Curriculum Guide · Courses

Professor Bruce Ohr

J.D. Practicum 1150 | 5 credit hours

This course will introduce students to the challenges involved in fighting organized crime in a transnational setting using both traditional and non-traditional methods. Students will explore the investigative and prosecutive tools developed to fight organized crime in the United States and the benefits and risks associated with each. The class will examine how organized crime has become a global phenomenon and the threats posed by organized crime to the United States and key countries around the globe. Students will confront the special challenges presented by the investigation and prosecution of transnational organized crime groups, and how U.S. agents and prosecutors attempt to meet these challenges. Finally, the class will assess efforts outside of traditional prosecutions to limit the growth and power of transnational organized crime.

The practice component of the course will supplement and inform students’ understanding of each of the themes of the course through internships in various Sections and Offices of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division. As interns, students will have the opportunity to work on complex prosecutions, assist in the exchange of information between cooperating law enforcement agencies of the U.S. and other countries, or work on policy issues relating to international justice affairs.

Prerequisite: Criminal Justice (or the equivalent Democracy and Coercion) or Criminal Procedure. Students must complete the required first-year program prior to enrolling in this course (part-time and interdivisional transfer students may enroll prior to completing Property, or their first-year elective).

Students may not receive credit for this class and the practicum class Federal Fraud Prosecution: Theory and Practice.

Students may not concurrently enroll in this practicum and an externship or a clinic (except Street Law) or another practicum course.

Students who wish to receive credit for the Externship Seminar and a practicum course that has the same field placement may do so only if: (1) the practicum course is taken in a semester following the Externship Seminar; and (2) the student receives permission from the Assistant or the Associate Dean for Clinical Programs. To receive such permission, the student must explain in writing how the practicum course field work would serve substantially different learning goals than did their externship field placement.

THIS IS A PRACTICUM COURSE.

This is a 5 credit course. Two credits will be awarded for the 2-hour weekly seminar and 3 credits for approximately 10 hours of supervised work per week, for a minimum of 11 weeks, to be scheduled with the faculty. The supervised work must be completed during normal business hours. The seminar portion will be graded. The 3 credits of supervised work is mandatory pass/fail and counts toward the 7 credit pass/fail limit. Students will be allowed to take another course pass/fail in the same semester as the supervised work.

The Department of Justice will require students to submit to a security/background check. Because this check will take, at a minimum, six weeks, all students who are enrolled in the class must confirm their intent to remain enrolled by emailing Professor Ohr (bruce.g.ohr@usdoj.gov) by 9:00 a.m. on Monday, September 30, 2013. Enrolled students will be required to fill out and submit the required paperwork by Friday, October 11, 2013. This time constraint means that it is unlikely that any student will be taken off the wait list after the add/drop period for the Fall 2013 semester. A student may withdraw from the course ONLY with permission from the professor. Permission will be granted only where remaining enrolled in the course would cause significant hardship to the student. The Department of Justice also requires that, once students receive their security/background clearance, they attend an orientation session.

Students who enroll in this course will be automatically enrolled in both the seminar and practicum components and may not take either component separately. A student wishing to withdraw from the course will be withdrawn from both the seminar and field work components.