Skills Simulations
Overview
Skills simulations give law students first-hand experience in lawyering skills and fieldwork. Simulation courses provide a window into what it is like to practice in a specific area of legal interest. KU Law offers an expanding menu of intensive simulation workshops and practicum courses.
Veteran attorneys teach the Deposition Skills and Due Diligence in Business Transactions workshops, providing guidance and feedback as students practice their skills with peers. Practicum courses provide an opportunity for students to explore a substantive area of law under the supervision of attorneys and professors.
At KU Law, students have ample opportunities to gain such experience while satisfying the school's experiential course requirement. A full list of courses that satisfy the experiential course requirement is available in the J.D. Degree Requirements. Examples include:
- Contract Drafting
- First Amendment Advocacy
- Kansas Supreme Court Research Practicum
- Public Policy Practicum
- Trial Advocacy
Deposition Skills Workshop
The Deposition Skills Workshop teaches students the art of taking and defending depositions. This professional skills course exposes students to substantive and procedural law, as well as the ethical rules, pertaining to depositions. It provides students a realistic deposition setting in which they will learn to conduct and defend a series of depositions in a simulated environment under the direction of experienced attorneys who serve as the workshop faculty.
Due Diligence Workshop
The Due Diligence Workshop exposes students to the due diligence process that is critical to every business transaction. In a realistic due diligence setting, students learn the fundamental scope and goals of the process, identify the typical issues that must be analyzed, practice using a framework for systematically accumulating information, and understand how that information may affect the structure of the transaction and the content of the agreement that memorializes it. KU Law faculty and experienced transactional attorneys teach the course.
Experiential Course Requirements
Students must satisfy the experiential course requirement by successfully completing courses that total at least 6 credit hours. No more than 16 credit hours of clinic and field placement coursework can be counted toward the credit hour requirements for each degree program. While simulation courses will satisfy the experiential coursework graduation requirement, students are not limited to taking 16 credit hours, such as with clinic and field placement courses.