Concentration in Advocacy and Dispute Resolution
A successful advocate must interview clients and witnesses, conduct legal research, draft pleadings, engage in discovery, prepare motions and briefs, and represent clients in hearings and trials. A successful advocate also must be professional, diligent, and resilient. The Advocacy Concentration was developed to help students acquire these skills through a combination of coursework and experiential learning. Students must complete three requirements.
Requirement 1
First, students must begin the concentration during their second year of law studies by taking an applied evidence course which compliments their trial practice course. Both courses use the same practical materials which help the students to master and apply the rules of evidence while learning how to prepare and present a case for trial.
Requirement 2
Second, students must take an additional twelve hours of related courses during their second and third years of study. Students also may satisfy the elective requirement by taking special courses, designated as satisfying the elective requirement, which introduce them to emerging legal areas. Students may choose from these additional concentration courses:
- Adjudicatory Criminal Procedure
- Administrative Law
- Advanced Appellate Advocacy
- Advanced Criminal Law
- Advanced Trial Practice
- Alternative Dispute Resolution
- Civil Pretrial Litigation
- Civil Rights Actions
- Complex Litigation
- Conflicts of Law
- Criminal Law Seminar
- Criminal Pretrial Litigation
- Domestic Violence clinic
- E-Discovery
- Education Law Practicum
- Elder Law
- Environmental Practicum
- Expungement Clinic
- Field Placement
- Federal Courts
- Innocence Clinic
- Interviewing & Counseling
- Investigatory Criminal Procedure
- Judicial Externship
- Jurisprudence
- Negotiation
- Remedies
- Wills Clinic
- Wrongful Convictions Seminar
- Issues in the Law*
* The “Issues in the Law” designation is for the purpose of allowing additional or newly developed litigation and dispute resolution courses to satisfy the elective requirement for the completion of the concentration in advocacy and dispute resolution. An Issues in the Law course must be approved by the Dean or the Dean’s designee as satisfying the requirements of the concentration.
Requirement 3
Third, to complete the concentration, students must complete either a six-hour legal clinic or an externship. The clinical and externship programs give students the opportunity to represent clients and resolve disputes in a real-life setting while under the supervision of skilled instructors or practitioners. Available clinics change, but currently include:
- Advocacy Clinic
- Transactional Law Clinic
- Community Economic Development Clinic
- Domestic Violence Clinic or Mediation Clinic*
- Family Law Mediation Clinic
- Prosecutorial Externship
- Public Defender Externship
- Semester in Residence**
*When taken in conjunction with another three-credit clinic or other course aimed at preparing students for advocacy practice (subject to the student receiving approval from both the Director for the combination of the clinic and another clinic or course; both courses need not be taken in the same semester).
**Subject to the student receiving approval from the Director.