{"data":{"id":"us-va/18vac35-20-350","jurisdiction":"us-va","citation":"18VAC35-20-350","heading":"Basic legal skills","body":"Article 1\n\nFirst Year\n\nIntroduction to basic legal reference materials (including judicial, legislative and administrative primary and secondary sources) and their use; techniques of legal reasoning, analysis and synthesis; legal writing styles. Familiarization with the structure of the federal and state court systems, the concept of case law in a common law jurisdiction, fundamental principles of stare decisis and precedent, the legislative process, principles of statutory construction and interpretation. Reader should be assigned projects of increasing difficulty such as: case abstracts, analysis of a trial record to identify issues, short quizzes to demonstrate ability to locate primary and secondary sources, office memoranda or trial-oriented memoranda of authorities to demonstrate ability to find the law applicable to a factual situation and to differentiate unfavorable authority, and an appellate level brief.","path":["Title 18. Professional And Occupational Licensing","Agency 35. Board of Bar Examiners","Chapter 20. Law Reader Program Rule","Part IX. Course Descriptions","Article 1. First Year"],"source_url":"https://law.lis.virginia.gov/admincode/title18/agency35/chapter20/section350/","current_through":"2026 Regular Session (effective July 1, 2026)","vintage":"","retrieved_at":"2026-09-14T04:52:25Z","sha256":"93ace120688ac89fd21c7c4f00de224a9f62c9ead37695bda0b1c311c14ae059","source_id":"us-va-vac","stale":false,"prev":"us-va/18vac35-20-340","next":"us-va/18vac35-20-360"},"notice":"GroundRules: Original legal text. Not legal advice."}