Where Pressure Meets Practice: Georgetown Law Students Hone Legal Skills in ‘Week One’ Simulation Courses

January 23, 2025

Elina Saxena, F’16, L’27, played the role of senior counsel in the capstone simulation for “Cybersecurity Incident Response: Legal Leadership During Cyber Crisis.”

Short timelines, insufficient information and unrealistic expectations: Those were the constraints students faced in the capstone simulation for the course “Cybersecurity Incident Response: Legal Leadership During Cyber Crisis,” during which they roleplayed lawyers and corporate staff for a hotel chain navigating a potential data breach and threats from cyber threat actors demanding some $20 million dollars in payment.

The course, now in its second year, was one of the 14 experiential learning courses in which 272 students participated as part of Georgetown Law’s Week One program this January. Held annually between the fall and spring semesters, these elective courses count towards experiential learning credits and include opportunities for students to hone practical legal skills under the guidance of practitioner-instructors working in fields ranging from cybersecurity and white-collar crime to sports and entertainment law.

“It was so different from what we’ve done in our doctrinal classes so far,” said Clare Ulmer, L’27, who played the role of company CEO. Despite the challenges of playing a corporate leader in a fast-paced crisis scenario, she noted that the simulation — in which students had to navigate the legal and regulatory requirements related to cybersecurity incidents while crafting a media and customer relations strategy — was her favorite part of the course.

“We got to messily attempt to apply the law in real time as the scenarios unfolded,” said Ulmer, a Global Law Scholar who studied computer science and cybersecurity in college and was eager to learn more about cybersecurity law through the class, which she said bolstered her interest in the field. “It was an opportunity to apply all the reading and analysis skills we developed last semester to an entirely new domain.”

A ‘complex tapestry’ of legal considerations

Clare Ulmer, L’27, talks to her classmates during the capstone course simulation.

During the capstone simulation for “Cybersecurity Incident Response,” Clare Ulmer, L’27, played the role of CEO. “We’re looking at a potential data breach,” she informed her group.

Course instructors and adjunct professors Adam Smith, L’18, a cybersecurity regulatory advisor for Southwest Airlines, and Laurie Lai played an active role in guiding their respective groups through the hours-long simulation and introducing new facts and challenges, including media crises and technical glitches, along the way.

Those curveballs were intended to represent “the good, the bad and the completely absurd” aspects of real-life cybersecurity incident response, Smith said, and gave students the chance to practice how legal professionals convey complex, evolving information to individuals in a variety of roles, including corporate leadership, legal colleagues and members of the public and press.

Instructor Adam Smith sits with students during the course simulation exercise.

Instructor Adam Smith, L’18 (center), guided students through the capstone course simulation — and introduced some surprises along the way.

Both groups, Smith and Lai agreed, did an outstanding job navigating the simulation — and, despite receiving identical facts at the outset, made different decisions leading to divergent outcomes as the scenario unfolded, such as how and whether they chose to engage with the cyber threat actor threatening their fictional hotel chain.

“We’re trying to help them become lawyers who think not only about the legal requirements, but also business considerations and broader principles,” said Lai, among them the importance of prioritization, coordination and communication in real-world legal contexts.

“Being a lawyer has a lot to do with taking the sometimes abstract concepts you learn in law school and translating them into the real world for different stakeholders,” echoed Smith, who added that he hoped the course would help expose students to a practice area with which they may not have otherwise been familiar.

Elina Saxena, F’16, L’27, who played the role of in-house counsel, noted that the course shed light on “the complex tapestry of legal considerations that shape cyber incident responses.”

“It’s probably too soon to tell whether an in-house counsel role is in my own future,” she reflected after the course, “but I can say that I would gladly work with our simulation team again in the future!”

An ‘invaluable’ experience

Students in “Introduction to Sports Television” listen to a class lecture.

Students in “Introduction to Sports Television” reviewed mock talent agreements and reflected on their negotiation skills on day two of the course.

Earlier in the week, 3L students in the upper-division course “Introduction to Sports Television: Drafting & Negotiating Talent Agreements,” offered for the first time last year, were hard at work reviewing and editing provisions from a hypothetical talent agreement for an on-air sports broadcaster.

“Lawyer English can feel like a different language in a contract context,” explained instructor and adjunct professor Raquel Braun, L’10, a sports and media executive and founder of the strategic consulting firm Mulier Fortis, as the students reviewed contract language they had previously drafted to address everything from compensation and services to termination and breach of contract.

Braun reflected fondly on her own experience at Georgetown Law, where she founded GEMALaw, a society for students interested in sports, entertainment and media law and noted that her favorite law school class was a commercial transactions course that offered hands-on practice in reading, drafting and editing contracts. She knew she wanted to return to campus to teach a similar course, she said, in part to help give students the hands-on experience that would benefit them in their roles after graduation.

“This will arm you with more knowledge to take into your practice,” Braun told the class. “There’s theory behind the law and that’s important, but being able to negotiate deals and put them on paper isn’t easy. The only way you get good at it is to just keep doing it.”

While practical takeaways were a highlight of the course, they weren’t Braun’s only focus. “I hope the students got a feel for how fun and creative this area of law can be,” she said. “Getting to problem solve, develop new ideas, craft contract language — these are some of the best parts of being a business and legal affairs lawyer.”

Instructor Raquel Braun, L’10

Instructor Raquel Braun, L’10, founded GEMALaw during her time at Georgetown Law.

Katie Kovarik, L’25, was drawn to the course because of her interest in pursuing sports agency and talent representation after law school. Having worked last summer as a legal intern at a football agency representing college and professional coaches, Kovarik had read contracts — but hadn’t negotiated and drafted one from start to finish until the course.

“One of the best pieces of insight Professor Braun gave us was that the act of negotiating is the art of expectation-setting and skillful communication,” she said.

For Kovarik, the final two-day contract negotiation exercise — in which students were assigned to play either a sports broadcaster’s talent representative or television network’s in-house attorney — proved the highlight of the week.

“It is incredible that our school has successful professionals willing to travel from across the country to impart their real-world experience to us,” she reflected after the final class session, noting that the chance to learn from a Georgetown Law alumna was particularly impactful. “Professor Braun’s class was invaluable to my law school experience.”

Katie Kovarik, L’25, participated in a class discussion about negotiation styles.

During an in-class exercise, students reflected on their approach to conflict. Katie Kovarik, L’25, described her negotiation style as “reasonable,” “empathetic,” and “straightforward.”