Advanced Advocacy: Civil Litigation (8200) Covers all aspects of advocacy involved in jury trials, bench trials, administrative hearings, and arbitration. Students learn by performing videotaped exercises in every class, and are critiqued by experienced lawyers and judges. The course covers case preparation, opening statements, direct examination, cross-examination, exhibits, expert witnesses, jury selection, summation, and advocacy ethics. Cases cover a range of civil and criminal problems. Students prepare written questions, outlines, and a trial brief, and try a complete bench trial or arbitration case and a full-day jury trial. Offered as a full-semester course during the fall and spring semesters, and in a concentrated format during summer session. Grading: Letter-graded, P/F in summer and J-term. Credits: 3 Offered: Categories: Experiential Subject Areas: Civil Litigation Advanced Advocacy: Criminal Trial (3034) Provides training in trial advocacy skills for each stage of trial. Areas covered include: ethics, psychology of persuasion, opening statement, direct examination, exhibits, objections, cross-examination, and closing argument. The teaching methods will include lecture, demonstration, discussion, simulation, instructor critique, and video critique. The final exam will be a trial. Grading: Letter graded. Credits: 3 Offered: Fall Categories: Experiential Advocacy (9550) This course teaches students the basic skills all lawyers use in the representation of clients. Students observe and discuss demonstrations of advocacy skills and then practice these skills in a small-group setting. Performance exercises include deposition, direct examination, cross-examination, closing argument and final trial. Students also write an appellate brief and make an appellate argument. Grading: Letter Credits: 3 Offered: Fall/Spring Categories: Experiential, Required Advocacy (9555) This course teaches students the basic skills all lawyers use in the representation of clients. Students observe and discuss demonstrations of advocacy skills and then practice these skills in a small-group setting. Performance exercises include deposition, direct examination, cross-examination, closing argument and final trial. Students also write an appellate brief and make an appellate argument. Grading: Letter graded. Credits: 3 Offered: Fall/Spring Categories: Experiential, Required Advocacy: Appellate (9553) This course teaches the basic skills all lawyers use when writing and arguing persuasively. Students will write an appellate brief, receiving feedback and instruction in a small group setting. Students will then conduct an appellate argument on the issues they have briefed. Grading: Credits: 1 Offered: Fall Categories: Experiential Advocacy: Trial (9552) This course teaches students the basic skills all lawyers use in the representation of clients. Students observe and discuss demonstrations of advocacy skills and then practice these skills in a small-group setting. Performance exercises include fact investigation, direct examination, cross-examination, closing argument and final trial. Grading: Letter Credits: 2 Offered: Spring Categories: Experiential Arbitration Skills (3134) Is an arbitration just like a trial? Do parties have to follow rules of evidence and rules of procedure? How do attorneys and parties interact with arbitrators? This course will focus on the skills required to be an effective arbitrator or arbitration advocate. Students will participate in arbitration simulations and role playing. Additionally, experienced arbitrators will occasionally join the class to share their insights and offer guidance. Students are encouraged to register for this course at the same time as Arbitration Law. Grading: Letter graded Credits: 1 Offered: Fall Categories: Experiential Subject Areas: Dispute Resolution Challenging Conversations (3047) Based on the book, Difficult Conversations: How to Discuss What Matters Most, authored by Douglas Stone, Bruce Patton, and Sheila Heen, this course challenges students to master key communication and conflict processing skills. Negotiating when we are personally and emotionally involved is one of our greatest challenges. But is it possible not to be involved? Can we check our feelings at the door? Communication skills, like handling challenging conversations, allow negotiation to happen, and help us get back on track when things get stuck. The course focuses on two skills dimensions: internal skills – the ability to work with your thoughts and feelings before and during a conversation; and external skills – the things we need to say and do in a conversation to help it go better. Mastering these skills offers the possibility of negotiation success even when your negotiating partners do not share your aspiration to collaborate. The course is constructed as an intensive workshop, including group discussion, simulations, and challenging conversations set in a wide variety of contexts. Grading: Letter graded Credits: 1 Offered: Summer Categories: Experiential Subject Areas: Alternative Dispute Resolution Clinic: Business Law (8212) In this experiential clinic, students will gain a glimpse at the practice of corporate outside counsel. Students will work directly with small business clients and practicing business and corporate lawyers to provide legal guidance. Clients are referred to the clinic or selected through a scholarship application process. Students may have the opportunity to work in a variety of business law matters that affect the small business owner, including choice of business entity; drafting formation documents; contract drafting; corporate dissolution; lease negotiations; employment law matters; and non-profit incorporation. While there is attorney guidance and oversight, this is not a lecture based clinic. Grading: Letter graded Credits: 2 Offered: Fall/Spring Categories: Experiential Subject Areas: Business and Commercial Clinic: Child Protection (9070) Students will represent parents and kin involved in the child welfare system in the district court, including trial if necessary, as a part of an interdisciplinary legal team. Student may also represent parents and kin on appeal. Law students are responsible for all aspects of their cases including client communication, drafting of court documents, all court appearances, and file maintenance. Students must be available to attend court hearings in the twin cities metro area throughout