Alison Siegler : Courses and Seminars
Intensive Trial Practice Workshop
LAWS 67503
This practicum teaches trial preparation, trial advocacy, and strategy through a variety of teaching techniques, including lectures and demonstrations, but primarily through simulated trial exercises. Topics include opening statements, witness preparation, direct and cross examination, expert witnesses, objections at trial, and closing argument. Practicing lawyers and judges are enlisted to provide students with lectures and critiques from varied perspectives. The practicum concludes with a simulated jury trial presided over by sitting state and federal court judges. Evidence is a prerequisite. Students taking the Intensive Trial Practice Workshop may enroll in Pre-Trial Advocacy. Completion of this workshop partially satisfies one of the requirements for admission to the trial bar of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. This practicum is open only to students entering their 3L year and limited to 54 with preference given to students who have been accepted into a Clinic course. Students who have taken Trial Advocacy (LAWS 67603), Advanced Trial Advocacy (LAW 93802), Poverty and Housing Law Clinic (LAWS 90512), or Trial Practice: Strategy and Advocacy (LAWS 91702) may not take this course. This practicum is offered for approximately six hours/day during the two weeks prior to the beginning of the Autumn Quarter. The student's grade is based on class participation.
Autumn 2009
Herschella G. Conyers, Craig B. Futterman, Mark J. Heyrman, Jason Huber, Randall D. Schmidt, Alison Siegler, Randolph N. Stone
Pre-Trial Advocacy
LAWS 67403
This seminar focuses on fundamental pretrial litigation strategies and skills, including creation and evaluation of legal and factual theories, pleading and motion practice, interviewing clients and witnesses, discovery planning, depositions, negotiations and pretrial preparation. The seminar employs a variety of learning methodologies, including lectures, small group discussions, simulated exercises, and videotaped performances by students. Evidence is a prerequisite. Students taking Pretrial Advocacy are also eligible to enroll in the Intensive Trial Practice Workshop. The student's grade is based on class participation. Enrollment is limited to 48 students with preference given to students who have been accepted into a clinic course. Students who have taken Advanced Trial Advocacy (LAWS 93802) may not take this course.
Spring 2010
Herschella G. Conyers, Craig B. Futterman, Mark J. Heyrman, Jason Huber, Randall D. Schmidt, Alison Siegler, Randolph N. Stone
Federal Sentencing: Balancing Judicial and Prosecutorial Discretion
LAWS 47602
The Supreme Court has dramatically changed the federal sentencing landscape in recent years, making federal sentencing the least settled and most dynamic area of federal criminal jurisprudence. This seminar examines the recent federal sentencing revolution in the context of the history of federal sentencing. We will study the Federal Sentencing Guidelines and recent Supreme Court cases that struggle to define the Guidelines' proper role in sentencing. A central focus of the seminar will be the ongoing struggle to balance judicial discretion and prosecutorial discretion, and the fundamental tension this creates between the executive branch and the judiciary. The seminar will also focus on the ongoing debate over sentencing disparities. Reading materials are varied and include Supreme Court and lower court cases, the Federal Sentencing Guidelines, law review articles, Sentencing Commission studies and reports, and Department of Justice internal directives. Various guest speakers will visit class, including federal district court judges and an Assistant United States Attorney. Students will be expected to complete a 20-25 page practice-oriented research and writing assignment based on an actual federal case. Students will be graded based on their written submissions and class participation.
Winter 2010
Alison Siegler
Criminal Procedure II: The Federal Adjudicative Process
LAWS 47301
This course will conduct a survey of pre-trial and post-trial federal criminal procedure and the federal criminal process after formal proceedings have commenced, focusing on the constitutional and statutory law that governs at each stage. Topics will include: pretrial release and detention, the preliminary hearing, the grand jury, the charging instrument, joinder and severance, discovery, selected trial issues (including confrontation rights), plea bargaining and negotiation, and sentencing. We will also examine perspectives on prosecutorial discretion and ethics, as well as ethical issues surrounding the representation of criminal defendants. Various guest speakers will visit class, including federal district court judges. The student's grade will be based on an in-class examination and on several short writing assignments. (This course will not cover any of the material addressed in Criminal Procedure I, and that course is not a prerequisite.)
Autumn 2009
Alison Siegler
Independent Research
LAWS 49901
Second- and third-year students may earn course credit by independent research under the supervision of a member of the faculty. Such projects are arranged by consultation between the student and the particular member of the faculty in whose field the proposed topic falls.
