Trial Advocacy is a 2-L simulation course. Using the interrogatories and deposition transcripts they obtained in Pretrial Advocacy, students try their hand at controlling the witnesses in the trial setting. They also participate in a simulated criminal trial from beginning to end, complete with a student jury that deliberates. Students are taped so that they can watch and reflect upon their performance, keeping weekly logs of their progress. They receive feedback from peers, professors, lawyers, judges, jurors and witnesses. At the end of the course, each scholar prepares a reflective paper in which, using the MacCrate skills and values as a guide, the student identifies those skills and values that were addressed in the course, reflects upon the student's own perceived strengths and weaknesses, and discusses how the student plans to cultivate strengths and improve weaknesses. Eligibility: Required DWS course. Course enrollment is limited to 12 students. Course format: skills training. Grading: other (see syllabus), 100%. This course cannot be taken for an S/U grade.

The Miniseries is a number of short course modules which expose 2-L students to numerous areas of practice, including family law, conflicts of law, secured transactions and negotiable instruments. Students are also exposed to client counseling skills which will be further developed in the Capstone during the 3-L year. The family law section includes simulation involving typical family law problems and the completion of documents required for an uncontested divorce. Students also receive training to become qualified as DOVE (Domestic Violence Emergency) attorneys so they can participate in DOVE's North Country Project providing telephone advice as part of their experience. Conflicts of law, secured transactions and negotiable interests are presented primarily in a lecture format. Eligibility: Required DWS course. Course format: simulation. Grading: other (see syllabus), 100%.

This course primarily focuses upon the client/lawyer relationship and developing the listening, analytical and counseling skills necessary to be a competent lawyer; it also provides exposure to the law office management/business side of law practice. In this course, as in the real world, students are assigned roles in various given factual situations that involve multiple areas of substantive law, without being first guided as to what issues are relevant. Clients are then interviewed, necessary research is performed, and advice is given. Students observe and provide feedback to each other using the same assessment forms that standardized clients will later use. This familiarizes the students with what is later being tested and makes them more conscious of the skills necessary to interview a client successfully. Twice during the semester, students interview trained standardized clients who use a standardized fact pattern. The standardized clients provide written and oral assessments of student interviewing skills based upon a standardized form. A satisfactory competency score for at least one of the interviews is required as a component of the DWS alternative bar exam. Anyone not receiving a satisfactory score will have an opportunity to conduct another interview after receiving feedback. Eligibility: Required DWS course. Course format: lecture. Grading: other (see syllabus), 100%. This course cannot be taken for an S/U grade.

This introductory Civil Procedure course considers the issues that litigants and lawyers face in civil lawsuits filed in American federal courts. The course explores the current state of American civil litigation,the vexing issue of access to justice, the remedies a federal court may provide,the various stages of a federal civil lawsuit(including discovery),federal appeals, adjudicatory jurisdiction, subject-matter jurisdiction, the role of state law in federal courts, and joinder of parties and claims.