Law Commons^™

Examining The Bar Exam: An Empirical Analysis Of Racial Bias In The Uniform Bar Examination, Scott Devito, Kelsey Hample, Erin Lain

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

The legal profession is among the least diverse in the United States. Given continuing issues of systemic racism, the central position that the justice system occupies in society, and the vital role that lawyers play in that system, it is incumbent upon legal professionals to identify and remedy the causes of this lack of diversity. This Article seeks to understand how the bar examination—the final hurdle to entering the profession— contributes to this dearth of diversity. Using publicly available data, we analyze whether the ethnic makeup of a law school’s entering class correlates to the school’s first-time bar passage rates …

The Transformative Potential Of Attorney Bilingualism, Jayesh M. Rathod

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

In contemporary U.S. law practice, attorney bilingualism is increasingly valued, primarily because it allows lawyers to work more efficiently and to pursue a broader range of professional opportunities. This purely functionalist conceptualization of attorney bilingualism, however, ignores the surprising ways in which multilingualism can enhance a lawyer's professional work and can strengthen and reshape relationships among actors in the U.S. legal milieu. Drawing upon research from psychology, linguistics, and other disciplines, this Article advances a theory of the transformative potential of attorney bilingualism. Looking first to the development of lawyers themselves, the Article posits that attorneys who operate bilingually may, …

The Crisis In Legal Education: Dabbling In Disaster Planning, Kyle P. Mcentee, Patrick J. Lynch, Derek M. Tokaz

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

The legal education crisis has already struck for many recent law school graduates, signaling potential disaster for law schools already struggling with their own economic challenges. Law schools have high fixed costs caused by competition between schools, the unchecked expansion of federal loan programs, a widely exploited information asymmetry about graduate employment outcomes, and a lack of financial discipline masquerading as innovation. As a result, tuition is up, jobs are down, and skepticism of the value of a J.D. has never been higher. If these trends do not reverse course, droves of students will continue to graduate with debt that …

The Crisis Of The American Law School, Paul Campos

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

The economist Herbert Stein once remarked that if something cannot go on forever, it will stop. Over the past four decades, the cost of legal education in America has seemed to belie this aphorism: it has gone up relentlessly. Private law school tuition increased by a factor of four in real, inflation-adjusted terms between 1971 and 2011, while resident tuition at public law schools has nearly quadrupled in real terms over just the past two decades. Meanwhile, for more than thirty years, the percentage of the American economy devoted to legal services has been shrinking. In 1978 the legal sector …

Looking Ahead: The Future Of Child Welfare Law, Donald N. Duquette

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

Introduction to a 2007 Symposium held to mark the Thirtieth Anniversary of the Child Advocacy Clinic.

Advancing The Future Of Family Violence Law Pedagogy: The Founding Of A Law School Clinic, Melissa Breger, Theresa Hughes

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

This Article advocates for law schools to integrate family violence law further into their curricula and proffers reasons why family violence training is critical in preparing students to practice law. The authors posit that although live-client specialty clinics are the most in-depth way to teach family violence law, the topic should also be offered through doctrinal courses, externships, or general subject matter clinics. The Article then describes the authors' own experiences in cofounding a child advocacy clinic in New York City, outlining the steps taken to transform a vision into the actual formation of a clinic. Finally, the authors conclude …

Looking Ahead: A Personal Vision Of The Future Of Child Welfare Law, Donald N. Duquette

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

The participants in the Thirtieth Anniversary Celebration of the Child Advocacy Law Clinic were all challenged to envision the future of child welfare and to address these questions: What should the law and legal institutions governing children's rights and child and family welfare look like in thirty more years? What steps are necessary to achieve those goals? After setting out the historical and optimistic circumstance in which the Child Advocacy Law Clinic was founded, this Article responds to the organizing questions by presenting the author's vision of the future of child welfare law and practice. When families fail children, what …

Silence And Silencing: Their Centripetal And Centrifugal Forces In Legal Communication, Pedagogy And Discourse, Margaret E. Montoya

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

Language and voice have been subjects of great interest to scholars working in the areas of Critical Race Theory and Latina/o Critical Legal Theory. Silence, a counterpart of voice, has not, however, been well theorized. This Article is an invitation to attend to silence and silencing. The first part of the Article argues that one's use of silence is an aspect of communication that, like accents, is related to one's culture and may correlate with one's racial identity. The second part of the Article posits that silence can be a force that disrupts the dominant discourse within the law school …

Developing A Child Advocacy Law Clinic: A Law School Clinical Legal Education Opportunity, Donald N. Duquette

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

Clinical legal education has become an accepted and integral complement to traditional law school curricula. Professor Duquette argues that clinical education is uniquely able to integrate the teaching of practical skills and legal doctrine, elevating students' understanding of both. Duquette maintains that a child advocacy law clinic can teach a broad range of practical skill benefit the hosting law school by providing an opportunity for interdisciplinary education as well as a public relations benefit, while simultaneously serving an important need in most communities for quality representation of all parties in child abuse and neglect cases. Most importantly, participation in a …

