Basic Lawyering Skills Training
Basic Lawyering Skills Training (BLaST) helps lawyers develop the foundational skills necessary for a successful career in legal services. Our unique educational approach allows participants to put these new skills into practice immediately. Experienced practitioners guide and mentor participants throughout the course, which also introduces the history, culture and values of the legal aid community.
What you will learn
In Basic Lawyering Skills Training, participants learn to handle the case of Mona Hawkins through such activities as a mock interview, case planning, and counseling simulation.
By the conclusion of Basic Lawyering Skills Training, participants will have:
- Explored the values and purposes of legal aid and how these relate to their experiences as legal aid attorneys;
- Analyzed and applied frameworks for client interviewing, case analysis, and client counseling;
- Identified barriers to effective client communication and developed skills and strategies to overcome them;
- Prepared for and conducted a mock negotiation and motion argument;
- Practiced basic trial skills such as marking and entering exhibits, making and meeting objections and examining and cross-examining witnesses;
- Identified common ethical issues arising in the course of client interviewing and counseling as well as resources that can help to resolve them;
- Developed tools for integrating what they learn in the BLST course into their day-to-day practice.
This course addresses the following ABA Standards of Practice for the Provision of Civil Legal Aid: 2.6: Achieving lasting results for clients; 3.1: Full representation; 2.4: Cultural Competence; 4.2: Establishing a clear understanding; 4.3: Protecting Client Confidentiality; 7.1: Establishing an Effective Relationship with the Client; 7.8: Legal Counseling; 7.7: Case Planning; 7.9 Negotiation; 7.11-3- Motion Practice; 7.13 – Legislative & Administrative Advocacy; 7.11-5 Trial Practice
As featured in Equal Justice Magazine
"[A] hallmark of Legal Aid U.'s instructional approach since its inception has been an unmistakably strong emphasis on reinforcing the core mission of legal services to provide meaningful access to justice to those who would otherwise go without. Ordinarily, attorneys who work in legal aid receive their continuing legal education credits through their local bar associations, where classes tend to be generalized and applicable to a range of legal disciplines. Legal Aid U. offers targeted continuing legal education with a specific public interest focus."
-- "Logging Time at Legal Aid U.", Equal Justice Magazine (spring 2005)
Which Location?
Please click on the links below to learn more about Basic Lawyering Skills in your area.
If you would like to have Basic Lawyering Skills (or any other CLAE training) delivered closer to home, please contact us for further information.
- Mona's Story
Video that introduces the client to participants as well as raises points for discussions such as barriers to client trust and the practical meaning of client-centered lawyering
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BLAST course booklet
Review this booklet for a description of the course and a sample agenda -
Sample case planning forms
Forms used in the course to help lead participants through the case planning and analysis orocess -
Sample Activity: Active Listening
An example of the types of hands-on activities participants engage in during the course of BLaST -
Sample Article: "Interviewing"
An excerpt from a reading assignment for BLaST Unit 2, Interviewing -
Sample Worksheet: Active Listening
An example of the types of material participants receive and can make use of in their own practice after the course ends -
"Logging Time at Legal Aid U."
Equal Justice Magazine article featuring LAU, with particular focus on BLaST