Course Descriptions, Kansas Legal Research - Multistate Legal Analysis

Kansas Legal Research

LW 702; 2 hours. Kansas Legal Research will expand on research skills first explored in Legal Analysis, Research, and Writing (LARW) I and II with the focus on Kansas-specific resources. Topics for the class will include sources for Kansas case law, statutory and regulatory research, secondary sources and practitioner's materials specific to Kansas, Kansas legislative history, and an overview of the research resources from state and local offices relevant to the practicing attorney. This class will include in-class activities with print and electronic resources and guest speakers from the local legal and governmental communities.
Prerequisite(s): Legal Analysis, Research, and Writing I and II.

Labor Law

LW 783; 3 hours. An examination of decisions and statutes relating to the rights of workers to act in combinations; legal aspects of strikes, picketing and related activities; and problems of state-federal law relating to labor disputes.

Law and Accounting

LW 717; 2 hours. The course explores accounting theory and practice. The focus is on what lawyers need to know to engage effectively in a wide range of practice areas including, but not limited to, corporate and securities law, family law, bankruptcy, probate, trust and estate law, real estate law, administrative law and regulated industries. In these fields of practice, as in others, financial information presented in an organized manner is essential for industry and governmental decision making. It is accounting theory put into practice which provides the rules and rationale for the presentation of this financial information.

Law and Economics

LW 853; 2-3 hours. An introductory exploration of the application of economic analysis to legal problems. Basic economic principles will be discussed and analyzed in a legal context, but no prior work in economics is necessary. A fundamental goal is to explore and understand the applications as well as the limitations of economic analysis to law.

Law and Politics

LW 850; 3 hours. This course addresses itself to the ways that power and values are exercised within the legal system. It examines law as a constraint on political actors that they seek to circumvent when it disserves their preferences. In this course, students will skeptically approach the fundamental assumptions of the legal profession and test them against real-world observation. The purpose of the course is to enable students to advise clients on the ways that the rule of law limits political decision-making and how it does not. The course will address social science criticisms of legal systems, consider the limits of scientific methods to investigate law, investigate the role and rule of law in semi-authoritarian and authoritarian systems, and consider the normative objections raised to the causal theories offered by social scientists. It will consider the relationships between law and politics in courtrooms, administrative agencies, and legislatures. No previous coursework is required. No prior experience or study of politics or social science is necessary; all that is needed is a desire to understand why outsiders are skeptical of law's importance in political decision-making.

Law in Context

LW 971; 2 hours. This course is designed to engage students in a variety of legal analysis tasks, set in different doctrinal contexts. Students will develop flexibility and confidence in legal problem solving skills by completing assignments that present opportunities to develop proficiency in framing legal issues, applying legal rules to relevant facts, and writing clear and concise responses to objective and persuasive legal questions.

Law Journal Editorial Board

LW 764; 1-2 hours per semester. Law Journal members chosen to serve as members of the Journal's Editorial Board, and the Editorial Board generally consists of the following: an Editor-in-Chief; an Executive Editor; a Managing Editor; a Senior Articles Editor; a Comments Editor; other specialized editors, and multiple Articles Editors and Notes Editors. Editorial Board Members generally must be present on campus for at least four business days each week, and devote significant time and effort in producing the Washburn Law Journal. Their responsibilities will continue until the book proofs for Issue Three are received, reviewed, and returned to the printer (even if that is after graduation). All Editorial Board Members are required to fulfill all Law Journal Member duties; provided, however, that during the semesters such Members are part of the Editorial Board, the Editorial Board Members will not be required to prepare pieces of scholarly writing.
Prerequisite(s): Law Journal Member and selection to serve on the Editorial Board of the Journal.

Law Journal Membership

LW 771; 1 hour per semester. Students chosen to become members will assist in the publication of a scholarly journal known as the Washburn Law Journal. Law Journal members have the unique opportunity to learn and practice advanced legal research, writing, and editorial skills and engage in academic and professional development. Students are invited to become members of the Journal based upon superior academic and writing abilities. Law Journal members cite-check, proofread, and edit scholarly articles and prepare these for publication. In addition, each member will research and write at least one piece of scholarly writing of publishable quality during their first year and at least one piece of scholarly writing for the online journal content during their second year on Journal.
Prerequisite(s): Admission to the Washburn Law Journal.

Law of Armed Conflict

LW 927; 3 hours. This course will cover the law of armed conflict (also commonly referred to as international humanitarian law, or jus in bello), which is the international law regime that governs the conduct of armed forces in the course of hostilities. The course will run from an examination of the development of the underlying principles and rationales, through to the decisions of modern war crimes tribunals, and is aimed at providing a solid understanding of the legal regime.

