Professional Skills/Lawyering Skills/Simulation

This course will blend lectures with simulation assignments and class discussions. This course will explore the emerging field of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) and its impact on legal practice and selected areas of substantive law. The course will first introduce students to the fundamental technology, commonly used large language models, and related GenAI tools available to lawyers. The course will then survey a broad array of legal practice, substantive law, and policy topics to illustrate the risks and benefits of GenAI.

This course will build upon and expand essential legal research techniques and strategies introduced in the first-year LAWS course but will focus entirely on California. New topics include California legislative history, California administrative law resources, and the full range of secondary sources, including California-specific practice guides and databases. California state law will be the focus of the class, but some California federal laws will be discussed to highlight research challenges.

This course is designed to introduce aspiring lawyers to balancing the challenges of legal education and practice with maintain balance and wellness in their lives. The course will include a combination of lecture, discussion, written materials, and interactive group exercises. Ideally, we will meet in person, but the course could also be offered online or in a hybrid format.

This course is designed to provide early preparation for the Multistate Bar Exam (MBE) and uses best practices and cognitive learning science to promote learning and greater recall of the information. The course takes a "skills first" approach and covers all the 7 MBE subjects (Civil Procedure, Contracts, Constitutional Law, Criminal Law and Procedure, Evidence, Real Property, and Torts).

The proposed Clinic provides Southwestern Law Students with the opportunity to learn lawyering skills and provide high quality legal assistance to a vulnerable and underserved population in a community-based learning environment. Under the close supervision of an adjunct faculty member, students will offer legal advice and counsel to clients in the area of asylum law. Students will apply the research and writing skills learned in LAWS and build on those skills by researching country conditions and other evidence required in an asylum case.

This course is an overview of the present fundamentals of NFT and the Metaverse (Web 3.0) related entertainment transactions and litigation. The course is taught by currently practicing attorneys handling NFT and Metaverse related transactions and with a deep understanding of current relevant litigation claims. Students will obtain an understanding of current entertainment industry deals and contracts regarding NFTs and the Metaverse and various litigation claims involving NFTs. During the course, students will be introduced to the relevant intersection of copyright, trademark, tort (e.g.

Foundations of Law and Practice provides instruction in core law school skills, such as reading cases and statutes, note-taking and classroom engagement strategies, time management, rule synthesis, outlining, multiple-choice techniques, and effective exam writing. Effective exam writing includes analogizing and distinguishing cases, focusing on key facts, and building factual depth and common sense inferences within analysis.

Gambling law is a relatively unique body of law. Historically, gambling has been both prohibited and criminalized on the one hand and legalized and regulated on the other hand.

Gambling law addresses the legalized and regulated aspect of gambling; the course would only lightly touch on the prohibited and criminalized aspect of gambling.

The Externship course provides an invaluable opportunity to enhance students’ legal education through structured and supervised off-campus placements, where students learn through observation as well as hands-on fieldwork. The fieldwork is complemented with a class component.