Legal Techniques and Logic

2 n d Semester, SY 2015-2016
Instructor Information
Instructor

Email/Phone

Office Location & Hours

Golda S. Benjamin

goldabenjamin@gmail.com/
09178117007

[by appointment]

Grading System
70% RECITATION and WRITING EXERCISES
30% FINAL EXAM

Rules
No gadgets in class. All phones and devices on silent mode.
No photocopies of cases and readings on your desks. Just case summaries/digests. You may bring
copies in case you will be asked to read a particular portion of any material.
When you are called for recitation and you are absent, you get a ZERO for the day.
75% is 2.5. 50% is 1.0.
Tears and awesome negotiation skills will not give you a higher/passing grade. Grades are not
treaties: no room for negotiations.
Plagiarism will not be tolerated. You will fail the course if you commit plagiarism in any of your
writing exercises.
Date
November 7

Topic
Orientation and Class Rules

November 14

Thinking like a Lawyer

Anne-Marie Slaughter, On Thinking Like a Lawyer (May 2002), available at
http://www.princeton.edu/~slaughtr/Commentary/On%20Thinking%20Like%20a%2
0Lawyer.pdf
Jordan Furlong, Dont Think like a Lawyer, 1 October 2014, available at
http://www.law21.ca/2014/10/dont-think-like-lawyer/.
Aldisert, Ruggero J., Logic for Law Students: How to Think Like a Lawyer,
available at
http://lawreview.law.pitt.edu/ojs/index.php/lawreview/article/view/117/117
Patel, Dev A., In HLS Classes, Women Fall Behind, available at
http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2013/5/8/law-school-gender-classroom/
Robin West, Socratic Teaching is a Thing of the Past, available at
http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2011/12/15/rethinking-how-the-law-istaught/socratic-teaching-is-a-thing-of-the-past
Bring 2 laptops. Make sure the projector works.

November 21

Case Preparation: Outline making and Mind-mapping (Class writing exercise)

November 28

Talking like a lawyer

Jim McElhaney, More Than Just Words: This is What It Really Means to Talk Like a
Lawyer, available at
http://www.abajournal.com/magazine/article/more_than_just_words_this_is_wh
at_it_really_means_to_talk_like_a_lawyer/
Lurie Daniel-Favors, Think Like a Lawyer. Speak Like A Fish,
http://solopracticeuniversity.com/2011/09/29/think-like-a-lawyer-speak-like-afish/
Republic Act No. 9653, Rent Control Act of 2009
Article XI and Article XXII of the Omnibus Election Code (BP 881)
IRR of the Anti-Drunk and Drugged Driving Act of 2013

December 5

Talking like a lawyer: continuation

Cases will be assigned in class.

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