Digital Commons Network^™

Latinas In The Legal Academy: Progress And Promise, Raquel E. Aldana, Emile Loza De Siles, Solangel Maldonado, Rachel F. Moran

Faculty Scholarship

The 2022 Inaugural Graciela Oliva ́rez Latinas in the Legal Academy (“GO LILA”) Workshop convened seventy-four outstanding and powerful Latina law professors and professional legal educators (collectively, “Latinas in the legal academy,” or “LILAs”) to document and celebrate our individual and collective journeys and to grow stronger together. In this essay, we, four of the Latina law professors who helped to co-found the GO LILA Workshop, share what we learned about and from each other. We invite other LILAs to join our community and share their stories and journeys. We hope that the data and lessons that we share can …

Trauma-Informed (As A Matter Of) Course, Natalie Netzel

Faculty Scholarship

Law students are impacted by trauma and law professors are in a position to help by adopting a trauma-informed approach as a matter of universal precaution. The 2021 Survey of Law Student Well-Being (“SLSWB”) revealed that over twenty percent of responding law students meet criteria that indicate they should be evaluated for post-traumatic stress disorder (“PTSD”). The study also revealed that almost fifty percent of responding students reported an important motivation for attending law school was experiencing a trauma or injustice. Put differently, law schools are full of law students who have experienced trauma, many of whom are actively struggling …

The Black-White Paradigm’S Continuing Erasure Of Latinas: See Women Law Deans Of Color, Laura M. Padilla

Faculty Scholarship

The Black-white paradigm persists with unintended consequences. For example, there have been only six Latina law deans to date with only four presently serving. This Article provides data about women law deans of color, the dearth of Latina law deans, and explanations for the data. It focuses on the enduring Black-white paradigm, as well as other external and internal forces. This Article suggests how to increase the number of Latina law deans and emphasizes why it matters.

Forensic Science In Legal Education, Brandon L. Garrett, Glinda S. Cooper, Quinn Beckham

Faculty Scholarship

In criminal cases, forensic science reports and expert testimony play an increasingly important role in adjudication. More states now follow a federal reliability standard, following Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals and Rule 702, which calls upon judges to assess the reliability and validity of such scientific evidence. Little is known about what education law schools provide regarding forensic and scientific evidence or what types of specialized training they receive on scientific methods or evidence. Whether law schools have added forensic science courses to their curricula in recent years was not known. To better understand the answers to those questions, in …

Lawyering Paradoxes: Making Meaning Of The Contradictions, Susan P. Sturm

Faculty Scholarship

Effective lawyering requires the ability to manage contradictory yet interdependent practices. In their role as traditionally understood, lawyers must fight, judge, debate, minimize risk, and advance clients’ interests. Yet increasingly, lawyers must ALSO collaborate, build trust, innovate, enable effective risk-taking, and hold clients accountable for adhering to societal values. Law students and lawyers alike struggle, often unproductively, to reconcile these tensions. Law schools often address them as a dilemma requiring a choice or overlook the contradictions that interfere with their integration.

This Article argues instead that these seemingly contradictory practices can be brought together through the theory and action of …

Diverse Magazine Interviews Sonia Gipson-Rankin: Law Schools Respond To The Movement For Social Justice, Sonia Gipson Rankin, Pearl Stewart

Faculty Scholarship

At the University of New Mexico Law School, Professor Sonia Gipson Rankin describes three activities organized in spring 2020 to address the national protest movement – a virtual teach-in; a social justice book club; and a startup student organization, Law Students for Equity & Inclusion. The teach-in included a panel of professors and students who discussed police killings of African Americans, the U.S. history of racial violence, protest and related topics.

Rankin notes that relevant courses such as “Race and the Law,” “Indian Law” and “Refugee Law” were regularly being offered at the UNM School of Law for decades and …

The Racial Architecture Of Criminal Justice, I. Bennett Capers

Faculty Scholarship

One of the pleasures of contributing to symposia—especially symposia where each contribution is brief—is the ability to engage in new explorations, test new ideas, and offer new provocations. I do that now in this essay about race, architecture, and criminal justice. I begin by discussing how race is imbricated in the architecture of courthouses, the quintessential place of supposed justice. I then take race and architecture a step further. If we think of architecture expansively—Lawrence Lessig’s definition of architecture as “the physical world as we find it” comes to mind—then it becomes clear that race is also imbricated in the …

An Introduction To The Collection [Get In Good Trouble: A Collection Of Essays By Millennial Law Scholars], Verónica Gonzales-Zamora

Faculty Scholarship

Get in Good Trouble: A Collection of Essays by Millennial Law Scholars Introduction by Verónica C. Gonzales-Zamora with essays by Kinda Abdus-Saboor, Ernestine Chaco, Marcus Gadson, Verónica Gonzales-Zamora, Camilo Romero, Lysette Romero Córdova, Morenike Saula, Joseph Schremmer, and Hon. Roshanna Toya. Afterword by Marcus Gadson. In response to the global pandemic, legal education in the United States shifted almost immediately to new tools and methods of delivery. Unsure of the lasting impact of these shifts, law faculty and law students around the country remain in limbo preparing for different scenarios when instruction resumes. Millennial law professors and scholars, with decades …

Teaching Professional Responsibility Through Theater, Michael Millemann, Elliott Rauh, Robert Bowie Jr.

