Chinese attorneys and law students arrive at Oklahoma City University School of Law this weekend for the school's second Certificate in American Law program.

Participants will be immersed in classes on legal ethics, the role of attorneys in the American legal system and introductions to American trial practice, legal research and writing. They will also visit with Oklahoma judges and law firms.

The academic program will cover four weeks, with a 150-minute class meeting four times per week.

Students will be partnered with OCU law student mentors.

Participating law firms include McAfee & Taft, Crowe & Dunlevy, Hartzog Conger Cason & Neville and Derryberry & Naifeh.

Students will also visit the State Capitol, the office of Oklahoma Attorney General Drew Edmondson and the legal department of Hobby Lobby, and witness a naturalization ceremony at the Western District Federal Courthouse in Oklahoma City.

Visits to the Oklahoma City Bombing Memorial, National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum and other sites are also planned.

At the end of the program, the attorneys and students from China will participate in a mock trial in the courtroom of U.S. Magistrate Judge Valerie Couch.

Couch will teach the trial practice class, along with OCU law Professor Bill Conger, who is currently president of the Oklahoma Bar Association.

The students are from Nankai University School of Law in Tianjin, whose dean, Zuo Haicong, traveled to OCU law school in January.

Haicong and OCU law Dean Lawrence Hellman signed an official agreement to continue the Certificate in American Law program.