Most Law Schools Just Educate, CDTA Educates, Trains, And Develops
Many schools do an exceptional job of teaching students the black letter law of core subjects such as torts, real property, and contracts. Unfortunately, this is all that these law schools endeavor to do. Thus, most of the students in traditional law schools graduate with only knowledge of the substantive law and little practical instruction beyond it. Many traditional law schools would say that teaching the substantive law is their only function. At the CDTA, we go beyond educating our students: we also train and develop our students to be exceptional attorney-advocates in any courtroom.
The core curriculum of most traditional law schools revolves around three to five hours of daily classroom instruction of the substantive law. Case after case, brief after brief, a typical law school class teaches the black letter law, those basic standard elements or principles of law, which are generally known and free from doubt or dispute. These include the basic principles of law that are accepted by a majority view of judges in most states. This is typically followed by an analysis of the minority view.
While the educational value of such information to a law student is obvious and indisputable, traditional law schools provide little or no consistent instruction on the practical application of this information in a real-world setting or context. The CDTA trains students how to be lawyers from day one. CDTA trains students and develops their practice and advocacy skills through classroom interaction and other exercises each day.
Discussions with legendary trial attorneys, F. Lee Bailey and Gerry Spence, repeatedly raised a common theme – law school graduates possess adequate knowledge of the substantive law, but fail to possess the courtroom skills necessary for advocating effectively on behalf of their future clients. As a result of these conversations, John Patrick Dolan and Irene Garcia Dolan were inspired to start the California Desert Trial Academy with an emphasis on teaching students the practice of law, rather than just the knowledge of law.
In 2012, CDTA accepted its first class of students with a more practical focus on modern legal education. This focus implements the same comprehensive learning platform as traditional law schools, while considering and remedying the traditional deficiencies of law school graduates. At CDTA, not only do we educate students to be lawyers, but we also train and develop them to be exceptional trial advocates.
The California Desert Trial Academy (CDTA) is a 21st Century law school tailored to meet the needs of working people. Any lawyer must study and know the law. We believe that practical experience in tandem with legal knowledge is the best road to a successful, rewarding, and prosperous legal career. At CDTA, we train, educate, and develop students to be exceptional attorneys and trial advocates. Call us today at (760) 342-0900 or find out more online here.