56 classroom hours
This course is a continuation of the semester-long Legal Research and Writing Course. This semester's portion of the course will advance students' efficiency in legal research and depth of legal analysis through research and writing assignments. Students will research, analyze and apply the law to various factual scenarios, and express their work through legal writing. Peer review of assignments will improve students' level of comfort their work being edited by others and will increase proficiency in editing the work of others. Like its predecessor, this course is designed to closely mimic the practice of a paralegal in order to prepare students to leave the Paralegal Program experienced, prepared and confident. To this end, course requirements are strict, deadlines are absolute and communication is critical to course success. Together, these two courses will challenge students to complete a case brief, components of an appellate brief and/or record, a series of legal memos with escalating complexity in research, analysis and application of the above sources of law, and an annotated bibliography. In addition to the skills learned in the Advanced Legal Research and Writing course, students will also have the opportunity to learn two substantive areas of the law. These two seminar courses will include their own syllabi and the grades from those seminars will be incorporated into the grade for the course.