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Developing Professional Skills: Wills, Trusts & Estates

1st Edition
Carla Spivack | Karen J. Sneddon
ISBN: 9781636594798
Subject: Trusts And Estates
Format: Print - Softbound
Page Count: 64
Copyright: 2022 | Status: In Stock
Other Formats Available

The Trusts & Estates book in the Developing Professional Skills series facilitates the incorporation of a wide range of practical legal skills into the trusts and estates classroom to promote student learning. Each assignment draws upon key doctrinal concepts, such as donative freedom, intestacy, will execution and revocation, construction, trust creation & revocation, fiduciary duties, prenuptial agreements, will substitutes, charitable giving, and guardianship. It also seeks to give students a footing in some of the more basic tasks an estate planning attorney would perform, such as explaining succession law to non-lawyers, planning to avoid will contests, locating intestate heirs, etc. Students have the opportunity to develop and refine the following skills in the context of estate planning:

  • Composing legal letters and professional emails
  • Writing court petitions, interrogatories, and charitable gift agreements
  • Developing counseling plans and best practices guidance
  • Conducting a negotiation
  • Engaging in client counseling
  • Creating community presentations

Secondarily, this book also incorporates social issues that are inherent in the study and practice of estate planning. These issues revolve around the role of estate planning and succession law in perpetuating wealth inequality. Many of the assignments touch upon these issues; it is of course up to the professor how much to draw them out and emphasize them. Each assignment is complete and effective even without emphasis on these issues. However, they add a worthwhile dimension to the book.

The accompanying Teacher’s Manual includes teaching tips, practice norms, legal ethics points, assessment guidance (including the inclusion of rubrics), and additional assignments for each chapter. Where appropriate, it also expands upon the social issues appearing in the assignment.


Imprint: West Academic Publishing
Series: Developing Professional Skills
Publication Date: 06/24/2022
Related Subject(s): Lawyering Skills, Professional Identity Formation

Carla Spivack, Albany Law School

Karen J. Sneddon, Mercer University School of Law

CasebookPlus™

This title is available in our CasebookPlus format. CasebookPlus provides support beyond your classroom lectures and materials by offering additional digital resources to you and your students. Anchored by faculty-authored formative self-assessments keyed to our most popular casebooks, CasebookPlus allows students to test their understanding of core concepts as they are learning them in class – on their own, outside of the classroom, with no extra work on your part. CasebookPlus combines three important elements:

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  • Black Letter Law questions (available in select subjects)
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Essay and short answer questions with sample answers and expert commentary, in 1L and select upper-level subjects

Leading digital study aids, an outline starter, and audio lectures in select subjects

Students can still utilize CasebookPlus digital resources if they’ve purchased a used book or are renting their text by purchasing the Learning Library at westacademic.com.

With CasebookPlus, you can customize your students’ learning experience and monitor their performance. The quiz editor allows you to create your own custom quiz set, suppress specific quiz questions or quiz sets, and time-release quiz questions. Additionally, the flexible, customized reporting capability helps you evaluate your students’ understanding of the material and can also help your school demonstrate compliance with the new ABA Assessment and Learning Outcomes standards.

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