Overview

The Advanced Legislative Drafting seminar offers an intensive, hands-on experience in drafting legislation. The seminar begins with a refresher in the basics of legislative drafting and quickly progresses to more advanced concepts. Over the course of the seminar, participants will organize and draft a long, complex bill involving the reorganization of government bodies. Some prior experience in legislative drafting or legislation is recommended.

Certification 

Upon successful completion of the seminar, each participant will be awarded a Certificate of Completion. Successful completion requires that a participant diligently attend all seminar sessions promptly and on time throughout the seminar, read all assignments, and participate in all group discussions and exercises. If a number of sessions are missed without proper reason, the ILI reserves the right to withhold certification.

Course Outline

Drafting a Simple Bill

• Learning to convert a legislative proposal into a bill for introduction in a legislative chamber

Drafting Amendments to a Bill and to Law

• “Floor” (whole House) amendments
• Amendments to existing law

Instruction on Specialized Legislative Processes

• Budget and appropriations rules and problems
• Administrative Law

Drafting a Government Grant Program

• Instruction in selection and drafting of legislative language authorizing grants

Drafting Government Reorganization

• Establishing a Government Agency
• Abolishing a Government Agency
• Consolidating Government Agencies
• Savings (“grandfather”) clauses
• Transition provisions
• Repeals

Drafting a Complex Bill

• Organization of Legislative Provisions
• Close Supervision and Review of Drafting Work

Course Advisors:

Kimberly K. Faith is formerly assistant counsel for the Office of the Legislative Counsel of the United States House of Representatives, where she drafted over 500 pieces of legislation for elected Members of Congress. She is currently in private practice and serves as an adjunct professor at various universities. She is active in the international legislative drafting community; she is an organizer of the International Conference on Legislation and Law Reform, for which she is the 2021 conference chair, she served as guest editor of the International Journal of Legislative Drafting and Law Reform in 2018 and 2019, and she is an active member of the Commonwealth Association of Legislative Counsel. She regularly teaches courses on the American government and the Constitution and has taught a three-week intensive course on federal legislation and legislative drafting at her alma mater, Tulane University Law School. She received a Juris Doctorate degree from Tulane University Law School and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science and International Development from the University of California, Los Angeles.

Noah Wofsy served for over 39 years with the Office of the Legislative Counsel of the U.S. House of Representatives, the last seven of which he served as Deputy Legislative Counsel. He spent the majority of his career specializing in the areas of election law, including campaign finance law, the administration of the House and other legislative branch offices, and the home rule status of the District of Columbia. During that time, he regularly participated in meetings with visiting staff of legislatures of many foreign nations, including South Korea, Georgia, and Vietnam, as well as the European Parliament. He served for several years as a member of the adjunct faculty of the George Washington University School of Law, where he taught a class on Legislative Analysis and Drafting, and he has been a regular presenter at the Advanced Legislative Process classes held by the Government Affairs Institute of Georgetown University. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree with honors from the James Madison College of Public Affairs at Michigan State University and his law degree from the Gould School of Law at the University of Southern California.