Law Commons^™

Grit And Legal Education, Emily Zimmerman, Leah Brogan

Pace Law Review

One factor that has received much attention in recent years is “grit,” which has been defined as “perseverance and passion for long-term goals.” Although grit has been studied in a number of different contexts, grit is understudied in the context of legal education. In light of the existing research regarding grit and performance, and the ongoing interest in law student learning, motivation, and performance, we undertook a research project to investigate the relationship between grit and law school academic performance. Although we hypothesized that grit would be positively related to law school GPA, we did not find a statistically significant …

Newsroom: Affordable Excellence Extended To 2016-17, Roger Williams University School Of Law

Life of the Law School (1993- )

No abstract provided.

Podia And Pens: Dismantling The Two-Track System For Legal Research And Writing Faculty, Kristen K. Tiscione, Amy Vorenberg

Law Faculty Scholarship

At the 2015 AALS Annual Meeting, a panel was convened under this title to discuss whether separate tracks and lower status for legal research and writing (“LRW”) faculty make sense given the current demand for legal educators to better train students for practice. The participants included law professors, an associate dean, and a federal judge.2 Each panelist was asked to respond to questions about the “two-track” system—a shorthand phrase for the two tracks of employment at many law schools whereby full-time LRW faculty are treated differently than tenured and tenure-track faculty. The panelists represented differing views on the topic. This …

Female Law Students, Gendered Self-Evaluation, And The Promise Of Positive Psychology, Dara Purvis

Dara Purvis

For the last several decades, studies and surveys have shown that female law students perform worse and feel worse about their experiences in law school than do male students. Hidden in average figures, however, is a subgroup of female students who thrive. Positive psychology, focusing on what traits make people happy rather than how to alleviate depression, provides novel ideas of how to improve legal education for women without making accommodations specifically targeting gender.

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 …

A Tale Of Three “Professions”: Search Engine Optimization, Lawyering & Law Teaching, Ray Campbell

Ray W Campbell

The question has been posed: is legal practice today a profession? This leads, naturally enough, to another question: should society treat it as one? Using the concept of ‘profession’ in different ways, some argue that one thing modern legal practice needs is a good dose of 'professionalism;' others argue that, whatever once might have been true, treating law practice as a ‘profession’ is a rum game best abandoned.

These questions matter. Law enjoys special regulatory privileges and market protections that make little sense if law has become just another form of business – a specialized form of consulting, perhaps. At …

Student Evaluation Of Law Teaching, William Roth

Akron Law Review

So it is that at law schools today no one is particularly happy with their questionnaire and student/facility committees continue to be engaged intermittently in trying to "do something" about it. Everyone agrees that evaluation ought to be done, but few are satisfied that it is now being done properly, or meaningfully. It was into this thicket that the Teaching Methods Section of the Association of American Law Schools set out recently to collect data in the hope that it might lead to a recommended teacher evaluation questionnaire.

Trending @ Rwulaw: Ed Weiss's Post: From The Red Sox Gc: Knowing The Law, Knowing The Business, Weiss Ed

Law School Blogs

No abstract provided.

Introduction To Clinical Teaching For The New Clinical Law Professor: A View From The First Floor, William P. Quigley

Akron Law Review

New clinical teachers, full of enthusiasm and energy, arrive at the law school having just crossed over into the new vocation of professor from their previous work as practicing lawyers. As many as ten eager, dedicated, inexperienced law students will shortly be representing several clients each, under the close supervision of the new clinical faculty member. There is a new office, new coworkers, new cases, new students, but most new of all, a new way of operating. No longer the lone advocate, now the advocate has-become a clinical teacher, working with law students. Dedicated to education and service, the clinic …

Disabilities, Law Schools, And Law Students: A Proactive And Holistic Approach, Kevin H. Smith

Akron Law Review

The understandable and laudable desire of law schools to comply with federal laws and regulations forbidding discrimination against, and requiring the provision of reasonable accommodations to, qualified disabled law students has diverted attention from the range of disabilities possessed by law students and the spectrum of issues raised by disabled students in law school. This article is intended to serve as a starting point and a means to stimulate the needed examination and discussion.