Autumn 2009
Alison Siegler
Federal Criminal Justice Project
LAWS 67513
The Federal Criminal Justice Project's primary mission is to zealously represent indigent defendants charged with federal crimes while giving students a unique opportunity to practice in federal district court. The FCJP will represent clients from arrest through trial or guilty plea and sentencing, and will also represent clients on probation/supervised release, appeal, and beyond. Students will be assigned to cases in teams of two, and will advocate orally and in writing on behalf of their clients at every stage of the case. FCJP students will interview clients and witnesses; conduct and participate in bond hearings, preliminary hearings, arraignments, plea hearings, sentencing hearings, and trials; prepare and file written motions; negotiate with Assistant United States Attorneys and probation officers; and participate in investigations. In addition to representing individual clients, the FCJP will serve as an information clearinghouse and resource for Chicago federal criminal defense lawyers, and will work to address larger systemic problems. Students will learn to represent clients at every stage of a federal criminal case by attending required weekly supervision sessions that will include skills exercises and simulations, as well as lectures and discussions. Given the intensity and timeline of federal criminal cases, students are required to commit to three quarters in the FCJP, and will receive a total of six credits (averaging out to two credits per quarter). The prerequisites are Evidence, Criminal Procedure I, and the Intensive Trial Practice Workshop. In addition, students in the clinic are required to take Criminal Procedure II: The Federal Adjudicative Process. It is strongly recommended that FCJP students take Criminal Procedure II during the fall quarter of their third year, contemporaneously with their clinic work.
Autumn 2009
Alison Siegler
Federal Criminal Justice Project
LAWS 67513
The Federal Criminal Justice Project's primary mission is to zealously represent indigent defendants charged with federal crimes while giving students a unique opportunity to practice in federal district court. The FCJP will represent clients from arrest through trial or guilty plea and sentencing, and will also represent clients on probation/supervised release, appeal, and beyond. Students will be assigned to cases in teams of two, and will advocate orally and in writing on behalf of their clients at every stage of the case. FCJP students will interview clients and witnesses; conduct and participate in bond hearings, preliminary hearings, arraignments, plea hearings, sentencing hearings, and trials; prepare and file written motions; negotiate with Assistant United States Attorneys and probation officers; and participate in investigations. In addition to representing individual clients, the FCJP will serve as an information clearinghouse and resource for Chicago federal criminal defense lawyers, and will work to address larger systemic problems. Students will learn to represent clients at every stage of a federal criminal case by attending required weekly supervision sessions that will include skills exercises and simulations, as well as lectures and discussions. Given the intensity and timeline of federal criminal cases, students are required to commit to three quarters in the FCJP, and will receive a total of six credits (averaging out to two credits per quarter). The prerequisites are Evidence, Criminal Procedure I, and the Intensive Trial Practice Workshop. In addition, students in the clinic are required to take Criminal Procedure II: The Federal Adjudicative Process. It is strongly recommended that FCJP students take Criminal Procedure II during the fall quarter of their third year, contemporaneously with their clinic work.
Winter 2010
Alison Siegler
Federal Criminal Justice Project
LAWS 67513
The Federal Criminal Justice Project's primary mission is to zealously represent indigent defendants charged with federal crimes while giving students a unique opportunity to practice in federal district court. The FCJP will represent clients from arrest through trial or guilty plea and sentencing, and will also represent clients on probation/supervised release, appeal, and beyond. Students will be assigned to cases in teams of two, and will advocate orally and in writing on behalf of their clients at every stage of the case. FCJP students will interview clients and witnesses; conduct and participate in bond hearings, preliminary hearings, arraignments, plea hearings, sentencing hearings, and trials; prepare and file written motions; negotiate with Assistant United States Attorneys and probation officers; and participate in investigations. In addition to representing individual clients, the FCJP will serve as an information clearinghouse and resource for Chicago federal criminal defense lawyers, and will work to address larger systemic problems. Students will learn to represent clients at every stage of a federal criminal case by attending required weekly supervision sessions that will include skills exercises and simulations, as well as lectures and discussions. Given the intensity and timeline of federal criminal cases, students are required to commit to three quarters in the FCJP, and will receive a total of six credits (averaging out to two credits per quarter). The prerequisites are Evidence, Criminal Procedure I, and the Intensive Trial Practice Workshop. In addition, students in the clinic are required to take Criminal Procedure II: The Federal Adjudicative Process. It is strongly recommended that FCJP students take Criminal Procedure II during the fall quarter of their third year, contemporaneously with their clinic work.
Spring 2010
Alison Siegler
Independent Research
LAWS 49901
Second- and third-year students may earn course credit by independent research under the supervision of a member of the faculty. Such projects are arranged by consultation between the student and the particular member of the faculty in whose field the proposed topic falls.
Winter 2010
Alison Siegler
Independent Research
LAWS 49901
Second- and third-year students may earn course credit by independent research under the supervision of a member of the faculty. Such projects are arranged by consultation between the student and the particular member of the faculty in whose field the proposed topic falls.
Spring 2010
Alison Siegler
