Law Commons^™

Toward A Writing-Centered Legal Education, Adam Lamparello

Res Gestae

The future of legal education—and experiential learning—should be grounded in a curriculum that requires students to take writing courses throughout law school. Additionally, the curriculum should be one that collapses the distinction between doctrinal, legal writing, and clinical faculty, as well as merges analytical, practical, and clinical instruction into a real world curriculum.

The justification for a writing-intensive program of legal education is driven by the reality that persuasive writing ability is among the most important skills a lawyer must possess and a skill that many lawyers and judges claim graduates lack. Part of the problem is that law schools …

Financial Retrenchment And Institutional Entrenchment: Will Legal Education Respond, Explode, Or Just Wait It Out?, Ian Weinstein

Faculty Scholarship

Both markets and ideas have turned against the American legal profession. Legal hiring has contracted, and law school enrollments are decreasing. The business models of big law and legal education are under pressure, current levels of student indebtedness seem unsustainable, and a hero has yet to emerge from our fragmented regulatory structures. In the realm of ideas, the information revolution has sparked deep critiques of structured knowledge and expertise, opening the roles of the law and the university in society to reexamination. We are less enamored of the scholar-lawyer and gaze with longing at technocrats. I hope that clinical law …

Pro Bono In Times Of Crisis: Looking Forward By Looking Back, Deborah Rhode

Fordham Urban Law Journal

Thousands of lawyers donated their time in response to the crisis of 9/11, but many did not. A remaining challenge is to ensure that the vast majority of the legal profession views public service as an essential professional responsibility. This essay examines previous studies on the pro bono contributions of those in the legal profession and how the findings of those studies show what motivations and sustains lawyers' public service. Specifically, this essay examines pro bono legal assistance in response to the 9/11 crisis. The author explains that it is essential to give law students a sense of obligation in …

Less Is More: Teaching Legal Ethics In Context Symposium: 1997 W. M. Mikeck Foundation Forum On The Teaching Of Legal Ethics, Bruce A. Green

Faculty Scholarship

We who teach legal ethics employ many of the teacher's arts to win our students' appreciation for the course. We do not always succeed. As Deborah Rhode has observed, "[t]here are inherent problems and infinite ways to fail in teaching this subject." Yet, we continue to seek a method for teaching the course effectively. If nothing else, our efforts have led to the development of a substantial body of literature on teaching legal ethics to which this Article will contribute. Its focus is on what, rather than how, to teach. This Article asks: What should be the content of the …

Does Law Teaching Have Meaning? Teaching Effectiveness, Gauging Alumni Competence, And The Maccrate Report, Daniel Gordon

Fordham Urban Law Journal

This Article examines law school teaching evaluation techniques and probes the use of a law school alumni survey to measure teaching effectiveness. The Article focuses on a survey of St. Thomas University School of Law graduates. The Article also examines teaching effectiveness in the context of the MacCrate Report and the so called gaps between legal education and law practice it identified. The Article argues that the MacCrate Report was incomplete in its coverage of teaching effectiveness, and that much of the discord it created can be overcome by focusing on teaching effectiveness.