Aba Accreditation Of Law Schools: An Antitrust Analysis, Andy Portinga

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

The accreditation activities of the American Bar Association are under attack. From within legal academia, professors and deans complain that the ABA accreditation process is overly formalistic and intrusive. In addition, the Massachusetts School of Law has sued the ABA, alleging that the ABA's accreditation standards violate the Sherman Act. From outside legal academia, the Department of Justice has investigated the ABA's accreditation activities and initiated an antitrust suit against the ABA. The Department of Justice and the ABA immediately settled this suit, and, as a result of this settlement, the ABA has agreed not to enforce certain standards and …

Erasing Race From Legal Education, Judith G. Greenberg

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

In this Article, Professor Greenberg argues that law schools claim to treat African American students as if their race is irrelevant, yet law school curricula have a hidden message that African American students are in fact inferior and dangerous to white students. When African American students do not perform as well as white students, they are assumed to have deficient skills and are placed in remedial programs to improve those skills. Professor Greenberg argues that the cause of African American students' poor performance in law school is not necessarily deficient skills, but rather a bias inherent in the structure of …

Eyes To The Future, Yet Remembering The Past: Reconciling Tradition With The Future Of Legal Education, Amy M. Colton

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

This Note explores the relationship between legal education and the legal profession, and what can be done to stop the two institutions from drifting farther and farther apart. Part I examines the history of the American law school, focusing on how the schools came into existence and what goals they intended to serve. Part II questions whether these goals have been reached, and dissects the present-day law school curriculum in search of both its triumphs and its failures. A necessary part of this curriculum analysis includes examining the evolution of the profession into a creature of both law and business, …

Uncivil Procedure: Ranking Law Students Among Their Peers, Douglas A. Henderson

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

This Article does not argue against evaluation, testing, or assessment within law school or outside of it. Nor does it argue against the use of standardized assessment procedures. This Article attempts to discredit the institutional practice of ranking law students among their peers. Part I presents a brief overview of the present system of testing and ranking, its impact on law student careers and the present justifications for these practices. Part II evaluates ranking, and the single end-of-term essay on which it is based, according to psychometric theory, learning theory, and statistical theory. Part III justifies abandoning the system by …

Deconstructing Los Angeles Or A Secret Fax From Magritte Regarding Postliterate Legal Reasoning: A Critique Of Legal Education, C. Garrison Lepow

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

This Article asks readers to imagine the shapes and colors of legal issues; it examines how people communicate and develop ideas through moving, metamorphosing images, especially computer graphics, and why methodology affects the eventual product of thought. Like dance, legal issues are described better through action than through words. Therefore, this Article challenges the principles of verbal reasoning upon which our legal system is based.

On Coming Of Age: Twenty-Five Years Of The University Of Michigan Journal Of Law Reform, Francis A. Allen

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

A reflection on the first twenty-five years of the University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform.

Gatekeepers Of The Profession: An Empirical Profile Of The Nation's Law Professors, Robert J. Borthwich, Jordan Schau

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

Part I of this Note surveys the existing body of literature on legal education, with a particular emphasis on previous empirical studies concerning law professors. Part II focuses on the increasing number of women in the teaching profession. Part III looks at the nonteaching experience of law teachers, including judicial clerkships, private practice, government experience, and public interest experience. Finally, Part IV examines the influence of "elite schools" in law school hiring and tenure decisions.

Sex-Bias Topics In The Criminal Law Course: A Survey Of Criminal Law Professors, Nancy S. Erickson, Mary Ann Lamanna

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

This Article addresses the empirical question of whether law school curricula have advanced to the stage of integrating materials on gender-related topics into core courses, thus exposing students to gender-related topics in the law and presenting a perspective shaped by women's as well as men's experiences. We examine one of the central courses of the law school curriculum: criminal law. Although some of the attention directed to sex discrimination in law has focused on specific areas of criminal law such as rape and spouse abuse, a more systematic scrutiny of the substantive rules of criminal law and the ways in …

Empowerment And Achievement In Minority Law Student Support Programs: Constructing Affirmative Action, Leslie G. Espinoza

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

Part I of this Article reviews the findings of the LSAC Report. The LSAC Report is a good beginning for an understanding of the structure of current minority academic support programs. The data provided by the Report, particularly regarding student selection criteria, demonstrates the link between support programs and affirmative action. Part II explores the stigma exacerbated by many academic support programs and the prejudice that stigma perpetuates. Part III examines law school myopia in approach and design of academic support programs. Academic support should do more than reiterate, albeit at a slow and studied pace, earlier classroom material. Students …

Affirmative Action On Law Reviews: An Empirical Study Of Its Status And Effect, Frederick Ramos

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

This Note discusses the issues involved in affirmative action on law reviews. Part I examines law review affirmative action admissions schemes and alternative types of affirmative action programs. Part II considers the arguments supporting and opposing the implementation of affirmative action programs by law reviews. Part III presents the results of a survey of law reviews concerning affirmative action. This Note concludes that affirmative action programs are the most effective means of increasing minority membership on law reviews, but that law reviews may increase minority membership through other methods.

