For Fall 2023, rising second-year evening students will be asked to rank their preferences for Lawyering III during Advanced Registration. There are two different options, which (together with Lawyering II) satisfy the ABA experiential requirement for evening students (day students satisfy that requirement through a clinic or Legal Theory and Practice course). This class is open only to 2E students. The options for Fall 2023 include:

Lawyering III: Personal Injury Defense (Jhanelle Graham Caldwell)

Overview: This course provides a “real world” overview of pretrial civil litigation and explores strategies to advance the client’s interests. Using simulated role-playing exercises, students will learn how to defend a personal injury case by analyzing the facts obtained in discovery, conducting fact and expert witness depositions, issuing written discovery, and drafting pretrial motions. Although the focus of this Lawyering III section will be from the defendant’s perspective of litigation, students will develop the skills to manage a civil case for the plaintiff or defendant.

Covered topics include:

• Initial review and assessment of relevant records in the case.
• Preparing for and conducting an initial interview with a client.
• Identifying fact witnesses and expert witnesses to develop your theory of the case.
• Conducting discovery—drafting interrogatories and requests for production of documents and issuing responses to written discovery on behalf of your client.
• Taking and defending depositions.
• Assessing the strengths and weaknesses of the case for potential settlement.
• Drafting motions for summary judgment or motions in limine.

Lawyering III: Counseling & Negotiation (Jeff Trueman)

Overview: Counseling and negotiation are foundational skills for all lawyers. Considering that every legal matter brings an opportunity to negotiate a resolution, more than 90% of legal disputes are resolved prior to trial. The counseling aspect of this course will explore what it means and how to be client-centered practitioners. Client-centered attorneys seek to understand the clients’ situation from a variety of relevant angles beyond the legal case itself: mental/physical ability, economic, health/welfare, family, reputation, values, long- and short-term goals. The list of relevant factors is endless when we consider a client’s challenges and opportunities holistically. The negotiations portion of the course will introduce negotiation theory, strategies, and styles via practice exercises and simulated role plays.

Through exercises in the basics of client interviewing, counseling, negotiations, and drafting settlement agreements, the course will engage concepts that go beyond the mechanics of lawyering. The course will emphasize class engagement, self-reflections, negotiation and counseling simulations and written reflection exercises, and group projects, which will be graded. There is no final exam.

Covered topics include:

• Client interviewing
• Client-centered counseling
• Active listening and reflection skills
• Identifying client interests, needs, and legal goals
• Effective questions
• Generation of options
• Negotiation strategies and styles
• Negotiation frameworks
• Negotiation theory
• Multiparty negotiations