the semester. As our cases are primarily out of Ramsey County, students who plan to work in any division of the Ramsey County Attorney’s Office cannot be simultaneously enrolled in the clinic. The child protection clinic representation seminar is taught in conjunction with child protection clinic policy seminar. The seminar component focuses on substantive child protection law, oral and written advocacy skills, interdisciplinary practice, trauma-informed lawyering, policy reform, the legislative process, community engagement, and legal theory. This clinic is a full-year clinic that carries 3 credits per semester in the fall and spring. Grading: Letter Graded Credits: Variable Offered: Fall/Spring Categories: Experiential Clinic: Child Protection - Policy (9075) Students will participate in all aspects of the legislative process, including community engagement around child welfare reform, policy research and brief writing, stakeholder organizing and communication, and bill drafting. Additionally, students will have the opportunity to work directly with members of the Minnesota legislature and lobbyists on policy reform that impacts families and children in Minnesota's child welfare system. Students will observe and participate in legislative hearings and will have the opportunity to testify at the Minnesota legislature. The child protection clinic policy seminar is taught in conjunction with child protection clinic representation seminar. The seminar component focuses on substantive child protection law, oral and written advocacy skills, interdisciplinary practice, trauma-informed lawyering, policy reform, the legislative process, community engagement, and legal theory. This clinic is a full-year clinic that carries 3 credits per semester in the fall and spring. Grading: Letter Credits: 3 Offered: Fall/Spring Categories: Experiential Clinic: Civil Advocacy (8305) Students take full responsibility for representing clients under the close supervision of faculty. The course focuses on the challenges of representing real people in real matters in an ethical, reflective, and creative way. Goals include developing a critical understanding of legal process and a contextual understanding of clients’ legal problems. Students interview and counsel clients, investigate facts, negotiate disputes, prepare trial memos and motions, and conduct administrative hearings and court trials. Cases cover a variety of subject areas, including landlord-tenant, unemployment compensation, employment, and consumer matters. The current affordable housing crisis has led to some focus on housing matters, including policy research and recommendations to neighborhood organizations and the City of St. Paul. Students meet weekly in seminar and also meet individually with faculty for supervision. Some required activities (such as court appearances, investigation, and community meetings) take place during normal business hours, but most students are able to combine this clinic's work with their own employment and care-giving responsibilities. Grading: Letter graded Credits: variable Offered: Fall/Spring Categories: Experiential Subject Areas: Public Interest Law, Civil Litigation Clinic: COVID-Response (4033) Students in this clinic will work under the direct supervision of members of the clinic faculty on cases referred from legal services organizations to address the legal needs of indigent clients created by the public health, social, and economic effects of the coronavirus pandemic. Areas of legal need are anticipated to include access to unemployment, social security, and other COVID-related benefits, employee rights, advance planning for eviction defense and other housing remedies, and petitions for medical release from confinement. In addition to learning basic poverty law, students in this clinic will develop skills for using technology to remote representation. A classroom component will meet synchronously but remotely once a week to address common issues of substantive law, procedure, and client representation. Students will have additional remote meetings with the faculty members supervising their cases. Grading: Letter Credits: 2 or 3 Offered: Irregularly Categories: Experiential Subject Areas: Administrative and Legislative Process, Health Law, Public Interest Law Clinic: Employment Discrimination Mediation (3042) Students will represent employees claiming employment discrimination who have been referred to mediation proceedings. In a unique collaboration with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) and the Minnesota Department of Human Rights, students help solve real clients' problems through alternatives to litigation. The clinic also provides an introduction to employment law practice and procedures. Grading: Letter graded. Credits: Variable Offered: Fall/Spring Categories: Experiential Subject Areas: Employment Law Clinic: Health Law (3062) This clinic offers students the opportunity to represent individuals whose health is being affected by a legal concern. Because there are many social determinants of health, the clinic handles a wide range of case types. Students will gain experience in interviewing, counseling, and litigating client matters and interacting with health providers at a community health center. Grading: Letter graded Credits: Variable Offered: Fall/Spring Categories: Experiential Subject Areas: Health Law Clinic: Housing Justice Chatbot Building (4031) Affordable housing issues are proliferating across the nation. Yet lawyers who help moderate and low-income tenants are few and far between. Chatbots--simple question-answer flowcharts--are emerging as a way of delivering essential legal information. In this course, students will identify and research a pressing housing issue facing a community—if possible, their local community—and will find and collaborate with an organization that is trying to address that issue. Then each student will construct a chatbot that addresses the issue. To build this tool, students will need to learn the law governing their rental housing issue, e.g., remedies for needed repairs, laws governing tenant application fees, return of security deposit, expungement of eviction court records, and the like. Students also will research resources—including, especially, human helpers—for tenants experiencing that housing challenge in the chosen locale. Students will begin by creating a flowchart reflecting the logic of the law governing