Substantive Law Study Support

About Assignments:

Unless otherwise instructed, you are not required to submit assignments to the school or your instructor. However, it will benefit you to write at least a couple of paragraphs related to each assignment in the program. This will encourage you to think through the issues being studied. Collect your responses in a single document or as separate documents in a computer folder. At the end of the program, you will have a "journal" that may be of value to you once you start work as a paralegal.

Assignment 1:

            This assignment asks students to consider the generally uncomfortable question of marital rights between siblings. Students are asked to provide an objective assessment of the arguments on both sides, which can be quite challenging in light of the subject matter.  Although not detailed in the assignment itself, you may want to have them analyze this case in in light of Obergefell – thus, the question would be narrowed to what the arguments would be on both sides in light of this decision.       

Assignment 2:           

For this assignment, students are asked to write a memo for their supervising attorney who is representing a lesbian couple against a florist who refused to sell them flowers for their wedding, in which they set out the arguments the florist could raise in support of this refusal.  To this end, students will need to engage with the variety of first amendment claims that have been raised in these cases. Consider arguments for both sides.

You can keep the assignment relatively simple by only identifying the arguments that have been raised, with a brief explanatory note for each. 

Assignment 3:           

This assignment provides students with the opportunity to consider the difference between marriage and cohabitation through researching the law in their state regarding the dissolution rights of a client in a cohabiting relationship.   In most jurisdictions, the case law is likely to be fairly contained in this regard, thus making this a relatively straight-forward assignment.