Roll Over Langdell, Tell Llewellyn The News: A Brief History Of American Legal Education, Stephen R. Alton

Stephen Alton

The origin of this essay is a presentation the author made at the Office of the Attorney General of the State of Texas on December 10, 2008. This essay is derived from the author's presentation, which originally was entitled "A Brief and Highly Selective History of American Legal Education and Jurisprudence. " In this essay, the author provides an overview of the history and development of legal education in America, emphasizing the establishment and evolution of the case method of instruction in American law schools and focusing on the influence of American jurisprudence on the development of legal education in …

The Zen Of Grading, Ruthann Robson

Akron Law Review

As law professors, we spend a substantial amount of time engaged in the activity of reviewing exams, papers, and other “evaluative devices” with the purpose of assigning our students grades. Personally, I estimate that I have spent over four thousand hours (almost six months of days and nights, or a year of long summer days) hunched over student work during my teaching career. It can be difficult not to consider student exams as a mere obstacle, a chore of the most unpleasant type to endure, and the worst part of our otherwise usually rewarding work as professors. Grading law school …

The Modern University And Its Law School: Hierarchical, Bureaucratic Structures Replace Coarchical, Collegial Ones; Women Disappear From Tenure Track And Reemerge As Caregivers: Tenure Disappears Or Becomes Unrecognizable, Marina Angel

Akron Law Review

Recent changes in the organizational structure of law schools and universities have not been positive from the perspective of all women and men of color, the last hired. Tenured positions are disappearing rapidly and the nature of those that remain is changing drastically. Organizational structures are becoming more hierarchical, with women at the bottom of the hierarchy.

Forty-Two: The Hitchiker's Guide To Teaching Legal Research To The Google Generation, Ian Gallacher

Akron Law Review

This article is a meditation on contemporary legal research and possible changes in the way the subject should be taught. Absent from this article is any mention of the importance of teaching students about the mechanical workings of the various tools lawyers use to conduct legal research. It seems so resoundingly obvious that law schools should be doing this that any discussion of the issue would appear contrived and sterile. The much more interesting, and more difficult, questions to answer are what else law students should learn, who should teach it to them, and why they should learn it. These …

The Need For Prompt Action To Revise American Law Schools, Richard A. Westin

Akron Law Review

American law students are in a crisis. The ghost fishing crisis was cured when the law required that the lobster trap’s door eventually open, thanks to biodegradable metal hinges or gates. Unfortunately, there is no such relief for the glut of law students. The ABA Journal reports that 85% of graduates from accredited law schools in 2010 were burdened with debts averaging $98,500, but they are graduating into a weak economy where their prospects for employment have narrowed greatly. Students in previous classes have far from been absorbed into the legal industry and classes behind them promise a continuing flow …

What It Means To Be A Lawyer In These Uncertain Times: Some Thoughts On Ethical Participation In The Legal Education Industry, Susan Carle

Akron Law Review

I will first take a quick look in Part II at the basic data regarding employment statistics for recent law school graduates. This is the primary source of concern cited by those who argue that legal education is in profound crisis. What those statistics show, in a nutshell, is that large law firm hiring is down, but that small firm hiring is up by even more significant amounts, and that salaries for employed graduates continue to rise. What also continues to rise is the new law graduate unemployment rate, though not by the exaggerated dimensions some reports imply. New lawyers …

Law Schools And The Legal Profession: A Way Forward, Peter A. Joy

Akron Law Review

This essay proceeds in four parts. Part II briefly examines the disengagement of law schools from the legal profession both in much of the scholarship produced and through courses required for graduation. Part III analyzes why some state bar regulators are imposing admission requirements in response to law schools failing to prepare students better for the practice of law. Part IV discusses the types of bar admission requirements being considered. Finally, in Part V, I argue that rather than being reactive and resistant to change, law schools should be forward looking and incorporate changes that will not only better prepare …

Tyranny Of The Meritocracy?: A Disputation Over Testing With Professor Lani Guinier, Dan Subotnik

Dan Subotnik

No abstract provided.

