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 to entire LLM class describing exercise; 13 students signed-up to entire 1L JD class describing exercise Visits to 1L international law elective courses After initial 1L response (60), ed 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