Author: cdtalaw

The Emotional Side Of Practicing Law: Family Law

The Emotional Side Of Practicing Law: Family Law

The law is never free of emotion since it is the result of the emotional reactions of humans to a given situation. The practice of family law involves serving clients of all cultures and socioeconomic backgrounds at a time when they are coping with and reacting to the disintegration of their families. It requires attorneys to possess a skill set unlike that of no other area of law. Some in the legal field perceive the practice of family law as requiring a low level of technical expertise, which simply isn’t true. While there is, in fact, much expertise necessary to engage...

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Updating Your Outlines

Updating Your Outlines

We ’ve seen all types of legal outlines. From the ten-page outline to the (gulp) 100-page outline, these valuable summaries come in all lengths and forms. They are valuable tools for helping students understand the substantive law. It is likely that outlines are the most important study tool law students will use throughout their time in law school. It’s important for students to keep outlines updated for reasons related to their academic and professional careers. At exam time, students need relevant information in the proper format to study efficiently and effectively. There are various tools and techniques that a law student...

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Passing The Baby Bar The First Time

Passing The Baby Bar The First Time

Students enrolled in the J.D. degree program at the California Desert Trial Academy (CDTA) who successfully complete their first year of law studies must pass the First-Year Law Students Examination (FYSLX), also known as the Baby Bar, required by Business and Professions Code 6060(h) and Rule VIII of the Rules Regulating Admission to Practice Law in California, as part of their requirements to qualify to take the California Bar Examination. At CDTA, your first year of law school is not only geared toward learning the first-year subjects, but it is particularly geared towards passing the Baby Bar. Our school boasts a...

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Use Professor Office Hours To Your Advantage

Use Professor Office Hours To Your Advantage

All students, especially law students, must take advantage of the one-on-one nature of meeting with professors during office hours. These student-teacher interactions are invaluable since they can often evolve beyond the course material into discussions relating to how the subject concepts are connected to other areas of legal study and relevant to the student’s professional goals. It’s the first day of class, and professors typically observe the ritual of telling students their office hours while telling them to stop in if they need assistance or just want to say hello. Sadly, many professors complain that they see very few students during...

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Time Management & The Pomodoro Technique

Soft Skills: Time Management & The Pomodoro Technique

The California Desert Trial Academy’s (CDTA) unique educational platform focuses on students learning the soft skills in addition to the core substantive law. The soft skills that students at the CDTA can expect to learn are numerous. Training goes beyond bar-tested academic subjects and include skills training and values reinforcement. All the soft skills - critical thinking skills, logical, clear and concise writing skills, effective reading skills, and persuasive presentation skills – are important and beneficial to a student’s future success as a legal advocate. One such soft skill is time management. The Pomodoro Technique has been used effectively to...

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A Quick Guide To Running A Law Practice: Client Relations

A Quick Guide To Running A Law Practice: Client Relations

The California Desert Trial Academy is a progressive law school tailored to meet the needs of those who may be limited to seeking a legal education on their own time rather than a set schedule. The CDTA emphasizes an academic experience that focuses on a practical approach to becoming not just a lawyer, but an attorney-advocate. Learning the skills to be an advocate gives students an expedient path to a successful and rewarding legal career. Managing a law firm in an inefficient manner can cause professional, personnel, and financial issues. These issues include the following: malpractice low profits lost revenues rampant...

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CDTA: If You’re Looking For Something Completely Different

CDTA: If You’re Looking For Something Completely Different

While traditional law schools emphasize learning the “law” from textbooks, treatises, hornbooks, and a library full of other legal, literary resources, the California Desert Trial Academy (CDTA) educates, trains, and develops students utilizing classroom, online, and human guidance resources to promote an educational platform equally focused on the hard skills, or substantive law, and the soft skills. If you’re looking for something completely different from traditional law school substantive learning programs, CDTA may be the choice that offers the difference you’re truly seeking. The California Desert Trial Academy opened in September 2012, offering a unique approach to legal education in the...

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A CDTA Student’s Checklist For Year Four

A CDTA Student’s Checklist For Year Four

Year Four of the CDTA’s unique, distinct curriculum includes 3.5-hour weekly sessions on the following subjects: Trial Advocacy Wills & Trusts Business Associations Community Property Legal Memorandum & Brief Drafting Remedies   Like traditional law schools, CDTA’s curriculum is designed to teach students the substantive law of core subject areas. In year four, students delve into business entities (Business Associations), the marital (Community Property), testamentary, and inter vivos dispositions of property (Wills & Trusts), and the enforcement of clients’ rights (Remedies). Unlike traditional law schools, CDTA emphasizes training and developing students to be capable and competent advocates in any courtroom. In year four,...

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Law Under An Evening Sky

Law Under An Evening Sky

Just a few decades ago, if working spouses or parents wanted to attend law school, their choices would be limited to attending a school with a traditional morning-afternoon schedule. Also, unless they lived in a large urban area or college town with a law school, commuting was not an option. Thus, many prospective students, especially those in smaller remote locations such as the Inland Empire and Coachella Valley, would have to quit their jobs and travel or temporarily move just to attend law school. But times have changed, and there are now options for prospective law students all over America,...

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The Emotional Side Of Practicing Law

The Emotional Side Of Practicing Law

Aristotle posed that “the law is reason free from passion.” Of course, this is hardly close to anything that resembles the reality of the practice of law, nor life itself. While in its simplest terms, the law may be the words of a statute or an opinion of a judge, a law has far-reaching effects, and not just on plaintiffs and defendants. There is indeed an emotional side to practicing law. If anything, the law is never free of emotion. The law is the result of emotion – the emotional reactions of humans to a given situation. The practice of law...

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