Rebecca Goldman (PHD ’09) does not want to go to law school or be a lawyer. But as an environment and resources PhD student who hopes someday to develop policies for sustainable land use, she would like to know how lawyers approach land disputes.

Frederick Antwi (MBA ’08) is a second-year business student who, when he goes to work for an investment firm, wants to better understand how securities laws are structured.

Both Goldman and Antwi had a chance to explore these subjects last fall thanks to Thinking Like a Lawyer—a new law school course designed to offer non-JD students a window into core legal concepts. Taught by 12 law school faculty with areas of expertise ranging from torts to intellectual property, the course drew approximately 70 graduate students from a wide cross-section of disciplines.

“Law is a lot like learning music,” says Larry Kramer, Richard E. Lang Professor of Law and Dean, who helped to develop the class and taught two sessions. “In music, there are a limited number of foundational notes and chords that one learns to combine in ever more complex ways to create different melodies and different styles of music. So, too, in law there are a limited number of concepts and forms of argument that law students learn to use and that make up the underpinnings of different fields of law.”

The idea is to explore essential questions in the legal field, says Mark Kelman, James C. Gaither Professor of Law and vice dean, who came up with the course concept and oversaw its development.

“We’re not trying to teach law ‘lite.’ We’re teaching law in a reduced and intense way, focusing on the essence of a particular subject area and addressing key conceptual issues that come up again and again.” Thinking Like a Lawyer comes at a time when the law school is seeing an influx of non-law students taking law courses—from fewer than 20 students per year in past years to more than 70 in 2006-07. At the same time, there’s been a 10-fold increase in law students venturing to other parts of campus for courses. In the past, law students registered for 30 classes outside the law school in a typical year. In 2006-07, there were 305 such registrations. As for Goldman and Antwi, they say Thinking Like a Lawyer offered them a unique perspective on how lawyers frame problems, as well as how law professors approach teaching. “It’s much more pedantic than [business school] classes. I like how they use the Socratic method,” says Antwi. For Goldman, the class should prepare her for life after Stanford. “I’m going to be sitting at a table with lawyers discussing land-use contracts, policy and other issues,” she says. “This course gives a breadth of understanding so I can communicate with them and understand the complexities that go into their work.”