First-Year Week One Simulations
Georgetown Law offers its first-year students the opportunity to take elective simulation courses during the week before the Spring semester ("Week One"), on a seat available basis.
In these Week One courses, students engage in scenarios that have been developed by Georgetown Law faculty to mirror situations that lawyers face in the real world, allowing students to practice critical legal skills such as conflict resolution, trial skills, interviewing, client counseling, legislative drafting, advocacy, strategic planning, problem solving, teambuilding, presentation skills, professionalism, and emotional intelligence. You can find a complete list of current First-Year Week One 2025 offerings on the Week One 2025 Course Sheet.
Simulation courses are structured to permit for mistakes and provide opportunities for immediate feedback and reflection, giving students the supportive space to hone these legal skills before they need to rely on them in practice. For first-year students, the Week One courses are not only an introduction to experiential learning and the Law Center’s experiential education programming, but a first-hand view into lawyering competencies and law in practice. Week One 2025 will take place from Monday, January 6 through Thursday, January 9, 2025.
Week One courses are optional, 1-credit courses that are graded pass/fail and count toward the 6 credits of experiential coursework required of students matriculating as first-year students in Fall 2016 or later. Attendance at all class sessions is mandatory. Explore our current offerings on the online Curriculum Guide.
Week One 2025 Info Session: Monday, October 21, 4:30-5:30 p.m.Link to Zoom Recording
Join the Office of Experiential Education for an info session to learn about earning an experiential credit as a first-year, the week before the start of the spring semester!
Key Dates
- Monday, October 21 from 4:30 – 5:30 p.m.: First-Year Week One Information Session via Zoom
- Monday, November 4 at 5:15 p.m.: First-Year Week One Registration opens in GU Experience (but LAW 611 v23 Legal Skills in an AI-Powered World is limited to evening student priority registration until November 6 at 9:30 a.m.)
- Tuesday, November 5 at 4:00 p.m. through Friday, November 22 after 4:00 p.m.: Waitlists run in GU Experience
- Wednesday, November 6 starting at 9:30 a.m.: Evening-priority course registration (LAW 611 v23 Legal Skills in an AI-Powered World) opens to all students (day division students)
- Monday, November 25 at 3:00 p.m.: Final waitlist lottery claim deadline, and also deadline to drop first-year Week One courses in GU Experience
Course Credit, Tuition, and Dropping a Course
JD students earn 1 credit toward the 85 credits needed to graduate. The 1 credit counts toward the 6 credits of experiential coursework required of students matriculating as first-year students in Fall 2016 or later.
The credit is graded Pass/Fail (as opposed to letter-graded) and is counted in the Spring semester courseload. The credit also counts toward the 13-credit cap for part-time students for the Spring semester. Note: this pass/fail credit does not count against the 7 credits of pass/fail coursework you can elect to take as an upper-division student.
Course tuition is included in the spring full-year tuition (for full-time students); part-time students pay the per-credit tuition rate for the Spring semester. For part-time students, tuition for the 1-credit Week One course will be added to the total spring tuition (i.e., there is no separate bill issued for the Week One course only).
Due to the intensive nature of Week One courses, the small-group, team, and individual work that is involved, and the preparation that is necessary to ensure a positive student experience, students who wish to drop their Week One course must do so by no later than the drop deadline listed in the Key Dates above.
If a student wishes to drop a Week One course after this deadline, they must secure the permission of their professor(s) and the Assistant Dean for Experiential Education. The Assistant Dean will only grant such requests when remaining enrolled in the course would cause significant hardship for the student. To seek such permission, students should send one email to both their professor(s) and the Assistant Dean for Experiential Education.
Students who are enrolled but do not attend the entirety of the first class session will be withdrawn from the course, with a corresponding “W” posted on their transcript next to the course name.
Upper-Division J.D. Students
If you are an upper-division J.D. student looking for an upper-division experiential Week One course, please see pages 7-10 of the Week One 2025 Course Sheet and note the registration process will be the usual process for upper-division Week One courses.