presented by joan harrington director, academic...
TRANSCRIPT
Approaching Law School Learning Presented by Joan Harrington
Director, Academic & Professional Development
You will understand the relationship between academic skills and professional skills in law school and law practice
You will gain a framework for learning academic skills
Who are we?
Academic support for all law students:
Workshop Series beginning August 24th
Practice Exam Program second half of semester
Resource Room – Bannan second floor 230H
Faculty Counseling
Appointments on TWEN or email [email protected]
Academic support for students needing additional assistance
Bar support
Professional Development for all law students:
Work with students to link legal education to law practice by counseling students on the lawyer competencies and benchmark experiences they will need to be practice ready.
Help students leverage their externship field placements to gain the experience they need to bridge the gap to practice.
You need specific academic and professional skills
Academic skills – Emphasis in the first year
Professional Skills – Develop in upper division
What criticisms have been made against law schools in the past year?
Professionalism (e.g., maintaining integrity and honesty, diligence, civility, ethics, managing mistakes)
Leadership (e.g., influencing others, collaborating, building consensus, envisioning, planning, mentoring)
Management (e.g., time management, planning and implementing tasks, organizing and managing one’s
own work, organizing and managing others)
1L - in class learning
Ethics, professionalism, specific activities
Pro Bono Work
Involvement in Student Organizations
Experiential Learning Externships with class
Judicial Criminal Civil – High Tech and Social Justice
Summer Abroad
Summer Abroad Pro Bono Work Clinics
K & G Alexander Community Law Center Innocence Project Low-Income Taxpayer Clinic Human Rights Clinic
Skills Classes
Interviewing, Negotiation, Mediation
Classes with Skills Components
Classes with practical elements
E.g., Law of Nonprofit Organizations
International Commercial Arbitration
Legal Issues for Startup Businesses
Work with the Centers and faculty to know how to be “practice ready”
High Tech Law Institute
Center for Global Law and Policy
Center for Social Justice and Public Service
Find the relevant law and understand it
LAW KNOWLEDGE
Apply the law to new factual situations
LAW APPLICATION
Express yourself at the standard expected in the legal profession-
LAW EXPRESSION
1L courses: Need memorized, precise law knowledge of subject being tested
Bar exam: Need memorized, precise law knowledge of 13 different subjects and skills of law application, and law expression
1L Research and Writing Class (LARAW)
Doctrinal Classes
Reading
Class Discussion
Preparing for Exams
Exams
Your case – new client
Example: Litigation practices
Conduct legal research
Document review
Write briefs
Draft discovery requests and responses
Prepare witness testimony outlines
Conduct depositions
Law Knowledge
Rule Comprehension
Identification of General Rule
Rule Deconstruction/Explanation (E.g., elements)
Rule Elaborations (qualifications on rules)
Rule Articulation
Rule Organization
Establish logical relationship among rules
Right to counsel cases; note on effective assistance of counsel
What is rule from Gideon?
Rule: Right to counsel is the right to effective assistance of counsel. McMann v Richardson
Rule Explanation: The defendant must show:
1. The attorney’s performance was deficient when measured against an objective standard of reasonableness; and
2. The defendant was prejudiced in the sense that there was a reasonable probability that, but for counsel’s deficient performance, the result of the proceeding would have been different.
1. The attorney’s performance was deficient when measured against an objective standard of reasonableness; and
1. The defendant was prejudiced in the sense that there was a reasonable probability that, but for counsel’s deficient performance, the result of the proceeding would have been different.
Rule Organization
Right to counsel is analyzed before effective assistance of counsel
Law professors generally assume you will understand the rules of law when you come to class. Work to understand rules before class or come with specific questions.
Classroom discussion goes well beyond the rules, e.g.: Was the court correct in creating this rule?
Did the court correctly apply a rule?
Would the rule apply to this new set of facts?
What is the policy behind the rule? Why?
Work in LARAW to refine this skill
Use multiple resources to clarify the rules and their meanings
Come to APD Workshop 1
Goldilocks is lost in the woods and comes upon the house of The Three Bears. She is very hungry. Hiding, she overhears them talking about eating dinner and that they need to hurry up so they can go clubbing.
The three bears leave and Goldilocks enters their house by breaking a window. She takes food from the fridge and exits the house.
Can Goldilocks be convicted of burglary?
To be convicted of burglary, a person must be found to have:
Broken and entered
Into the dwelling of another
At nighttime
With the intent to commit a crime therein
(Note: commonlaw, not California, rule)
Issue Comprehension
Identification of Issues
Prioritization of Issues
What are the issues in the case against Goldilocks?
Spot the issues by comparing the law to facts:
Did she break and enter?
Was it the dwelling of another?
Was it at night?
Did she have an intent to commit a crime ?
The element of breaking and entering will be satisfied because…
The requirement that the burglary take place in the dwelling of another is satisfied because…
The requirement that the crime take place at night…
What inferences can be made from the facts as to whether this took place at night?
The requirement that Goldilocks had an intent to commit a crime…
Easier but still some inferences to be made.
In Goldilocks, we had no cases for comparison so we did not use analogy and distinction.
In Goldilocks, we had no policy implications presented.
Exercise