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Producing practice-ready attorneys
The UB Law School is reinventing the way it prepares students for practicing law. With its new Legal Skills Program that integrates innovative and practical legal skills immediately into the curriculum, graduates will be better equipped immediately after they graduate to file a brief, cross-examine a witness or make a special pleading.
As part of the new program, students are given a framework of courses and experiences that encompass critical skills for the professional field. Highlighted throughout the curriculum are legal research and writing, litigation and non-litigation skills, and professional development.
Charles Patrick Ewing, SUNY Distinguished Service Professor in the UB Law School, is overseeing the program as vice dean for legal skills.
Dean Makau Mutua says the Legal Skills Program is focusing on skills “critical to the education of a well-trained, analytically sound and thoughtful lawyer,” noting that Ewing is “widely respected by colleagues, peers around the country, judges and the bar. He will bring enormous talents to bear on the organizational and instructional excellence that we expect of the Legal Skills Program.”
Ewing notes that the idea behind the Legal Skills Program is to integrate and coordinate individual components within the school “so we have better control over them and they offer a better learning experience for the students. Right now, there is demand for lawyers coming out of law schools who are able to do things—do research, write, have some litigation skills, some appellate advocacy skills—right out of the gate. We’ve been doing all of this. It just hasn’t been pulled together, coordinated and integrated.”
“Research and Writing” teaches first-year students the basics of these vital skills, followed by advanced courses for upper-level students. Litigation Skills reviews the basics in trial technique and procedure. “Appellate Advocacy Skills” comprises appellate-style moot courts and writing-based competitions, along with courses designed to teach the basics of brief-writing and appellate oral advocacy. The “Non-Litigation Skills” component deals with courses in negotiation, alternative dispute resolution, mediation and counseling because not all law is about litigation. “Professional Development” introduces students to the opportunities for growth in the profession and support from fellow law professionals.
According to Ewing, the most immediate change to the program is that there are some new faces among the judges and attorneys teaching the courses, including several new research-and-writing instructors. In addition, students are being offered more challenging case problems and a set of demonstrations by master trial lawyers to supplement classroom learning.
“A legal skills program is crucial to the success of any law school,” says Ewing. “The business of law is requiring more skills from young lawyers, and the energy that we are putting into our program will help them to leave here ready to go to work right from the start.”
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