Professional Skills/Lawyering Skills/Simulation

"Hollywood's a Union Town," goes the chant, and it's true. An entertainment lawyer can't be effective without a solid understanding of the Hollywood guilds and unions, yet that information is hard to come by. Union issues arise frequently in practice, and clients and employers are always looking for lawyers with this specialized knowledge. The course focuses on issues that arise under the industry-wide collective bargaining agreements with the WGA and, to some extent, various other Hollywood guilds.

This hands-on course provides students a unique opportunity to learn evidence through practical in-court simulations. The course will expose students to complex evidence issues raised by the Federal Rules of Evidence and, where appropriate, the California Evidence Code. During the simulations, students will act as opposing lawyers, witnesses, and judges, and argue for the admission or exclusion of particular pieces of evidence. Prerequisite: Evidence (140).

This skills course is designed for students interested in learning about a career in the criminal law field from a practical perspective. Students will be taught how to read charging documents, evaluate police reports, and argue some of the most common pretrial motions. Students will have an opportunity to participate in simulations using real life cases.

This highly interactive course provides students the opportunity to refine their oral advocacy skills. Through the use of simulated exercises, the course provides instruction on verbal and nonverbal communication techniques to present powerful, compelling oral arguments, and to strategically design effective presentations to motivate and influence audiences of all kinds. Students will also develop techniques to implement communication strategies, including Psychodrama, Neuro-Linguistic Programming, and audience analysis.

This course will build upon and expand essential legal research techniques and strategies introduced in the first year LAWS course. New topics include legislative history, administrative law resources, plus the full range of secondary sources, including practice guides. In addition to LexisNexis and Westlaw, students will be exposed to low or no-cost internet legal sources. Research hypotheticals will require research of both California and federal law.

This course provides an introduction to patent application drafting techniques for students interested in pursuing patent law as a career. Students are afforded the opportunity to prepare an entire patent application. Although an overview of statutory requirements is included in this course, prior exposure to patent law is considered helpful.

This course is a negotiation skills course in which students will engage in a series of seven mock negotiations - modeled after actual industry deals - covering television, motion picture and legitimate theater deals. Each negotiation exercise will include substantive, in-class instruction in the relevant subject matter, including review of long-form contracts; actual mock negotiations, in rotating teams of two students; and in-class debriefing sessions in which both substantive results and negotiating strategies and tactics are discussed and evaluated.

Students who have successfully completed the Street Law Clinic can continue to hone their lawyering and professionalism skills through teaching for a second semester at a location that has challenging programming and student needs. In addition, students will assist with observing and supervising current Street Law Clinic students at their school sites, help with program development, support relationship building at schools and juvenile centers, and help with writing new lessons. Students will not participate in the weekly classroom component but may teach one class to current students.

Students who have successfully completed the Entertainment and the Arts Legal Aid Clinic (680PR) can continue to hone their lawyering and professionalism skills through the continued provision of business and legal affairs services on motion pictures.

Students who have successfully completed the Children's Rights Clinic can continue to hone their lawyering skills through direct representation of children and families in school discipline and special education matters. Students will not participate in the weekly Children's Rights Clinic classroom component; rather, they will work solely on clinic cases. The course may be taken for 1 to 3 units upon approval from the Director of the Children's Rights Clinic. Prerequisite: Children's Rights Clinic (680CR).