Law Commons^™

A Methodical Approach To Legal Research: The Legal Research Plan, An Essential Tool For Today's Law Student And New Attorney, Caroline L. Osborne

Caroline L. Osborne

This article lays out an approach to teaching legal research through an examination of historical and contemporary approaches to legal research and research instruction. It discusses creating a research plan and reviews the most commonly used legal research texts. It concludes with sample research assignments and assessment tools.

On Teaching Legal Ethics With Stories About Clients, Thomas L. Shaffer

Thomas L. Shaffer

No abstract provided.

Transcription Of 2013 Chapman Law Review Symposium: "The Future Of Law, Business, And Legal Education: How To Prepare Students To Meet Corporate Needs", Leo E. Strine Jr., Bradley Borden, Robert J. Rhee, Tania King, Lee Cheng

Robert Rhee

No abstract provided.

Tackling "Arithmophobia": Teaching How To Read, Understand, And Analyze Financial Statements, Paula J. Williams, Kris Anne Tobin, Eric Franklin, Robert J. Rhee

Robert Rhee

This discussion presents different ideas on how to teach accounting and practical finance to law students.

Foreword, Robert J. Rhee

Robert Rhee

No abstract provided.

Extending Courthouse 'Keys' To Those In Need, Linda L. Ammons

Linda L. Ammons

No abstract provided.

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

Robert J. Condlin

The sky is falling on legal education say the pundits, and preparing “practice ready” graduates is one of the best strategies for surviving the fallout. This is a millennialist version of the argument for clinical legal education that dominated discussion in the law schools in the 1960s and 1970s. The circumstances are different now, as are the people calling for reform, but the two movements are alike in one respect: both view skills training as legal education’s primary purpose. Everything else is a frolic and detour, and a fatal frolic and detour in hard times such as the present. No …

Gender And The Crisis In Legal Education: Remaking The Academy In Our Image, Paula A. Monopoli

Paula A Monopoli

American legal education is in the grip of what some have called an “existential crisis.” The New York Times proclaims the death of the current system of legal education. This is attributed, in part, to the incentivizing of faculty to produce increasingly abstract scholarship and the costs this imposes on pedagogy and the mentoring of students. At the same time, despite women graduating from law schools in significant numbers since the 1980s, they continue to lag behind in the most prestigious positions in academia—tenured, full professorships: From academic year 1998-99 to academic year 2007-08, the percentage of women full professors …

No Path But One: Law School Survival In An Age Of Disruptive Technology, Michele R. Pistone, John J. Hoeffner

Michele R. Pistone

In the absence of a dramatic shift in their approach to legal education, law schools are approaching the last days of Rome, a time when decline cannot be reversed and only the precise date of the final fall is to be determined. The role of marauding Germanic tribes will be played by new legal education competition whose emergence is enabled by recent technological developments. The new competition will be highly flexible, unencumbered by expensive legacy costs and, because it will reside mainly online, so scalable that no traditional, place-based law school will be immune from its impact. There will be …

It Was The Best Of Practice, It Was The Worst Of Practice: Moving Successfully From The Courtroom To The Classroom, Sherri Lee Keene

Sherri Keene

This article discusses some of the challenges that experienced attorneys encounter when they move from practice to academia and recommends ways for new professors to bring professional knowledge successfully into classroom teaching.

One Small Step For Legal Writing, One Giant Leap For Legal Education: Making The Case For More Writing Opportunities In The "Practice-Ready" Law School Curriculum, Sherri Lee Keene

Sherri Keene

Legal writing is more than an isolated practical skill or a law school course; it is a valuable tool for broadening and deepening law students’ and new attorneys’ knowledge and understanding of the law. If experienced legal professionals, both professors and practitioners alike, take a hard look back at their careers, many will no doubt remember how their work on significant legal writing projects advanced their own knowledge of the law and enhanced their professional competence. Legal writing practice helps the writer to gain expertise in a number of ways: first, the act of writing itself promotes learning; second, close …

Teaching Business Law Through An Entrepreneurial Lens, Michelle M. Harner

Michelle M. Harner

The legal market has changed. Although change creates uncertainty and fear, it also can create opportunity. This essay explores the opportunity for innovation in the business law curriculum, and the role of simulation to help create more practice-aware new lawyers.

Making And Teaching “Real” Family Law: A Celebration Of The Scholarship And Service Of Professor Margo Melli, Jalae Ulicki

Jalae Ulicki

No abstract provided.

Reflections On Team Production In Professional Schools And The Workplace, Robert J. Rhee

Robert Rhee

No abstract provided.

“A Message From Your Body: How To Remove Toxicity In Yourself And In The Practice Of Law”, Jalae Ulicki

Jalae Ulicki

No abstract provided.

