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Learning Outcomes

The Master of Science in Law Program has six expected learning outcomes for students in each program. Each outcome has multiple enumerated sub-skills. A successful recipient of the Master of Science in Law & Policy degree is expected to:

1. Demonstrate a firm understanding of the legal aspects of the structure, history, and values underlying the American legal system.

  • Use legal terminology appropriately.
  • Apply knowledge of the structure of the legal system to understand the validity of various types of legal pronouncements, rulings and regulations.
  • Identify various types of legal issues when encountering them in the workplace.
  • Identify the steps of the litigation process.
  • Identify the basic attributes of the court system and of common-law development.

2. Identify factual situations that require application of legal principles for resolution of the underlying problem.

  • Apply basic legal principles to facts seen in the workplace.
  • Evaluate the likelihood of legal implications resulting from those facts.
  • Understand the administrative process and the role it plays in resolving disputes that frequently arise in educational settings.

3. Research the broad outlines of the legal question at hand.

  • Locate federal and state statutes in legal texts and online.
  • Locate federal and state regulations in legal texts and online.
  • Locate case law in legal texts and online.
  • Locate legal secondary sources in hard copy and online

4. Recognize when a legal issue requires the involvement of a lawyer.

  • Analyze the way a lawyer will approach a legal issue.
  • Evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of legal arguments regarding the issue at hand.

5. Discuss legal matters intelligently with a lawyer when called upon to do so in their professional lives.

  • Apply knowledge of the relevant statutes, regulations and case law to situations arising in the workplace.
  • Display familiarity with and understanding of a legal vocabulary by communicating with lawyers by properly using their vocabulary.
  • Understand and follow the lawyers' reasoning process as presented orally or through memoranda.
  • Understand and follow the lawyers' use of various legal practice skills.

6. Communicate conclusions clearly and logically.

  • Write a logically constructed, clearly worded, properly supported paper proposing a practical solution to a legal issue in the workplace.
  • Deliver to an audience with diverse backgrounds, including lawyers, a professional oral report clearly communicating factual predicate, analysis and conclusions regarding a legal issue.
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