The Anatomy Of A Leading Case: Lawrence V. Fox In The Courts, The Casebooks, And The Commentaries, M. H. Hoeflich, E. Perelmuter

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

In spite of the wide diversity of training, practice, and location of lawyers throughout the United States, virtually all share one experience: the standard core curriculum of the first year of law school taught by the case method. The extent to which that experience in parsing cases in contracts, torts, and property shapes the American legal mentality is open to debate, but it undeniably has an impact. The first-year experience socializes law students in the culture of the law. During this period, students learn the language of the law and the ways that lawyers think. During this period, too, students …

Preface, Journal Of Law Reform

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

This collection of essays is offered not as a .finished product but as part of an on-going discussion among faculty, between faculty and students, and between Michigan faculty and others concerned with legal education. It is our hope that this collection will convey to students that faculty members take seriously their responsibility to provide a comprehensive, quality legal education, to individual faculty members that other faculty are thinking about similar issues, and to faculty at other schools that several ideas about legal education are being explored by Michigan faculty members.

Why I Teach Water Law, Joseph L. Sax

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

I began my first law school job in 1962 and water law is the only subject I have taught every year since then. Though I am enthusiastic about all the courses I teach, I confess that water law remains my favorite. I have often asked myself why, because few subjects are considered more peripheral to the central mission of the law schools. In the East and Midwest the course is rarely taught, and in the West-where it has long been a staple- it is pretty much treated as a "nuts-and-bolts" offering for students who will practice in appropriation doctrine states. …

Fairness In Teaching Advocacy, Charles W. Joiner

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

The questions I address are these: Is fairness related to advocacy? Is fairness a concept that law teachers should address in their teaching, in particular in courses involving advocacy? By "courses involving advocacy" I mean courses that teach both law and practice techniques involving the direct protection of the rights of clients, particularly in the courts-for example, civil and criminal procedure and evidence.

Why Would Law Students Benefit From Studying Economics?, Michelle J. White

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

Why would law students benefit from studying economics? Three reasons come to mind. First, knowing some economics should enable students to understand more fully the issues encountered in a variety of areas of the law. Second, in a variety of areas of the law, economic analysis constitutes a central component of the legal arguments made in prosecuting and defending the case. Third, many law students will become involved in policy-making, whether because they end up working in the executive branch of government or because they become legislators, lobbyists, or legislative staff.

In the following sections, I treat each of the …

Clinical Legal Education: Is Taking Rites Seriously A Fantasy, Folly, Or Failure?, Steven D. Pepe

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

This article assesses the primary product of law schools-the practicing lawyer-and reviews the criticisms of the adequacy of the initial training for attorneys that law schools provide. After a brief. review of goals of legal education and goals of clinical teaching methods, the article argues that properly structured clinical programs are not based on flawed premises and that the nation's law schools, particularly the leading schools, should not abandon their clinical experiments without further efforts to help clinical legal education achieve its unfulfilled promises. The premises and assertions of this article are not new. Indeed, they are reiterations of a …

Doctrine In A Vacuum: Reflections On What A Law School Ought (And Ought Not) To Be, James Boyd White

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

Although this paper will reach a wider audience, in it I mean mainly to address the students and faculty of the University of Michigan Law School. It is meant to be part of a conversation in which members of this community talk to each other about the life they share.

I have written elsewhere about the expectations-the fears and hopes-that one can appropriately bring to law school. In this paper I speak to those who are immersed in ·the process of legal education, on one side of the podium or the other, and wish to say something of what I …

The Law School Of The University Of Michigan: 1859-1984: An Intellectual History, Elizabeth Gaspar Brown

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

The intellectual history of the University of Michigan Law School is recorded in the titles of contributions to legal literature published from its organization in October 1859 to the present. These writings demonstrate a continued commitment to legal scholarship and illustrate both the changing patterns in the subjects chosen for research and writing, and the methods utilized for treatment of the subjects.

Mediation And Negotiation: Learning To Deal With Psychological Responses, Andrew S. Watson

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

In this essay I analyze some of the emotional events that occur during mediation and negotiation; the analysis may help us understand many of the problems that arise during the development and application of these legal practice skills. Following the analysis I present a few suggestions about how this teaching might best be accomplished.

The Nobel Prize For Law, Alfred F. Conard

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

There is no Nobel prize for law. This lack is not in itself a cause for concern, since the discipline of law is replete with its own rewards. But some cause for concern inheres in the implication that law provides very few examples of the kinds of contributions to humanity that merit Nobel prizes.

Is Thinking Like A Lawyer Enough?, Sallyanne Payton

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

Every year that I attend meetings of the Law School's Committee of Visitors I ask members of the committee how the school might improve the training that we give to our graduates. Every year until this one the lawyers who have responded to this question have given a standard answer: the young lawyers are smart, they say, smarter in many respects than their seniors, but they don't know how to write well. This response usually leads to a discussion of the proper place of skills training in the law school curriculum; lawyers and professors engage in a little jousting over …