Legal Process III

Catalog description

Legal Process is a year-long, six-credit course that teaches students to research, analyze, and write like a lawyer, while also introducing them to basic lawyering skills. Small classes and frequent individual meetings outside the classroom with each student allow for the intensive feedback that is vital to the acquisition of practice skills. In Legal Process I, the focus is on predictive writing. Students learn to synthesize rules from various cases and analyze both common law and statutory issues. There are a number of writing assignments of increasing difficulty, culminating in a draft of an office memorandum of law. After a mandatory conference, each student is required to revise the draft. Students also learn how to interview a client, after which they engage in a simulated interview. In addition, students are taught how to research primary and secondary authority both in the library and online. Legal Process II focuses on persuasive writing. Students write a client letter and they conduct a simulated counseling or negotiation session with the client. The students then write a memorandum in support of a motion. The final project is crafting an appellate brief on a sophisticated issue. Students have mandatory conferences after a first draft, and once the final draft is submitted, the students give an oral argument before a panel of judges.