LAW-2253 Law Practice Planning: Law As a Career And an Enterprise (seminar)
Many students are unclear about what role in the legal profession they would like to undertake upon graduation. This course is designed to help them conduct research about both themselves and the legal profession to gain greater clarity about what law practice role might work best for them. More particularly, the course is designed to help them clarify their interests, skills and values to develop criteria for evaluating their professional opportunities. The students then use those criteria to help them find a good fit in the legal profession by conducting both library and online research on law practice, as well as personal interviews of attorneys in their chosen fields, making an interim presentation of the preliminary results. The students then build on that foundation to evaluate the feasibility of their preferred roles, including preparing a pro-forma cash flow analysis as well as examining some of the non-financial issues involved in conducting a successful law practice. The students also undertake further research on how they might make their most preferred role a reality, including planning next steps to undertake while in law school or after graduation. The course concludes with an oral presentation by the students of their resulting Law Practice Plans to a practicing attorney who has started his own law firm, followed by submission of a more formal written Plan incorporating the results of their research and analysis, including an extensive appendix of the evidence relied upon for their conclusions. For further information, please contact Professor Baker at lbaker@suffolk.edu, or 617-573-8186.