Pre-Law Extended Learning Opportunities

Mock Trial

Pre-law students have the option of enrolling in a one-credit course and trying out for Canisius’ Mock Trial team. Through mock trials, students learn about trial proceedings and rules of evidence while honing valuable courtroom skills.

Washington, DC Trip

Each spring since 1991, Robert Klump, Esq., director of the Raichle Pre-Law Center, has taken pre-law students on a four-day educational trip to the Washington, DC area. Students are able to hear oral arguments before the US Supreme Court, visit the US Congress and the White House, and tour historic sites in Virginia. 

Raichle Pre-Law Lecture Series

The Frank G. Raichle Lecture Series hosts prominent speakers who enrich the campus community’s understanding of the role of law in American society. Since its inception, the series has welcomed legal luminaries including six US Supreme Court Justices: the Honorable William Rehnquist, Sandra Day O' Connor, Antonin Scalia, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Byron R. White and John Roberts.

Other distinguished speakers have included:

  • Akhil Reed Amar, Sterling Professor of Law, Yale University
  • Hon. Robert H. Bork, US Court of Appeals, DC Circuit
  • Samuel Dash, Chief Counsel for the Senate Watergate Committee; Professor of Law and Director of the Institute of Criminal Law and Procedure, Georgetown University Law Center
  • Hon. Harry T. Edwards, Chief Judge, U.S. Court of Appeals, DC Circuit
  • Robert P. George, McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence, Princeton University
  • Rudolph W. Giuliani, US Attorney, South District of New York; former Mayor of New York City
  • C. Boyden Gray, former US Ambassador to the European Union and former White House Counsel
  • Orrin G. Hatch, US Senator (R-Utah)
  • Rt. Hon., The Lord Geoffrey Howe, Member of Britain’s House of Lords
  • Harold Hongju Koh, former legal adviser to the US Department of State; Sterling Professor of International Law, Yale Law School
  • Raymond W. Kelly, former Police Commissioner of the City of New York
  • Randall L. Kennedy, Michael R. Klein Professor of Law, Harvard University
  • Douglas W. Kmiec, Professor of Constitutional Law and Caruso Family Endowed Chair in Constitutional Law at Pepperdine Law School
  • Hon. Alex Kozinski, US Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit
  • John H. Langbein, Sterling Professor of Law and Legal History, Yale Law School
  • Hon. Abner J. Mikva, Chief Judge, US Court of Appeals, District of Columbia
  • Hon. John T. Noonan Jr., US Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit
  • Walter K. Olson, Senior Fellow, Cato Institute Center for Constitutional Studies
  • Hon. Janet Reno, US Attorney General
  • Nadine Strossen, National President of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) 
  • Hon. Sol Wachtler, Chief Judge, State of New York
  • Hon. Patricia M. Wald, Judge, US Court of Appeals
  • Hon. Charles T. Wells, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Florida
  • James Q. Wilson, Professor of Public Policy, Pepperdine University, Professor Emeritus, UCLA
  • Jeffrey Rosen, Professor of Law, George Washington University, Legal Affairs Editor of The New Republic
  • Eliot Spitzer, former New York State Attorney General
  • John C. Yoo, Professor of Law, UC Berkeley School of Law