Developing Professional Skills

Incorporating skills training into a traditional Property course is challenging. This creative and original book provides ten independent exercises designed to develop student skills in legal drafting, client interviewing and counseling, negotiation and advocacy. Each exercise is based on fundamental Property rules and doctrines so that the book can be used as a supplemental text with any doctrinal casebook. Students are required to spend a manageable one to two hours on such tasks as replying to a client e-mail, writing a demand letter to an opposing party, preparing an executive summary, interviewing and counseling a client, litigating nondisclosure claims, negotiating a lease agreement and a condemnation award, and drafting a deed and an easement agreement. Each exercise contains a work product template that the student must complete for assessment purposes. A comprehensive Teacher's Manual provides guidance and suggestions for expanding the classroom discussion to include ethical issues, professional responsibility concepts and the norms of modern legal practice. For more information and additional teaching materials, visit the companion site.