Law Firm Program

Core Elements

Law firms regularly report that new law school graduates arrive at their firms poorly equipped to make positive contributions to the practice of law.  To enhance students’ ability to make the transition from the classroom to the competent and effective practice of law, the University of Detroit Mercy School of Law has designed the Law Firm Program, a series of third-year required courses. 

The Program is structured to reflect how a large law firm handles a complex transaction.  For example, students will learn how to do what real estate lawyers do by doing it themselves: meet with clients, conduct research, negotiate and draft documents and, if applicable, file and manage litigation.  In some cases, third-year students will apply concepts and doctrine learned in the earlier part of their legal education. In other cases, they will be required to research, learn, and apply concepts and doctrinal material not previously encountered.  The classroom sessions will replicate a genuine law firm’s mentoring experience rather than the traditional lecture or Socratic format.  Distinguished Visiting Professors teach the courses and act as a firm’s senior leadership overseeing its associates.

The Subject Matter

The sale of the assets of an ongoing business provides the platform upon which the Program is based.  This core transaction provides an unlimited vehicle for raising a broad range of issues that intersect a vast array of areas of the law. Potential legal issues may include: antitrust, bankruptcy, civil rights, disposition of pending litigation, labor, ethical issues, executive compensation, fiduciary obligations, intellectual property, international mergers and acquisitions, products liability, real estate transactions, securities law, tax issues, and white collar crime, to name a few.  Topics such as family law, estates and trusts, non-white collar crime, and health law may even develop from the core transaction or the parties themselves.

Program Structure

Students may enroll in the course that handles the core transaction, or take one of twelve specialty area modules, typical to the structure of a large law firm. In the core transaction module, students will learn when it is appropriate to call a specialist from another department of the firm.  Students taking the specialty-area modules will assume the role of lawyers from the other departments, handling issues distinct to their subject matter while considering issues that affect the larger matter.

Program Benefits

UDM has responded to the advice of senior associates at local and national firms and bridged the gap between law school and law practice.  Several major national law firms have chosen to select UDM as one of ten law schools nationally at which they choose to recruit on campus.  These firms credit our innovative Law Firm Program along with our nationally ranked and recognized Legal Writing Program as among the many reasons why they actively seek our students.