Tag: Center for Law Engagement And Politics

LEAP offers Mock LSAT to Pre-Law Students

The LEAP Center offered a Mock LSAT to SHSU pre-law students this fall, making 16 semesters in a row that the Center has offered this service.

Approximately 57 students showed up for four-hour test on a Saturday morning, simply to assess where they stand on the single most important criterion for being accepted to law school.

SHSU, LEAP Ambassadors, LEAP Center, Center for Law Engagement And Politics, Mock LSAT, Princeton Review, Pre-Law Students

For the past 10 years, SHSU has ranked in the top 150 “law school feeders,” a ranking put out by LSAC.  Our students have gone to top schools around the country and, of course, in Texas.  Part of the reason for this is the many programs offered by the LEAP Center: (1) mock LSATs every semester; (2) Mock Law class every spring; (3) a strong Pre-Law Society organization on campus; (4) law-school trips; and (5) many other programs designed to promote the skills emphasized by law schools.

SHSU, LEAP Ambassadors, LEAP Center, Center for Law Engagement And Politics, Mock LSAT, Princeton Review, Pre-Law Students

Of course, it largely begins with our students, who are willing to spend half a Saturday taking a test simply to invest in their future.

Learning the Law–Mock Law Class with Professor Val Ricks

Every Spring, the Center for Law, Engagement, and Politics invites Professor Val Ricks to teach a Mock Law class on the SHSU Campus. He teaches a class on contract law exactly as he teaches it down in his own classroom at South Texas College of Law in Houston. Students that sign up are emailed the cases about a week before the class and are expected to read and brief them by class time. Professor Ricks teaches the class using the Socratic method, a form of interlocutory discussion, which is commonly used in law schools to develop critical thinking in students.

SHSU, LEAP Center, LEAP Ambassadors, Pre-Law, South Texas College of Law, STCL, Professor Val Ricks, Center for Law Engagement And Politics

The lesson focused on the concept of consideration and how it is an essential element of every contract. We learned all about how both parties in an agreement must each offer something in exchange for the agreement to be considered valid.

SHSU, LEAP Center, LEAP Ambassadors, Pre-Law, South Texas College of Law, STCL, Professor Val Ricks, Center for Law Engagement And Politics

We answered questions about the facts of the case and discussed several different scenarios in which consideration from one of the parties in an agreement was lacking and how it affected the ruling in each case.

SHSU, LEAP Center, LEAP Ambassadors, Pre-Law, South Texas College of Law, STCL, Professor Val Ricks, Center for Law Engagement And Politics

It was a unique opportunity for many of the students who had never been exposed to law school to experience what it’s like inside a law classroom.

SHSU, LEAP Center, LEAP Ambassadors, Pre-Law, South Texas College of Law, STCL, Professor Val Ricks, Center for Law Engagement And Politics

Toward the end of class, Professor Ricks invited anyone who had questions to approach him and ask, to which many students did.

SHSU, LEAP Center, LEAP Ambassadors, Pre-Law, South Texas College of Law, STCL, Professor Val Ricks, Center for Law Engagement And Politics

Before bidding us goodbye, he shared that we performed about as well as his usual first-year students that he teaches down in Houston. As a group, we thanked him for making the drive up to Huntsville and expressed hope that he’d join us again next spring.