Ext Sem:Legal Practices:Lwyring in the 21st Century (LAW-769-004)
Greczek/Acosta
Meets: 06:00 PM - 07:50 PM (T) - Room 351
Enrolled: 12 / Limit: 15
Notices
If you participate in a 3-credit seminar, you will be required to attend a small group supervision meeting every other week in addition to the seminar. Unless noted below, the times of the small group meetings will be determined by the professor and students. Field placement registration/request for approval Registering for your field placement credits is a separate process. After you register for a seminar, go to www.wcl.american.edu/externship to submit a Request for Approval. Have your field placement information handy (supervisor contact info., etc.). This will generate the forms you need your field supervisor to sign, the Externship Office to sign, and submit to the Registrar. You are only registered for your field credits once you submit the completed, signed forms to the Registrar.
Description
This seminar will explore topics including: the meaning of "public interest" in a multifaceted society; defining the "client" and exploring the lawyer-client relationship in public interest and government settings and how that compares to the private practice setting; effective lawyering, including advocacy and other skills; images and reality of lawyers' roles; career development; and ethics as they relate to government and public interest lawyering. Students also will explore the challenges to the lawyering process posed by politics, the press, and government bureaucracy and alternatives to litigation to achieve client goals. Students will keep a weekly journal of their externship experience, write a reflective paper and prepare and present a group presentation. Course is open to all students in all externship field placements.
Textbooks and Other Materials
The textbook information on this page was provided by the instructor. Students should use this information when considering purchases from the AU Campus Store or other vendors. Students may check to determine if books are currently available for purchase online.
Readings will be on reserve in the library. J.P. Ogilvy et al. Learning from Practice (West, 1998). John Grisham's The Street Lawyer (Doubleday, 1998).
First Class Readings
1st Reading Assigment August 23 Introduction to Course - Getting the Most Out of Your Externship Ogilvy, Chapter 2, "Setting Goals for the Externship," pp. 11-23 Ogilvy, Chapter 3, "Learning from Supervision," pp. 29-48 Ogilvy, Chapter 6, "Journals," pp. 97-112 1st Writing Assigment FORMAL JOURNAL ENTRY Writing Assignment Due Friday, August 26 For your writing assignment, prepare your "learning agenda" or goals memorandum for the semester. Do some thinking about what you want from your externship and set several goals. Your discussion of goals will be more meaningful if you are specific (e.g., not "I want real-world experience," but what real world experience is important to you.) Each goal should be broken down into subparts (as we will discuss in class), and you should think of several activities to schedule over the semester that you believe would help you achieve your goals. Once you begin your externship, you should discuss your goals memo/learning agenda with your field supervisor. We will expect you to let us know how that discussion went in one of your early journal entries.
Syllabus
Use your MyAU username and password to access the syllabus in the following format(s):
Microsoft Word (DOC)