Law Practice Management

LW 824; 2 hours. The areas of study include perception of the legal profession, legal profession trends, small law office survival, products and services, case planning, fee contracts, fee arrangements, common ethical complaints and methods to avoid them, civility in the profession, marketing and promotion of legal services, firm performance evaluation, financial analysis of the firm, strategic planning, modern law office technology, use of law clerks and paralegals, pro bono obligations, and human resource management.

Law Practice Technologies

LW 925; 1 hour. This class will provide a hands-on survey of selected software, technologies and skills utilized in legal practice. The course will expose students to practical suggestions associated with selecting and using specific application as well as relevant legal and ethical issues.

Lawyering Competencies I

LW 893; 1 hour. Lawyering Competencies I provides the educational framework for students enrolled in Third Year Anywhere™. This is not a self-paced class. Throughout the class, students will have readings and/or videos and discussion assignments. In addition to discussion topics, students will also submit weekly journals to the faculty supervisor. Journals will allow students to reflect on what they are learning in the placement and to share information with faculty in a more private setting. This course will help students build competencies identified as important by legal employers while allowing students to undertake reflective learning. Specific competencies covered in this class include, but are not limited to the following areas: Reflective and Ethical Lawyering; Financial Literacy for Lawyers; Research, Writing, and Oral Advocacy; Organizing and Managing One's Own Work; Stress and Time Management; Cultural Consciousness and Anti-Racism; Collaboration. Depending on the field placement location, students may acquire competencies in areas such as Lawyering in Rural Locations or International Lawyering.
Prerequisite(s): Eligibility for enrollment in Third Year Anywhere™.

Lawyering Competencies II

LW 894; 1 hour. Lawyering Competencies II is the second semester of Lawyering Competencies I which provides the educational framework for students enrolled in Third Year Anywhere™. This is not a self-paced class. Throughout the class students will have readings and/or videos and discussion assignments. In addition to discussion topics, students will also submit weekly journals to the faculty supervisor. Journals will allow students to reflect on what they are learning in the placement and to share information with faculty in a more private setting. This course will help students build competencies identified as important by legal employers while allowing students to undertake reflective learning. Depending on the field placement location, students may acquire competencies in areas such as Lawyering in Rural Locations or International Lawyering. Specific competencies covered in this class will include topics not covered in the Lawyering Competencies I course in the fall/first semester and may include, but not be limited, to the following areas: 1.Legal Advertising in Different Markets; 2. Challenges of Legal Representation on a Client's Budget; 3. The Business of Running a Law Office; 4. Professional Identity and Reputation; 5. Ethical Issues in the Real World - Conflicts and Access to Justice; 6. Referrals and Collaborating with Other Lawyers and Mentors; 7. Battling Burnout - Mental Health for Lawyers.
Prerequisite(s): Eligibility for enrollment in Third Year Anywhere™.

Leadership for Lawyers

LW 883; 2 hours. As lawyers advance in their careers, they often find themselves in leadership roles with responsibilities beyond traditional legal work. The numbers also bear out that Washburn Law graduates find themselves as leaders in private practice, government positions, and in the corporate world. Therefore, the concepts surrounding the topic of leadership are issues all law students could benefit from giving further examination. This class intends to provide a thorough introduction to leadership topics encountered in any setting but with a focus on how the legal world handles these many layered issues. For this two-credit class, we will focus on topics including motivating employees, generational differences in the law firm, dealing with conflict, diversity, working in teams, and making a difference in the legal profession. This class will rely heavily on case studies to discuss relevant topics, along with background readings and guest speakers, to cover the concept of leadership.

Legal Analysis, Research and Writing for the Government Client

LW 965; 2 hours. The focus of this course is to strengthen students' legal writing, analysis, and critical thinking skills for success in representing government clients. The lawyer representing a government client writes from a unique perspective, and must be cognizant of the organization as the client, the lawyer's role as advisor or advocate, and the public interest. Further, the lawyer's written materials are often publicly available, requiring the lawyer to write in a clear and understandable, yet legally thorough, manner. To develop these skills, students will research and draft legal opinions, policies, statutes, ordinances, and resolutions.
Prerequisite(s): Legal Analysis, Research & Writing I and II.

Legal Analysis, Research and Writing I

LW 875; 3 hours. Introduction to fundamental legal thought and the art of lawyering, including legal process, legal reasoning, case analysis and synthesis, statutory construction, introduction to legal research, and objective legal writing, with a focus on office memoranda.

