I have now taught Civil Procedure for a decade. Throughout this time, I have taught from Cover, Fiss & Resnik's PROCEDURE. I think this is a wonderful and challenging casebook, from both the teacher's and students' perspectives. I learned Procedure from this casebook (though of course back then it was only a sheaf of papers) and this casebook was one of the reasons that I wanted to teach, and to teach this subject.

      At the schools where I have taught, my students have always been very focused on legal practice. After my first year of teaching, I realized that the casebook I used devoted limited space to the Federal Rules, and my students felt they needed to learn the Rules, which they equated with learning to be a lawyer. Although there is more to Civil Procedure than the Federal Rules, I did feel it was important that they should learn skills that they would need as lawyers. As a result, I designed a series of drafting exercises so that throughout the semester they draft documents that lawyers draft everyday.

      Over the past decade, I have developed a series of drafting exercises that are powerful teaching tools that significantly enhance the Civil Procedure experience for both students and the professor. I want to share with you these tools and some of their effects. In my presentation, I will:

• Share with you these drafting exercises because I think that they can be an essential component of every civil procedure course, regardless of which casebook you use.

• Reveal the various short-cuts I have discovered (through much trial and error!) to make these drafting exercises less labor intensive for the professor..

• Provide you with reasons (practical, pedagogical, and ethical) to include a drafting component in your course, even if you choose only to include one or two drafting exercises.

• Challenge commonly-held notions as to why drafting exercises cannot be offered, including: "My class is too large;" "I teach evening students who work all day;" "I've never practiced law and don't know how to draft a complaint."

• Offer some anecdotal evidence of the benefits that students say they derive from these drafting exercises.

      One testimonial to the success and importance of drafting exercises comes from students who return as second-years and report that they found the exercises to be invaluable during their first summer when the partner asked them to draft a complaint or an affidavit, and they were able to do so. Another testimonial comes from students who now regard my Civil Procedure course as a practical, nuts-and-bolts course, even though my course includes much policy, theory, and philosophy.