Courses

The courses below will satisfy the Practical Skills Requirement.

606 - Advanced Legal Research (2 hours)
This course will provide students with an in-depth examination of the legal and law-related research sources available through print, online databases, and the Internet that they will need in order to make the transition from law school to law practice. Students will develop competency in developing cost-effective and efficient research strategies.

611 - Advanced Trial Practice (3 hours)
This course covers several subject areas not covered in depth in the basic trial practice course: voir dire, witness preparation, expert witness examination, and case planning. Students will perform exercises in each of these areas. They will try an advanced civil case for their final exam. The use of PowerPoint is required for the trial. Prerequisites: Evidence and Trial Practice.

649 - Analytical Methods for Lawyers (2 hours)
This course introduces methods of analysis drawn from disciplines such as economics, game theory, accounting, finance and statistics. The concepts and techniques covered here will enable lawyers to analyze legal problems, and communicate with clients, with a richer vocabulary and a broader range of tools. The course will be team-taught, with an emphasis on problems and regular in-class assignments. Offered on a periodic basis.

548 - Appellate Advocacy Clinic (3 hours)
An advanced appellate advocacy seminar involving representation of clients in federal and state appellate tribunals, including representation pursuant to Local Rule 46 of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Ciruit. This course is open only to third-year students. Prerequisite: Appellate Advocacy

541 - Business Drafting (2 hours)
This course focuses on legal drafting in the business setting. Students will be required to draft and evaluate typical documents including corporate documents, loan and purchase contracts, partnership agreements, and employment agreements. This course satisfies the Legal Research and Writing III requirement.

628 - Business Planning (2 hours)
Examination of selected legal problems relating to some of the following topics: choice of business entity, forming a partnership, forming a corporation, corporate restructuring transactions (shifting ownership interests among shareholders), purchase and sale of a business. Prerequisite: Business Organizations.

563 - Children and Domestic Violence (2 hours)
This seminar focuses on children whose custody is in issue in homes where there is domestic violence. The course includes a field work component, in which students act as guardians ad litem for children whose custodian is a party to a civil domestic violence case. In the seminar, the students consider the effects of domestic violence on the parents and children; the legal and ethical issues surrounding representing children, in general and in domestic violence proceedings in particular; and the interplay of proceedings in family, domestic violence, and juvenile courts. In the field work, students work with a staff lawyer at the Children’s Law Center of Central Carolina (CLC) on cases that have been referred from the district courts of the 21st Judicial District of North Carolina to the CLC. Students interview the child, parents, teachers, and others, gathering documentary information, which they present in a report to the court on the issue of custody. Students spend an average of 4 to 5 hours a week in their field work.

520 - Children’s Law Externship (1 hour)
Students who are enrolled in or who have completed the seminar in Children and Domestic Violence may enroll in the Children’s Law Externship. In this one-hour credit course, students work under the supervision of a staff lawyer at the Children’s Law Center of Central Carolina(CLC). Students spend an average of 4 to 5 hours a week in field work representing children in domestic violence cases and in high conflict custody cases. The cases for the internship have been referred from the district courts of the 21st Judicial District of North Carolina to the CLC. In the domestic violence cases, students serve as guardians ad litem as they represent the best interests of the child or children whose custodian is a party in a civil domestic violence protective proceeding. In the custody cases, students serve either as guardians ad litem or as lawyers. In either kind of case, the work may involve interviewing the child, parents, teachers, and other collateral contacts, gathering documentary information, and presenting reports and recommendations to the court based on these investigations. Students who are enrolled in both Children and Domestic Violence and the Children’s Law Externship spend 8 to 10 hours per week in field work in the 2 courses.

601 - Community Law & Business Clinic (4 hours)
The work of this clinic is primarily transactional. Students will assist clients at various stages in the business development process, with an emphasis on business, housing, and institutional support in economically disadvantaged segments of the community.

565 - Dispute Resolution (3 hours)
A study of traditional and alternative methods of resolving disputes; use of techniques such as arbitration and mediation will be studied. Negotiation theory and tactics will also be explored. Students who have taken Negotiation or Mediation in the past or who are currently enrolled in or who plan to take Negotiation or Mediation may not register for Dispute Resolution.

604 - Elder Law Clinic (4 hours)
A legal clinic operated by the School of Law, and located at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center. Students work under the supervision of a managing attorney. They handle legal problems for elderly clients, conduct interviews, draft pleadings and wills, and appear in court and in administrative proceedings. Students make community presentations on laws affecting older adults. A weekly classroom session includes topics such as estate planning for the small estate, Medicare/Medicaid, interviewing skills, and areas of law affecting older adults.

622 - Innocence and Justice Clinic (4 hours)*
In this interdisciplinary course, students will examine the legal, scientific, cultural and psychological causes of wrongful convictions. They will apply this knowledge to actual cases by reviewing and investigating claims of actual innocence by inmates and, where appropriate, pursuing legal avenues for exoneration and release from prison. Students will meet for two hours per week to examine and complete field work assignments. Prerequisite: Criminal Procedure.
* This course may be offered for 3 hours during some years.

609 - Law Practice Management (3 hours)
A practical study of the work of the lawyer in the practice, the management of a modern law office, the attorney-client relationship, and the drafting of legal instruments.

603 - Litigation Clinic (4 hours)
A vigorous concurrent program of academic instruction and skills training designed to more fully qualify the student to practice law. Every student participates in both the civil and criminal law elements. Direct field instruction in the civil and criminal practice is provided by practicing attorneys. The classroom component teaches the lawyering skills of communication, interviewing, counseling, discovery, negotiation, and advocacy. All practice is in accord with North Carolina's Student Practice Rule. Prerequisites: Civil Procedure, Evidence, and Trial Practice. Professional Responsibility and Criminal Procedure are recommended.

553 - Litigation Drafting (2 hours)
Legal drafting in the litigation setting. Students will be required to draft and evaluate typical litigation documents. This course satisfies the Legal Research and Writing III requirement. Students can take both Litigation Drafting and 570 Pre-trial Practice and Procedure.

645 - Mediation (3 hours)*
This course will address the theory, law, and practice of mediation as a dispute resolution technique. Students passing this course will earn A Certificate of Completion verifying that they have successfully completed 40-hours of superior Court Mediation Training. The North Carolina Dispute Resolution Commission has approved this course as satisfying Rule 8A of the Revised Rules Implementing Statewide Mediated Settlement Conferences relating to one of the requirements of Mediator certification." Students who have taken Dispute Resolution in the past or who are enrolled in or who plan to take the Dispute Resolution course may not register for Mediation.
* This course may be offered for 2 hours during some years.

600 - Negotiation (2 hours)
Students will learn about and practice negotiation skills. Students who have taken Dispute Resolution in the past or who are enrolled in or who plan to take the Dispute Resolution course may not register for Negotiation.

570 - Pre-Trial Practice and Procedure (3 hours)
An exploration of the procedural requirements involved in getting a civil case to trial. Frequent drafting assignments involving pleadings, discovery, and pre-trial motions required.

625 - Suing Government (2 hours)
This course deals with lawsuits aggainst federal, state and local governments, with special emphasis on Section 1983 suits and immunity doctrines. Course readings will draw extensively on actual case files and documents. This course fulfills the Practical Skills requirement.

610 - Trial Practice (3 hours)
A series of classes and simulations devoted to the study of trial techniques, followed by the preparation and trial of a moot case. Prerequisite: Evidence.