Curriculum

CURRICULUM

The Charles Hamilton Houston Pre-law Institute was founded in 1979 by attorney Donald Temple one year after his graduation from the University of Santa Clara school of law. In 1980, attorney Temple joined forces with Attorney Everett Bellamy, then a first year Associate Dean at Georgetown Law Center.

Classes have been held at the Law Center ever since.

Temple and Bellamy jointly coordinated and taught CHH's five week summer program until it was extended to seven weeks in 2005.

The Institute was named after the late civil rights Attorney Charles Hamilton Houston, as a tribute to his advocacy on behalf of civil rights and equal justice and is taught in the spirit of Houstonian jurisprudence.

The CHH Institute, as it is affectionately called, offers students a rigorous introduction to the study of law. Its orientation familiarizes students with the substantial legal accomplishments of Charles Hamilton Houston and the road leading to Brown v. Board of Education. During the rigorous a seven (7) week summer course (100 plus class hours), CHH's demanding professors and, extensive course work develops students' legal analysis, legal writing skills, oral advocacy and study skills. The course also develops self-confidence and positive attitudes about the study of law.

CHH professors include a list of accomplished and dedicated African-American lawyers and educators including Attorney and present District of Columbia Bar President, Kim Keenan; Harvard Law, Professor Charles Ogletree; Law Professor Tanya Washington; Dean Everett Bellamy; Administrative Law Judge Jennifer Long; Attorney David Simmons, and Donald Temple. Additionally, many Washington, D.C. metropolitan area judges and lawyers support the program and participate in CHH's annual moot court competition.

The Institute's guest speakers have included, among others, the late Dean Wiley Branton (Former Dean of Howard University School of Law), Attorney James Cobb (former President of the National Bar Association), The Honorable William Coleman (Former Secretary of the Department of Treasury), the Honorable Eleanor Holmes Norton, Attorney Lennox Hinds, Attorney Timothy Jenkins, the late Thomas Duckenfield (former President of the National Bar Association), the late Attorney Frederick Abramson (former President of the District of Columbia Bar Association), Law Professor Angela Davis, Professor John Brittain, the Honorable Judge William Pryor, the Honorable Theodore Newman, the Honorable Inez Smith Reid, Professor Michael Higginbotham, Attorney Themba Mthetwa, the Honorable Gerald Bruce Lee and the Honorable Alexander Williams. Department of Justice Attorney Felicia Chambers, former president of the Washington Bar Association, is shown lecturing to CHH students in the photo above.

The first week of the CHH program covers an in-depth Introduction to the Study of Law. During this class, students are introduced to American jurisprudence, federal and state court systems, critical legal vocabulary, the civil litigation process, and case analysis methods. Students are assigned specific readings in Statsky on Case Analysis and also required to brief the reported Dred Scot case. This CHH segment provides students a preliminary understanding of civil procedure and civil litigation, a sound framework for development of legal analysis techniques and management of law school expectations.

During the second week, students are introduced to legal research and writing. Additionally, they begin the first of three first year courses: civil procedure, torts and contracts. In weeks three and four, students are lectured on appellate advocacy and assigned an appellate issue to brief and argue. Appellate briefs are submitted in week six and argued before a panel of judges and/or lawyers in formal moot court settings. Students are required in week seven to take law school examinations followed by a formal law school graduation program. All classes are held at Georgetown Law Center in the evenings, Monday through Friday, and occasionally on Saturday mornings

The Institute celebrated its 30th consecutive year in 2009 and its graduates have attended more than sixty different law schools across the country.