General/Topical Survey

Skills – 1 unit - This course will introduce students to the practice of conscious lawyering, including concepts in professional and personal identity, self-awareness, focus, emotional intelligence, cultural and personal values, mindfulness, meditation, and mind-body connection. This course will help train students to be mindful and aware while engaging in the practice of law including litigation, negotiations, transactional deals, client management, and day-to-day work in a law practice.

Seminar – 2 hours. An increasingly popular trend in legal scholarship is the use of data (quantitative, qualitative, and, most recently, geospatial) to inform legal theories and socio-political debates. Indeed, it is rare today to come across a law review article or Supreme Court opinion that does not reference or rely upon some analysis of data to make a legal argument. Therefore, being able to be a critical consumer of empirical legal analysis is a skill that every lawyer should have.

Seminar - This course will cover the law of biodiversity, with a focus on the laws of the United States. We will review the science of biodiversity and biodiversity loss, and then examine laws addressing biodiversity at the federal, state, and local levels. We will cover biodiversity law, ecosystem management, and emerging challenges like climate change and renewable energy development. The course will be graded based on short response papers and participation in class discussions.

Discussion - 2 hours. The course covers fundamental elements of the legislative process, including legislative procedure, the legislature as an institution, lobbying, statutory interpretation, legislative-executive relations, and the Legislature’s constitutional powers and limitations.

Final Assessment: Paper

Discussion - 3 hours There are roughly 80,000 local government entities in the United States which provide essential services and spend billions of dollars. This course takes a broad approach to state and local government law, both practically and theoretically. Topics to be covered include: federalism, relations between states and localities, governmental liability, zoning, educational equity, and public finance. Readings will be drawn not only from case law and statues, but from history, theory and public policy.

Seminar - 3 hours. In this course, students will take on the role of Justices of, and advocates before, the Supreme Court of the United States. The 16 students in the course will be divided up into two panels of 8 Associate Justices (with the instructor to serve as the Chief for both panels). The course will begin with a short unit on the certiorari process, the crucial procedure through which the Supreme Court decides the cases it will hear. Each panel will review the materials for a case pending before the Court at the certiorari stage and debate whether to grant review.

Discussion - 2 hours. What are the expectations and roles of the police in a democratic society? We need order maintenance and crime control, but to assume these tasks the police sometimes intrude upon interests considered fundamental to free societies.  How should courts and lawmakers respond to these challenges?

Discussion - 2 hours. The course will provide a brief review of basic Spanish and then move into more complicated grammatical structures, all within a legal context, which includes various areas of California law.  The focus of the course is to acquire specialized vocabulary and develop the capacity of students to provide direct legal representation to Spanish-speaking clients. Students will practice both oral and written communication and will learn how to conduct various types of interviews and meetings with clients.

Discussion - 2 hours. 3L’s only. A skills course focused on the development of analytical and organizational methods essential to successful completion of the Performance Test [PT] and MBE (multiple choice) components of the California Bar Exam. It will include PT writing assignments such as legal correspondence, different styles of office memoranda, trial briefs, and pleadings and motions. Students will receive individualized feedback on each of their written assignments.

Discussion - 2 hours. 2L’s only. This course will focus on skills critical to law school success, and ultimately, bar exam success. The skills include effective case reading, briefing, outlining, and exam writing. Selected subjects from the first year curriculum, specifically remedies-based issues in Contracts, Torts, and Property, will be used as a substantive context for the class.