Developing Professional Skills: Criminal Law

This creative and original book provides ten independent exercises designed to help students master Criminal Law through real legal problems. Working with these exercises, students will tackle difficult criminal law questions to increase their understanding of the course topics while simultaneously developing skills in client interviewing and counseling, legal drafting, negotiation, and advocacy. These exercises also make it easier to integrate skills training into a traditional criminal law course.

Each exercise is based on fundamental criminal law concepts so that the book can supplement any criminal law casebook. Students learn criminal law doctrine through problems requiring them to:

• Negotiate a plea agreement about an appropriate sentence
• Interview and counsel clients about their charges
• Write an email to a supervising prosecutor
• Prepare a defense letter to a prosecutor countering a plea offer
• Draft an amendment to a criminal statute
• Make a closing argument

The book also provides a brief overview and tips for effective interviewing, negotiation, and counseling to help students begin the process of mastering the relevant skills. And it situates the lawyering exercises in the context of related professional responsibility rules.