J.D. Program Overview
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The UNT Dallas College of Law offers the Juris Doctor (J.D.) degree through a full-lime day program and a part-lime evening program. Both programs require completion of no less than 88 credit hours for students beginning study in 2014, 2015, and 2016 and 90 credit hours for students beginning study in 2017 and beyond, including first-year required courses; other required courses; completion of the writing requirement, the research requirement, the skills requirement, the experiential requirement, and the practice- ready technology requirement.
Design of the J.D. Curriculum
The curriculum at the UNT Dallas College of Law reflects three overall aims:
Ensuring that all students graduate with practice-ready competencies; that is, the knowledge, understanding, and skills essential to the practice of law;
Providing students with the opportunity to explore a range of interest areas through electives and experiences; and
Providing students with the opportunity to develop deeper and specialized knowledge, skills, and understandings in areas that interest them.
The components of the J.D. curriculum fall within three general categories:
Required Courses. Some required courses are taken in a specific semester; other required courses may be taken during any of several semesters.
Requirements that do not require the taking of specific classes but that are satisfied by a specific type or sequence of for-credit coursework or noncredit classes or experiences.
Electives
Overview of the First Year Curriculum
For both day and evening division students, the first two semesters consist of required courses.
These required courses include a 1-hour course that provides the core methods of reading, synthesis, and analysis used throughout law school and legal practice (Legal Methods).
Additionally, the first-year curriculum at the College of Law includes traditional core first-year subjects - Contracts, Torts, Civil Procedure, and Property. These areas of law are foundational in several ways: they are critical in the practice of law, they serve as basic building blocks for advanced courses, and they provide doctrinal and practice-area context for developing the skills of legal reasoning and legal analysis.
The first-year curriculum also includes two semesters of Legal Writing and Legal Research. These courses reflect the importance of a strong foundation in writing and research. In addition, Legal Writing and Legal Research is tied in several ways to the core doctrinal subjects. First, the courses allow us to give direct and explicit attention, at the start of law school, to several areas of basic knowledge and skills that are threaded throughout the entire first year, such as how to read cases and statutes, and how to synthesize a legal rule from multiple sources. Second, at the College of Law, the courses in Legal Writing and Legal Research, in concert with the doctrinal courses, will be mutually reinforcing-the work in Legal Writing and Legal Research often will draw on doctrines and issues covered in Contracts, Torts, Civil Procedure, and Property.
The first year also requires Client Interviewing and Counseling (this is in the third semester for evening students).
Overview of the Upper-Level Requirements
In the second year (semester 3 for day students and semester 4 for evening students), students are required to take: Constitutional Law, Negotiation and Conflict Resolution, and Property and Legal Writing III.
Required courses taken in sequence during the latter third of the curriculum are: Federal Criminal Procedure, Bar Exam Skills and Strategies I and II (Legal Analysis and Bar Readiness), and Legal Writing III. Other required courses, not taken in sequence are: Evidence or Evidence Practicum and Professional Responsibility.
The J.D. degree includes additional required courses in areas that are widely viewed as part of the knowledge, skills, and understanding that a competent attorney should have. Some of these required courses are included on the bar examination, reflecting the judgment of the State of Texas, through rules adopted by the Texas Supreme Court, about necessary basic knowledge. These courses also introduce students to a range of practice areas, and can form the basis for advanced study in any of these areas.
These required courses are:
Business Associations (3 hours)
Federal Criminal Procedure (3 hours)
Evidence (3 hours) or Evidence Practicum (4 hours)
UBE Family Law (3 hours)
Professional Responsibility (3 hours)
UBE Sale and Secure Transactions “Commercial Law” (3 hours)
UBE Wills, Trusts, and Estates (3 hours)
Bar Exam Skills and Strategies I and II (3 hours each)
Conflicts of Law or Remedies (2 hours each)
Legal Writing III
Overview of the Requirements
In addition to required courses, some required courses contain requirements related to an important skills, experiences, or proficiency that students at the College of Law are expected to attain. Requirements are satisfied through credit-bearing courses, not-for-credit courses or experiences, or demonstrated proficiency.
Writing Requirement
Research Requirement
Skills Requirement
Advocacy Requirement
Experiential Requirement
Practice-Related Technology Requirement
Each of the Requirements relates to important skills, experiences, or proficiencies, that students at the College of Law are expected to attain. The Requirements are not themselves “courses.” Rather, depending on the Requirement, the Requirements are satisfied through credit-bearing courses, not-for-credit courses or experiences, or demonstrated proficiency.
The Requirements are:
The Major Writing Requirement. The Major Writing (1) is an experience involving multiple, original writings or a single, lengthy writing, entailing significant synthesis and analysis; the sum total should generally be at least 25 pages; (2) includes the submission and assessment of at least two drafts of each writing (that is, at least one first-draft and a final draft); (3) must be taught (or supervised) by full-time faculty, or other faculty (such as part-time professor of practice, or adjunct professor) with demonstrated ability to supervise a legal writing experience entailing significant synthesis and analysis. The Registrar will maintain a list of courses containing writing segments approved by the faculty, and writing segments satisfying the upper-level writing experience.
The Writing Requirement is satisfied by completion of two (2) writing segments. A writing segment is an assignment that correlates in scope and complexity with written work product that lawyers prepare; and on which the student receives assessment.
The Research Requirement. The Research Requirement is satisfied by completion of four to five (4-5) research segments (UBE Required Menu has 4 required research segments. UBE Modified Menu has 5 required research segments). A research segment requires the completion of at least one significant research assignment, which will include a research plan, a research trail, and a research bibliography. To ensure that students become proficient in the foundational information and research abilities required in practice, multiple research segments will address and reinforce knowledge of sources, creation of a research plan, use of multiple platforms for research, maintaining a research trail, and storing information.
The Skills Requirement. The Skills Requirement is satisfied by completion of two to three (2-3) skills segments in addition to the skills provided in the required classes of Client Interviewing and Counseling and Negotiation and Conflict Resolution. (UBE Required Menu has 2 required skills segments. UBE Modified Menu has 3 required skills segments). A skills segment is a performance or activity in which students are assessed and which requires a student to engage in one or more of the following professional skills, or other skills recognized by the faculty as a possible basis for a skills segment: interviewing, counseling, negotiation, fact development and analysis, trial practice, document drafting, conflict resolution, organization and management of legal work, collaboration, cultural competency and self-evaluation.
The Experiential Requirement. To satisfy this requirement, a student must complete the following:
Completion of at least two courses from any of the following three categories: Practicum, Externship, and Clinic.
Satisfactory completion of the Community Engagement Program; and
Satisfactory completion of the L.A. Bedford Mentorship Program.
The Practice-Related Technology Requirement.
To satisfy this requirement, students must demonstrate basic proficiency as to practice-related technologies, including case management and time-keeping software; trial and litigation software; word processing; and databases. Students can satisfy this through completion of an elective that satisfies the requirement, or through successful completion of designated nodules on technology training software that the College of Law has licensed for its students.
The Practice-Related Technology Requirement ensures that students graduate with competence in practice-related technologies. Competent and effective law practice in all settings entails the ability to use such technologies. Rule 1.1 of the BA Model Rules of Professional Conduct explains that the requirement of competent representation “requires the legal knowledge, skill, thoroughness and preparation necessary for the representation. New Comment 8 to this rule notes that competent representation requires a lawyer to “keep abreast of changes in the law and its practice, including the benefits and risks associated with relevant technology.