The Curricular Independent Research Project is a graded course for non-U.S. citizen JD and LLM students to receive experience working with a private law firm and reflect upon that experience. Students, after receiving permission from Cleveland State University's Center for International Services and Programs and completing the required forms, are required to complete a 12-15 page paper (exclusive of end or footnotes) that does one of the following: 1) explores a law topic related to but not directly overlapping with legal issues from the student's employment, 2) compares the law and/or procedures of their country of citizenship to those encountered in the student's employment experience, or, 3) explores a professional or ethical topic arising from their employment experience. Students are responsible for securing a faculty advisor prior to registration. The supervising faculty member must grant permission to the student to register in writing. Students may take two total credits of Curricular Independent Research. Students taking the course for .5 credit may repeat the course once with the same employer for a second .5 credit, but the student must write a paper on a different topic than the first time taking the course with the same employer. Students who take the course for one credit (L837) may repeat the course once if the student is employed by a different employer and chooses a different writing project. The Curricular Independent Research Project does not fulfill the Upper Level Writing Requirement.