Baylor Law School will offer an executive LL.M. in litigation management beginning in the fall 2018.
The niche degree, open only to attorneys with at least three years of law practice, will focus on controlling rising litigation costs. Led by attorneys and judges, the online and in-person courses will include fundamentals of 21st century litigation management and strategy, proving and attacking damages, managing complex arbitration and ADR issues, data analytics and cybersecurity, managing e-discovery, regulatory issues, and practical strategies for successfully navigating through trial.
“Litigation is a fact of life for businesses in America,” David Dial, a partner in Weinberg Wheeler Hudgins Gunn & Dial, said in a press release. “Successfully and efficiently managing litigation involves teamwork between the client and the attorneys. This cannot happen unless one truly understands the process and has the tools necessary for managing litigation. I believe the Baylor Executive LL.M. in Litigation Management will provide that understanding and equip its participants with the necessary tools.”
Attorneys in the program can expect to spend about 10 hours weekly over 14 months working on the degree through interactive online learning. Attorneys will then gather three times in Waco at the law school for intense, two-week residential learning experiences, working with experts to synthesize and master material.
“Graduates of the program will leave with an agile sense of both the business and the strategy of litigation,” Professor Liz Fraley, co-creator of the degree, said in a press release. “We’re addressing a key issue both for clients and for attorneys: how to manage complex and expensive litigation in a way that is both cost effective and goal oriented.”
Professor Jim Wren, the creative drive behind the executive LL.M., said the students will learn from national leaders in the field.
“We have been talking almost every day to people from around the nation who are the cream of the crop and who are already doing litigation management well,” he said in a press release. “We’re going out there and finding the people doing various aspects in the very best way and we’re bringing them in. It’s going to be a melting pot of the best of practices out there.”
Baylor Law is now accepting applications for the inaugural class. To apply or to find more information, go to llm.baylor.edu or email Ed Nelson at ed_nelson@baylor.edu.