S. Academic Scholars

The objective of this seminar is to introduce students to the multiple dimensions of a legal academic life in order to prepare them intellectually and practically to enter the legal academy. Although the seminar will range over many topics, its principal focus is to assist students in learning how to develop a scholarly project that, at some point in their law school careers, could culminate in a paper for submission to a law review and use as a job talk. The course design includes lectures, seminar-style discussions of scholarship illustrating a range of substantive and methodological approaches (including some classic law review articles), student drafts, selected faculty workshops (including some entry-level job talks that students will attend), guest lecturers and panels from the faculty, and readings on legal careers and life satisfaction. Seminar participants will be encouraged to coordinate with their individual mentors and advisors to structure their project research to coincide with seminar scholarship objectives. Given that this course is a first draft, its structure will be open-textured to allow for mid-course adjustments to reflect student and faculty feedback. The outline of topics below will serve as a guide for the creation of a course syllabus. The seminar grade will be based on class participation (10%) and the quality of the paper submitted at the end of the second semester (90%).  


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This course is open only to students in the Academic Scholars Program.