LAW 7076 - Pre-Trial Practice

The primary goal of this course is to prepare you to represent a client during the pretrial phase of a lawsuit. Today lawyers who litigate (except prosecutors and criminal defense attorneys) rarely take cases all the way through trial and appeal. In fact, less than 2% of civil cases filed in court actually go to trial. The other 98% are abandoned, settled, or resolved on motion practice. Therefore, in this course you will: prepare a pleading (complaint or answer); conduct "paper discovery" (i.e., prepare and respond to interrogatories, requests for admission, and requests for production of documents); conduct a witness interview and prepare a written interview summary; conduct a deposition and prepare a written deposition summary; prepare non-dispositive motions and memoranda (for or against jurisdiction, joinder, and interpleader); prepare and argue a dispositive motion (for or against summary judgment); and negotiate and document the settlement of a lawsuit. The course will have one class per week in which all students meet to discuss relevant concepts and skills, with small evening sections of about eight students each which will meet once a week with an adjunct professor to discuss, demonstrate, and critique the skills taught in the course.