the matter before using a software application to develop a chatbot that addresses the housing law concern they have chosen. The final phase of the course will be to vet the chatbot each student has developed with the coaching of faculty. We anticipate that each student will post a chatbot on Canvas, which will allow it to be seen, used as an example, and tested by students, faculty and staff. Some may be deployed on the website of the organization with which they have partnered in identifying the housing topic for the chatbot. The ethics, limits, and possibilities of legal information chatbots will be included in the course readings and discussions. To register, obtain the one-page application from the Clinic Administrator, fill it out, and you will be contacted before registration opens. Grading: Letter graded Credits: 3 Offered: Irregularly Categories: Experiential Clinic: Immigration Law (8752) Students represent indigent clients in administrative proceedings before U.S. Citizenship & Immigration Services, U.S. Consulates, Executive Office for Immigration Review and the Federal Court. Cases concern the immigration status of non-citizens. Students interview and counsel clients, research laws and regulations, write briefs, prepare application filings, prepare for hearings, and act as trial counsel at evidentiary hearings. Heavy emphasis is placed upon active representation of clients and cases that present novel and interesting issues of law and fact. Some required activities, such as court appearances and interviews, take place during normal business hours. Grading: Letter graded Credits: variable Offered: Fall/Spring Categories: Experiential Subject Areas: Public Interest Law, Criminal Law Clinic: Innocence (3043) Students work side-by-side with staff attorneys in the Innocence Project of Minnesota (IPMN) as they investigate and litigate inmates' claims of actual innocence. These investigations go to the heart of current issues in the criminal justice system, such as the reliability of eyewitness identification, the problem of false confessions, the use of snitches and informants, government misconduct, ineffective assistance of counsel, and forensic sciences including DNA testing. Class time is devoted to training and case work. Students are assigned cases and expected to gather source materials such as police reports and transcripts. They will organize and summarize those materials. After educating themselves about their cases, students will design and implement an investigative plan with their supervisor and pursue that investigation. This may include locating evidence, experts and witnesses. Students must be willing and able to meet with and interview witnesses at a variety of locations. Some local travel will be required. This clinic puts students on the cutting edge of scientific and social science issues that affect the practice of law in the criminal justice system as well as hands-on experience in managing and analyzing large-scale cases for litigation. Students must have regular access to a computer with internet. Students will be required to track their hours on a cloud based software program. Students must also communicate regularly with IPMN staff via email. Students may not work for a prosecutor’s office while in this clinic. There will be a single night weekend retreat required for students in this clinic. It will be held the weekend after Labor Day. This clinic is a full-year clinic that carries 3 credits per semester in the fall and spring. Grading: Letter graded. Credits: 3 Offered: Fall/Spring Categories: Experiential Subject Areas: Criminal Law Clinic: Intellectual Property Law (5111) This course will provide students with direct experience working with clients and practicing attorneys in the areas of copyright, patent and trademark law. Students will apply their substantive learning of the law to related IP projects, where they will have an opportunity to hone their basic skills and theoretical understanding in various IP areas. Students with a particular interest in one of the IP focus areas will, to the extent possible, be assigned cases in that area. The Clinic will focus on representing clients in a broad array of IP matters, including filing and prosecuting patent and trademark applications before the USPTO, policy-making, and educating the business and arts communities on the essentials of IP protection. Students who are interested in representing clinic clients in patent matters before the USPTO must be eligible for admission to the patent bar. To participate in the USPTO clinical program, students enrolled in the clinic will need, in coordination with the IP Law Clinic, to apply for temporary registration to practice before the USPTO. The Clinic is offered as a year-long (fall and spring semester) course to provide students with the broadest range of opportunities to work with clients and before the USPTO. Students graduating after fall semester may take the Clinic for fall semester only, and any spring openings because of graduating fall students may be filled on a case-by-case basis. Grading: Letter graded. Credits: 3 Offered: Fall/Spring Categories: Experiential Clinic: Legal Assistance to Minnesota Prisoners (9002) Students provide civil representation to indigent persons incarcerated in Minnesota. Students represent clients from interview through any trial. Cases include domestic relations, imprisonment-related matters (institutional grievances, parole, and detainers), and the full range of other civil problems including debtor-creditor, wills, contracts, torts, and civil rights issues. Grading: Letter graded Credits: variable Offered: Fall/Spring Categories: Experiential Subject Areas: Child and Family Law, Public Interest Law, Civil Litigation, Criminal Law Clinic: Mediation (3048) The Mediation Clinic provides students with an opportunity to use and develop their facilitative mediation skills by serving as mediators in Ramsey County Conciliation and Housing Courts and community mediations through the Dispute Resolution Center (DRC). Students will also have the opportunity to assist the DRC in case development. Students will begin by observing Conciliation and Housing Court and mediation sessions and advance to participating as co-mediators, and ultimately as independent mediators, all under supervision. The clinic will be composed of approximately 40-45 hours of in-court (or community) casework; 30 hours of reflective