Teaching
New Directions in Lawyering: Interviewing, Counseling, and Attorney-Client Relational Skills (3 credits)
Increasing concern about lawyer dissatisfaction has given rise to a number of new approaches to lawyering. There is increasing concern with lawyer de-professionalism, the transformation of law from a profession into a business, low public esteem for the legal profession, professional burnout, high rates of alcoholism and substance abuse within the profession, and higher rates of depression, anxiety, and suicide for lawyers than for other professions. In response, a number of new ways of viewing the lawyering role have emerged that use non-adversarial, psychologically beneficial, and humanistic ways to solve legal problems, resolve legal disputes, and prevent legal difficulties. These include therapeutic jurisprudence, preventive law, restorative justice, collaborative law, holistic law, creative problem solving and a variety of newly emerging problem-solving courts. These approaches seek to broaden traditional conceptions of the legal profession by adding an interdisciplinary psychologically oriented paradigm that concerns itself with client needs and emotional well-being as well as rights.
This course will explore these new approaches and the skills they bring to the lawyering process. Particular emphasis will be placed upon an exploration of ethical issues in the newly defined role. In addition, particular emphasis will be placed on developing ways of bringing increased personal satisfaction, professionalism, and lawyer well-being to law practice, and increasing creative problem solving, preventive lawyering, interpersonal relations, interviewing, counseling, and negotiation skills.
Students will be required to participate in a number of interviewing and counseling exercises and to write a short paper exploring application of one or more of these new approaches to dealing with a particular legal problem or problems. They also will engage in drafting, negotiation, and mediation exercises. The course is designed to teach lawyering skills in a non-litigation context, emphasizing the attorney/client relationship. In addition to participating in simulated exercises, students will interview and counsel juveniles in the Juvenile Detention Center in Miami-Dade County under the supervision of Bernard Perlmutter and Carolyn Salisbury of the Children and Youth Law Clinic and Public Defenders from the Miami-Dade Public Defender’s Office. In preparation for this client-counseling experience, students also will learn relevant law and procedure relating to the representation of juveniles in the direct file process, in which the State Attorney decides whether their cases should be heard in Juvenile or Adult Criminal Court.
Students participating in the Children and Youth Law Clinic will be required to take this course, unless waived by the instructors.
Materials will include Practicing Therapeutic Jurisprudence: Law as a Helping Profession (2000), co-edited by Professor Winick, David B. Wexler, and Dennis P. Stolle, and additional distribution materials. The Class will also read materials on interviewing and counseling, including one of the leading books in the area.
New Directions in Criminal Lawyering and Judging Seminar/Workshop
[1 credit. Seminar or 1 credit Workshop]
This course will address some rapidly developing changes in the practice of criminal law and in the way criminal courts deal with criminal problems. Recent years have seen the emergence of a therapeutic jurisprudence/preventive law model of lawyering. This new model will be examined, focusing on its application in the criminal law context. After introducing the new model and the concept of the “psycholegal soft spot,” the course will examine some new directions in offender rehabilitation, the implications of these new developments on the role of the criminal defense lawyer in plea bargaining and sentencing, and the question of whether criminal defense lawyers should encourage their clients to apologize to the victim of the crime. The course also will discuss the implications of the new model of lawyering for the role of counsel in criminal litigation.
In addition, the course will examine some important emerging trends in the courts and in the process of judging that have been influenced by therapeutic jurisprudence. Recent years have seen the emergence of a number of specialized treatment courts or “problem solving courts.” This emerging trend will be analyzed with an emphasis on drug treatment court, domestic violence court, and mental health court. The course will also examine the role of the criminal sentencing judge and of the implications for the criminal process of the emerging model of restorative justice.
The course will be offered alternatively as a 1 credit seminar or a 1 credit workshop. Students needing to satisfy the writing requirement, which necessitates a 30-40 page paper, should sign up for the course as a 1 credit seminar. Those wishing to write a shorter paper (10-15 pages) should sign up for the course as a 1 credit workshop. The class will meet as a seminar in the usual seminar time period, but classes will only be held approximately half of the semester on weeks that will be announced by the professor.
U.S. Constitutional Law II (3 Cr.)
