The Law Firm Program

Current LFP Departments

Now in it's third year, the LFP has significantly expanded the number of departments (courses) it offers. This year, the LFP is offering 14 departments including Corporate Transaction, Employment Discrimination, Environmental Law, Estates and Trusts, Family Law, Health Law, Immigration, Intellectual Property, International Business Transactions, Litigation, Real Estate Transactions, Small Firm Business, Tax and Torts, with plans in place to launch the Bankruptcy and Employee Benefits departments as well.

Making the Transition to Practice
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 classroom to the competent and effective practice of law, the University of Detroit Mercy School of Law has designed the Law Firm Program (LFP), a series of third-year required courses.

The LFP reflects how a law firm handles a complex transaction.  In the LFP Real Estate department, for example, students 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.  The multiple writing assignments in each department emphasize document drafting and hone the critical lawyering skills required of lawyers.  The classroom sessions replicate the mentoring experience of a law firm with UDM’s Distinguished Visiting Professors serving as the firm’s partners and the students as its associates.

The LFP Departments
The sale of the assets of an ongoing business provides the platform for the LFP Corporate Transaction Department and serves as the platform for all LFP departments.  This core transaction allows the LFP to raise a broad range of issues intersecting a vast array of areas of the law.  Subject areas for the LFP departments may consider antitrust, bankruptcy, civil rights, disposition of pending litigation, employee benefits, employment and labor issues, environmental law, 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.  Additionally, the LFP also may cover subjects such as family law, estates and trusts, non-white collar crime, and health law, developing issues that flow from the core transaction or the parties themselves. 

Bridging the Gap
To learn more about how the Law Firm Program at the University of Detroit Mercy School of Law prepares our students for the practice of law, read our LFP brochure or view our LFP DVD.