This integrative course is the final course in the Master of Science in Leadership. All other required coursework must have been completed prior to receiving approval to register for this course. The focus of the course is on defining and researching a leadership issue or problem. The applied research provides the opportunity to utilize strategy, research skills, analytical tools and models, as well as decision sciences with a culminating research project that can be of strategic benefit to the student and/or a current organization. After documenting the above, students will discuss and defend their project orally.

Pretrial Advocacy is a 2-L simulation course. Each of the two sections is a law firm. Each firm has an experienced litigator/professor in the role of "senior partner," and the 2L scholars are "junior associates." There are also two 3L scholars in each firm who serve as "senior associates". Actors play the roles of the parties and various witnesses. Working both in small groups and alone, the junior associates: interview clients and witnesses; prepare or answer a complaint; prepare and answer interrogatories; take and defend a deposition with an actual court reporter who takes it in "real time" and provides a transcript; prepare a motion or an objection to a motion for summary judgment which is then argued before a real judge in the judge's courtroom; and prepare a final pretrial statement for submission to the court. Throughout the semester, the "junior associates" also submit time sheets to their "senior partners." "Junior associates" receive constructive feedback from their "senior partners," "senior associates," and each other, as well as from court reporters, judges, attorneys, standardized clients and witnesses. They also observe and critique their taped deposition and oral argument performances. 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. This course cannot be taken for an S/U grade.

In this course, students acquire a basic understanding of the numerous career paths available to lawyers, explore basic concepts of legal professionalism, understand the fundamentals of the business of law, practice the ?soft skills? necessary for effective lawyering, and develop an individual career development strategy for exploring their unique professional interests throughout the next three years. During classes, students meet practitioners from a variety of practice areas. The attorneys address various business and professional issues they handle on a daily basis so that students can begin to discern not only the legal and business issues in different legal practices, but also the professional standards that attorneys will expect of them in the workplace. During a portion of each class, students apply the information they learned from the attorneys to a practical aspect of their own professional development. Students also research and establish a mentoring relationship with a practitioner, attend networking events, participate in community service projects, attend additional events, meetings, and conferences and practice other ?soft skills? as requirements of the course. This class meets for two hours every other week. Students are expected to complete several specific written assignments. Grading is S/U and is based on attendance, participation and satisfactory completion of all projects and written assignments. This is a required 1L course.

Administrative law is the law of how government agencies operate. Topics covered include the mechanisms through which agencies act, the constitutional constraints on their actions, and the ways in which the executive, legislative, and judicial branches can exercise oversight and control over those actions. By the end of this course, students should be prepared to identify and analyze the stages of administrative rulemaking and adjudications; apply constitutional doctrines that constrain agencies such as due process, nondelegation, and separation of powers; and apply statutory and constitutional doctrines governing administrative actions and judicial review of those actions. This course cannot be taken for an S/U grade.