This course explores various Bill of Rights guarantees and their construction by the Supreme Court. Particular attention will be paid to the 14th Amendment and its privileges and immunities, equal protection, and due process clauses, including analysis of the historical context and modern construction of these provisions and how they have restructured the relationship between the federal government and the states in our federalist system.
The major focus of the course will be on substantive due process, on government authority over the individual, procedural due process requirements of a hearing before a liberty or property rights may be taken away, equal protection principles
In addition to exploring the above substantive constitutional protections, the course deals with constitutional litigation procedural and strategic issues, including the availability of attorney’s fees in civil rights litigation.
Advanced Criminal Procedure (3 Cr.)
Selected issues in federal criminal procedure will be considered, including: entrapment, lineups and other pretrial identification procedures, constitutional limitations on police interrogation practices, the scope and administration of the exclusionary rule, negotiated pleas, joinder and severance, speedy trial, trial by jury and jury selection, sentencing, harmless error, due process methodology, and habeas corpus and other post-conviction remedies.
This course is a must for students interested in becoming criminal defense lawyers or prosecutors. It attempts to be a blend of the theoretical and practical, presenting students with a constitutional framework for dealing with criminal procedure issues and practical skills training concerning many important aspects of criminal practice. Students will be required to participate in a simulated plea bargaining exercise and in other in-class exercises in which they will play the roles of prosecutors and defense attorneys in dealing with hypothetical problems.
Psychology and Law Seminar (2 cr.)
This seminar is designed to acquaint law students with areas of psychological theory that are relevant to the law, and to introduce them to basic Principles of social science methodology and the use of psychological research in legal contexts. Selected topics will be considered relating to the use of psychology and the social sciences in the formulation of legal rules, and public policy, as well as in the application of law.
New Directions in Lawyering: Interviewing, Counseling, and Attorney-Client Relational Skills (3 credits)Increasing concern about lawyer dissatisfaction has given rise to a number of new approaches to lawyering. There is increasing concern with lawyer de-professionalism, the transformation of law from a profession into a business, low public esteem for the legal profession, professional burnout, high rates of alcoholism and substance abuse within the profession, and higher rates of depression, anxiety, and suicide for lawyers than for other professions. In response, a number of new ways of viewing the lawyering role have emerged that use non-adversarial, psychologically beneficial, and humanistic ways to solve legal problems, resolve legal disputes, and prevent legal difficulties. These include therapeutic jurisprudence, preventive law, restorative justice, collaborative law, holistic law, creative problem solving and a variety of newly emerging problem-solving courts. These approaches seek to broaden traditional conceptions of the legal profession by adding an interdisciplinary psychologically oriented paradigm that concerns itself with client needs and emotional well-being as well as rights.
This course will explore these new approaches and the skills they bring to the lawyering process. Particular emphasis will be placed upon an exploration of ethical issues in the newly defined role. In addition, particular emphasis will be placed on developing ways of bringing increased personal satisfaction, professionalism, and lawyer well-being to law practice, and increasing creative problem solving, preventive lawyering, interpersonal relations, interviewing, counseling, and negotiation skills.
Students will be required to participate in a number of interviewing and counseling exercises and to write a short paper exploring application of one or more of these new approaches to dealing with a particular legal problem or problems. They also will engage in drafting, negotiation, and mediation exercises. The course is designed to teach lawyering skills in a non-litigation context, emphasizing the attorney/client relationship. In addition to participating in simulated exercises, students will interview and counsel juveniles in the Juvenile Detention Center in Miami-Dade County under the supervision of Bernard Perlmutter and Carolyn Salisbury of the Children and Youth Law Clinic and Public Defenders from the Miami-Dade Public Defender’s Office. In preparation for this client-counseling experience, students also will learn relevant law and procedure relating to the representation of juveniles in the direct file process, in which the State Attorney decides whether their cases should be heard in Juvenile or Adult Criminal Court.
Students participating in the Children and Youth Law Clinic will be required to take this course, unless waived by the instructors.
Materials will include Practicing Therapeutic Jurisprudence: Law as a Helping Profession (2000), co-edited by Professor Winick, David B. Wexler, and Dennis P. Stolle, and additional distribution materials. The Class will also read materials on interviewing and counseling, probably including one of the leading books in the area.
