Spring 2027

Criminal Defense Practice

Prepares students for the Wisconsin State Public Defender externship by covering criminal defense practice, including interviewing, investigation, negotiation, and procedural hearings.

no offering record for this termCredits unavailable
Recorded instructors · Spring 2027 No instructors listed

Summary

What you’ll be able to do

  • Identify and apply interview techniques that both ascertain essential facts and facilitate the development of a good attorney-client relationship.

  • Develop an investigation plan based on the relevant law and facts in a specific case.

  • Develop a theory of a case that can be used during both negotiation and litigation.

  • Develop a negotiation plan to effectively engage in plea bargaining on behalf of a defendant in a criminal case.

  • Explain and apply relevant factual details related to initial appearances, preliminary hearings, discovery, sentencing and revocation hearings as needed for successful defense practice.

  • Recognize and relay basic criminal procedure in Wisconsin.

Source: UW Guide

Grade history

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average GPA
letter grades

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Prerequisites

Course map

Declared in Law JD

  • Declared in Law JD
LAW 796

This is a best-effort interpretation; check the catalog requirements above.

Prerequisite text tree
  • Declared in Law JD

Professors

Spring 2027

No instructors recorded for this selection.

Historical instructors & teaching patterns

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Calendar & sections

Spring 2027

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Student experience

the class

Preparation for the Public Defender Project summer externship with the Wisconsin State Public Defender. Covers basic lawyering skills like client interviewing and counseling, investigation and negotiation, and various aspects of criminal defense practice in Wisconsin including initial appearances, preliminary hearings, discovery, sentencing and revocation hearings.

difficulty & workload

No workload feedback recorded.

Topics

  • Wisconsin criminal defense procedure
  • Basic lawyering skills

Skills

  • Client interviewing and counseling
  • Case investigation planning
  • Plea bargaining negotiation
  • Criminal defense procedure application

Grades

Instructor

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Sources & history

UW–Madison

Catalog & offerings

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Student reviews

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Madgrades

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Dataset & model

Recorded 2026-10-14

View the dataset on Hugging Face
Model outputs & technical records
Qwen/Qwen3.8-27B
LLM outputs across runs
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Full model traces

Recorded model configuration, reasoning, and tool conversations.

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Model & dataset provenance 
{
  "model": "Qwen/Qwen3.8-27B",
  "model_revision": "1d4bf0f2ff6012fd82039f2fa52739d0dd7c60c0",
  "task_version": "17",
  "output_id": "62fc953f9bfc88d1c9fe30bd36e0d1af6df85c6c5649401b47e9a7ebb7d3d11e",
  "requirements_status": "valid",
  "dataset_revision": "fc1811fa52e581ea57a35c0cf3343f8740a8ffbf",
  "observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00"
}