Life at Duke Law

Honor Code and Campus Policies

Assistant Dean Lewis Hutchison will introduce the Law School community’s expectations relating to the Honor Code and University standards. You should watch this video before LEAD Week begins. 

Registration and Continental Breakfast

8:00 a.m. | Third Floor Loggia and Star Commons 

Register on the Third Floor Loggia then join your LEAD Fellows and classmates in Star Commons for a light breakfast.

Welcome to Duke Law School

9:00 a.m. | Star Commons

Associate Dean William Hoye and the Office of Student Affairs will welcome you to the Law School.

Dean's Welcome

9:30 a.m. | Star Commons

Dean Kerry Abrams will welcome you to Duke Law and talk with you about success in law school, your career, and beyond.

Meet your LEAD Fellow

10:30 a.m. | Various rooms (see breakout schedule)

Gather with your LEAD Fellows to get answers to questions related to the schedule, parking, university resources, and things to do in Durham. You will participate in activities with this group throughout LEAD Week, and your LEAD Fellow will continue to act as an advisor and social activities planner for your group throughout your first year. You can read more about the 2022-2023 LEAD Fellows here.

Professionalism Luncheon 

12:15 p.m. | JB Duke

Dine with members of the Law School community, including featured speaker, Valecia McDowell T‘95,‘98, who will also lead students in the Duke Law School pledge.

Honor Code Review

2:00 p.m. | Cohort A: Room 3041
3:00 p.m. | Cohort B: Room 3043

Assistant Dean Lewis Hutchison will answer your questions relating to the Honor Code and university standards.

Introduction to Student Resources

2:00 p.m. | Cohort B: Room 3043
3:00 p.m. | Cohort A Room 3041

Academic Affairs, Student Affairs, Career Services, and the Duke Bar Association will inform students of the services they provide.

Ice Cream Social

3:30 p.m. - 5:30 p.m. | Star Commons

Celebrate the beginning of your Duke Law experience! Hosted by the Law School Alumni Association and Duke Law Alumni and Development office.

Campus Tours

3:30 p.m. - 5:30 p.m. | Star Commons

LEAD Fellows will take you on a tour to of a few key areas around campus. 

Introduction to Academic Technologies and the Law Library

10:00 a.m. | Cohort A: Room 3041/Library
11:15 a.m. | Cohort B: Room 3043/Library

Staff from Academic Technologies and the Law Library will introduce you to research and technology services at the Law School; there will also be time available for individual assistance completing the online computing orientation and/or a tour of the Goodson Law Library.

Living with Purpose

10:00 a.m. | Cohort B: Room 3043
11:15 a.m. | Cohort A: Room 3041

QuiAnne' Holmes, M.Ed, the University's Assistant Director of Programs for Wellness with the DukeReach, will present concepts helpful during your time at law school and beyond.
 

Lunch with Classmates

12:00 p.m. | Star Commons

Blueprint to LEAD and our Community*

3:15 p.m. | LARW Sections 3, 6, 7, & 8 Room 3041
1:30 p.m. | LARW Sections 1, 2, 4, & 5 Room 3041

Ebony Bryant, Director of Diversity Initiatives, will show us how to support a respectful and inclusive learning environment while minimizing road blocks.

Legal Analysis, Research, and Writing Classes

1:30 p.m. | LARW Sections 3, 6, 7, & 8 See breakout schedule
3:15 p.m. | LARW Sections 1, 2, 4, & 5 See breakout schedule

Duke Bar Association BBQ

5:00 p.m. | Marcy's Garden/Front Lawn

Meet upper-level mentors and DBA representatives over delicious North Carolina barbeque.

*Indicates Professional Development course credit.

Continental Breakfast

7:30 a.m. | Star Commons

Screening of The Trials of Darryl Hunt

8:30 a.m. | Cohort A: Room 3041

8:30 a.m. | Cohort B: Room 3043

Watch the award-winning HBO documentary about Darryl Hunt, who was convicted of a rape and murder he did not commit and served 18 years in prison before being freed in 2003 based on DNA evidence.