Grading: Students will be graded on both their written submissions and on the quality of their work in in-class and juvenile detention interviewing and counseling exercises. Students enrolling in the class should be aware that it involves a variety of written and oral exercises designed to improve their interviewing, counseling, and attorney-client relational skills. They also should be aware that they will be expected to prepare for and participate in these exercises and in providing feedback to their fellow students, and that the grade will largely be determined by the quality of their participation.
Therapeutic Jurisprudence (2 CREDITS)
Therapeutic jurisprudence is the study of law’s healing potential. An interdisciplinary approach to legal scholarship that has a law reform agenda, therapeutic jurisprudence seeks to assess the therapeutic and counter-therapeutic consequences of law and how it is applied and to produce legal change designed to increase the former and diminish the latter.
Although the field started out in mental health law, it soon expanded to consider other areas of law ranging from criminal law, family law, juvenile law, and health law to contracts and commercial law, tort law, evidence law, and legal profession.
In addition to studying and attempting to reform substantive legal rules and legal procedures, therapeutic jurisprudence focuses attention on how law is applied by various legal actors such as judges, lawyers, police officers, and expert witnesses assisting the courts. In recent years, there has been growing interest in the application of therapeutic jurisprudence to judging and lawyering.
This seminar will survey the field and its many applications, including its increasing use in international contexts. The University of Miami School of Law recently established a Therapeutic Jurisprudence Center that will conduct empirical research, publish books and articles, and hold symposia and conferences. The seminar will be taught by Professor Bruce J. Winick, the Director of the Therapeutic Jurisprudencc Center, and co-founder of therapeutic jurisprudence.
Students in the seminar will prepare a 30-40 page paper on a therapeutic jurisprudence topic or theme, and will have the opportunity to participate in research or law reform activities conducted by the Therapeutic Jurisprudence Center.
New Directions in Lawyering Workshop: Improving Interviewing and Counseling Skills (2 cr.)
Increasing concern about lawyer dissatisfaction has given rise to a number of new approaches to lawyering. There is increasing concern with lawyer de-professionalism, the transformation of law from a profession into a business, low public esteem for the legal profession, professional burnout, high rates of alcoholism and substance abuse within the profession, and higher rates of depression, anxiety, and suicide for lawyers than for other professions. In response, a number of new ways of viewing the lawyering role have emerged that use non-adversarial, psychologically beneficial, and humanistic ways to solve legal problems, resolve legal disputes, and prevent legal difficulties. These include therapeutic jurisprudence, preventive law, restorative justice, collaborative law, holistic law, and creative problem solving. These approaches seek to broaden traditional conceptions of the legal profession by adding an interdisciplinary psychologically oriented paradigm that concerns itself with client needs and emotional well-being as well as rights.
This workshop will explore these new approaches and the skills they bring to the lawyering process. Particular emphasis will be placed upon an exploration of ethical issues in the newly defined role, ways of bringing increased personal satisfaction, professionalism, and lawyer well-being to law practice, and increasing creative problem solving, preventive, interpersonal relations, interviewing, counseling, and negotiation skills.
Students will be required to participate in a number of interviewing and counseling exercises and to write a short paper exploring application of one or more of these new approaches to dealing with a particular legal problem or problems. Materials will include Practicing Therapeutic Jurisprudence (2000) co-edited by Professor Winick, David B. Wexler, and Dennis P. Stolle, and Therapeutic Jurisprudence and Preventive Law: Transforming Legal Practice and Education, vol. 5, No. 4 of Psychology, Public Policy & Law (1999), and additional distribution materials.
Mental Health Law Seminar (2 cr.)
This seminar considers selected topics in mental health law including the nature of legal definition of mental illness, incompetency in the civil and criminal process, civil commitment, voluntary hospitalization, mental health treatment techniques and the right to refuse treatment, legal insanity, the psychotherapist-patient privilege, and the use of advance directive instruments for those with mental illness.
Administrative Law (3 cr)
Civil Procedure (3cr)
Federal Courts (3cr)
Substantive Criminal Law (3cr)
Sentencing, Prisoners’ Rights, and the Correctional Process (3cr)
Publications
