Portland Community College | Portland, Oregon

Areas of law covered will include criminal, contracts and property, and may include employment, insurance, corporations, juvenile and/or environmental.  A Core course, required for either a Legal Assistant Certificate or an Associate of Applied Science degree.

Upon successful completion the student will be able to:

Utilize analytic skills applying substantive and procedural law to fact situations.
Use legal terminology effectively in the legal field.
Brief a court opinion.
Communicate regarding substantive and procedural legal topics.
Draft a legal pleading.

Course format is lecture with class discussion, as well as individual and small group problem solving.  It may include guest speaker(s) and a trip to a law library.  Homework will be primarily reading and application of law to problems presented.

Grades will be based upon homework completion and class participation (25%), mid-term exam (25%), and final exam (50%). Exams will be a combination of recall in short answer/short essay form, and problem solving essay form.  The latter will be mostly open book.

Demonstrate an understanding of the substantive areas covered  by application of relevant law to given fact patterns.
Participate in hands on introductory experience at law library with report of problem presented and materials consulted.
Contribute to class discussions and small group problem solving.
Write grammatically correct, cogently reasoned and authoritively supported analysis of problems/fact patterns presented on exams.