Professional Skills

General Advice

In addition to the analytical and writing skills taught in the substantive law courses, students can learn the other skills necessary for law practice in the professional skills curriculum of simulation courses (in which students perform lawyering tasks in simulated cases) and live-client programs (where students provide legal services to actual clients in real cases).

Many of the live-client clinics have limited enrollment and a few have special requirements, e.g., Rule 13 certification (available after completion of half of a legal education and necessary to enable you to appear in Missouri courts). Students must consult with clinic faculty about the clinic of interest to make certain that the requirements are met and to obtain written faculty approval for registration in a clinic. Evening students need to understand that some, but not all, clinics require daytime hours in order to learn and function effectively in those clinics.

Specific Courses/Frequency of Offering

Simulation Courses

• Civil Practice (3 hrs.) (every semester/day; alternating years/evening)
  
• Trial Advocacy I (2 hrs.) (every semester/evening)
  
• Trial Advocacy II (2 hrs.) (every semester/limited enrollment)
  
• Client Counseling I (1 hr.) (every fall semester/day)
  
• Moot Court I, II (1 hr. each) (every fall and spring, respectively; available to day and evening students)
  
• Jessup Moot Court Competition (1 hr.) (every fall semester; enrollment subject to prior selection)

Seminars (usually offered in late afternoon)

• Jury Instructions (2 hrs.) (alternating years)
  
• Negotiation: Theory and Strategy (2 hrs.) (usually every year)
  
• Arbitration (2 hrs.) (every year)

LIVE-CLIENT CLINICS

Civil Advocacy Clinic I (3-4 hrs.)

In House: Litigation Clinic (limited)

• Mediation
  
• Family Law
  
• Homelessness Prevention
  
• Housing and Finance
  
• Transactional
  
• Administrative Law

Sequencing of Courses

To plan a schedule of professional skills courses, students should not rely upon written course descriptions, but should consult their advisers and faculty teaching the courses. Working in a law office is unlikely to compare with a clinic since most law offices will not permit students to "first chair" cases. If career interests are, as yet, undefined, then students may want to consider taking Civil Practice and/or Trial Advocacy in the second year and consider taking a clinic the third year. If career interests are specific to a particular kind of practice, students should identify when the relevant courses and clinical placements are offered and plan accordingly. For example:

• Health law students should take Health Law (and possibly a second health law course) in their second year and a health law related externship in the third year
  
• Employment law students should take Labor Law and possibly Civil Practice in their second year and then an employment-related externship in their third year
  
• Students interested in appellate practice might take Moot Court in their second year and enroll in the Judicial Process Clinic in their third year
  
• Students interested in criminal law should take Evidence in their second year and then Trial Advocacy and/or the Criminal Defense Clinic (public defender) or criminal law externship (prosecutor) in the fall of their third year

Students interested in litigation should consult the curriculum planning statement for Litigation.

Extracurricular Programs

Students may also serve on the Moot Court Board.