Portals To Practice: A Multidimensional Approach To Integrating Experiential Education Into The Traditional Law School Curriculum, Myra Berman

Myra Berman

No abstract provided.

Entrepreneurial Esquires In The New Economy: Why All Attorneys Should Learn About Entrepreneurship In Law School, J. Mark Phillips

The Journal of Business, Entrepreneurship & the Law

As the legal industry continues to recover from the shock of the recent recession, it finds itself in a fundamentally different place than it was ten years ago, with even more tumultuous change on the horizon. Economic pressure coupled with continued technological innovation has increased attorney unemployment levels, shifted law firm business models, and changed the expectations of legal clientele. Yet, despite this radically shifting market place, legal education has remained fundamentally unchanged. This article examines the current state of the legal industry through an entrepreneurial lens and juxtaposes it with the current state of legal education. In doing so, …

Law Schools And Technology: Where We Are And Where We Are Heading, Michele R. Pistone

Michele R. Pistone

1. For many years, the question of how to use technology to teach the law has been a minor concern of the legal academy. That era of general indifference to developments in learning technologies is now coming to an end. There are many reasons for the change. Law schools are facing such a host of difficulties— declining enrollments, declining job prospects for graduates, reduced public funding, and understandable concerns about cost and debt—that sometimes it seems the only debate is over whether the situation is best described as a “tsunami” or “a perfect storm.” Against this backdrop, technology offers the …

The Next Move In Legal Education Is Ours…., Luke Bierman

Journal of Experiential Learning

No abstract provided.

Portals To Practice: A Multidimensional Approach To Integrating Experiential Education Into The Traditional Law School Curriculum, Myra Berman

Journal of Experiential Learning

No abstract provided.

The Importance Of Experiential Learning For Development Of Essential Skills In Cross-Cultural And Intercultural Effectiveness, Mary Lynch

Journal of Experiential Learning

No abstract provided.

Efficient Collaboration: How To Build Pathways Between Silos, Model Behavior Ideal For Professional Identity Formation, And Create Complex Experiential Modules All While Having Fun, Christine Cerniglia Brown

Journal of Experiential Learning

No abstract provided.

Understanding The Costs Of Experiential Legal Education, Martin J. Katz

Journal of Experiential Learning

No abstract provided.

William Pincus: A Life In Service -- Government, Philanthropy & Legal Education, J.P. "Sandy" Ogilvy

University of Massachusetts Law Review

This article memorializes the life and accomplishments of William “Bill” Pincus. The article brings the reader through Mr. Pincus’s career accomplishments, from his humble beginnings in New York City, to his impressive career in civil service, culminating in his work with the Ford Foundation and the Council on Legal Education for Professional Responsibility (CLEPR), where he spearheaded reforms in legal education. Mr. Pincus’s efforts were critical in establishing clinical legal education, drawing from his experiences both in law and government. Much of this article is derived from interviews of Mr. Pincus, conducted by the author, and provides an unprecedented insight …

"Practice Ready Graduates": A Millennialist Fantasy, Robert J. Condlin

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

The End Of Law Schools, Ray Worthy Campbell

Ray W Campbell

Law schools as we know them are doomed. They continue to offer an educational model originally designed to prepare lawyers to practice in common law courts of a bygone era. That model fails to prepare lawyers for today’s highly specialized practices, and it fails to provide targeted training for the emerging legal services fields other than traditional lawyering.

This article proposes a new ideology of legal education to meet the needs of modern society. Unlike other reform proposals, it looks not to tweaking the training of traditional lawyers, but to rethinking legal education in light of a changing legal services …

Revisiting Law School Mismatch: A Comment On Barnes (2007, 2011), Doug Williams, Richard Sander, Marc Luppino, Roger Bolus

Northwestern University Law Review

No abstract provided.