Author: cdtalaw

Attorneys, Advocates, And The CDTA Vision

Attorneys, Advocates, And The CDTA Vision

From the time the California Desert Trial Academy (CDTA) accepted its first class of students in 2012, it provided them with a unique, innovative, genuinely modern focus on legal education. While this emphasis implements the same comprehensive learning curriculum as traditional law schools, it contemplates and remedies the common shortcomings of law school graduates. At CDTA, we educate students to be lawyers, but we also train and develop them to be exceptional trial advocates. The Attorney Upon leaving law school with a JD, ideally, a graduate should understand the substantive law and be in the position to start her own practice or assume the role...

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Why The CDTA Embraces Online Technology

Why The CDTA Embraces Online Technology

Even before the advent of the coronavirus pandemic, the California Desert Trial Academy (CDTA), unlike the majority of law schools and educational institutions, embraced and utilized the use of online technology as an important and essential tool for teaching students, not just how to be exceptional attorneys, but exceptional attorney-advocates. Various technologies and applications for use in the instruction of law have become available in the last two decades. The California Desert Trial Academy has taken advantage of many of these tools to assist its students for the last eight years. Always seeking new ways to enrich the law school experience, the CDTA stays...

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Law School Myths And Reality: Law School is Nothing But Reading

Law School Myths And Reality: Law School is Nothing But Reading

There are many myths perpetuated by law school, whether from the public’s general perception of lawyers or the way that law school is portrayed in television shows and movies. Of course, the latter is limited since there are not that many true portrayals of law school in tv and film since perhaps law school as a setting and subject is not the most compelling. Nevertheless, those who have never attended law school tend to accept and believe the prevailing myths, although the reality is quite different. The image of a typical law student tends to be shrouded in the image of someone who...

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Identifying Your Client Base

Identifying Your Client Base

Not every lawyer can be all things to all people. An important component of an attorney’s success is not necessarily having as many clients as possible but finding and attracting the right clients. This not so simple task begins with a lawyer identifying the ideal client base for the firm. Is it even possible that a lawyer has an “ideal client” base? To start, some evaluation should be undertaken to determine this. Ask the following questions: What makes someone part of this client base? What does your ideal client do for a living? Where are potential clients located? How do they...

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Knowing The Minority’s View

Knowing The Minority’s View

A minority or dissenting opinion is an opinion by one or more judges in a legal case who disagree, or dissent, with the decision reached by the majority. Any law student knows that a dissenting opinion creates no binding precedent as any applicable part of case law. Yet, it is not uncommon for judges to cite them as persuasive authority for an argument the holding of a court should be overturned or limited. John Patrick Dolan founded the California Desert Trial Academy College of Law (CDTA) based on the philosophy of not only teaching students the substantive law, but on training, educating,...

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Preparing For The Return To Law School …Whenever It Comes

Preparing For The Return To Law School …Whenever It Comes

In the summer of 2020, life is in flux on a global level. Students whose legal educations may have been interrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic are preparing to take most, if not all, of their classes online. Here are some tips to ensure that you are prepared for the return to law school…whenever it comes. *Maintain physical and mental well-being Stay well and focus on maintaining the good health of those around you, literally. Wear a mask. Whether classes are live or online in the fall semester, if you are not healthy, you will not be able to participate.  With all the...

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Improving Organizational Knowledge-Sharing

Improving Organizational Knowledge Sharing

Lawyers are dependent on using the experience and expertise of other lawyers as a valuable and necessary resource. Convincing employees to freely share their knowledge and ideas is not an elementary, basic task since it involves the implementation of an organizational culture that promotes and fosters the sharing of information. The following factors are crucial to the development of an organizational culture conducive to better knowledge sharing: The design, creation, and fostering of an organizational climate that encourages trust and corporate citizenship. Again, this requires time and commitment, especially from the firm’s leadership, as well as the zeal to challenge the existing...

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The Importance Of Sharing Knowledge In Any Legal Context

The Importance Of Sharing Knowledge In Any Legal Context

The legal profession relies more than most upon efficient knowledge sharing – that is, the exchange of information, skills, or expertise between individuals. This is a logical occurrence since the profession and corresponding business model is built on the ability to retrieve precedents and other information. Attorneys rely on knowledge-sharing in the performance of every aspect of their job. Law students are in school to obtain as much information as possible, so seeking those who share knowledge is an elementary pursuit. The first time a legal intern is assigned by his or her summer boss to draft any pleading is usually a stressful matter. Then, at some point, the boss will refer the intern to a...

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Remote Legal Research Jobs

Remote Legal Research Jobs

As law students in the middle of our legal studies, like everyone else, we are waiting for life to return to normal during the COVID-19 pandemic. It is never a productive exercise to wait. Better to find a way to recognize what the situation offers, i.e., more time at home, and formulate some course of action to take advantage of it. Several employment opportunities related to legal research are available online at this time. A remote legal research job involves researching case law, statutes, opinions, treatises, and other law from the comfort of home. Legal researchers may collect information from both...

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Gaming And Education, Part Two

Gaming And Education, Part Two

The following are some benefits of combining the practice of video gaming with the educational process. *Attention and Memory Capacity There is an undeniable correlation between learning and memorization. Often, students feel overwhelmed during the conventional learning process simply because of the seeming abundance of information presented to them in many different subjects. A wonderful aspect of gaming is that it constantly places players in different circumstances with which they are comfortable and even familiar. This makes them alert and focused with little outside third-party effort, thus gradually improving their ability to pay attention and memorize information. Gamers who play educational video games...

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