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California Desert Trial Academy College Of Law
02 March
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Tips On Outlining Essay Answers – IRAC, Issue-Spotting & Relevance

Posted by cdtalaw
in Baby Bar Exam, Bar Exam, CDTA, First year law students
Tips On Outlining Essay Answers – IRAC, Issue-Spotting & Relevance

Whenever the subject of answering legal essays arises, the IRAC technique inevitably rears its ugly head. Why ugly? Because the IRAC method, in its most basic form, is not the optimal way to answer law exam questions. The IRAC method tends toward students devising simplistic and formulaic answers. Nonetheless, for any law student who does not outline his or her answers, IRAC is a good starting point for learning the tools to answer law school exam questions. In fact, practicing and developing it can help students improve their treatment of the analysis section resulting in more sophisticated exam answers. The IRAC method...

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28 February
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Find Your Attorney Mentor

Posted by cdtalaw
in CDTA, Internships & Mentors, Law Practice, Training
Find Your Attorney Mentor

It is an invaluable resource to find a mentor early in a young lawyer’s career. When CDTA Founder and Dean John Patrick Dolan started the California Desert Trial Academy (CDTA), he conceptualized an educational curriculum, not unlike that of a medical school residency program where doctors mentored residents and provided them with the opportunities to apply their new professional skills. As the CDTA approaches its tenth anniversary, the emphasis on each student finding his or her own attorney mentor is as strong as it was when the CDTA opened its doors in 2012. It’s a mantra in many blogs here on...

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26 February
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CDTA: Do It Online!

Posted by cdtalaw
in CDTA, Distance learning, Distance learning law school, Online Law School
CDTA: Do It Online!

There has been a significant increase in the use of various technologies in education generally and the instruction of law in the 21st Century. The California Desert Trial Academy (CDTA) uses all modern forms of technology to help students, especially those who need to utilize the many facets of distance learning and online resources. Since the California Desert Trial Academy opened in September 2012, it has maintained its’ place on the cutting edge of technology and legal instruction. Distance Learning allows students to attend classes in real time, and interact with other students and professors, as they would if they were...

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24 February
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Family, Stress, & 1Ls

Posted by cdtalaw
in CDTA, First year law students, High Pressure
Parents, Stress, & 1Ls

The family and friends of law students tend to not understand that a 1L in law school is nothing like an undergraduate in college. The stress faced by 1Ls in their first year is very much the product of this transition. Parents, husbands, wives, children and any significant others must understand that the increased stress of evolving from undergraduate to law student to lawyer will significantly affect a 1L. Law school has been known to create unmatched stress for many students. Sadly, for some, it has even caused them to discontinue their studies and forget their hopes of being a lawyer....

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21 February
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Expectations of Legal Interns, Part Two

Posted by cdtalaw
in Internships & Mentors, Law Practice, Training, Uncategorized
Expectations of Legal Interns, Part Two

The California Desert Trial Academy’s (CDTA) unique educational platform focuses on students learning the soft skills in addition to the core substantive law. It also includes seeking mentorships and internships to further enhance legal studies with practical real-world experience. Law students should have some advanced notice about an internship and the tasks to be undertaken but won’t know for certain until finally beginning the internship. Anything can, and will, happen. The purpose of an internship is to provide an insightful learning experience for young law students, in return for a little bit (a lot) of hard work. *Organize information If the amount...

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20 February
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Expectations of Legal Interns, Part One

Posted by cdtalaw
in Internships & Mentors, Law Practice, Training
Expectations of Legal Interns, Part One

It is an exciting event when law students become legal interns for the first time. The scope of the responsibilities associated with an internship may vary from one firm to the next based on the number of attorneys an intern serves. An intern’s specific tasks vary based on the area of law the firm practices. Whatever an intern’s duties and jobs, no matter how exciting or mundane, the attorneys, office manager, and staff, have expectations of an intern’s performance. But then, so does every intern have high expectations in an internship. *Observe, learn . . . do From the moment an intern...

