Do law school students take special courses in writing?

I went to school with a number of classmates who were headed into the legal profession. What many if not most of them do (or did when I was in college) is to major in either English or Philosophy. Philosophy was considered the better choice of the two by most law candidates I knew, because it better prepared you to read a lot. The ability to read an incredible volume of material (and of course, remember it!) is what the study of law is all about.

Reading is "where it's at," not necessarily the construction of that charming language of law. You wind up reading so much case law that the language becomes second nature without you having to study it as a separate subject. Learning to read, as well as write, in legalese, is just a byproduct of all that work absorbing mountains of material. If there is a specialized course in the language of the law, it is probably intended for people not actually going into the profession. But then, why would anyone not going into law want to study that?

Legalese is basically just another type of jargon. It just happens to be a lot more involved than most collections of jargon.

A lot of legalese is based on Latin, so it would probably behoove a student in high school planning on a legal profession, to take Latin when it is offered. Beyond that, I would be as interested as are you, in whatever additional course work in the actual language of law is even offered to students.

I would be very interested in the input of Peanutbred on this question, as he seems quite knowledgeable on the legal profession. My classmates may have missed a trick or two.

Let me add a bit of clarification to my question. I am not asking about, nor am I interested in the, writing the "legal jargon." From observation all my life, I have noticed how most lawyers are excellent writers. I am wondering how they came to be so proficient in the art of writing. I thought perhaps they were required to take specific writing courses in law school.

In law school the course is called legal writing and teaches students how to prepare a brief, citing prior cases on the same point as the case at hand. Such a course also might teach students how to prepare pleadings, such as a petition to the court.