The Future Of The American Law School Or, How The “Crits” Led Brian Tamanaha Astray And His Failing Law Schools Fails, Stephen Diamond

Stephen F. Diamond

Debate over the impact of the economic crisis on the future of the American law school has reached an exceptional level of intensity. Brian Tamanaha’s short book, Failing Law Schools, serves as the manifesto for those who believe the law school must undergo radical restructuring and cost cutting. While there is room for disagreement with almost all aspects of the reform argument no critic of Tamanaha has attempted to place his critique in the context of his pre-existing scholarly work on the rule of law. This review essay argues that only an appreciation for the dual nature of the modern …

Foreword: The Way To Carnegie, Sharon L. Beckman, Paul R. Tremblay

Sharon Beckman

From the introduction:

Law schools have a clear mission, one would think. Even if the American Bar Association did not insist upon it, any given law school would acknowledge its commitment to “prepare its students for ad-mission to the bar, and effective and responsible participation in the legal profession.” In return for a substantial contribution of (usually borrowed) money, law schools promise to train students to practice law as competent, thoughtful, and faithful fiduciaries for their clients and to seek a just and fair system.

Though law schools’ collective mission is apparent, the question of how best to implement that …

Exporting American Legal Education, James E. Moliterno

James E. Moliterno

No abstract provided.

Practice Setting As An Organizing Theme For A Law And Ethics Of Lawyering Curriculum, James E. Moliterno

James E. Moliterno

No abstract provided.

Legal Education, Experiential Education, And Professional Responsibility, James E. Moliterno

James E. Moliterno

No abstract provided.

The Legal Skills Program At The College Of William And Mary: An Early Report, James E. Moliterno

James E. Moliterno

No abstract provided.

Goodness And Humanness: Distinguishing Traits, James E. Moliterno

James E. Moliterno

No abstract provided.

Specialization In Law And Business: A Proposal For A J.D./"Mbl" Curriculum, Robert J. Rhee

Robert Rhee

This paper provides the specific details of how an interdisciplinary program of law and business can be structured in a three-year J.D. program. The program envisioned is a J.D./”M.B.L.”, which is distinguished from the better known J.D./M.B.A. The “M.B.L.” stands for “masters of business law,” which is simply an idea tag. The moniker can represent a program conferring a supplemental degree in law and business, or simply a specialized course of study to complete a J.D. Either way, the program is an interdisciplinary program of concentrated study in core transaction-oriented law courses and core business courses. The most effective education …

Getting Real About Globalization And Legal Education: Potential And Perspectives For The U.S., Carole Silver

Carole Silver

This article addresses whether US law schools are preparing their JD students to work in the global environment that many - if not most – law graduates will encounter. It begins by considering the significance of globalization for legal education, drawing on research analyzing its influence on legal practice as well as on higher education. It then explores possible settings and opportunities for learning to work in a global environment. For the vast majority of students whose learning must occur in the US, the presence of international students in their law school offers the potential for creating a global learning …

Venturing Home: Implementing Lessons From The Rethinking Negotiation Project, Kenneth H. Fox, Sharon Press

Kenneth H Fox

This article summarizes the lessons from a five year, four published volume, international "rethinking negotiation teaching" project, and then articulates the key principles that underlie a resulting "second generation" two-course negotiation sequence the authors designed and implemented. In addition to providing a conceptual framework for the courses, the article also includes detailed course descriptions and course syllabi.

Building A Bridge To Practice Using Letters To Student Lawyers, Stephen A. Gerst

Stephen A Gerst

No abstract provided.

Access To Justice And Technology Clinics: A 4% Solution (With Andrew P. Medeiros) (Symposium), Ronald W. Staudt

Ronald W Staudt

No abstract provided.

It’S All About The People: Hierarchy, Networks, And Teaching Assistants In A Civil Procedure Classroom Community, Jennifer E. Spreng

Jennifer E Spreng

This article provides a blueprint for a “civic community in a law school classroom” that would better prepare many students for what is likely to be their professional future based on natural social hierarchy and network dynamics. It uses experiences from the author's own teaching career to illustrate hierarchy and network dynamics and how to use them to enrich the pedagogical and social experience of a first year course. It also roots those experiences in principles from social psychology, organizational behavior, transformative leadership and all levels of education literature.

Modern law school classrooms fall into two categories: the "polar model" …

Social Change Requires Civic Infrastructure, Harold A. Mcdougall Iii

Harold A. McDougall III

Article explores how civil society might become sufficiently organized to hold business accountable beyond consumer choice, and government beyond merely voting.

Introduction, Justice, Lawyering And Legal Education In The Digital Age (Symposium Editor With M. Lauritsen), Ronald W. Staudt

Ronald W Staudt

No abstract provided.