FLORIDA INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF LAW
Legal Skills & Values at FIU is a required three-semester pre-clinical program, aimed at giving students a comprehensive, integrated foundation in the communications skills on which good lawyering is based. Students receive three credits for the first semester, two for the second, and three for the third.
The first two semesters focus on introducing students to – and helping students to achieve competency in -- the standard legal research, analysis and writing curriculum. In addition to various short writing projects (such as judicial opinions, client letters, and planning, self-assessment and reflective memos), students write an office memo in the first semester, and engage in written and oral appellate advocacy in the second semester. In both semesters, these tasks are presented in the context of a simulation, so students do them as part of representing a (make-believe) client. The students do their work in role. In first semester, they get the facts for their memo by interviewing the client; in second semester, the follow up their oral argument by counseling the client. Professional responsibility is also a key part of the LS&V curriculum, and it, too, is taught with the students in role, contemplating ethical issues raised by their representation of their clients. Because a focus on international and comparative law is part of the mission of FIU, at least one of the simulations that the students do in their first year involves an international issue.
At the moment, the third semester course focuses on pre-trial practice. Students research and write an office memo, which forms the basis for doing a complaint or answer, a motion and memorandum of law, and a negotiation for their client. Students conclude the negotiation by drafting a settlement agreement. This is only the third year of FIU’s existence. We plan, in future years, to add a variety of third-semester options, in addition to the pre-trial course.
Individual feedback conferences with students on all their major pieces of writing are mandatory. There are also many opportunities for group feedback. Major exercises – oral arguments, client interviews, negotiations – are taped, and available on http://lawstream.fiu.edu for individual and group viewing.
The LS&V course is the spring board for an active and successful Board of Advocates program, which is now in its second year. The program was developed and is coached by one of the LS&V instructors. In the first year of the program, students finished second in one national moot court competition and won best brief in another.
The director of the LS&V program is a tenured full professor. As of now, the four other LS&V faculty members have lecturer status. All are currently on one-year contracts and are eligible to apply for three-year contracts. There is no upper limit on the number of such successive contracts that an LS&V lecturer may have. LS&V faculty may vote in faculty meetings on all topics except hiring, promotion and tenure of tenure track faculty. The faculty/student ratio is approximately 1/35. LS&V faculty with other duties – such as directing the program, advising the moot court program, and teaching in the academic support program – have smaller student loads.· Summer research grants and summer teaching are available. Additional information about the Legal Skills & Values program and faculty is available at http://law.fiu.edu.
Contact person: Jean Zorn, Director, Legal Skills & Values Program, zornj@fiu.edu.
The first two semesters focus on introducing students to – and helping students to achieve competency in -- the standard legal research, analysis and writing curriculum. In addition to various short writing projects (such as judicial opinions, client letters, and planning, self-assessment and reflective memos), students write an office memo in the first semester, and engage in written and oral appellate advocacy in the second semester. In both semesters, these tasks are presented in the context of a simulation, so students do them as part of representing a (make-believe) client. The students do their work in role. In first semester, they get the facts for their memo by interviewing the client; in second semester, the follow up their oral argument by counseling the client. Professional responsibility is also a key part of the LS&V curriculum, and it, too, is taught with the students in role, contemplating ethical issues raised by their representation of their clients. Because a focus on international and comparative law is part of the mission of FIU, at least one of the simulations that the students do in their first year involves an international issue.
At the moment, the third semester course focuses on pre-trial practice. Students research and write an office memo, which forms the basis for doing a complaint or answer, a motion and memorandum of law, and a negotiation for their client. Students conclude the negotiation by drafting a settlement agreement. This is only the third year of FIU’s existence. We plan, in future years, to add a variety of third-semester options, in addition to the pre-trial course.
Individual feedback conferences with students on all their major pieces of writing are mandatory. There are also many opportunities for group feedback. Major exercises – oral arguments, client interviews, negotiations – are taped, and available on http://lawstream.fiu.edu for individual and group viewing.
The LS&V course is the spring board for an active and successful Board of Advocates program, which is now in its second year. The program was developed and is coached by one of the LS&V instructors. In the first year of the program, students finished second in one national moot court competition and won best brief in another.
The director of the LS&V program is a tenured full professor. As of now, the four other LS&V faculty members have lecturer status. All are currently on one-year contracts and are eligible to apply for three-year contracts. There is no upper limit on the number of such successive contracts that an LS&V lecturer may have. LS&V faculty may vote in faculty meetings on all topics except hiring, promotion and tenure of tenure track faculty. The faculty/student ratio is approximately 1/35. LS&V faculty with other duties – such as directing the program, advising the moot court program, and teaching in the academic support program – have smaller student loads.· Summer research grants and summer teaching are available. Additional information about the Legal Skills & Values program and faculty is available at http://law.fiu.edu.
Contact person: Jean Zorn, Director, Legal Skills & Values Program, zornj@fiu.edu.
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