Columbus School of Law

 First Year Curriculum

The first-year curriculum, which is prescribed for all students, is designed to develop the basic analytic skills that characterize the able lawyer and to give the student some familiarity with the dominant features of the substantive areas of law.

The courses, materials, and method of teaching in the first year are designed to enable the student to distinguish the relevant from the irrelevant, to question underlying assumptions and supposed facts, and to place real-life situations into a workable legal framework.

Through the analysis of judicial opinions, statutes, and other material, the first year curriculum is designed to give students the ability to perceive a problem from many different perspectives and to realize that choices must be made and procedures must be followed to effectively meet the client's needs. The student learns to use facts, to isolate the relevant from the less relevant, and to arrange a factual pattern into a legal framework. The student also learns how to apply legal principles in different practical applications.

The first-year curriculum is also fashioned to orient the student to the general areas of substantive law. No law student, or lawyer for that matter, can have a detailed knowledge of all legal areas but the student should be able to recognize the basic legal dimensions of a problem and work that problem through to its conclusion. The first-year curriculum is designed to give students a fundamental understanding of the law.

At the Columbus School of Law, the academic programs are a comprehensive legal education weaving a strong theoretical foundation with sophisticated practical training. This distinctive educational approach furnishes students with the mental tools to face the demands of the 21st century.