First Year ProgramThe College of Law provides an exceptional general legal education, focusing on traditional areas of legal study, as well as providing students with a rich variety of elective offerings. The College of Law curriculum includes a set of required courses, strongly recommended courses, and a variety of problem method courses, seminars and clinical programs. The program is predominantly elective in the second and third years of law study.

Small Section ProgramThe heart of a student’s first year at the College of Law is the small section program. In the first semester of the first year, each student is assigned to a Small Section (approximately 25 to 30 students), typically in one of three substantive first year courses: Contracts, Torts or Civil Procedure.

Full-time faculty also supervise practice “labs” in the small sections as an integral part of the substantive first-year course. The writing assignments in the labs generally relate to the substantive material being studied in class; they are created, read and critiqued by the professor.

The Small Section serves as an academic and personal hub during the first year. In addition to sharing the experience of a small class setting with fellow small section students, students in each small section usually share the same class schedule. Other classes, usually classes of 50, 75 or 100, are formed by combining two or more small sections.

The benefits of the small section include the opportunity to develop a community with a group of fellow students and the small section faculty member. In turn, the benefits of the interactions in the small section carry over to the larger first year classes as well. Friendships are often forged among students in a small section that flourish long after graduation from law school. Interactions with one’s small section professor also often extend beyond the first semester of law school, because of the shared academic experience and individualized attention offered in the practice labs, which are an integral part of the small section experience.

Writing OpportunitiesIn the second semester of the first year, students enroll in a three-unit Legal Analysis, Writing, and Research course. This course builds on the initial introduction to legal writing that students will have received in their various practice labs. The Legal Analysis, Writing, and Research course is structured around the small section as well.

In addition, before graduation, each student must complete a substantial paper, which is an original research paper of publishable quality. Substantial papers are written in writing seminars of no more than 15 students, under the supervision of a faculty member. The College provides diverse seminar offerings for the completion of the substantial paper requirement, which are noted in the course listings of this catalog.

The practice labs, the Legal Analysis, Writing, and Research course, and the substantial paper seminars constitute the required writing program. Students may further refine their writing skills by taking Persuasive Communi-cation or Legal Analysis and Legal Reasoning during their second year, by participating in the second year Fegtly Moot Court Competition, and by enrolling in any of a variety of courses requiring significant writing. Finally, membership on the Arizona Law Review and the Arizona Journal of International and Comparative Law provides additional research and writing opportunities. These activities are described in the Student Life section our catalog.