and out-of-class work; and 18 hours of in-class time. Grading: Letter graded. Credits: Variable Offered: Spring Categories: Experiential Clinic: Native American Law: Impact Litigation (8010) The Native American Law Impact Litigation Clinic is available for upper-level students who are interested in Federal Indian Law. The Clinic will provide a mixture of direct representation to Indian tribes in federal courts in Minnesota and/or Wisconsin, as well as amicus curiae support in cases pending in federal appellate courts and the U.S. Supreme Court. Cases are referred to the Clinic by practicing attorneys and through partnerships with federally recognized tribes and tribal organizations. Note: This course is unavailable through online registration. To register, please contact the NALS Institute to apply, prior to the registration deadline. Grading: Letter graded. Credits: variable Offered: Irregularly Categories: Experiential Clinic: Native Law: Tribal Code Drafting (8011) This course may be taken for a minimum of 4 credits with any additional credits subject to the instructor’s approval. The Native Law Clinic: Tribal Code Drafting is available for upper-level students who have taken the pre-requisite Native American Law (formerly Federal Indian Law) course and are interested in Tribal Law. Students in the Clinic will work on various approved legal development projects at the request of tribal governments and organizations. Typical projects include legislative drafting and reform, drafting and amendment of statutes, creation of western-style, traditional, and hybrid dispute resolution processes, and policy document development under the supervision of the instructor. This course is limited to 14 students per semester and is offered as part of Blended Learning. Note: This course is unavailable through online registration. To register, please contact Professor EagleWoman for the application form prior to the registration deadline. Grading: Letter graded Credits: Variable Offered: Spring Categories: Experiential Subject Areas: Native American Law Clinic: Reentry (7002) The United States incarcerates more people than any other country on the planet; it also releases more people from prison than any other country. As illustrated by Michelle Alexander’s groundbreaking book, The New Jim Crow, individuals with criminal records suffer massive collateral consequences including, but sadly not limited to, job loss, homelessness, and family separation. The Reentry Clinic helps those individuals burdened with a criminal record fully reenter society by providing holistic representation to ensure recently released persons have the best opportunity to live a safe and fulfilling life. This work is on the cutting edge of criminal justice and provides insight into the next wave of restorative justice reform. Students provide direct representation to individuals in a whole host of legal matters, including family law, expungement, and civil rights lawsuits. Students will interview clients, draft pleadings and appear in court on behalf of the client. Grading: Letter-graded. Credits: Variable Offered: Irregularly Categories: Experiential Clinic: State Public Defenders Postconviction (3044) The State Public Defender Postconviction Clinic offers students the opportunity to provide criminal legal representation to low income persons. Each student represents approximately four to six clients in a wide variety of criminal law cases, handling them from start to finish under the supervision of an experienced attorney at the Minnesota State Public Defender’s Office. Students participate in all phases of practice, from client interviewing through any scheduled court hearings, and are exposed to a law firm setting where they do their work. Typical cases include post-conviction motions on issues such as sentencing, restitution, conditional release, guilty plea withdrawal, parole and probation revocation, and end of confinement community notification. There may be the opportunity for appellate advocacy, as well as challenges to underlying convictions for persons facing deportation. Along with hands-on experience, classroom instruction on various aspects of practice is provided in the student's first semester. This course requires travel to one or more of the institutions and work at the Minnesota State Public Defender’s Office. Grading: Letter graded. Credits: Variable Offered: Fall/Spring Categories: Experiential Comparative Law - Lawyers: Opponents of Democracy? - Field Placement (3502) A limited number of students enrolled in Comparative Law: Lawyers-Opponents of Democracy? (3500) may enroll in this course. Students will be placed with organizations working on democracy-related projects, which could include democracy oversight and reform work, democracy-related legal research or legal work that relates to democracy-building skills (such as negotiation or community organizing). The instructor will assign students to placements after individual consultation with the students, but students are welcome to propose ideas for field placements. Students will write papers that may, but need not, qualify as papers meeting the advanced research and writing requirement. This paper may be a research or policy piece written as part of the student's placement work or, if none is required, may be written as an add-on to the placement work. In either case, the paper must tackle a real-world problem in maintaining and promoting democracy in a particular setting, and the paper will be reviewed and graded by the instructor working in consultation with the field supervisor. Students will also be required to use journaling to engage in critical reflection on whether and how their fieldwork actually promotes democracy and whether, in so doing, it promotes justice in some way. Students who successfully complete this course and related seminar course will receive a Keystone designation on their transcripts. Grading: Letter graded. Credits: variable Offered: Irregularly Categories: Experiential Subject Areas: International and Comparative Law Deals and Disputes (3014) In this intensive simulation course, students will learn how lawyers use the law to help shape deals and resolve disputes. Students will gain hands-on experience in reviewing critical client documents, identifying and researching business and legal issues, counseling clients in person and in writing, negotiating, drafting, and working collaboratively. The course also addresses professionalism in the deal-making context. Students will research and write on a range of related doctrinal issues, including business law, international law, employment law, and other legal topics. Grading: Letter graded. Credits: 3 Offered: Summer Categories: Experiential Expert Witness Advocacy (3015) This one-week immersion course provides students a unique opportunity to interact with professional scientists and expert witnesses as they develop and improve their advocacy skills. The course is run in conjunction with the Expert Witness Training Academy (EWTA), which provides hands-on training to researchers, professors, graduate students, and other climate scientists from leading universities and advocacy organizations from across the country. Students work directly with EWTA participants in simulated depositions, oral arguments, direct and cross-examinations of expert witnesses, arbitrations, legislative hearings, Daubert hearings, and jury trials. Grading: Pass/Fail Credits: 3 Offered: Summer Categories: Experiential Externship - Civil Rights Litigation and Policy (9043) This course is designed to provide students the opportunity to observe, participate in, analyze, gain insight into the functions of, and reflect upon the work of lawyers practicing and promoting civil rights through litigation and policy work. Field placements will include law firms and non-profit advocacy organizations. In their field placements, students will observe and participate in activities specific to the field placement, which could include litigation, legal research, legislation, policy analysis and promotion, and other related work. In addition to doing fieldwork, students will attend a seminar on a regular basis during the semester. Students will bring their experience into the classroom for detailed analysis of the lawyers' work, function of the different placement organizations, and the role of the various lawyers with whom they work. Students will make brief, guided presentations on their work and observations. Students will also meet individually with course faculty during the semester. Students enrolled in the course will complete a placement preference form and will be matched to an appropriate placement site by course faculty. Students may also find their own placements and may register for the class after receiving permission from course faculty and the Externship Director. Grading: Pass/Fail Credits: 3 Offered: Spring Categories: Experiential Externship: Administrative Law (8002) Students will work closely with Administrative Law Judges at the Minnesota Office of Administrative Hearings in St. Paul to gain an understanding of the trial-type contested cases and rulemaking hearings. The class will cover the responsibilities of ALJs under the Minnesota Administrative Procedure Act and consider how due process principles apply to the enforcement and policy-making roles of state agencies. Students will observe contested case hearings and a rule hearing (if available), draft contested case decisions for an ALJ, and write four short externship reflection papers. Grading: Pass/Fail. Credits: 1 Offered: Fall/Spring Categories: Experiential Subject Areas: Administrative and Legislative Process Externship: Alternative Dispute Resolution (3045) The ADR Externship gives students the opportunity to observe and participate in the work of lawyers who act as problem solvers with nonprofit community mediation programs. Community mediation programs assign trained volunteer mediators from local communities to facilitate for individuals and groups to resolve differences. Placements are available in MN Community Dispute Resolution Programs as defined in Minn. Stat. §494. After enrolling, students will be asked about their interests and availability for placement with a Center, and they may also need to interview with potential placement sites. Students will have opportunities to learn about community mediation, observe mediations and provide valuable support for the Centers. Having taken a Civil or Family Mediation Skills course is a prerequisite. Students also may create their own mediation externship in consultation with MHSL Career and Professional Development office and the professor to participate in this course. Grading: Pass/Fail Credits: Variable Offered: Fall/Spring Categories: Experiential Subject Areas: Dispute Resolution Externship: Court of Appeals (8155) To be waitlisted for this course, student must have at least a 3.5 GPA, participation in law review or with any student journal is preferred. Eligible students cannot be working or volunteering for any county attorney’s office, public defender’s office, or any private law firm. Students intern with judges of the Minnesota Court of Appeals and participate in a variety of court and clerking activities and attend appellate arguments. Students are assigned to individual judges by the Chief Judge. Students must have regular daytime hours available in order to fulfill the time requirements. The Court of Appeals accepts one student. Grading: Pass/fail Credits: variable Offered: Spring/Summer Categories: Experiential Externship: Criminal Justice - Defense (8555) The participating students will be placed with Public Defender's Offices in the Metro Area. Because there will be court appearances required, the students must be available during the day and must be eligible to be certified as student attorneys under the Minnesota Student Practice Rules at the start of the externship. The State Public Defender has implemented a policy that does not allow law clerks/student attorneys (whether volunteer, paid, or externs) to be placed with our offices if they are also working for a prosecutor’s office during the same time frame. In addition to their onsite placements, the students will be required to attend a two hour seminar discussion. Grading: Pass/Fail Credits: 3 Offered: Fall/Spring/Summer Categories: Experiential Subject Areas: Criminal Law Externship: Criminal Justice - Prosecution (7110) This externship involves students in numerous courtroom appearances on behalf of the prosecution in all phases of the misdemeanor case. Students prosecute misdemeanor cases and attend skills exercise classes. Each student, under the direct supervision of a practicing city attorney, observes and conducts the charging of cases, arraignments, pretrial conferences, court trials and, where possible, a jury trial. Classroom discussions consider