A Practice Academy for Aspiring Law Students
WashU Law is committed to preparing future legal professionals for the realities of law school and modern legal practice. To advance this mission, WashU Law is launching a new practice-oriented academy designed to give aspiring law students an early introduction to both the academic experience of the first year of law school and the substantive work performed by practicing attorneys and judicial clerks.
Unlike traditional pre-law programs focused primarily on admissions or LSAT preparation, the WashU Law Academy for Aspiring Law Students gives participants an opportunity to experience how law students learn and how lawyers work. Students will be introduced at a high level to the principal subjects taught during the first year of law school, learn the close-reading and analytical methods required to read and brief judicial opinions, and apply those skills through realistic law-firm, transactional, and judicial-clerkship assignments. The academy will also introduce students to two realities of legal education: the sustained workload and close reading required in law school, and the need to analyze legal questions even when the governing law does not yield a single certain answer.
Program Details
Taught live by WashU Law adjunct professor Oliver Roberts, Judge Martin B. “Marty” McGee (NC), and Judge Sarah Smith (IL), this intensive online program introduces participants to the foundational subjects of the first-year law school curriculum while emphasizing the practical application of legal doctrine.
Over seven live sessions, students will study legal research and writing, torts, contracts, civil procedure, criminal law, property, and constitutional law. Participants will also complete substantive legal assignments modeled on the work performed by law students, summer associates, junior transactional attorneys, judicial interns, and law clerks.
Program Dates: January 24 – March 14, 2027
Live Classes: Sundays, January 24 – March 7, 2027 | Sundays, 4:00 – 7:00 PM ET
Location: Online (Live Zoom Sessions)
Application Period: September 1 – November 1, 2026
Priority Application Deadline: Apply by October 1, 2026
Final Deadline to Apply: November 1, 2026
Faculty Instructors:
- Oliver Roberts, Adjunct Professor of Law, WashU Law and Co-Director of the WashU Law AI Collaborative
- Judge Martin B. “Marty” McGee, Senior Resident Superior Court Judge, North Carolina Superior Court
- Judge Sara D. Smith, Third Judicial Circuit of Illinois
Eligible Participants: This program is open to college students, recent graduates, incoming law students, pre-law undergraduates, career changers, and other prospective law students seeking a substantive introduction to law school and legal practice. No prior legal experience is required.
Time Commitment: The program includes 21 hours of live instruction and approximately 20 to 25 hours of outside coursework, for an estimated total student commitment of approximately 40 to 50 hours.
Credentialing Requirements: Participants must attend the required live sessions and satisfactorily complete the program assignments. Students who successfully complete the program will earn a certificate recognizing completion of the WashU Law Academy for Aspiring Law Students.
Questions about the Program? Please contact Oliver Roberts.
Program Objectives
By the end of this program, students will be able to:
- Understand the foundational concepts and analytical frameworks underlying the principal first-year law school subjects.
- Read judicial opinions and identify the facts, procedural history, legal issue, governing rule, analysis, and holding.
- Understand the structure and expectations of legal research and writing, including the appropriate use and limitations of artificial intelligence in modern legal research.
- Apply legal authorities to factual problems through objective legal analysis, including where competing authorities or arguments create uncertainty as to the appropriate legal outcome.
- Experience the type of work performed by law-firm summer associates and junior attorneys.
- Identify legal and business issues in commercial agreements and propose appropriate contractual revisions.
- Understand the role of judicial interns and law clerks in assisting judges with legal decision-making.
- Prepare professional legal work product, including a case brief, memorandum of law, contract-review analysis, and judicial bench memorandum.
- Gain a more informed understanding of both the academic demands of law school, including its workload, close-reading expectations, and inherent legal uncertainty, and the day- to-day practice of law.
Session 1
Sunday, January 24, 2027
Legal Research & Writing: Reading, Briefing, and Analyzing Cases
3:00 pm – 6:00 pm CT
Introduction to legal reasoning, legal research and writing, and the structure of judicial opinions. Students will learn how lawyers and law students closely read cases to identify relevant facts, procedural history, issues, rules, analysis, and holdings within judicial decisions. The session will emphasize how legal reading differs from undergraduate reading and how lawyers analyze competing authorities and arguments when the law does not provide a single certain answer. Legal research instruction will also introduce the use, limitations, and verification requirements of AI-assisted legal research tools.
Students will also be introduced to the process of preparing a formal case brief.
Session 2
Sunday, January 31, 2027
Constitutional Law: Constitutional Interpretation & Judicial Decision-Making
3:00 pm – 6:00 pm CT
Introduction to constitutional law and the role of courts in interpreting and applying constitutional principles.
The session will also explore judicial decision-making and the work performed by judicial interns and law clerks. Students will be introduced to the judicial bench memorandum assignment and the process of providing neutral legal analysis to a judge.
