Many courses throughout the curriculum make extensive use of simulated lawyering activities as an instructional device. For example, a number of first-year and upper-level courses contain extensive lawyering simulation modules. In these modules, students are placed in the role of lawyers representing a client and must engage in typical lawyering activities, such as interviewing, counseling, negotiating, and drafting. Modules may extend over several weeks and involve work in and out of class.
In a recent year, first-year students in Contracts negotiated and drafted a sales contract; first-year students in Civil Procedure made a motion argument; students in Business Organizations drafted a shareholders` agreement and other documents; students in Family Law drafted a prenuptial agreement and a divorce settlement and drafted a statute; and students in Introduction to Federal Income Taxation drafted an opinion letter. In each case, students did all the lawyer`s work necessary to the assignments and received individual feedback on their projects. Through their work in the modules, students learn or review areas of substantive law, receive an introduction to lawyering skills, and integrate different aspects of their legal education, just as lawyers do.
