Since decades before the Carnegie Report brought skills preparation to the forefront in law school course offerings, Pacific McGeorge has focused its programs on preparing graduates for immediate immersion in practice. “Practice Ready” was our battle cry; we feel we invented it. In 1975, (with co-recipient Cornell) the school won the first Emil Gumpert Award for Excellence in Teaching Trial Advocacy. Pacific McGeorge has expanded its skills offerings to include every aspect of litigation (appellate, ADR, mediation, family law, computer-assisted litigation) and experientially-focused transactional courses.
In addition, the school has added simulation components to the basic doctrinal courses: civil procedure, criminal law and procedure, evidence, property, and contracts.
The school’s commitment to legal education reform is further shown by its recently enacted “Experiential Curriculum,” under which all students complete:
- Three units of a field placement or legal clinic;
- A total of eight units of Simulation and Practicum courses, including at least one Simulation (“courses in which students learn by doing, e.g., Trial Advocacy, Mediation, Negotiations & Settlements, and Business Transactions: The Art of the Deal”) and one Practicum (“courses in which at least one-third of instruction is devoted to a professional skill or set of professional skills”).
2014 also marks two course additions to the first-year curriculum: “The Legal Profession” (addressing Carnegie’s “Third Apprenticeship”) and “Legislation and Regulation” (emphasizing statutory law-making and administrative law). With membership in the ETL Consortium, Pacific McGeorge looks to the future with vigor and enthusiasm.