Session 3
Sunday, February 7, 2027
Civil Procedure: Litigation, Courts & the Civil Justice System
3:00 pm – 6:00 pm CT
Introduction to the rules and principles governing civil litigation, including how cases move through the court system and how procedural rules shape litigation strategy and judicial decision-making.
Session 4
Sunday, February 14, 2027
Contracts: Contract Law & Transactional Practice
3:00 pm – 6:00 pm CT
Introduction to foundational principles of contract law and the role contracts play in legal practice. Students will also examine the work of transactional attorneys and participate in a contract-review simulation involving a commercial agreement.
Session 5
Sunday, February 21, 2027
Torts: Civil Liability & the Law of Negligence
3:00 pm – 6:00 pm CT
Introduction to foundational principles of tort law and the analytical methods used to evaluate civil liability. Students will examine how legal rules are developed through judicial decisions and applied to factual disputes.
Session 6
Sunday, February 28, 2027
Criminal Law: Criminal Liability, Defenses & Statutory Interpretation
3:00 pm – 6:00 pm CT
Introduction to foundational principles of criminal law, including the elements of criminal offenses, legal defenses, and the role of courts in evaluating criminal liability. The session will give particular attention to statutory interpretation as a foundational legal skill, including how lawyers and courts analyze statutory text, structure, context, and competing interpretations.
Session 7
Sunday, March 7
Property: Ownership, Possession & Property Rights
Introduction to foundational concepts in property law and the legal frameworks governing ownership, possession, transfers, and competing rights in property.
Practice-Oriented Assignments
A central feature of the program is the opportunity to complete substantive legal assignments modeled on the work students will encounter in law school and legal practice. Students will receive individualized review and substantive feedback on their work, including feedback designed to approximate the review students would receive from supervising attorneys and judges in a professional setting.
- Case Brief
Students will read and brief a judicial opinion, identifying the facts, procedural history, issue, rule, analysis, and holding.
The assignment introduces participants to one of the fundamental methods of reading and analyzing cases in law school.
- Contract-Review Simulation
Students will assume the role of a junior transactional attorney reviewing a short commercial agreement.
Participants will identify legal and business risks, propose revisions to selected contractual provisions, and prepare a concise email to a supervising attorney explaining their recommendations.
- Judicial Bench Memorandum
Students will assume the role of a judicial intern or law clerk assisting a judge with a pending motion.
Students will review relevant legal authorities, excerpts from the record, and competing arguments presented by the parties. They will then prepare a neutral bench memorandum identifying the governing legal standard, analyzing both sides, and recommending how the motion should be resolved.
A sitting or former judge will participate in the judicial component of the program, introducing the assignment, explaining the purpose and expectations of a bench memorandum, reviewing student work and providing feedback, and providing students with insight into judicial decision-making and the role of judicial law clerks.
From the Classroom to Legal Practice
The academy provides students with an accessible, high-level introduction to the principal subjects encountered during the first year of law school, while demonstrating how those doctrines arise in actual legal practice. The objective of each doctrinal session is not comprehensive coverage of a first-year subject, but rather exposure to its foundational concepts and analytical methods, followed by opportunities to apply those concepts through practical exercises and substantive legal work.
Each three-hour live session will generally include:
- Approximately 75 to 90 minutes of doctrinal instruction;
- Approximately 45 to 60 minutes of guided practical exercises;
- Discussion of how the doctrine arises in legal practice; and
- Review of assignments, model work product, and common errors.
Through this combination of classroom instruction and simulated practice, participants will gain experience with both sides of legal education: learning the law and applying it.
By the conclusion of the academy, students will have experienced the process of reading and briefing judicial opinions, conducting legal analysis, preparing a law-firm memorandum, reviewing a commercial contract, and analyzing a legal dispute from the perspective of a judicial law clerk.
Application Process
Admission to the WashU Law Academy for Aspiring Law Students is selective and designed for motivated students seeking a substantive introduction to law school and the legal profession.
The inaugural cohort will be limited to approximately 20 to 30 students to preserve an interactive classroom environment and allow for individualized review and feedback on substantive student work.
The cost of the program is $1,795.
- Application Period: September 1 – November 1, 2026
- Priority Application Deadline: Apply by October 1, 2026
- Final Deadline to Apply: November 1, 2026
- Orientation and Course Materials Released: Week of January 18, 2027
- First Live Session: January 24, 2027
- Final Live Session: March 7, 2027
Disclaimer: This program is offered solely as an optional, non-credit educational experience. Participation does not confer academic credit and does not provide any advantage, preference, or consideration in the admissions process at WashU Law, including with respect to admission, waitlist status, or scholarships. Participation in the program does not grant access to WashU Law student services, facilities, or resources, including library services.