both the prosecution and defense roles and focus on special areas of importance to the misdemeanor practitioner, with an emphasis on the DWI and Implied Consent Laws. Grading: Pass/Fail Credits: variable Offered: Fall/Spring/Summer Categories: Experiential Subject Areas: Criminal Law Externship: District Court (8805) Students intern with state court judges, magistrates or referees (occasionally with a federal judge). Students participate in a variety of clerking activities, attend chamber discussion, and observe trials and hearings. Class meetings will be held to discuss topics related to judicial ethics and the judicial process. Students must have regular daytime hours available in order to fulfill time requirements for the course. Grading: Pass/fail Credits: variable Offered: Fall/Spring/Summer Categories: Experiential Subject Areas: Criminal Law Externship: Family Law (4040) Students intern with family law practitioners engaged in various professional roles such as mediator, collaborative lawyer, guardian ad litem and traditional practitioner in private and public settings. During the semester, externs will meet regularly as a group with the faculty supervisor. These two hour meetings will encourage critical analysis and reflection. Students may be placed in existing externships or may locate and propose their own placement. Grading: Pass/Fail Credits: variable Offered: Fall/Spring Categories: Experiential Subject Areas: Child and Family Law Externship: Federal Judicial (4901) Students are placed in externships with federal judges, assisting the judge in a variety of chambers activities. The externship may be taken for either 2, 3 or 4 credits (requiring either 90, 135 and 180 work hours during the semester). The number of credits will depend in part on the preferences of participating judges. In addition, students meet regularly with the course professor and complete written and other assignments. Students must apply to be admitted to the program. Applications will be reviewed by members of the Judicial Clerkship Committee and, in some cases, by participating judges. Preference will be given to students who (1) will be third-year full-time and fourth-year part-time students, (2) are in the top 15% of their class and (3) have significant writing experience (for example Law Review, Law Journal or Moot Court). To apply, send an email with your resume, transcript and carefully-written short essay (400 words or less) that explains why you want to participate in the program, to Tina Scaramuzzo at tina.scaramuzzo@mitchellhamline.edu. Please indicate in the email how many credits you are interested in earning for this experience. Applications will be reviewed by members of the Judicial Clerkship Committee. You will be notified if you have received an externship prior to registration. Grading: Pass/Fail Credits: variable Offered: Fall/Spring Categories: Experiential Externship: Government Agency (4356) The course is designed to provide students the opportunity to observe, participate in, analyze, gain insight into the functions of and reflect upon the work of a government agency lawyer. In their field placements, students will observe and participate in activities specific to the field placement, which can include transactions, appeals, rulemaking, legislation, policy and employment and labor issues. In addition to doing fieldwork, students attend a seminar on a regular basis during the semester. Students will bring their experience into the classroom for detailed analysis of the lawyers' work, function of the different agencies, the government decision making process, and the role of the government lawyer. Students interested in the class will be directed to apply for the federal, state agency and local government agency externships that have been established by the Externship Director. Students may also find their own placements and may register for the course after receiving permission from the instructor. To apply, students need to contact the faculty. Grading: Pass/Fail. Credits: Variable Offered: e/o Fall Categories: Experiential Subject Areas: Government Practice Externship: Health Law (3036) This course focuses on Externships in health law, healthcare compliance, and health policy. Contact the professor to explore Externships in hospitals, insurance companies, device makers, state agencies, federal agencies, and professional associations. In addition to the Field Placement work (45 hours per credit), students must attend a multually- and periodically-scheduled seminar to discuss their externship experiences as well as legal, ethical, and professional issues raised by the professor. In between class sessions, students must complete written exercises assigned by the professor. Grading: Pass/Fail Credits: Variable Offered: Fall/Spring Categories: Experiential Subject Areas: Health Law Externship: Judicial (4900) A student enrolled in an independent judicial externship is responsible for his or her own learning by working under the guidance of the judge and faculty supervisor. To gain credit, students need to follow the program criteria, including completing an Education Agreement. The Agreement must contain the student's learning goals and a description of field activities. Grading: Pass/Fail Credits: variable Offered: Fall/Spring/Summer Categories: Experiential Externship: Law and Business (8001) This course is designed to provide students with the opportunity to observe, participate in, analyze, and reflect upon the work of a business lawyer or business professional. Students perform fieldwork under the supervision of a lawyer in a company or law firm setting. The professor has established relationships with some companies and law firms that regularly provide placements, but students are encouraged to seek placements of interest to them. Fieldwork supervision must be provided by an attorney, and students receiving credit for the externship may not be paid for their work. In addition to doing fieldwork, students meet as a group with the professor on a regular basis during the semester. Class sessions cover topics relating to the work of a business lawyer or business professional. Students interested in registering for the course must complete a placement preference form and obtain the professor's approval for registration. Students may not drop this course after being assigned an externship placement. Grading: Pass/Fail Credits: 4 Offered: Fall/Spring/Summer