DWS Capstone

Catalog description

This course primarily focuses upon the client/lawyer relationship and developing the listening, analytical and counseling skills necessary to be a competent lawyer; it also provides exposure to the law office management/business side of law practice. In this course, as in the real world, students are assigned roles in various given factual situations that involve multiple areas of substantive law, without being first guided as to what issues are relevant. Clients are then interviewed, necessary research is performed, and advice is given. Students observe and provide feedback to each other using the same assessment forms that standardized clients will later use. This familiarizes the students with what is later being tested and makes them more conscious of the skills necessary to interview a client successfully. Twice during the semester, students interview trained standardized clients who use a standardized fact pattern. The standardized clients provide written and oral assessments of student interviewing skills based upon a standardized form. A satisfactory competency score for at least one of the interviews is required as a component of the DWS alternative bar exam. Anyone not receiving a satisfactory score will have an opportunity to conduct another interview after receiving feedback. This course cannot be taken for an S/U grade.