Bridging the Gap: Using Legal Skills to Connect 1Ls and LLMs

Bridging the Gap: Using Legal Skills to Connect 1Ls and LLMs American University Washington College of Law Jessica Ciani-Dausch Catherine Schenker

Integration problem • WCL has a large international LLM population • 75% of entering JDs say that they chose WCL because of an interest in international law • Many JDs never speak to an LLM during their 3 years at WCL • LLMs leave the ILSP with a large network of international contacts but few American ones.

Integration Pros • Students broaden their horizons • Culture • Practice of law • Professional Contacts • Friendship

Obstacles to Integration • Language issues • Attitudes and stereotypes on both sides • No time • LLMs are not familiar with US law schools • Culture of study groups, outlines • Teachers and administrators have to help

Integration activities • The ILSP LLM program organizes various activities throughout the year: • Practicing Law in ___ series • LLMs talk about the practice of law in their home country • International Week with a pot luck dinner • Various cultural events such as a Ramadan iftar • Legal Rhetoric Program plays a different role; focused on first-year legal writing class

Integration through legal skills • Legal Rhetoric program and the ILSP decided to organize a joint activity to bring 1Ls and LLMs together • Why Legal Rhetoric? • Legal Rhetoric program teaches the practical side of the law, and we wanted to have a real-life exercise • 1Ls and LLMs have similar struggles as they enter US law school • Interest of the teachers

Integration through legal skills • LLMs asked for: • Oral Skills practice • Negotiation practice • Contract drafting • Programs with JDs • JDs asked for: • Real-life lawyering skills • All things “international”

Creating an LLM/JD Exercise Our first idea: • A multinational company attempting to acquire a diamond mine in an African country • American and European lawyers interpreting local rules differently • Negotiation between buyers and sellers • Oral argument on behalf of buyers before local regulators to get approval of purchase

Creating an LLM/JD Exercise What we didn’t want: • Topics that required previous legal training • Anything that would require more than an hour or two of preparation by participants • Topics that could be politically or culturally sensitive • An exercise that would require more than one day to complete • Topics that are complicated to understand

Creating an LLM/JD Exercise The topic we chose: • Child custody issue • Originally considered conflicting laws from two jurisdictions, but decided that was too complicated • Wanted practice with oral skills, so decided to focus on negotiation and client meetings • Picked state of California as jurisdiction where parties would end up if negotiations failed

Child Custody Facts • US mother and Egyptian father • Couple met and married in California, where son was born • Father is Muslim; mother is agnostic; father has large family in Egypt; mother has no living family; son has visited father’s family in Egypt many times • Family subsequently moved to Singapore, Paris, and Hong Kong for father’s job • Couple temporarily separated when mother returned to California with son and father took job in Egypt • Couple decided to divorce and both want custody of son (8 years old)

Getting Student Participants • Email to entire LLM class describing exercise; 13 students signed-up • Email to entire 1L JD class describing exercise • Visits to 1L international law elective courses • After initial 1L response (60), emailed those students asking for a few paragraphs explaining why they were interested in the exercise • From that group (27), selected 12

Preparation Materials • Students received a packet of materials the week before the conference • Packet contained: • brief description of facts • summaries and excerpts of California child custody cases • information on the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction • summary of Egyptian custody law and treatment of foreign court orders • negotiation tips and strategies

Exercise Materials • US dollar costs of raising a child • Template child custody agreement that groups could use if desired (included status of custody, schedule of visitation, telephone communications, religion, child’s travel expenses, and child support) • Father’s lawyers received list of specific cultural and religious requirements for child

The Exercise • Exercise took 4 hours • Students on teams of 4 (2 JDs, 2 LLMs) • Began with an introduction session • Meeting with client • First round of negotiations • Second meeting with client • Second round of negotiations • Debriefing and Reception

The student reviews • LLM students have a wealth of knowledge that the JD students can learn from. • I enjoyed the opportunity to negotiate an agreement working in a team made of people with completely different approaches with regard to the same problem. • It was interesting to see how other cultures really focused on the “mother as the care-giver” as opposed to ours. • The LLMs were very helpful and loved talking to us JDs on a personal level about future career pursuits. • It was a wonderful and well-balanced intercultural experience. It was very helpful to have law students and lawyers from different countries in the same negotiating team.

What would we do differently? • Have the teams meet earlier in the week to discuss strategy • Host a second session for the students to watch videos of the negotiations • Start advertising the exercise earlier to give more students a chance to sign up • Pick one additional set of 8 students

The Future • We hope to repeat the program every semester • Pick a different topic each time • Work on different skills • Rule creation • Synthesis • Contract drafting

The Future • Synchronize the exercise with the topics covered in the Legal Rhetoric and American Legal Institutions (legal research and writing for LLMs) classes

Bridging the Gap: Using Legal Skills to Connect 1Ls and LLMs