gen.new law school programs.jb

A new program offered by the School of Law next fall will provide students the opportunity to obtain valuable research and intellectual skills needed to successfully practice law.

The Lawyering Skills program is designed to teach future attorneys skills students will need in the context in which they will be used. Legal research, writing, argumentation, interviewing, counseling and negotiation are some of the topics that will be taught.

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School of Law Dean Thomas Guernsey said the implementation of this program is an attempt to provide a more integrated approach to skills training in the law school.

As a graduate school, we need to provide a program that teaches students a traditional legal education in terms of getting them to think like a lawyer, Guernsey said.

There is a sense in the profession that legal educators should be doing a better job of training students in these other skills, and Lawyering Skills is our attempt to provide that training.

The skills will be obtained through a required six-hour, first-year, integrated course. Second and third-year students will then be required to choose at least two additional courses in advanced skills training.

The program will be headed by Penelope Pether, a member of the law faculty at the University of Sidney, Australia. She will be joined by Melissa Marlow, a 1996 graduate of the School of Law and a Carbondale attorney who will be a clinical instructor in the new program.

Marlow said she believes the SIU School of Law has always had a reputation for producing attorneys with good practical skills.

The creation of the new program is just another step in maintaining that excellence in practical skills education, she said.

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