The spring semester got an early — and intensive — start for 150 second- and third-year students at Tulane Law School this week. They jumped into their future careers with a legal-skills boot camp presented by practicing attorneys and judges.

The week-long optional intersession program, first ever at the law school and many months in planning, opened on Monday (Jan. 9) at Weinmann Hall. Three tracks are being offered, each carrying two credits, in pretrial civil litigation, pretrial criminal litigation and transactional law.

“In the complex and competitive environment of modern law practice, the need for comprehensive skills training has never been greater,” says David D. Meyer, dean and Mitchell Franklin Professor of Law. “Over the course of one fast-paced, hard-driving week, leading lawyers from around the country are putting students through the paces of representing a client in an unfolding lawsuit or business deal.”

Importantly, students are learning by doing — interviewing a client, evaluating a case, drafting a pleading or agreement — all with the critical guidance of nearly 75 legal practitioners, many of them Tulane alumni.

Each afternoon concludes with a panel discussion of issues not generally addressed in the standard law school curriculum, including: “Communicating With Clients and What Clients Want to Know,” “How to be a Star Associate,” “Relationships With Opposing Counsel” and “What Judges Do and Do Not Want.”


“We expect that employers will recognize the strong value of this program, and that it will cement Tulane’s reputation as a singularly well-rounded law school where students grapple with both legal theory and practice at a highly sophisticated level,” Meyer said.