LAW486
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LEGAL ETHICS: LAW & PROCESS
Course Title
LEGAL ETHICS: LAW & PROCESS
Course Number
486
Min
3
Course Types
Letter Grading, Law & Process, Professional Ethics, CA Bar-Tested Subject
Credit Type
GPA LECTURE COURSES
Description
Legal Ethics: Law & Process instructs students in the rules regarding the ethical practice of law by surveying the rules in a systematic fashion and using reinforcement exercises to increase the student's understanding of key concepts and his or her ability to apply those rules in analyzing and solving a series of actual ethical dilemmas that commonly arise for practitioners.
The course surveys and explains the ethical rules as presented in the ABA Model Rules of Professional Conduct. [The California Rules also are discussed when they vary from the ABA Rules.] Mastery of principles of legal ethics requires more than memorization of the applicable rules. It requires the opportunity to apply those rules to challenging situations in the practice of law. The rules lay the foundation. Reinforcement and increased depth of understanding takes the form of a series of written assignments and collaborative class exercises that require analytical skills and promote the exercise of critical judgment and problem solving.
The key difference between this class and a regular ethics class is that it approaches the doctrinal material in a small class setting that teaches legal analysis and provides opportunities for students to strengthen their analytical, writing, and test-taking skills via multiple assignments and individualized feedback from the instructor. The course is the latest addition to the college's "Law & Process" suite of hybrid bar-tested doctrinal courses designed to help students master the reading, sorting, synthesizing, and arguing skills that lawyering demands. A subset of our students struggle with these skills, putting them at risk of not only receiving poor grades, but also of graduating from law school underprepared for the practice of law and, critically, of failing the bar exam. The "Law & Process" curriculum is therefore designed to give students opportunities to continue developing their legal analysis skills in a doctrinal setting, where they will be both digesting substantive material and developing learning techniques that can be readily applied on the bar exam and in practice.
Students are required to have completed the first-year curriculum.
The course surveys and explains the ethical rules as presented in the ABA Model Rules of Professional Conduct. [The California Rules also are discussed when they vary from the ABA Rules.] Mastery of principles of legal ethics requires more than memorization of the applicable rules. It requires the opportunity to apply those rules to challenging situations in the practice of law. The rules lay the foundation. Reinforcement and increased depth of understanding takes the form of a series of written assignments and collaborative class exercises that require analytical skills and promote the exercise of critical judgment and problem solving.
The key difference between this class and a regular ethics class is that it approaches the doctrinal material in a small class setting that teaches legal analysis and provides opportunities for students to strengthen their analytical, writing, and test-taking skills via multiple assignments and individualized feedback from the instructor. The course is the latest addition to the college's "Law & Process" suite of hybrid bar-tested doctrinal courses designed to help students master the reading, sorting, synthesizing, and arguing skills that lawyering demands. A subset of our students struggle with these skills, putting them at risk of not only receiving poor grades, but also of graduating from law school underprepared for the practice of law and, critically, of failing the bar exam. The "Law & Process" curriculum is therefore designed to give students opportunities to continue developing their legal analysis skills in a doctrinal setting, where they will be both digesting substantive material and developing learning techniques that can be readily applied on the bar exam and in practice.
Students are required to have completed the first-year curriculum.