Page 7 - Law Schools

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Law Schools | Monday, august 17, 2015 | S7
in which their graduates practice, the skill sets of their existing faculty, and the mission of the school.
at the maurice a. Deane School of Law at hofstra university, our faculty has engaged in a comprehensive review of the curriculum. Several years ago, we began to integrate more applied, contextual learning opportunities for our first-year students through the use of a simulated case file in Civil Procedure. The case involves a wrongful death action stem- ming from a fraternity pledge event where a college student died from alcohol poisoning. Students are split into law firm teams to repre- sent the student’s father or the university. The use of the case file and exercises associated with it offer contextual opportunities (beyond the customary midterm or final exam) for our students to synthesize and apply the com- plex array of case law, statutes, constitutional provisions, and court rules to a new fact pat- tern. For example, after drafting an initial fact investigation plan to determine the possible forums for litigation, students are asked to draft a memorandum in which they must offer strategic choices with respect to the choice of forum for litigation, as well as possible arguments for dismissal or transfer from the forum. Later, after they attempt a negotiated settlement and are informed that it has failed, students must draft complaints and answers, and then create discovery plans. While the primary goal is to deepen students’ under- standing of the jurisdictional doctrine, plead- ing rules, and discovery vehicles, they gain early exposure to strategic decision-making in the context of litigation, the choice moments for multiple interpretations of legal rules, and the resulting consequences for litigants (their simulated clients).
When we looked beyond the first-year course load, it became clear that all of our students, regardless of the type of practice they wish to pursue, would benefit if we enhanced our required curriculum to ensure that every student receives basic training in skills that are essential for all (or at least most) lawyers. after much study and survey- ing of practicing lawyers, we identified those skills and created a new required three-credit course, Foundational Lawyering Skills, for our second-year students. Firstly, it builds on our required first-year courses in Legal anal- ysis and Writing by exposing them to more advanced legal research and drafting skills. Secondly, we felt that client interviewing, counseling, and negotiation skills are critical to all practice areas. Thirdly, we concluded that fact investigation, as well as examination of witnesses and oral advocacy at the trial level, are important tools for litigators and transactional lawyers alike. This new course will offer every student the opportunity to learn those skills, perform those skills, and be assessed by a team of full-time faculty and alumni instructors.
after taking that course, we hope our students will be better positioned to learn more advanced lawyering skills designed for more specialized practice. Students interested in civil litigation can choose from a variety of pre-trial litigation courses that teach students the arts of drafting and responding to written discovery, depositions and motion practice, expert witnesses, tem- porary restraining orders, and e-discovery.
Those who wish to enter the criminal justice field can take The Prosecutor’s Role, The Jury, or The grand Jury. alternatively, stu- dents interested in transactional practice can take Business Drafting, Transactional Lawyering, or Negotiation Skills. upper-level students might want to build on their first- year coursework by enrolling in advanced Legal Research, Practice Ready Research Skills, or Logic Skills for Legal Reasoning. Finally, students have the opportunity to cap off their legal education by using their skills in real-world legal work in the fol- lowing ways: by enrolling in a specialized externship course; by finding their own field placements in public interest and non-profit organizations, governmental agencies, cor- porate entities, or law firms; or by engaging in direct representation of clients under the supervision of our full-time clinical faculty in one of our ten clinical programs.
This increased focus on practical skills education in law school is not without its challenges. Firstly, the New York Court of appeals and the american Bar association place restrictions on the number of credit hours that can be earned in field placement and externship programs. New York limits the total number of credit hours a student can take in a clinical course, field placement programs and externships, including class- room components, to 30 of the 83 credit hours required for graduation.8 The aBa is less restrictive, in that it does not place a cap on credits earned in clinical and simulation courses, but does impose a cap of 19 out of the 84 credits hours required for graduation that can be earned in field placement pro- grams.9 These caps require students to care- fully plan their upper-level courses, while at the same time balancing out other important considerations such as law review or journal responsibilities, required courses, classes needed to fulfill concentration requirements, and outside commitments such as part-time employment.
Secondly, the bar exam, in its current form and even after the onset of the uniform Bar exam in New York next year, continues to focus primarily on substantive knowledge rather than practical skills. Students under- standably feel pressure to take classes that cover material that will be tested on the bar exam. Despite recent recommendations for reform of the bar exam and/or licensing requirements to better assess candidates’ professional skills,10 the New York Court of appeals and the New York Board of Law exam- iners have made no such changes.
Thirdly, because of the need to provide quality instruction and assessment of stu- dents’ performance, practical skills train- ing often requires greater instructional resources, multiple small classrooms, and caps on the number of students who can take these courses. Some law schools have been innovative in their course offerings to help meet these demands. For example, at hofstra Law, we offer these courses in our summer and January sessions, as well as through intensive weekend modules during the semester. We have split up full-semester courses, such as Pre-Trial Litigation, into three distinct modules, offering students the opportunity to take one, two, or all three. We have also been grateful to our » Page S11