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CLINICAL & SKILLS PROGRAMS >
Boalt Hall offers a range of courses that are explicitly designed to introduce students to the theory and practice of professional lawyering skills through a combination of lectures, group discussions, simulated cases and structured role-playing exercises in a classroom environment.
The required First-Year Skills Program includes the Legal Research & Writing course, which is taught in the fall and introduces students to the basics of the court system, how to read cases, how to locate and select precedent, and how to write an objective legal memorandum. In the spring, students take the Written and Oral Advocacy course, which teaches further research techniques, persuasive writing skills and how to write a brief to the court. Students then argue their position in front of a judge in a Moot Court setting.
In this and other professional skills courses, students receive instruction, prepare and perform their role-play, and then receive substantial feedback. These classes are taught by faculty or lecturers from practice, are usually smaller-sized, and require a different kind of preparation and participation than traditional classroom courses. These courses focus on various areas of professional skills, including:
- pretrial civil and criminal practice;
- civil and criminal trial
- advocacy;
- appellate advocacy;
- transaction and business practice; and
- alternative dispute resolution, with a focus on negotiation and mediation.
Boalt also sponsors various competitions, including the James Patterson McBaine Honors Moot Court Competition and external advocacy competitions.
In This Section
Legal Research and Writing/Written & Oral Advocacy Courses
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