First year

The William Mitchell First-Year Curriculum

A solid foundation on which to build your career

A solid foundation on which to build your career

William Mitchell’s first-year curriculum is designed to prepare you for practice.

The doctrinal focus of each of your first-year classes serves as a vehicle for introducing foundational themes of the legal system and a platform for teaching practical skills. As a result, you’ll get not only a broad overview of the law, you’ll learn what lawyers do in the real world, and begin to do that work yourself from day one.

Our courses are integrated. They build on one another, so you’ll see how the concepts and skills you’ve learned in Civil Procedure relate to Contracts and Property.

The first year at Mitchell is designed to help you connect what you’re learning in class with the array of lawyers’ work in the real world— civil and criminal law, common law and statutory law, transactional law, and dispute resolution.

Required First-Year Doctrinal Courses Civil Procedure: Dispute Resolution You’ll generate, articulate, and evaluate arguments to resolve procedural problems associated with civil disputes arising from the negligence or misconduct of others from the perspective of different participants—the parties, their advocates, and a judge or arbitrator.

You’ll also learn to explain, use, and evaluate different methods of resolving disputes, again from the perspective of all participants.

Contracts: Transactional Law You’ll learn to determine whether a promise is enforceable, the meaning of a contract, whether a contract has been breached, and parties’ resulting rights and duties. You’ll also read contracts and negotiate and draft your own two-party contract.

Constitutional Law, Liberties: Advanced Legal Reasoning You’ll critically evaluate U.S. Supreme Court decisions, articulating the holding, rules, rationales, and central disagreements among the majority, concurring, and dissenting opinions. You’ll also apply 14th Amendment Equal Protection and Substantive Due Process doctrines and the 1st Amendment Speech and Religion doctrines to new factual situations.

Criminal Law: Statutory Interpretation You’ll learn to articulate the elements of crimes and affirmative defenses, but you’ll also be asked to apply them to new factual scenarios.

You’ll also learn how to identify, explain, and apply common methods of statutory interpretation and to anticipate the arguments attorneys in a criminal case would make.

Property: Jurisprudential Analysis You’ll examine the legal rules relating to the acquisition of property, the different ownership interests one might acquire, the rights associated with property ownership, and the restrictions on those rights. You’ll apply what you learn to different sets of facts. You’ll also articulate various views on the theory of law and explain how attorneys and judges would use those theories in a property case.

Torts: Common Law Reasoning You’ll learn to articulate the elements and related doctrines of several intentional torts, negligence, and strict liability, and apply those legal rules to new facts. You’ll also learn to read, analyze, and apply the holding, rule, and reasoning of a case to new sets of facts, and anticipate the arguments attorneys in a tort suit might make.

Required First-Year Skills Course Writing & Representation: Advice & Persuasion (WRAP) The best lawyers are excellent researchers, writers, and orators, and this course is where many of the top lawyers in the region got their start. WRAP will help you begin to master the skills needed to be an effective advocate—researching, writing, interviewing, counseling, and professionalism—in a small class setting.

You’ll take your classes for the entire year with the same group of students—your “section.”

Although all students will take the same courses in the first year, the days and times these courses meet will vary from section to section.

As you can see, your first year at Mitchell is entirely devoted to ensuring that you have a thorough understanding of core legal concepts and skills as well as an understanding of the level of professionalism it takes to reach your goals.

Full Time

Part Time

FALL Torts............................ 4 Civ Pro......................... 4 Crim........................... 3 WRAP.......................... 3

FALL Torts............................ 4 Crim........................... 3 WRAP......................... 3

TOTAL CREDITS..........14

TOTAL CREDITS..........10

SPRING Contracts.................... 4 Property...................... 4 Con Law-Liberties....... 3 WRAP.......................... 3

SPRING Contracts................... 4 Property..................... 4 WRAP......................... 3

TOTAL CREDITS..........14

TOTAL CREDITS..........11

Civ Pro (4 credits) taken in fall of 2L year

Con Law-Liberties (3 credits) taken in spring of 2L year

Full-Time Sample Schedule MONDAY

TUESDAY

WEDNESDAY

9:00

WRAP

10:00

Torts FALL Contracts SPRING

11:00

THURSDAY

FRIDAY

FALL & SPRING

Most weeks class meets for 2 hours. Class meets for 3 hours 2-3 times a semester.

Torts FALL

WRAP

FALL & SPRING

Contracts SPRING

Civil Procedure FALL Property SPRING

12:00

Criminal Law FALL Con Law-Liberties SPRING

1:00 2:00

Civil Procedure FALL

Criminal Law FALL

Property SPRING

Con Law-Liberties SPRING

3:00

Part-Time Day Sample Schedule MONDAY

TUESDAY

WEDNESDAY

9:00

WRAP

10:00

Torts FALL Contracts SPRING

THURSDAY

FRIDAY

FALL & SPRING

Most weeks class meets for 2 hours. Class meets for 3 hours Torts FALL 2-3 times a semester.

WRAP

FALL & SPRING

Contracts SPRING

11:00 12:00

Criminal Law FALL Con Law-Liberties SPRING

1:00 2:00

Criminal Law FALL Con Law-Liberties SPRING

Part-Time Evening Sample Schedule MONDAY 6:00

TUESDAY

WEDNESDAY

THURSDAY

Torts FALL

Crim Law FALL

Property SPRING

Contracts SPRING Property SPRING

7:00

WRAP

FALL & SPRING

WRAP

Torts FALL

FALL & SPRING

2-3 times a semester

8:00

Crim Law FALL Contracts SPRING

9:00

WRAP

FALL & SPRING

FRIDAY

Meet Mitchell Days for admitted students

Please plan to join us at one of the upcoming Meet Mitchell Days for Admitted Students. You’ll meet your future professors and classmates, start building connections with alumni, and begin to experience what your life at Mitchell will be like when you start classes in the fall.

Friday, March 14 or Friday, April 11 Invitations will be sent to your email address. We can’t wait to welcome you to campus!

FIRST-YEAR CURRICULUM

Office of Admissions 875 Summit Avenue St. Paul, Minnesota 55105 888-962-5529 wmitchell.edu 01197 2013-10