Faculty Scholarship

This article is about ethics-focused, law school courses, co-taught with a theater director, in which students wrote, produced and performed in plays. The plays were about four men who, separately, were wrongfully convicted, spent decades in prison, and finally were released and exonerated, formally (two) or informally (two).

The common themes in these miscarriages of justice were that 1) unethical conduct of prosecutors (especially failures to disclose exculpatory evidence) and of defense counsel (especially incompetent representation) undermined the Rule of Law and produced wrongful convictions, and 2) conversely, that the ethical conduct of post-conviction lawyers and law students helped to …

Teaching Social Justice Through “Hip Hop And The Law”, André Douglas Pond Cummings

Faculty Scholarship

This article queries whether it is possible to teach law students about social justice through a course on hip hop and its connection to and critique of the law. We argue, in these dedicated pages of the North Carolina Central Law Review, that yes, hip hop and the law offer an excellent opportunity to teach law students about social justice. But, why publish an article advocating that national law schools offer a legal education course on Hip Hop and the Law, or more specifically, Hip Hop & the American Constitution? Of what benefit might a course be that explores hip …

Foreword, Sudha Setty

Faculty Scholarship

In this Article, the Author reflects on legal education and the role of law reviews. Law reviews not only serve as an educational opportunity, but offer potential legal reforms to help legal scholars, practitioners, and the public understand possible shortcomings of the current state of the law and help law and policy makers contemplate potential improvements.

Teaching Justice-Connectivity, Michael Pinard

Faculty Scholarship

This Essay conveys the importance of building in law students the foundation to recognize the various systems, institutions, and conditions that often crash into the lives of their clients, as well as the residents of the communities that are just outside law schools’ doors. It does so through proposing a teaching model that I call Justice-Connectivity. This model aims for students to understand and be humbled by the ways in which different institutions, systems, and strands of law converge upon, oppress, isolate, and shun individuals, families, and communities. The ultimate teaching lesson is that individuals, families, and communities are often …

Digging Them Out Alive, Michael Millemann, Rebecca Bowman Rivas, Elizabeth Smith

Faculty Scholarship

From 2013-2018, we taught a collection of interrelated law and social work clinical courses, which we call “the Unger clinic.” This clinic was part of a major, multi-year criminal justice project, led by the Maryland Office of the Public Defender. The clinic and project responded to a need created by a 2012 Maryland Court of Appeals decision, Unger v. State. It, as later clarified, required that all Maryland prisoners who were convicted by juries before 1981—237 older, long-incarcerated prisoners—be given new trials. This was because prior to 1981 Maryland judges in criminal trials were required to instruct the jury …

The Culturally Proficient Law Professor: Beginning The Journey, Anastasia M. Boles

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Advocacy In Ideas: Legal Education And Social Movements, Monica Bell, Tanya K. Hernandez, Solangel Maldonado, Rachelle Perkins, Chantal Thomas, Olatunde C.A. Johnson, Elsie Lopez

Faculty Scholarship

Panel moderated by Professor Olatunde Johnson, featuring Professors Monica Bell, Tanya K. Hernández, Solangel Maldonado, and Chantal Thomas. Introduced by Elise Lopez.

Measuring Law School Clinics, Colleen F. Shanahan, Jeffrey Selbin, Alyx Mark, Anna E. Carpenter

Faculty Scholarship

Legal education reformers have long argued that law school clinics address two related needs: first, clinics teach students to be lawyers; and second, clinics serve low-income clients. In clinics, so the argument goes, law students working under the close supervision of faculty members learn the requisite skills to be good practitioners and professionals. In turn, clinical law students serve clients with civil and criminal justice needs that would otherwise go unmet.

