Legal Field Studies: CFS 394-0
Credits available:1-4 credits during Fall, Winter, Spring, or Summer.
Credits toward degree: CFS credits typically count towards general elective credits.
For Weinberg students who started at Northwestern before Summer 2023, this course will count one credit toward Weinberg Distribution Requirement for Area III: Social and Behavioral Sciences.
For Weinberg students who started at Northwestern in or after Summer 2023 (including transfer students), this course will count one credit toward the Weinberg Foundation Discipline in Social and Behavioral Sciences. Additionally, it will count one credit toward the Perspectives 1: U.S. Perspectives on Power, Justice, and Equity overlay.
For students in other NU schools, please talk with your academic advisor to see if this or other CFS classes count towards any requirements for you.
Course Description
What is the law? Who makes it? Who wields it? And how might power dynamics of race, class, gender, and more shape people’s experiences under it as well as work within its various systems and offices? This class examines the intersection of law, culture, and society in the United States to help contextualize your internship experiences. Throughout the quarter, we will take up complex questions of ethical decision-making, legal precedent, and debates around whether particular laws and systems are equitable or discriminatory. Along the way, we will discuss different types of legal practice (negotiations, litigation, legislation, public interest, and policy work) and various perspectives on current legal education.
Through the class and internship components, students will develop fundamental lawyering skills, such as: identifying, analyzing, and researching legal and related issues; different forms of writing; developing and evaluating strategies; ethical decision-making; interviewing and investigating; counseling; relationship-building; communicating effectively with different individuals and groups using varied methods and multimedia formats; and supporting and collaborating with different stakeholders inside and outside of the legal profession.
Possible instructor: Sarah Silins
Types of Internships that relate to the Legal Field Studies course: