Course Descriptions

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Child Advocacy Practicum - Dependency LEGACY I & II (LWVL587)

Instructor(s): Staff

1-4 credit(s), H/P/L/F Graded
Requirement(s): Experiential
Concentration(s): Children's Rights (JD)
Corequisite(s): Child Rights and Remedies

LEGACY Project students provide legal information and assistance to youth experiencing homelessness under the supervision of experienced attorneys. Students participate in evening drop-in legal clinics held on-site at a local youth shelter, where they meet directly with young people to identify and address legal needs involving issues such as public benefits, education, housing, family relationships, and access to supportive services. Students develop practical lawyering skills through client interviewing and counseling, legal research, case planning, advocacy, and collaboration with community providers. Students are trained to provide trauma-informed, youth-centered advocacy. Students must have completed or be concurrently enrolled in Child Rights and Remedies. Enrollment is limited, and students must obtain permission from Professor Jessica Heldman to register. 

Note:

This practicum may be applied as the required clinic for the Children's Rights Concentration (JD).

Child Advocacy Practicum - Dependency LEGACY II is LWVL 588

Constitutional Law I (LWAA515)

Instructor(s): Staff

4 credit(s), Letter Graded

This course provides an introduction to the United States Constitution, stressing the theory and practice of judicial interpretation and review, the separation of federal powers, the relation of the states to the federal government, and specific powers of the federal government. It also provides an introduction to the Bill of Rights and its limitations on the exercise of governmental power, with emphasis on freedom of speech.

Contracts (LWAA520)

Instructor(s): Staff

4 credit(s), Letter Graded

An introduction to legal reasoning and analytical skills through an investigation of how the law enforces agreements. Included are such topics as: the requirements for the formation of a contract; problems of interpretation; damages for breach; the statute of frauds; illegality; and problems which arise during the performance stage of a contract, such as the creation and failure of express and implied conditions, excuse through impossibility or frustration of purpose, and discharge. Article II of the Uniform Commercial Code is introduced and compared with the common law of contracts.

Experiential Advocacy Practicum II (LWAA576)

Instructor(s): Staff

1 credit(s), H/P/L/F Graded

The Experiential Advocacy Practicum is a one-year, two credit course that has been designed to provide first-year students with an overview of two major areas of legal practice, litigation and transactional work. The practicum will incorporate learning-by-doing skills exercises that will simulate advocacy tasks that junior attorneys will be expected to perform in practice. Students will work, both in teams and as individuals, with a fictional case file, which will allow them to complete tasks within a realistic but simulated context. The practicum will supplement the first-year curriculum by giving a practical view of the theoretical concepts students are learning in other first-year doctrinal courses

Legal Writing & Research II (LWAA546)

Instructor(s): Staff

2 credit(s), Letter Graded

Legal Writing and Research (LWR) II introduces students to persuasive legal writing and oral argument. Through a series of assignments, students focus on the analytical, research, and writing skills required to produce effective legal briefs. Students are also trained in the art of oral advocacy and required to deliver an oral argument based on their legal briefs before a panel of attorneys. The course is offered in small sections with low student-faculty ratios so that faculty may provide individualized and frequent feedback on student work. Required for first-year students.

Property (LWAA530)

Instructor(s): Staff

4 credit(s), Letter Graded

Consideration is given, in both a historical and modern sense, to the rights and obligations that arise out of the legal ownership of possessory and non-possessory interests, tangible, and to a limited extent, intangible, personal, and real property. Areas covered include estates in land, landlord-tenant, conveyancing, land development, public and private control of land use, non-possessory rights in land, bailments, lost and misplaced property, gifts, and an introduction to gratuitous transfers of realty.