Categories: Experiential Subject Areas: Business and Commercial Externship: Veterans Law (4357) The course is designed to provide students with the opportunity to observe, participate in, represent, and reflect upon the work of attorneys whose practice includes representation of veterans. Students will be introduced to an interdisciplinary approach to representing veteran clients who need assistance on legal matters such as family, criminal, and housing law. Students will perform pro bono representation of veterans under the supervision of experienced attorneys. In addition to doing field work, students will attend seven class sessions and meet individually with the professors a few times during the semester. Class sessions will cover topics relating to legal issues specific to veterans. This is open to all students, both non-veterans and veterans. Grading: Pass/Fail. Credits: 2 Offered: Fall/Spring Categories: Experiential Family Mediation (8241) Family mediation offers divorcing couples a cooperative and constructive way to resolve differences and plan for the future. Minnesota now requires that mediation be considered early in the dissolution process. The interactive course provides students with the opportunity to become qualified family neutrals under Supreme Court Rule 114. Students study conflict resolution and emotional issues surrounding divorce as well as learning specific techniques for mediating custody and property disputes. Special attention is paid to identifying families experiencing domestic violence. A variety of teaching methods are used, including demonstrations, role play, and discussion. Students cannot earn credit in both 8241 Family Mediation and 3040 Mediation. Grading: Letter-graded. Credits: 3 Offered: Categories: Experiential Subject Areas: Child and Family Law Health Care Compliance Skills (3022) This course is designed to expose students to key legal and operational concepts in the health care compliance field. Students use knowledge gained in prior mandatory coursework and participate in simulation-based projects that require them to perform audits, investigations, and reporting activities to ensure compliance with applicable federal and state laws. The course also includes a mentoring component that builds on the theory of experiential learning whereby students are paired with industry professionals effectively linking Mitchell Hamline’s strong academic/classroom environment with the real world of health care compliance. Prerequisites: Health Care Compliance Institute Grading: Letter graded Credits: 3 Offered: Spring Categories: Experiential Subject Areas: Health Law Independent Externship (4355) Independent Externship is a for-credit course, in which the student takes responsibility for much of his or her own learning by working in a field placement site under the guidance of a field supervisor (must have a J.D.) and faculty supervisor. Placement sites can be for profit or nonprofit entities, such as law firms, corporations, county and state offices and nonprofit agencies. To gain credit, students need to follow the program criteria, including completing an Education Agreement. The Agreement must contain the student's learning goals and a description of field activities. For more information and for the Education Agreement Form, click here. Grading: Pass/Fail. Credits: variable Offered: Fall/Spring/Summer Categories: Experiential Independent Residency (3072) The Semester in Practice Program provides students an opportunity to spend a semester doing legal work, for 30-40 hours a week, while fully immersed in a law office, government agency, legal department, or other law-related setting. In the field work component of the program, students pursue self-designed learning goals at an approved site under the supervision of onsite attorney mentors. In an accompanying academic component, working in collaboration with a Mitchell Hamline faculty member, students reflect on their field work experiences and relate them to larger legal, policy, and practice issues. Grading: Pass/Fail Credits: Variable Offered: Fall/Spring/Summer Categories: Experiential Intellectual Asset Management (5400) This course is designed to immerse students in the processes involved in managing an intellectual asset portfolio. Basic knowledge of patents, trademarks, copyright and trade secret will be assumed. The class will operate as a real world microcosm with each student assigned a fictional company to act as CHIEF IP COUNSEL managing an intellectual asset portfolio. Students will participate through in depth reading assignment, classroom activities/assignments, lecture and guest speakers. Grading: Letter graded. Credits: 3 Offered: e/o Spring Categories: Experiential Subject Areas: Intellectual Property IP - Appellate Practice (3600) This course is a skills-development class directed at teaching the specialized legal writing and oral advocacy skills needed to bring appeals of intellectual property disputes before the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. Through a combination of weekly written assignments, preparation of a written appellate brief, and delivery of an oral argument, students will learn the advocacy skills needed to successfully appeal a patent, trademark or copyright dispute to the CAFC, which has exclusive jurisdiction over such appeals. Students who complete IP Appellate Practice take Advocacy for two credits. Grading: Letter graded. Credits: 3 Offered: Spring Categories: Experiential Subject Areas: Intellectual Property Mediation (3040) Through discussion, simulations, and role-play, this course focuses on the structure and goals of the mediation process and the skills and techniques mediators use to aid parties in overcoming barriers to dispute resolution. The course also examines the underlying negotiation orientations and strategies that mediators may confront and employ, the roles of attorneys and clients, dealing with difficult people and power imbalances, cultural considerations, and ethical issues for lawyers and mediators. In addition, special attention is devoted to the art of successful representation of clients in mediation. Students cannot earn credit in both 8241 Family Mediation and 3040 Mediation. Grading: Letter graded Credits: 3 Offered: Summer/J-Term Categories: Experiential Subject Areas: Dispute Resolution Negotiation (4575) This course will focus on developing skills through simulated negotiations, case