potential after doing this course?

• This is a basic course for all lawyers and non lawyers wanting an insight into the legal industry and a sense of the work performed by lawyers when they serve clients, whether they are working independently, at law firms or in companies. 
• Legal writing skills are crucial for young professionals to develop a personal brand for themselves, especially on the internet. You will learn how to write in an engaging way for a target audience. If you continue this approach after completion of the course and author, say, 50 articles, you can be considered an expert in the area you chose. You will also be discoverable online by potential clients, who are likely to write to you. With some skills, you will be able to convert a fraction of these queries into paid assignments. 
• Drafting skills are crucial to perform well in your internships. You will receive various assignments in your internship which will require you to sift through and proof-read dense documents. In litigation internships, you will need to read pleadings of parties and huge case files. If you know how to draft important legal documents, your ability to comprehend dense information and perform the tasks allocated to you will be substantially enhanced, and you will stand out from your peers. If you do well, you can secure PPOs or a call-back to intern again.  

Potential employers

• This is a basic course for all lawyers and non lawyers wanting an insight into the legal industry and a sense of the work performed by lawyers when they serve real clients.
• Potential employers: If you develop these skills further, you can be employable by companies or other entities for in-house roles and small, medium and large law firms or other professional service firms.

Relevant Industries

• This is a basic course for all lawyers and non lawyers wanting an insight into the legal industry and a sense of the work performed by lawyers when they serve clients, whether they are working independently, at law firms or in companies. 
• You will learn about the nature of work performed by lawyers, whether they work for organizations in the manufacturing, trading, services sector, or represent individuals.

What is unique about this course?

• This course is an introductory course focussing on different types of legal drafting. It is not based on the reading of study materials or the provision-by-provision study of the statutes. You will learn how to draft a legal document, whether it is a contract, a civil or criminal petition, an opinion or an article. 
• Apart from practical lessons, you will have access to numerous templates.
• You will learn through Lawsikho’s unique teaching methodology, comprising classes, exercises and in-line feedback on your submissions. You will have 2 weekly classes of 1 hour each and perform 2 exercises in each class. In a week, you will perform 4 exercises, that is, acquire 4 skills.
• You will be given an opportunity to work on one writing assignment during the term of the course that shall be published either on the iPleaders blog or any other industry publications if it meets our specifications.    
• You will get personal attention and coaching from the trainers, and any doubt regarding a topic shall be addressed within 24 hours.
• In the span of the course, you will need to perform 14 simulation exercises relating to different contracts and contract-related letters, including invocation of force majeure in light of the COVID-19 outbreak.  
• The course is tough and intensive, you will not be awarded the certificate unless you complete at least 50% of the exercises and the writing assignment. You will also need to attempt an MCQ test to pass. Average study time required is about 2 hours per day, at your own place. If you miss a class, you can watch a recording. 
• You will be added to a jobs and internships group where career opportunities will be shared with you. Our placement cell will also guide you on your CV and recommend those who have 100% participation in the course for jobs and internship opportunities.

Money back guarantee

If you take this course, follow it diligently for a month, do all the exercises but still do not find value in it, or not able to understand or follow it or not find it good for any reason, we will refund the entire course fee to you. It is a 100% money-back guarantee with only one condition, you must pursue it properly for a month. If you don’t find it valuable after that, get your entire money back.

View Refund Policy

What will you learn

• Learn how to capture the requirements and intentions of your client in your contract. 
• Perform end-to-end contract drafting work
• Learn how to add value (rather than impose obstacles) to the deal-making process through your contract drafting and negotiation skills. 
• Learn the difference between various contracts, technicalities involved in drafting such contracts. 
• Learn how to draft different kinds of notices pursuant to contracts and how to amend contracts.
• Learn about the important civil petitions to be drafted for a client. 
• Learn about important documents and petitions to be drafted as a criminal litigator.  
• Learn how to conduct statutory and case law research on various websites for everyday work at a law firm, at a litigator’s chamber or in a company. 
• Learn how to structure and write a legal advisory opinion. Advisory work is extremely important in corporate law firms. Litigators also frequently issue advisory opinions to clients. In-house counsels use similar skills to prepare internal memos for business teams. 
• Learn how to structure, write and publish an original article. This is the first step to start building your portfolio of work and demonstrate expertise. 

Specific Learning Objectives

• Learn about the structure, different components and the clauses in any contract
• Learn about the differences between an MOU (non-binding or binding) and a contract
• Learn about the interpretation of a contract and how to make your contracts idiot proof
• Identify the most hotly negotiated clauses of a commercial contract and the positions taken by lawyers to protect the client’s interest and save the deal
• Learn how to review and draft various clauses in an employment agreement from an employee and an employer’s perspective, such as IP assignment, non-compete, non-solicit, etc.
• Learn how to format your document appropriately for a professional look and feel so that you can charge a client 
• Learn about execution of contracts
• Learn the difference between a leave and license and lease/ rent agreement
• Learn how to draft different effective notices pursuant to contracts
• Learn how to amend contracts when the commercial deal is subsequently revised/ re-negotiated
• Learn how to draft criminal complaints in a manner to maximise likelihood of investigation by police or cognizance by a magistrate 
• Learn how to draft persuasive bail and anticipatory bail applications, to prevent your client from getting arrested
• Learn how to incorporate case laws, arguments in the applications to be filed before the courts.  
• Learn the difference between revision applications and appeal
• Learn how to draft a notice to invoke a dispute
• Learn how to draft a plaint and identify appropriate interim reliefs in a temporary injunction application for immediate victory 
• Learn how to represent a client when you are acting for a defendant 
• Learn how to draft probate petition
• Learn how and when to use a writ petition under Article 226 to approach the High Court
• Learn powerful research techniques to quickly find targeted information from public websites (important for corporate lawyers)
• Learn how to identify an audience-focussed topic for your article and create an intuitive and reader-friendly structure for it
• Learn how to author an original and engaging article 
• Learn how to complete an article and ‘ship’, and avoid drowning in a pile of research 

Recruitment and Internship Support

• We give our students foundational support with building their resume.
• We provide mentorship and career guidance and help students evaluate their skills to pick the right career opportunities for themselves.
• Our team helps our students in building their profile on LinkedIn to increase their reach to the potential recruiters.
• Our expert guides the students on how to crack any interview.
• On demand, we provide mock interviews for our students looking for jobs.
• We share multiple Internship/recruitment opportunities every week on our Whatsapp group.
• We help our students to get internships not only at law firms and chambers, but also with rising startups in diverse sectors.
• Our mentorship helps students to avoid running the rat race behind the regular job openings; rather we help them design their own path based on their personal interests.

List of Weekly Exercises

• Draft a Memorandum of Understanding 
• Draft a Service and Materials Supply Agreement 
• Draft a Marketing Agreement/Franchise Agreement (either) 
• Draft a Commercial Lease Agreement for a client
• Draft an Employment Agreement
• Draft a Legal Notice Invoking Force Majeure 
• Draft an Addendum/ Amendment to a Contract
• Draft a complaint in writing (for a cognizable offence and for a non-cognizable offence)  
• Draft a bail application and an anticipatory bail application
• Draft a criminal revision application 
• Draft a criminal appeal
• Draft a Legal Opinion  
• Draft a Plaint along with Temporary Injunction application
• Draft a Written Statement 
• Draft a Civil Writ

All participants will also be trained on writing and publishing 1 article