Legal Analysis, Research and Writing II

LW 876; 3 hours. Further development of legal analysis and research skills and an introduction to legal advocacy through persuasive legal writing, such as trial and appellate briefs, and oral argument.

Legal History Seminar

LW 798; 2 hours. This seminar provides a substantial introduction to Anglo-American legal history, with an emphasis on three inter-related topics: (1) the development of the common law and of natural law theories as competing epistemological systems with political and constitutional consequences during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries; (2) the development of property law and political rights during the nineteenth century, with special attention to American slavery and westward expansion; and (3) the rise of the public (the "public sphere," the public interest, the public trust) as legal and historical concepts with profound consequences in environmental and natural resources law during the twentieth century. Across these topics, the seminar will invite comparisons between the ways in which historians argue about the past and the ways in which legal academics, lawyers, and judges argue about common law precedent, constitutional interpretation, and statutory construction. Central to the seminar is sustained attention to the relationship between what is legal and what is legitimate.
Prerequisite(s): Property, Constitutional Law I, and Constitutional Law II.

Legal Research for Legal Scholars

LW 869; 1 hour. This course will offer students advanced training on the sources, tools, tactics, and strategies commonly used to conduct in-depth, academic research on legal topics. Students will learn effective methods for finding and using legal scholarship in various forms, including journal articles, scholarly monographs, edited collections, amicus briefs, dissertations and theses, think tank materials, white papers, etc. They will become familiar with the life-cycle of legal scholarship and with the roles played by academic blogs, workshops, conferences, and preprint repositories. They will gain an appreciation for the interdisciplinary nature of scholarship and exposure to the research tools used for scholarly work in related disciplines. They will learn to find and make use of empirical research and statistical resources. Finally, students will practice strategies for developing a comprehensive literature review, with particular focus on methods of citation tracing, the application of controlled vocabularies, and the proper use of modern research tools that benefit from algorithms, AI, and machine learning processes.
Prerequisite(s): Legal Analysis, Research, and Writing I and Legal Analysis, Research, and Writing II.

Legal Writing for Clerkships and Externships

LW 962; 1 hour. This intersession course begins to bridge the gap between first-year legal writing and experiential learning opportunities such as summer internships and externships. It simulates a new associate's law office environment with daily meetings and research and writing assignments. Students will work on campus during standard business hours, starting the day with a case rounds meeting, discussing the morning's research during a lunch meeting, and reporting to the supervising attorney at the end of the day to discuss conclusions and review finished work product. By week's end, students will have a portfolio of short written assignments. The course strengthens research skills, provides feedback on analysis and writing, introduces new forms of work product, and raises some professional and ethical challenges that come with producing legal work product under timed conditions. Students will also have opportunities to discuss professional etiquette, workplace expectations, and many of the other "unwritten rules" of daily practice.
Prerequisite(s): Legal Analysis, Research and Writing I.

Legislation

LW 776; 3 hours. In this course, students will gain an understanding of the legislative process and principles of statutory interpretation. Toward those ends, students will study and apply various tools of statutory interpretation in class exercises and simulations. The knowledge and skill-set developed in this course can apply to virtually all areas of law.

Local Government Law

LW 820; 2 hours. The course covers a host of current constitutional issues covered by the Bill of Rights and other Amendments to the U.S. Constitution as local governments (over 90,000 nationwide) regulate the conduct of their citizens and their employees. Topics include, various civil rights related issues, free speech and assembly, openness in government, tort, public contracts, powers and structures of local governments, labor issues, land use and a host of other topics. Most attorneys in private practice or in public employment will either represent or interact as a litigant with local governments.

Moot Court

LW 762; 1-2 hours. Participation as a team member in any major Moot Court competition. To receive credit, each team member must make a substantial contribution toward the team brief and the oral argument and participate as a team member in the competition. No more than one hour credit will be given for any competition. Students who participate (as described above) in more than one competition (including the same competition in different years) may earn one credit for each competition for a total of two credit hours during law school. Credit, no-credit.

Multistate Legal Analysis

LW 963; 3 hours. This course presents opportunities to develop and apply critical reading, thinking, and writing skills to maximize student performance on the bar exam. The course utilizes released or simulated bar exam content to familiarize students with the tasks of issue spotting and the general legal analysis required for the multistate performance tests and multistate essay exams. The course will present techniques for answering multiple-choice questions and strategies for analyzing, organizing, and writing responses to essay questions. This course does not replace a commercial bar preparation course. Credit, no credit.
Prerequisite(s): Student must be in last year of law school.