Environmental Law is a prerequisite or may be taken concurrently. Each student has a caseload of two or three smaller cases and one complex case. Students prepare and present their cases in state and federal courts. The course develops lawyering skills with special emphasis on litigation strategy, pretrial and trial preparation, and trial advocacy. In their representation of clients in actual cases, students have the opportunity to engage in nterviewing and counseling, negotiation, fact investigation and discovery, oral advocacy, direct and cross- examination, and trial argument.
Students also draft research memoranda, strategy memoranda, pleadings, motions and trial briefs.
Special attention is placed on professional responsibility issues and strategic case planning methods. Throughout the course a combination of teaching methods is employed, including classroom instruction, individual case supervision, simulations and videotaped exercises. In the two-hour weekly seminar, topics include substantive housing law, case planning methods, and the progress of actual clinic cases. Evidence and Trial Techniques are strongly recommended.