studies, exercises and class discussion, with readings that emphasize practical application. The goals of the negotiation course include the following: 1) providing students with hands-on experience and practice in negotiating deals and resolving disputes; 2) sharing with students proven models and frameworks for effective negotiations; 3) exposing students to a variety of negotiation contexts and approaches; 4) acquainting students with the ethical and legal issues surrounding negotiation practice and implementation; and 5) giving students a broader perspective on a lawyer's role beyond the adversarial method to resolving conflict. Grading: Letter graded. Credits: 3 Offered: Fall/Spring Categories: Experiential Subject Areas: Dispute Resolution Pretrial Litigation (5200) Explores the major facets of pretrial litigation. Students study litigation planning, pleadings, discovery, motion practice, and related elements. Students participate in simulated and written exercises involving these skills which are critiqued by experienced practitioners. Prerequisite: Civil Dispute Resolution or Civil Procedure. Grading: Letter-graded Credits: 3 Offered: Fall/Spring Categories: Experiential Residency - Criminal Law Field Placement (9009) Only offered in the spring, the Criminal Law Residency Program gives students in their final year of law school an opportunity for intensive practical training in the field. The 2-credit weekly seminar focusing on development of professional judgment as well as doctrine and skills related to the Residency. Students are placed in prosecutor's and public defender's offices, and private law firms and work 3-5 days each week. In addition to the 2-credit seminar, students receive between 8 and 13 credits for work at the Residency Placement. Students must apply and be accepted into the program before being matched with a Residency Placement. Due to the intensity of the workload, applicants should be in their final year of law school and have a demonstrated interest and prior course work in the substantive area of criminal law. Grading: Pass/Fail Credits: Variable Offered: Spring Categories: Experiential Subject Areas: Criminal Law Residency - Family Law Field Placement (9015) Only offered in the spring, the Family Law Residency Program gives students in their final year of law school an opportunity for intensive practical training in the field. The 2-credit weekly seminar focuses on development of professional judgment as well as doctrine and skills related to the Residency. Students are placed in various family law settings for 3-5 days a week, including legal aid offices, private firms, and prosecutor's offices. In addition to the 2-credit seminar, students receive between 8 and 13 credits for work at the Residency Placement. Students must apply and be accepted into the program before being matched with a Residency Placement. Due to the intensity of the workload, applicants should be in their final year of law school and have a demonstrated interest and prior course work in the substantive area of family law. Grading: Pass/Fail Credits: Variable Offered: Categories: Experiential Subject Areas: Child and Family Law Residency - Health Law Field Placement (3037) Only offered in the spring, the Health Law Residency Program gives students in their final year of law school an opportunity for intensive practical training in the field. The 2-credit weekly seminar focuses on development of professional judgment as well as doctrine and skills related to the Residency. In addition to the 2-credit seminar, students receive between 8 and 13 credits for work at the Residency Placement. Students must apply and be accepted into the program before being matched with a Residency Placement. Due to the intensity of the workload, applicants should be in their final year of law school and have a demonstrated interest and prior course work in the substantive area of health law. Grading: Pass/Fail Credits: Variable Offered: Spring Categories: Experiential Subject Areas: Health Law Residency - Solo Practice Incubator (3081) Only offered in the spring, the Solo Practice Residency Program offers a small group of students in their final year of law school an opportunity for intensive practical training in the field so that they can open their own law practices after passing the bar. Students work 3-5 days each week (8-13 credits) in the offices of a legal nonprofit or solo practitioner offering services in areas of great need: criminal expungement, elder law, family law, housing law, immigration law, occupational licensing law, or small business law. Students learn intake, means-testing, client selection, client communications, unbundled services, use of technology, efficient workflow, law office management, development and use of forms, billing, and other skills related to the specific practice area of the placement. In addition to the placement, students attend a 2-credit weekly seminar focusing on development of professional judgment, business skills, and preparation for launching a solo practice. Students must apply and be accepted into the Solo Practice Residency before being matched with a placement and are welcome to propose their own placements subject to the instructor's approval. Due to the intensity of the workload and the long-term nature of the commitment, applicants should be in their final year of law school and demonstrate an interest in starting a solo practice after graduation. Grading: Pass/Fail Credits: Variable Offered: Spring Categories: Experiential Transactions and Settlements (9014) This skills course teaches negotiation, drafting, and advocacy in both the transactional and litigation contexts. The focus is on how lawyers represent clients in negotiating and drafting contracts and settlement agreements. The course also covers ethical issues arising in lawyering. Examples are drawn from a variety of contexts, including business, consumer rights, public affairs, intellectual property, real estate, and litigation, and applied through simulations, short case studies, exercises, and class discussion. Grading: Letter-graded. Students are graded on performance in simulations (e.g., negotiation) and on written work (e.g., contract drafting). Students who do not demonstrate "proficiency" in a skill can redo the exercise or assignment to demonstrate proficiency. Credits: 3 Offered: Categories: Experiential Subject Areas: Business and Commercial, Employment Law
