Course Offerings

The Course Listings page is a searchable resource that provides course details, descriptions, prerequisites, and information regarding books for selected courses. Courses are searchable by term, course name, professor, and course type (i.e. Bar Courses, Skills Courses, Paper Seminars).

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Students may click the bookstore link for an open course to view and purchase the required textbooks and/or supplements required for the selected course. Please contact the Campus Bookstore at (713) 646-1756 with questions regarding textbook availability.

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STCL Houston Learning Outcomes for Graduates

The law school’s goal is to educate its graduates to become responsible members of the legal profession dedicated to providing highly competent, effective, and ethical legal representation for their clients.

To achieve those objectives, the faculty of the law school has identified the Learning Outcomes described below. Taken together, these Learning Outcomes describe the faculty’s expectations for the knowledge, skills, and professionalism South Texas students should have when they graduate. Every course in the law school curriculum is designed to contribute to the attainment of some, but not all, of these Learning Outcomes, and each course will emphasize a particular subset of them.

Learning Outcome 1: Substantive Law and Legal Process Knowledge

Graduates of the law school will demonstrate mastery of the foundational areas of legal knowledge and legal processes with the proficiency suitable for a competent entry-level practitioner.

Performance criteria may include, but not be limited to, the demonstrated knowledge of:

(a) the basic rules, principles, doctrines, concepts, and policies (i) in foundational areas of legal knowledge, including Civil Procedure, Constitutional Law, Contracts, Criminal Law, Evidence, Federal Income Taxation, Professional Responsibility, Property, and Torts, and (ii) in such other subjects sufficient to become eligible for admission to the practice of law;

(b) the roles and differing characteristics by which law is made and changed for the various sources of law, state and federal, including the common law; constitutions; legislation; administrative regulations; and the judicial interpretation of legislation, regulations, and constitutions, including international legal materials; and

(c) how to assess the advantages and disadvantages of the various forms of dispute resolution techniques, including both adjudicative processes, like jury and bench trials, arbitration, and adjudicative hearings, and less formal processes, like negotiation, conciliation, and mediation.

Learning Outcome 2: Legal Analysis, Reasoning, and Problem Solving

Graduates of the law school will demonstrate the ability to perform legal analysis, legal reasoning, and legal problem solving with the proficiency suitable for a competent entry-level practitioner.

Performance criteria may include, but not be limited to, the demonstrated ability to:

(a) both orally and in writing (i) identify and articulate the legal issues presented in a variety of factual settings; (ii) recognize and assess the significance of potentially relevant facts, and determine and state the legal rules and principles relevant to the resolution of those issues; and (iii) formulate and evaluate the effectiveness of alternative legal arguments addressing the issues presented, including marshalling the legally significant facts;

(b) both orally and in writing (i) analyze and interpret the legal rules and principles contained in judicial opinions, statutes, administrative regulations, and other legal authorities; (ii) explain the public policies underlying those rule and principles; and (iii) where appropriate, construct plausible alternative interpretations of the legal authorities; and

(c) assist in solving a client’s legal problem or accomplishing a client’s legal objective by virtue of being able to (i) identify the client’s problem; (ii) evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of competing alternative solutions; and (iii) formulate and implement a plan of action.

Learning Outcome 3: Legal Research

Graduates of the law school will be able independently to conduct effective legal research with the proficiency suitable for a competent entry-level practitioner.

Performance criteria may include, but not be limited to, the demonstrated ability to:

(a) develop and implement an efficient and comprehensive research plan;

(b) locate, retrieve, organize, analyze, and evaluate appropriate legal, factual, and policy source material in both written and digital formats; and

(c) differentiate and assess the types and relevance of legal authorities.

Learning Outcome 4: Other Professional Skills, Including Effective Communication

Graduates of the law school will be able to perform such other professional skills as are appropriate for a new lawyer in their chosen areas of specialization with proficiency appropriate for a competent entry-level practitioner.

Performance criteria may include, but not be limited to, the demonstrated ability to:

(a) both orally and in writing, communicate effectively by organizing and delivering appropriate, cogent, and persuasive communications for both legal and non-legal audiences;

(b) engage effectively in client interviewing and counseling, negotiation, factual investigation and analysis, trial advocacy, conflict resolution, and cultural competency; and

(c) engage effectively in drafting professional documents for litigation and drafting professional documents for transactions.

Learning Outcome 5: Professional and Ethical Responsibility

Graduates of the law school will be able to demonstrate an ability to exercise the professional judgment and ethical standards expected of a competent entry-level practitioner.

Performance criteria may include, but not be limited to, the demonstrated ability to:

(a) identify the basic rules, principles, and policies governing the professional responsibilities of lawyers in the United States;

(b) recognize, reflect upon, and respond appropriately to the ethical issues likely to arise in the practice of law; and

(c) understand and support the role of lawyers in society and the professional responsibilities of lawyers in promoting justice and the access to justice and in service to the community.

Learning Outcome 6: Self-Management and Collaboration

Graduates of the law school will be able to the skills and concepts required for the effective and efficient management of law practice with the proficiency suitable for a competent entry-level practitioner.

Performance criteria may include, but not be limited to, the demonstrated ability to:

(a) diagnose their own needs to increase their legal knowledge or to improve their legal skills, formulate professional development goals, identify appropriate professional development resources, and choose and implement a learning strategy for increasing knowledge or improving skills, making use of both self-reflection and feedback, as appropriate;

(b) organize and manage legal work independently; and

(c) collaborate effectively.

View Our Institutional Assessment & Office of Assessment and Research