Teaching Units: Skills
OVERVIEW
The following case studies are designed to improve lawyering skills through work products and in-class exercises.
Each teaching unit can stand alone as a cohesive experiential component for existing courses; educators can also combine the teaching units on this page to create semester-long case studies courses, or can mix and match cases on this page for an abridged survey of the different teaching units.
For complete offerings on a given skill, see individual Subject listings in the main menu above.
TEACHING UNITS
Legal Writing
Learning goals: practice drafting memoranda, motions, contracts, and other legal documents. These case studies also feature problem solving. Writing assignments may be detailed in the student materials or in the teaching manual.
Creating Collaborative Documents
- Supplementary information
Writing and Presenting Short Memoranda to Supervisors
- Supplementary information
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
- Policy memos and presentation to government official
- Eight hours over four sessions
- Contract language
- Four hours over three sessions
The WikiLeaks Incident: Background, Details, and Resources
- Four 90-minute sessions with three possible writing assignments
Sue the Consumer: Digital Copyright in the New Millennium
- Prepare complaints, deposition questions, motions for sanctions, and subpoenas
- One or two 90-minute sessions
Alternatives:
In addition to our full collection of case studies involving legal writing, see our cases in the traditional 1L subjects, which could be adapted to legal research and writing curriculum:
Contracts, Torts, Property, Criminal Law, and Civil Procedure
Client Interviewing
Learning goals: practice talking with clients to ascertain their goals and desired outcomes as well as evaluate and present options; understand various perspectives; arrive at salient facts and relevant law; work with decision trees; navigate doctrinal and jurisdictional conflicts and overlaps to arrive at a cohesive strategy; manage the principal-agent tension; find value creation opportunities.
The Case of the Landlord's Dilemma
- Advising a client
- Four hours over three days
The Case of the Encumbered Employee
- Planning a transaction
- Five hours over three sessions
- Role play: two attorneys negotiate on behalf of clients
Critical Decisions in Negotiation
Learning goals: practice exploring interests, looking for sources of value, and maintaining positive relationships with the other side; develop effective opening and process for negotiations; deal effective with difficult tactics of another party; employ active listening to move a negotiation forward; assert interests effectively and productively.
Critical Decisions in Negotiation DVD Set
- Runtime: 2 hours 47 minutes
Critical Decisions in Negotiation DVD Bonus Material
- Complete raw footage of the negotiations sampled in the product above
- Runtime: 4 hours 10 minutes
- Participants negotiate the same exercise covered in the video
- Related blog post: "Blog Trailer: Critical Decisions in Negotiation"
Alternatives:
Great Negotiator Case Studies, profiling award-winning negotiators
Mediating Value-Based Conflict
Learning goals: resolve conflict without compromising fundamental beliefs and values; avoid threats to individual identity; understand the interests of parties; focus on short-term and long-term solutions; learn when no agreement is the best agreement.
Leadership
Learning goals: assess historical and industry examples of surviving conflict and the challenges facing teams; strategize to save a failing business; develop best practices for change management and implementation of strategy.
- Tale of Three Asset Management Teams, Finance Teams, or Public Relations Teams
Teamwork
- Creating Collaborative Documents and How to be a Good Team Member, introducing participants to the challenges of groupwork in experiential courses
Problem Solving
See our entire Problem Solving and Advanced Problem Solving suite, as well as our Problem Solving and Advanced Problem Solving teaching units.
Management
Check out our Corporations and Mergers & Acquisitions subject pages, as well as any of our other Case Development Initiative cases.