Curriculum Planning
A PERSPECTIVE ON CURRICULUM PLANNING
by Professor Thomas M. Haney
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A student's choice of courses should have at least 5 goals: - to prepare them to pass the bar exam; - to prepare them for whatever career path that they are likely to - to prepare them for whatever career paths they may pursue - to provide them with a global perspective on legal issues, - to provide them with exposure to the multi-dimensional aspects of |
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Many students have a specific career goal in mind - childlaw, health law, intellectual property, international law, criminal law, trial practice, and the like. Those students should of course take some courses that are focused on subjects that relate to those career objectives, at the same time recognizing that law graduates' eventual employment may be quite different from what they imagined.
Other students have no specific area of law that they currently intend to pursue. Those students should take courses that are of interest to them, within the parameters of the goals mentioned above.
The most important element is balance. Students should pursue a variety of bar-preparation courses, recognizing that BAR-BRI and other bar prep programs are limited in what they can hope to teach in a short period of time. Students should also provide themselves with fundamentals in a wide range of subjects about which every lawyer should have a basic understanding - taxation, intellectual property, estates, family law, etc. - whether or not these subjects are tested on a bar exam; family and friends will expect a lawyer to know the basic contours of these subjects. Students should take skills courses - trial practice, counseling and negotiating, etc. - since those skills are valuable in a variety of settings. Finally, students owe it to themselves to take at least one perspective course in which law is considered in a broader setting; every law graduate should be prepared to assume many different roles in civil society.
Such a mix of courses will have a secondary benefit - it will allow students to demonstrate their mastery of the material through different methodologies - written examinations, research papers, use of legal skills, and the like.
Students should also take courses in different settings, if possible. The law school offers various study abroad programs, both in the summer (Rome and Beijing) and over the mid-year break (London). There are also several opportunities for study abroad in one-week programs over spring break, thus allowing students to participate even if they cannot devote all or part of their summer to studying abroad.
Remember that students have opportunities to earn academic credit for many other experiences - externships, the various academic publications, many inter-school competitions (trial, appellate, ADR), directed study with a professor, independent research projects, academic and legal writing tutoring, and the like. These are all valuable experiences, and their availability should be factored into a student's curriculum planning.
Graduates should be prepared to take advantage of whatever opportunities present themselves and to explore a wide range of areas that may be of interest to them. Remember that entirely new areas of law develop periodically. Well-trained lawyers can move into those areas, even without having had a specific course in law school on that subject. You have the opportunity as students to prepare yourselves as broadly as you can for whatever the future may hold for you.
