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Curriculum
Faulkner Law’s curriculum equips students for their roles in the institutions of justice. We provide our students with a foundation of legal knowledge and skills upon which they can build lives of service within the legal profession.
In their first year, students study substantive law subjects such as constitutional law, contracts, criminal law, property, and torts, and they study the procedural rules governing civil litigation. They also learn the basics of legal research, develop written and verbal communication skills, and learn to write legal documents. In addition, our first-year students wrestle with foundational questions about the meaning and sources of law, the obligations imposed by law, and the responsibilities associated with membership in the legal profession.
In the second and third years, students continue their studies in substantive law, but they also begin to put their new knowledge into practice. For example, they complete a scholarly research and writing project on a legal topic of their selection. They also participate in a course designed to simulate real-world legal practice, and they gain additional practical experience by assisting clients in one of the law school’s three legal clinics or by working under the supervision of practicing attorneys or judges in a field placement. Second- and third-year students round out their legal education with elective courses that provide opportunities for deeper learning in subjects of particular interest to them. These experiences are designed to produce graduates who are ready for the bar exam and for the practice of law.
Foundations Curriculum
A special component of the Faulkner Law first-year experience is the Foundations curriculum. First-year students take two courses in this curriculum: the Foundations of Law course and the Foundations of the Legal Profession course. These innovative courses provide deep insight into the purposes of law and the legal profession and prepare law students to understand how the law shapes our culture and how lawyers can make a difference.
As a faith-based institution, we believe that principles and ideas matter. The Foundations of Law course ensures that first-year students interact with the most fundamental ideas of our legal institutions. Readings in the course include the writings of St. Thomas Aquinas, William Blackstone, John Austin, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., Lon Fuller, H.L.A. Hart, John Finnis, and other thinkers who have shaped the Western and Anglo-American legal traditions. Important and well-known appellate court opinions are used to illustrate the theoretical principles outlined by the great minds of Western legal and political thought. Students leave the course with a deeper understanding of their own convictions about justice and a better appreciation for some of the most influential principles and historical developments in American jurisprudence. Additionally, and equally important, the Foundations of Law course emphasizes some of the basics of legal reasoning: the doctrine of precedent, the standards of decision-making, and the rudiments of syllogistic reasoning.
The Foundations of the Legal Profession course explores the myriad ways a law degree and a law license are used to serve the common good. The course aims to help each student appreciate the unique calling and responsibilities of a legal professional, embrace the core values of the legal profession, cultivate the key attributes and exhibit the conduct of the legal profession, and articulate specific career-related plans for their time in and after law school.
Rigorous Writing Requirement
The Rigorous Writing Requirement involves substantial scholarly research and writing. It may be satisfied by writing a paper in connection with a seminar, writing an “argument” portion of a brief for an interscholastic moot court competition, or writing a directed research paper under the supervision of a full-time faculty member.
Professional Development Requirement
The Professional Development Requirement has two components: an Advanced Practicum Requirement and an Experiential Learning Requirement. Advanced Practicum courses simulate law practice experiences, and they include:
- Advanced Legal Research;
- Appellate Advocacy;
- Contract Drafting;
- Dispute Resolution Processes;
- Interviewing, Counseling, and Negotiation;
- Pretrial Practice;
- Trial Advocacy or Trial Advocacy for Competition; and
- Various advocacy competition teams.
Experiential Learning courses offer hands-on legal experience under supervision by an attorney or judge, and they include:
- The law school’s clinics (the Mediation Clinic, the Elder Law Clinic, and the Generational & Ancestral Property Clinic); and
- Field placements working with practicing attorneys and judges.
Academic Success Program
The Academic Success Program aims to assist students in fulfilling their academic potential and achieving their maximum level of academic and professional success. The Academic Success Program provides proactive support to students, empowering them to achieve a higher level of effectiveness by:
- Welcoming first-year students into an environment they may find unfamiliar and assisting them in making a successful transition from their varied backgrounds to their new roles as law students and future members of the legal profession;
- Offering Orientation programs to facilitate students’ transition into law school;
- Integrating first-year students into the law school process and curriculum through the development of crucial skills that will help students learn, analyze, and communicate the law, and improve their performance in the law classroom, on law school exams, on the bar examination, and in the practice of law or in the professional world;
- Pairing each first-year student with a Dean Fellow (an upper-level student) who will serve as a resource and mentor to the first-year student throughout their initial year of law school;
- Providing an avenue by which all students can take advantage of the resources available to them; and
- Encouraging students to develop and successfully use their own individual learning styles.