The Harvard Law School Writing Center is on the third floor of Wasserstein Hall.
Address
3054 Wasserstein Hall (WCC)
1585 Massachusetts Avenue
Cambridge, MA 02138
Hours
Mondays – Thursdays, 10 am – 7 pm
Fridays, 10 am – 3 pm
Sundays, 2 – 7 pm (online)
Contact
Our Mission
The HLS Writing Center helps students and faculty with writing for courses and publications.
Our Origins
We start with four truths: (1) we have shifted from a culture of orality to one of writing; (2) the rise of digital technology and global literacy means humans are writing more now than ever; (3) written documents are the basis upon which legal decisions are made; and (4) legal writing is the backbone of modern society. Writing is arguably the most important skill for practicing law in the twenty-first century.
In the 2010s, snippet writing on social media challenged the sustained thought required for legal writing. In the 2020s, AI has brought the legal profession to a sharp panic. And today students come to law schools with increasingly diverse writing backgrounds—including international students with less life experience writing in English, law students from STEM fields that don’t emphasize writing, and a wide range in training from earlier schools and jobs.
Our History
The Harvard Law School has long had writing requirements. In 2014, the American Bar Association released new standards calling for “one writing experience in the first year and at least one additional writing experience after the first year.” All J.D. students at HLS complete First-Year Legal Research and Writing. In 2023, based on guidance from employers and alumni, Harvard Law updated its upper-level J.D. writing requirement. Students now complete a Professional Writing Requirement where they draft documents typically created in an attorney’s legal practice, and an Analytical Writing Requirement involving a research paper that is reviewed by peers and an instructor. To support its deepened commitment to analytical writing, the Law School created the HLS Writing Center.
Our Center
Launched in 2024, the Harvard Law School Writing Center offers one-on-one consultations for upper-level J.D. students working on research papers. The HLS Writing Fellows provide feedback and advice on research papers, journal articles, books, blog posts, notes, comments, opinion pieces, and conference presentations. Students come to the Writing Center to plan a writing project, build ideas in conversation, deepen their research, strengthen an argument, outline a paper, get feedback on a draft, edit sentences, and learn how to publish their writing. They schedule an appointment, send in their writing, receive back written comments, and then meet with a Writing Fellow to discuss their papers: these one-on-one consultations are where the magic happens and ideas are strengthened in conversation.
Our Fellows
The Harvard Law School Writing Fellows are a community of exceptional upper-level J.D. writers who contribute to the culture of writing at Harvard Law School. Writing Fellows staff the HLS Writing Center, where they offer one-on-one consultations to J.D. students, research the craft of legal writing, design special events, and create practical guides for legal research and writing.
Our Director
Jeffrey R. Wilson, PhD
Jeffrey R. Wilson is the Director of the Harvard Law School Writing Center and Editor-in-Chief of Public Humanities.
A Shakespeare scholar by training, he is the author of three books: Richard III’s Bodies from Medieval England to Modernity: Shakespeare and Disability History (2022), Shakespeare and Game of Thrones (2021), and Shakespeare and Trump (2020).
He holds a PhD in English from the University of California, Irvine and has taught in the Harvard College Writing Program and Harvard Online.