Wrongful Convictions Panel

10:30 a.m. | Cohort A: Room 3041

11:30 a.m. | Cohort B: Room 3043

Exoneree, Dontae Sharpe, Mark Rabil, the attorney for Darryl Hunt, and Professor Jim Coleman, Director of the Wrongful Convictions Clinic, will answer your questions about wrongful convictions.

Public Interest and Pro Bono Opportunities

10:30 a.m. | Cohort B: Room 3043

11:30 a.m. | Cohort A: Room 3041

Assistant Dean Stella Boswell and Directors Bethan Eynon and D.J. Dore from the Office of Public Interest and Pro Bono, will discuss ways to contribute to the community through pro bono and public interest work.

Community Service Kick-off and Lunch

12:30 p.m. | Star Commons

Pick up your lunch in Star Commons and your t-shirt under the tent, then join your group for an afternoon of service.

27th Annual Dedicated to Durham

1:30 p.m. | Various locations around Durham. See handout for meeting locations

Work with fellow students, faculty, and administrators to make a difference in your new community. Please bring closed-toe shoes and clothes that can get dirty.(See breakout schedule.)

Note Taking 101*

10:00 a.m. | Cohort A: Room 3041
11:00 a.m. | Cohort B: Room 3043

Professor Casey Thomson will cover best practices for taking effective notes in class, and then discuss recommended strategies for using those notes to study in between classes.  She will also explain some of the neuroscience behind why these strategies work.

Participation and engagement: How to succeed in class*

10:00 a.m. | Cohort B: Room 3043
11:00 a.m. | Cohort A: Room 3041

How you engage with and participate in a law school class may be very different from classes you have experience in the past. This session, led by Professor Joseph Blocher, is designed to make your faculty's expectations clear, and to provide instruction on how to meet those expectations so that you can be your most successful from the beginning. Please read Desnick v. American Broadcasting Companies in advance of this session.

• Assignments: Learn how to brief a case. 
  • You can begin to do this in a couple of ways.  “Open Book: The Inside Track to Law School Success”, Barry Friedman and John C.P. Goldberg, Second Edition, 2016, is helpful text that is often recommended by professors who teach Legal Analysis, Research, and Writing (LARW). If you are able to purchase the book before LEAD Week begins (perhaps through an online bookseller), we recommend that you read “Guide to the Book” (p. xix), and Chapters 5 and 6. We think you will benefit from reading the rest of this book as you move through your first semester, especially when you begin to outline your courses and prepare for exams. 
  • In addition (or in lieu of reading “Open Book”), you should read the introduction to Torts: Doctrine and Process (2016), Donald H. Beskind and Doriane Lambelet Coleman. Professors Coleman and Beskind have given us permission to post their very helpful guide to briefing cases on the LEAD Week website. The password to access this case was emailed to you.
  • Carefully read and brief the case. Professor Blocher will teach Desnick v. American Broadcasting Companies. You should brief the case before class using the tools you have learned from "Open Book” and the materials from Professors Beskind and Coleman.

Lunch with Classmates

12:00 p.m. | Star Commons

Legal Analysis, Research and Writing Classes

1:30 p.m. | LARW Sections 1, 2, 4, & 5 See breakout schedule

3:15 p.m. | LARW Sections 3, 6, 7 & 8 See breakout schedule

 

Thriving in the Classroom

1:30 p.m. | LARW Sections 3, 6, 7 & 8 See breakout schedule

3:15 p.m. | LARW Sections 1, 2, 4, & 5 See breakout schedule

The law school classroom invites you to consider diverse perspectives, advocate for a range of positions, take intellectual risks, and grapple with sensitive topics. Your professors will have different teaching styles and emphasize different cases, but they are all trying to guide you through rigorous and professional conversations about the most challenging and important problems. This session will explore classroom pedagogy, productive group discussions, the connection between the classroom and the legal profession, and how to thrive in the semesters ahead. Professor Lisa Kern Griffin will host, and the panelists will be Professors Emilie Aguirre, Gina-Gail Fletcher, and Ben Grunwald.

LEAD Week Cookout

5:00 p.m. | Marcy’s Garden/Front Lawn

Celebrate the end of LEAD Week and the beginning of law school with your fellow students, faculty, and administration!

*Indicates Professional Development course credit.