Professional Skills/Lawyering Skills/Simulation

This three-unit course is designed to prepare students for the real-world demands placed upon attorneys by: (1) sensitizing students early on to ethical and professionalism issues; (2) promoting broad-based skills training, including analytical, research and writing skills; and (3) providing concentrated instruction in the basics of legal methods, legal reasoning, and legal process.

Governmental externships place students with various divisions of local, state and federal governmental offices. Some examples include the Los Angeles City Attorney, Los Angeles County Public Defender, the California Attorney General, and the U.S. Attorney. Externs work closely with experienced attorneys in a wide variety of civil and criminal matters. Externs participate in a variety of projects, such as factual investigation, research and analysis, drafting documents and observation/participation in meetings, negotiations as well as judicial proceedings.

Judicial externships are available on part-time and full-time basis and place students with state and federal judges. Externs work closely with the judge, and research attorneys and/or clerks, researching and advising the court on issues pending before the court. Some judicial placements also offer the opportunity of participation in settlement conferences and ADR. The field placement is complimented by an academic component, including several class meetings on campus and/or via videoconferencing. For specific details, please see the Externship Office staff and course syllabus.

This capstone course builds skills and knowledge needed to advise early-stage businesses. The course discusses diverse legal and business topics faced by start-up lawyers such as business formation, intellectual property, legal ethics, employment law, financing the enterprise, operational contracts, reading financial statements, online commerce law, risk management, and exit strategies. The course is not meant to replace the core courses in these areas but addressees their particular application to the start-up arena.

Multistate Bar Exam: Skills & Strategies. 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).

This course is designed as a comprehensive overview of the legal issues related to abuse and neglect of children, and termination of parental rights. The course will examine the philosophical underpinnings of the foster care system and will feature speakers ranging from experts in the field to former foster youth. This course is focused on families who find themselves subject to government intervention due to allegations of abuse and neglect.

The course introduces the student - in context of theory, simulated practice, and models of professionalism - to selected topics in the law of the contemporary workplace. Although much emphasis will be placed on traditional labor-management relations, the course offers a working knowledge of the essential language, issues, rules, and strategies found across a wide range of employment law practice including wrongful termination, status discrimination, privacy, wages and hours, alternative dispute resolution, international labor standards, and federal preemption.

This course will provide both narrative and experiential/inter-active instruction on contract drafting and analysis/review skills for those students interested in a transactional practice. There will be a particular emphasis on drafting entertainment industry contracts (i.e., commonly used clauses and concepts in the TV and Motion Picture industries); however, the skills and techniques taught will also apply generally to contract drafting regardless of industry.

The goal of this course is to provide an opportunity for students to learn the basic courtroom skills necessary to have immediate success as a civil litigator. Each class session will focus on the skills used before, during and after any court appearance. Students will learn everything from how to file pleadings through getting the Judge's signature on a proposed order. The heart of this course is an understanding of courtroom procedure - evidenced through both simulations and a visit to a courtroom to view typical examples of law and motion.

Fundamentals and Practical Aspects of Entertainment and Media Litigation This course will take the student through the elements of entertainment litigation cases: how it works in real life, how to practice pragmatically, where and how to get the necessary knowledge to advise, counsel and represent clients, and how to build a practice in this area. The course will cover client representation from fee agreements to appeal.