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19 February
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The Emotional Side Of Practicing Law: Personal Injury Clients

Posted by cdtalaw
in CDTA, High Pressure, Law Practice, Soft Skills
The Emotional Side Of Practicing Law: Personal Injury Clients

It certainly is no secret that being a defendant in a lawsuit is extraordinarily stressful. However, it is not so clearly perceived that being a plaintiff, especially in a lawsuit involving a personal injury, is equally unnerving and emotionally taxing, even for those with the most justified claims. While it may not be every case, personal injury attorneys must be conscious that they will be representing clients who are the victims and suffer the consequences of tragic, unexpected events. Every person is wound a little different from the next. It is difficult to predict how someone physically and emotionally reacts to...

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18 February
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It’s Never Too Late For New Year’s Resolutions

Posted by cdtalaw
in CDTA, First year law students, High Pressure, Studying
It’s Never Too Late For New Year's Resolutions

The California Desert Trial Academy (CDTA) provides students with a distinctive educational platform that focuses on students learning to become competent and effective attorney-advocates. While CDTA emphasizes those crucial skills that can positively affect an attorney’s legal practice after graduation, many traditional law schools fail to provide a similar focus. The result? Students at some traditional schools fail to receive adequate instruction in skills necessary to practice law and serve clients effectively from day one. It’s never too late for change. Although we’re well into 2020, there are still several months remaining in the spring semester and plenty of time for...

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12 February
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Learning Through Archived Classes: An Invaluable Tool

Posted by cdtalaw
in CDTA, Distance learning, Distance learning law school, Online Law School
Learning Through Archived Classes: An Invaluable Tool

The California Desert Trial Academy (CDTA) embraces modern technology that helps students learn and achieve academic and professional goals. In the past decades, there has been a significant increase in the use of various technologies in education generally and the instruction of law. Technology has allowed educational institutions at all levels to provide more techniques, options, and solutions for their students, including archived classes. The California Desert Trial Academy opened in September 2012, offering a unique approach to legal education in the 21st Century. Co-Founder and Dean John Patrick Dolan, a distinguished legal advocate in his own right, had the vision...

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11 February
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CDTA: Never Too Far Away For Any Student

Posted by cdtalaw
in CDTA, Distance learning, Distance learning law school, Online Law School
CDTA: Never Too Far Away For Any Student

The California Desert Trial Academy (CDTA) is located at 45-290 Fargo Street, Indio, California, in the Inland Empire. Just ten years ago, any resident of the Coachella Valley interested in becoming an attorney-advocate would have to travel quite a distance to attend class and receive a legal education. In 2020, this has changed because of the presence of the CDTA. However, anyone who lives a significant distance from the closest law school can take advantage of CDTA’s distance learning program, as well as those who live closer in Indio and its surrounding areas. The CDTA brings legal education to your home,...

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CONTACT INFORMATION

California Desert Trial Academy College of Law
45-290 Fargo Street
Indio, CA 92201
(760) 342-0900

Call: (760) 342-0900

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Statement of Nondiscrimination

Consistent with sound educational policy, CDTA College of Law does not discriminate on the basis of sex, race, color, ancestry, religious creed, national origin, disability, medical condition, age, marital status, political affiliation, gender identity, sexual orientation, or veteran status.

California State Bar Standard and Required Disclosure

The method of instruction at this law school for the Juris Doctor (J.D.) degree program is principally in physical classroom facilities.

Students enrolled in the J.D. degree program at this law school who successfully complete the first year of law study must pass the First-Year Law Students Examination required by Business and Professions Code 6060(h) and Rule VIII of the Rules Regulating Admission to Practice Law in California as part of the requirements to qualify to take the California Bar Examination.

A student who passes the First-Year Law Students Examination within three (3) administrations of the examination after first becoming eligible to take it will receive credit for all legal studies completed to the time the examination is passed. A student who does not pass the examination within three (3) administrations of the examination after first becoming eligible to take it must be promptly disqualified from the law school’s J.D. degree program. If the dismissed student subsequently passes the examination, the student is eligible for re-enrollment in this law school’s J.D. degree program, but will receive credit for only one year of legal study.

Study at, or graduation from, this law school may not qualify a student to take the bar examination or to satisfy the requirements for admission to practice in jurisdictions other than California. A student intending to seek admission to practice law in a jurisdiction other than California should contact the admitting authority in that jurisdiction for information regarding the legal education requirements in that jurisdiction for admission to the practice of law.

Copyright CDTA California Desert Trial Academy College of Law. All rights reserved. The Desert’s first and only Law School. Proudly serving all of Southern California; accepting applications from Imperial, Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, and San Bernardino Counties.

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