Law Commons^™

Testing, Diversity, And Merit: A Reply To Dan Subotnik And Others, Andrea Curcio, Carol Chomsky, Eileen Kaufman

Eileen Kaufman

The false dichotomy between achieving diversity and rewarding merit frequently surfaces in discussions about decisions on university and law school admissions, scholarships, law licenses, jobs, and promotions. “Merit” judgments are often based on the results of standardized tests meant to predict who has the best chance to succeed if given the opportunity to do so. This Article criticizes over-reliance on standardized tests and responds to suggestions that challenging the use of such tests reflects a race-comes-first approach that chooses diversity over merit. Discussing the firefighter exam that led to the Supreme Court decision in Ricci v. DiStefano, as well as …

The Elephant In The Admissions Office: The Influence Of U.S. News & World Report On The Rise Of Transfer Students In Law Schools And A Modest Proposal For Reform, Bruce Price, Sara Star

Bruce M Price

Students who perform well after the first year of law school are increasingly transferring to schools ranked higher by U.S. News to maximize their chances of getting a law firm job immediately following graduation. This phenomena raises two fundamental and understudied issues: how students make the decision to seek to transfer to a higher-ranked and higher-tier law school, and why such law schools are willing to admit transfer students into their second-year class who they were not willing to admit initially. The first issue we explore through interviews with students who transferred as well as those who could have transferred …

Vulnerable Populations And Transformative Law Teaching: A Critical Reader, Chapter 6 - Vulnerability In Contracting: Teaching First-Year Law Students About Inequality And Its Consequences, Deborah Post, Deborah Zalesne

Deborah W. Post

Traditional legal pedagogy fails to demonstrate the relationship of contract to the subordination of vulnerable populations. As a result, students rarely see the complex web of interrelationships where economic activity takes place or the legal regime that maintains it. Students are not taught how to interrogate the discourse or dismantle the systems and structures that oppress subordinated communities. This Essay describes a technique that we have developed to help students learn the meaning of law and its cultural, social, and structural significance. The traditional framing of the study of contract doctrine as one that is objective, neutral, and fair avoids …

A Search For Balance In The Whirlwind Of Law School: Spirituality From Law Teachers, Thomas Shaffer

Thomas L. Shaffer

No abstract provided.

Time For Every Purpose Under The Heaven: Service – The National Bar Association Model, Beverly Mcqueary Smith

Beverly McQueary Smith

No abstract provided.

Developing Professional Identity Through Reflective Practice, Suzanne Darrow Kleinhaus

Suzanne Darrow Kleinhaus

No abstract provided.

Learning Law While Walking The Dog: The Pedagogical Potential Of Podcasting, Kenneth Kristl

Kenneth T Kristl

The typical law school classroom for a doctrinal course utilizes a learning structure that limits opportunities for students to learn directly from the professor. Time constraints inherent in the need for coverage and the desire to keep the class engaged encourages movement through the material. Cognitivist learning theory views learning as involving the movement of information from sensory memory (perception) into short-term, working memory for analysis and organization, and then into long-term memory for storage. This process of information movement suggests that the typical law school classroom creates impediments to student learning. Distracted students who fail to capture the concept …

Do Grades Matter?, Emily Zimmerman

Emily Zimmerman

Law school grading is regularly identified as the source of law student distress and disengagement. Although there is an abundance of literature criticizing law school grading, there is surprisingly little empirical research that investigates law students’ attitudes regarding grading. This Article presents the results of an empirical research project that investigated law students’ expectations and attitudes regarding their grades and the use of curved grading in law school. These results challenge some of the conventional wisdom about law students and grades and suggest that law professors may not necessarily know our students as well as we think we do.

For …

Your Key To Success In Law School, Theodore Silver, Howard Sacks

Theodore Silver

No abstract provided.

The Feminist Pervasion: How Gender-Based Scholarship Informs Law And Law Teaching, Deseriee Kennedy, Ann Bartow, F. Carolyn Graglia, Joan Hemingway

Deseriee A. Kennedy

This is an edited, annotated transcript of a conference panel discussion on feminism, sex, and gender in law, legal education, and legal scholarship. The transcript reflects widely divergent views of the place of feminism, sex, and gender in the law and legal scholarship. Moreover, the panelists differ as to the role feminism has played in the lives of women as law students and practicing attorneys. In the latter part of the transcript, the panelists' remarks focus in on hotly debated issues surrounding possible gender (or sex) and racial bias in LSAT testing and the innate abilities of women and men …

A Jewish-Sponsored Law School: Its Purposes And Challenges, Howard Glickstein

Howard Glickstein

No abstract provided.

Academic Freedom In Religiously Affiliated Law Schools: A Jewish Perspective. (Symposium On Religiously Affiliated Law Schools), Howard Glickstein

Howard Glickstein

No abstract provided.

Law Schools: Where The Elite Meet To Teach (Transforming Legal Education: A Symposium Of Provocative Thought), Howard Glickstein

Howard Glickstein

No abstract provided.

The Law Schools, Howard Glickstein

Howard Glickstein

No abstract provided.

Seeing Through "The Glass Ceiling": A Response To Professor Angel, Dan Subotnik

Dan Subotnik

No abstract provided.

The Essential And Growing Role Of Legal Education In Achieving Sustainability, John Dernbach

John C. Dernbach

This article suggests that law schools need to play a leading role in the national and global effort to achieve sustainability, including the effort to address climate change. The article first describes the various drivers for sustainability in law schools. Clients are increasingly demanding that their lawyers 'walk the talk,' as many businesses and corporations already are. The universities that provide an institutional home for most law schools are also adopting sustainability policies and practices that influence their law schools. Within the legal profession, the American Bar Association, as well as many state and local bar associations, have adopted a …

The Prosser Notebook: Classroom As Biography And Intellectual History, Christopher Robinette

Christopher J Robinette

Commentary, Session 1: Deciding To Become A Dean, Linda L. Ammons

Linda L. Ammons

Deciding to become a dean is a difficult decision. How do you know when you are ready and how do you need to prepare? Mentorship, leadership skills, risk-taking, vision, and energy are just some of the attributes needed by deans in today’s law school environment.

Legal Education In The 1990s, Louise L. Hill

Louise L Hill

No abstract provided.