Law Commons^™

Lawyering In First-Year Property, Joseph P. Tomain

Faculty Articles and Other Publications

This essay discusses the use of a role-playing exercise in a large (70-100 students), first-year Property II course. The central focus of the course is land use. The author uses a Board of Adjustment hypothetical, with students in the roles of lawyer, client, expert, and member of the Board of Adjustment. I first used the problem to encourage fact analysis. Even second-semester first-year students too easily ignore facts and focus on the "rules of law" seemingly to the exclusion of all else. After using this method, however, it became apparent that many more learning opportunities present themselves. In addition to …