Albany Law School's Lawyering Program begins students' experience in the integration of theory with practice. All first-year students participate in the Introduction to Lawyering course where they are placed into firms and begin their representation of clients. 

Through simulations, discussion, questions and answers, and hands-on practice, students are introduced to client interviewing, case planning, legal research, legal reasoning, client counseling, legal writing, alternative dispute resolution, and oral advocacy. Through classroom exercises and assignments, students learn to think like lawyers and are well prepared for summer associate positions after completing their first year of law school.

Each Lawyering professor provides students with a hypothetical situation wherein the student represents either a plaintiff or a defendant. Each hypothetical situation provides students with an opportunity to examine both a statutory issue and a common law issue by delving into the problem as a lawyer. 

Students then:

• obtain background information on the law;
• investigate and elicit facts;
• learn to analyze the problem from a lawyer's perspective;
• are introduced to ways of assisting clients in decision-making; and
• learn the basics of advocating for their client. 

Students receive extensive feedback throughout the year on all tasks. Feedback is both written and oral, and students are encouraged to attend both group and individual conferences, and to meet with their professor as needed. Students also have access to teaching assistants.

The Lawyering Program enables students to begin the transition from layperson to lawyer by learning to be an attorney through simulations. The Lawyering Program coordinates with the Albany Law Clinic & Justice Center to prepare students for the role of an attorney, with full responsibility for a client's case in one of the Law School's many Clinics.