Experiential Learning Lab

The Lawyering Method

 

...the larger goal is building career-long habits of self-reflection for professional growth...

 

 

The Lawyering Method takes the next step by asking students to practice in controlled, simulated settings.  In series of increasingly complex exercises, students

  • study the elements of a lawyering task (e.g., interviewing, negotiation, brief writing); 

  • accept an actual or hypothetical case assignment that challenges them to undertake the task under study;

  • engage in collaborative, strategic planning to meet the challenge;

  • meet the challenge through formal or informal interactions; and then

  • subject their planning and performance to extensive self, peer, and faculty critique.

The immediate goal is structured, carefully sequenced learning. The larger goal is building career-long habits of self-reflection for professional growth. 

Lawyering students are not left to navigate Lawyering exercises by intuition or trial and error. The Lawyering Method establishes a framework for identifying and addressing the four elements of a legal matter that were introduced above. Each element is presented as a contingency to be managed rather than a given to be suffered.