First Year Legal Skills Program

To increase focus on the law as well as practical training, Pace Law School has redesigned the First Year Legal Skills Program to prepare first-year students in the critical lawyering skills of interviewing, counseling, writing, advocacy and negotiating. Professor Jill I. Gross, Director of Legal Skills, oversees the entire program, along with Peter Widulski, Assistant Director of First Year Legal Skills, who handles the day-to-day aspects of the program and teaches several sections.

Students will take this 5-credit, 2-semester course in small sections of approximately 20 students. Adjunct Professors of Legal Skills will teach a unified curriculum covering case synthesis, case analysis, fact-gathering, informative/predictive writing, client interviewing and counseling, legal research, persuasive writing, and oral and written appellate advocacy. Our highly-trained team of reference librarians will teach students how to conduct print and electronic research, and how to use proper citation form.