Though we have these laudable teaching and service goals – and a vast literature describing the role of clinics in both the teaching and service dimensions – we have …

Exploring The Meaning Of Experiential Deaning, Peggy Maisel, Margaret Martin Barry, Robert Dinerstein, Phyllis Goldfarb, Linda Morton

Faculty Scholarship

This article explores the position of associate dean of experiential education in law schools across the country and the central role associate deans play in the changing landscape of legal education. Experiential deans have broad responsibility for overseeing law schools’ experiential education programs. Additional responsibilities differ between institutions, but range from leading efforts to comply with new ABA standards to overseeing the integration of experiential education into the broader curriculum. Analyzing survey data collected from associate experiential deans across the country, the authors find the structure, content, and authority of the position is under-developed. The authors make recommendations on how …

Teaching Public Policy Drafting In Law School: One Professor's Approach, Lisa A. Rich

Faculty Scholarship

This article provides an overview of the Drafting for Public Policy course offered at the Texas A&M University School of Law. The article addresses the theoretical and pedagogical underpinnings of the course, including how such a course easily encompasses the teaching of cultural context and awareness, as well as professional identity, and encourages students to engage deeply in the policymaking process. It also explores the continued relevance of the work of Harold D. Lasswell, as well as that of Myres McDougal and Anthony Kronman. These works, from 1943 and 1993 respectively, resonate now because they called on law schools to …

Human Rights From The Ground Up: Building The First Law School Legal Aid Clinic In Haiti, Kate Bloch, Roxanne Edmond-Dimanche

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Teaching And Assessing Professional Communication Skills In Law School, Denitsa R. Mavrova Heinrich

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

The Hidden Life Of Andrew Taslitz, Frank H. Wu

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Preparing Law Students To Become Litigators In The New Legal Landscape, Paul Radvany

Faculty Scholarship

The legal world has undergone rapid change over the past few years and law schools and law students are in the midst of adjusting to this new legal landscape. Employers increasingly want to hire students who are ready to practice. As a law student, I participated in an externship, simulation classes, and an in-house, live-client litigation clinic; as a professor, I have taught all three types of classes. 1 My experience, first as a law student, then as a litigator, and now as a professor, has taught me the importance and educational value of experiential learning in helping law students …

Representation For The Accused: Haiti's Thirst And A Role For Clinical Legal Education, Kate Bloch

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Equipping Our Lawyers: Mitchell's Outcomes-Based Approach To Legal Education, Gregory M. Duhl

Faculty Scholarship

It is timely that the William Mitchell Law Review has decided to dedicate an issue to outcomes in legal education. As a long-time innovator in pedagogy, professional skills education, and experiential learning, William Mitchell has once again emerged as a leader in its outcomes-based approach to course and curricular design. Amid the current climate of uncertainty in legal education and the legal profession, and as a relative newcomer to Mitchell’s history, I believe in Mitchell’s future – tied to the past, but innovative and distinct. In this essay, I share our vision for increasing emphasis on outcomes, expanding experiential learning …

Making Good Lawyers, Eli Wald, Russell G. Pearce

Faculty Scholarship

Today, the criticism of law schools has become an industry. Detractors argue that legal education fails to effectively prepare students for the practice of law, that it is too theoretical and detached from the profession, that it dehumanizes and alienates students, too expensive and inapt in helping students develop a sense of professional identity, professional values, and professionalism. In this sea of criticisms it is hard to see the forest from the trees. “There is so much wrong with legal education today,” writes one commentator, “that it is hard to know where to begin.” This article argues that any reform …

Clara Shortridge Foltz Professorship Acceptance, Barbara Cox

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Conversations On "Community Lawyering:" The Newest (Oldest) Wave In Clinical Legal Education, Karen Tokarz, Nancy L. Cook, Susan Brooks, Brenda Bratton Blom

Faculty Scholarship

This Article explores the pedagogical and professional challenges and rewards of community lawyering and clinical legal education. The authors are clinical law faculty who self-identify as community lawyers and teachers of community lawyering clinics. They have gathered in recent years with a larger group of similarly engaged colleagues to discuss what is meant by community lawyering, how it is taught, and how it is practiced. This Article seeks to capture some of those conversations, crystallize some of the ideas that have arisen out of the discussions, and examine the implications of these ruminations for future directions in clinical legal education.

Applying The Access Principle In Law: The Responsibilities Of The Legal Scholar, Richard A. Danner

Faculty Scholarship

This article applies to legal scholarship the ideas developed and argued in John Willinsky’s 2006 book: 'The Access Principle: The Case for Open Access to Research and Scholarship' regarding the responsibilities of scholars to make their works widely available through open access mechanisms via the Internet. Willinsky’s access principle states that “A commitment to the value and quality of research carries with it a responsibility to extend the circulation of such work as far as possible and ideally to all who are in interested in it and all who might profit by it.” For Willinsky, the transformation of scholarly journals …

Grave Building: A Tribute To Charles J. Ogletree, Jr., And His Evolving Legacy, Robin A. Lenhardt

Faculty Scholarship

This tribute celebrates the tremendous legal career of Professor Charles J. Ogletree, Jr. It highlights his many contributions to the legal profession and academy, including his role in preparing a cadre of lawyers for the 21st Century; body of scholarship focusing on racial justice issues; and instrumental role in developing new approaches to civil rights lawyering.

"Tacking Too Close To The Wind": The Challenge To Prosecution Clinics To Set Our Students On A Straight Course, Stacy Caplow

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.