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In your first year at Villanova Law, you will acquire a thorough grounding in the five foundation courses: Civil Procedure, Contracts, Criminal Law, Property and Torts.  These courses are taught in one semester modules to allow you and your professors to focus intensively on each subject, taking a deep dive into the material.

In addition you will take a transactional practicum in either Contracts or Property, taught in a small section.  In the practicum sections, you will apply Contract or Property legal theory and actually draft the documents a client would need.  Practitioner-consultants will participate to help you connect the doctrine to real-world applications.   You will draft documents based on simulated fact patterns, and your professors will give you detailed feedback, often with the input of the practitioner-consultants.

You will also develop the core practice skills of oral advocacy and legal analysis, writing, and research.  Our nationally recognized legal writing faculty will teach you Legal Analysis, Writing and Oral Advocacy, a hands-on course offered in small sections to insure your writing will be closely supervised by your Legal Writing Professor.  You will learn legal research skills and strategy from our team of lawyer librarians, who work in collaboration with the legal writing faculty.

In the spring semester, you will take Constitutional Law I and select one of the five elective courses.   The elective course you choose will enrich your first year education by providing a different perspective or offering a different paradigm.  Current elective choices are:

• Justice and Rights
• Criminal Procedure
• The Regulatory State
• International Law
• Legislation Practice and Policy

The courses are scheduled as follows:

Fall

Spring

* In each section, either Property or Contracts will be offered in the Practicum and will carry 5 credits.