Penn State Dickinson Law Experiential Learning (LWEXP)

This course is designed to introduce students to the techniques and best practices involved in general writing and operative document creation in a transactional law practice. the course involves a series of written exercises completed against the background of readings and lectures describing best practices in written communication and operative document creation. This course satisfies the experiential learning requirement.

This course explores sources of administrative law, with primary emphasis on federal administrative law, and provides students the opportunity to research regulations, agency decisions, and other administrative legal resources using a variety of sources. The goal of the course is to give students a practical understanding of where administrative authority and law originates and how to find it. Emphasis will be placed on using free, authentic resources to conduct much of this research, but attention to premium online resources will also be included. Students should have taken or plan to take concurrently a course that deals with administrative law. This course satisfies the experiential learning requirement.

This course introduces the fundamental skills of trial advocacy applicable in civil and criminal trials in any jurisdiction. In keeping with the theory that trial advocacy is best learned by "doing," each student will conduct written and oral exercises concerning the various stages of the trial process-pleadings, pretrial motions, discovery, settlement negotiations, trial preparation, jury selection, opening statements, direct and cross examination of lay witnesses, examination of expert witnesses, trial motions, and closing arguments. Students are able to evaluate their own progress through viewing videotapes of their performances. The class meets jointly for lectures, while the oral trial exercises are conducted in small sections. The teams for the national mock trial competitions that are conducted during the spring semester will be selected based upon students' overall performance in Trial Advocacy.

A listing of the major topics to be covered with an approximate length of time allotted for their discussion. This course satisfies the experiential learning requirement.