Applied Lawyering Skills

Catalog description

Through realistic mock case files, students will engage in client-centered, practical legal work. By using law that the students have studied in doctrinal coursework, the course allows for a deep dive into legal strategy and analysis. There will be robust opportunities for collaborative work and instructor feedback. Students will work with a variety of documents--like medical bills, screenshots of text messages, and client emails--and use these sources strategically to best serve their client's goals. Skills include verbal and written legal strategy, critical thinking and reading, legal analysis and close reading of legal authority, and metacognition. Finally, students will take law school exam-type practice questions to test their mastery of the same legal rules they applied in the client-based problem. Students can more deeply connect their legal education with their professional goals with this explicit translation of law into simulation-style work as well as academic measures. Furthermore, the exam-style practice questions offer a unique chance to integrate legal application learned in the doctrinal context to an extended, collaborative project. Prereq: Enrolled in the part-time online JD program.