This course will be taught entirely online via Zoom.
As the practice of law changes with the rise of technology, deep communications skills will become ever more important and valuable. Whether your practice involves litigation or transactional law, you must be able to communicate effectively to persuade and prevail. We know we need to marshal the facts in order to build a theme and theory, a story, a way to move decision-makers to act, but how, exactly, do we do it? This class borrows from the Creative Problem Solving method but uses it in a unique way, teaching students how to design and develop a process to generate and evaluate narratives to best solve their clients' problems. Students work in small groups to practice and cement these communications skills, receiving direct feedback from highly-experienced lawyers and communications professionals who do this every day. This is truly learning to think and communicate like an expert lawyer. The transferrable skills students acquire in this experiential class provide a framework that will serve them for years as their careers evolve. Pass/Fail. This 1 credit class will meet for five total sessions.
Wendell, Ware V. 