By the fourth year of Law School at American Heritage University School of Law, a student is now familiar with most legal terminologies, expectations, and new study habits are formed by this time. Three courses in this phase of your legal education are part of the Scope of the California Bar Examination.
Each of those courses is highlighted in the course descriptions below.
Students will examine the California law relating to community, quasi- community and separate property, the division of marital assets upon divorce and death of a spouse, marital agreements, business assets, commingling of funds, property improvements, spousal liability for community and separate debts, education expenses, spousal rights to pension and disability income, lawsuit settlements, life insurance proceeds, and management and transfer of community property assets.
This course covers one of the topics in the California Bar Examination. Learn more at the State Bar’s Website.
This course examines the rules governing civil proceedings and the jury trial system with emphasis on California civil procedural rules. Students will study various phases of civil litigation and learn how to proceed with litigation in a court of law. Students will study and contrast Californian and federal civil procedure rules as they relate to federalism allocations of power between state and federal courts, personal and subject matter jurisdiction, rules of pleading, claim and party consolidation, venue, pre and post-trial motion practice, claim and issue preclusion, discovery, summary judgment, dismissals, and the appellate process.
This course is a two-part survey of the law of probate. Students will learn California probate law as it relates to the formation and validity of testamentary wills, intestacy succession, and disposition of probate assets. Then, students will study common law revocable and irrevocable trusts and the statutory, doctrinal and decisional law pertaining to trust creation, modification and termination, trust management, the powers, duties and obligations of trustees, and beneficiary rights.
This course covers one of the topics in the California Bar Examination. Learn more at the State Bar’s Website.
This course is a survey of attorneys’ legal and ethical obligations, and the standards that are attendant to the practice of law and the legal profession. Students will study California and model statutory codes and decisional law that define an attorney’s legal and ethical obligations to clients, the courts, opposing counsel and the profession. They will study various legal conflicts that may arise during client representation while fulfilling the varying roles of advocate, officer of the court, public icon, and working practitioner.
Students will study the business and economic aspects of the practice law, restraints on practice, the role of the judiciary and the state bar in enforcing attorney rules of professional conduct, and sanctions for violating the rules.
This course covers one of the topics in the California Bar Examination. Learn more at the State Bar’s Website. It also prepares students to take the Multi-State Professional Responsibility Exam.
This course will provide students with instruction related to both the concepts behind and practical applications of legal research, writing and analysis. This course will include instruction in understanding and utilizing primary sources of law including case law, statutory and constitutional law as well as secondary, non-binding sources of law. Students will also receive instruction related to the basics of legal research, both traditional and online, and its importance to the legal process. Lastly, students will be required to draft several legal documents including a legal memorandum and an appellate brief.