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 Civil Dispute Resolution (1003) Required. Provides an introduction to the civil justice system in the United States and the various methods of resolving disputes. Topics include: the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, pleading, adjudication by motion, litigation and non-litigation remedies, personal and subject matter jurisdiction, choice of law between judge and jury, post-trial proceedings, judicial review, preclusive effects of judgments, and simple and complex joinder mechanisms. Grading: Letter graded Credits: 4 Offered: Fall Categories: Bar Courses, Required Subject Areas: Academic Support and Bar Preparation, Civil Litigation Constitutional Liberties (2421) Teaches advanced legal reasoning in the context of the federal constitutional limitations on the national and state governments including substantive due process, freedom of expression, freedom of religion, and equal protection. Grading: Letter graded Credits: 3 Offered: Spring Categories: Bar Courses, Required Subject Areas: Academic Support and Bar Preparation, Constitutional Law and Civil Rights Constitutional Powers: Advanced Legal Reasoning (2410) Covers powers of national government including judicial review and limitations on judicial power, separation of powers, Congress' commerce power, taxing and spending power, and power to enforce civil rights; reserved power of states to regulate and tax commerce; standing of parties and ripeness of disputes. Grading: Letter graded Credits: Variable Offered: Fall Categories: Bar Courses, Required Subject Areas: Academic Support and Bar Preparation, Constitutional Law and Civil Rights Contracts: Transactional Law (1006) Required. Offers an introduction in how to approach the law from a transactional perspective. Covers the general scope of the legal protection accorded promises. Topics include mutual assent, consideration, the effect of changed or unforeseen circumstances, conditions, courses of action open to aggrieved party upon other party's default, the statute of frauds, parol evidence rule, promissory and equitable estoppel, nature of remedies awarded in the event of a breach (expectancy, reliance and restitution, liquidated damages, and specific performance). Grading: Letter graded Credits: 4 Offered: Spring Categories: Bar Courses, Required Subject Areas: Academic Support and Bar Preparation, Business and Commercial Criminal Law: Statutory Interpretation (1005) This course examines the skill of statutory interpretation in the context of the legal and doctrinal underpinnings of the substantive criminal law. The course will address: the elements of crimes against persons and property, the theories justifying punishment, the principles of criminal responsibility, and the defenses to criminal liability. The course will also address the practical and ethical application of these principles. Grading: Letter graded Credits: 3 Offered: Fall Categories: Bar Courses, Required Subject Areas: Academic Support and Bar Preparation, Criminal Law Legal Analysis, Research, and Communication (LARC) I (1415) Mitchell Hamline’s required first-year Legal Analysis, Research, and Communication (LARC) courses teach skills foundational to understanding the law and representing clients effectively and responsibly. In LARC I, taken during the first semester, students learn to identify legal issues in a fact pattern, perform legal research, analyze statutes and cases, predict the probable outcome of a legal dispute, and communicate their legal analysis orally and in writing. Faculty provide frequent oral and written feedback and multiple opportunities for individual and team conferences. Grading: Letter graded Credits: 3 Offered: Fall Categories: Required Legal Analysis, Research, and Communication (LARC) II (1416) Mitchell Hamline’s required first-year Legal Analysis, Research, and Communication (LARC) courses teach skills foundational to understanding the law and representing clients effectively and responsibly. In LARC II, taken during the second semester, students refine their research skills, learn the fundamentals of oral and written advocacy, and deepen their ability to communicate with diverse audiences. Faculty provide frequent oral and written feedback and multiple opportunities for individual and team conferences. Grading: Letter graded Credits: 3 Offered: Spring Categories: Required Professional Responsibility (3200) Required. Covers the legal profession and the ethical responsibilities of lawyers as they engage in the practice of law. Discussion focuses on situations arising in practice that present important problems of professional conduct, including the concept of service and responsibility that is one of the distinctive characteristics of the legal profession, and the development in the bar of educational and ethical standards. Grading: Letter graded. Credits: 3 Offered: Fall/Spring Categories: Bar Courses, Required Subject Areas: Academic Support and Bar Preparation Property: Jurisprudential and Comparative Analysis (1651) Examines basic concepts relating to ownership and possession of private property, in part through a comparative perspective. Addresses acquisition of property by find, adverse possession, and gift. Introduces possessory estates and future interests, concurrent ownership and marital interests, and the law of landlord and tenant. Grading: Letter graded Credits: 4 Offered: Spring Categories: Bar Courses, Required Subject Areas: Public Interest Law, Real Estate Law, Academic Support and Bar Preparation Torts: The Common Law Process (1004) Required. Encompasses common law, intentional torts, defenses and privileges, and negligence. Grading: Letter graded Credits: 4 Offered: Fall Categories: Bar Courses, Required Subject Areas: Torts, Academic Support and Bar Preparation
