Law Commons^™

What Will (Or Might?) Law School Look Like This Fall?: Teaching In The Midst Of A Pandemic, Ted Becker

Articles

January 2020 marked the start of a new semester for Michigan law schools. There was little reason to suspect it wouldn’t be a semester like any other: for 3Ls, the start of the stretch run to graduation; for 1Ls, a chance to begin anew after the stress of their first set of law school final exams; for law school faculty, administrators, and staff, a return to the excitement and activity of crowded hallways and classrooms after the brief interlude of winter break. Classes began and proceeded as normal.

In Times Of Chaos: Creating Blueprints For Law School Responses To Natural Disasters, Jeffrey R. Baker, Christine E. Cerniglia, Davida Finger, Luz Herrera, Jonel Newman

Louisiana Law Review

The article presents reflections, information, and proposals on how law schools can create a blueprint for community-engaged response to natural disasters.

Engaging Students In Systemic Change: The Role Of Louisianalaw School Clinics In The State’S Criminal Justice Reformmovement, Robert Lancaster, Maris Mattes

Louisiana Law Review

The article discusses the role of three Louisiana law school clinics in the state's criminal justice reform movement.

When Your Plate Is Already Full: Efficient And Meaningful Outcomes Assessment For Busy Law Schools, Melissa N. Henke

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

The American Bar Association (ABA) accreditation standards involving outcome-based assessment are a game changer for legal education. The standards reaffirm the importance of providing students with formative feedback throughout their course of study to assess and improve student learning. The standards also require law schools to evaluate their effectiveness, and to do so from the perspective of student performance within the institution’s program of study. The relevant question is no longer what are law schools teaching their students, but instead, what are students learning from law schools in terms of the knowledge, skills, and values that are essential for those …

Future In Law? A Profile Of Graduating College Seniors Interested In Legal Education And Careers, Accesslex Institute

AccessLex Institute Research

The recent decline in law school applicants is well-documented. Despite a slight increase in 2018, the number of law school applicants remains substantially lower than levels observed prior to 2011. This decrease in the demand for legal education presents an opportunity to better understand the pathway to law school and the formation of interest in pursuing a law degree or career.

The American Association of Law Schools pioneered inquiry in this area with their groundbreaking study, Before the JD: Undergraduate Views on Law School, which surveyed undergraduates from 25 four-year institutions and first-year law students from 44 law schools, …

Using Transactional Practice Competitions To Introduce Students To Key Deal-Making Skills, Ted Becker, Eric Zacks

Articles

Law school moot court competitions are everywhere. That is a bit of an exaggeration, to be sure, but not by much. At last count, students with an interest in litigation had more than 60 interschool appellate advocacy competitions to choose from, ranging in topics from admiralty to space law to veterans law. Toss in trial advocacy competitions, and the number of opportunities to hone litigation skills increases significantly. And seemingly every law school has its own intraschool litigation competitions, ranging from part of a 1L legal writing program to school-wide appellate advocacy competitions whose final rounds attract prominent judges or …

Jewish Lawyers And The U.S. Legal Profession: The End Of The Affair?, Eli Wald

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

In Times Of Chaos: Creating Blueprints For Law School Responses To Natural Disasters, Jeffrey Baker, Christine Cerniglia, Davida Finger, Luz Herrera, Jonel Newman

Articles

No abstract provided.

A Conversation With Associate Justice Elena Kagan, Justice Elena Kagan

University of Colorado Law Review

No abstract provided.

Distance Legal Education: Lessons From The *Virtual* Classroom, Jacqueline D. Lipton

Articles

Abstract

In the 2018-2019 revision of the American Bar Association (ABA) Standards and Rules of Procedure for Approval of Law Schools, the ABA further relaxed the requirements relating to distance education in J.D. programs. However, outside of a handful of schools that have received permission to teach J.D. courses almost entirely online, most experiments in distance legal education have occurred in post-graduate (i.e. post-J.D.) programs: LL.M. degrees, and various graduate certificates and Master’s degrees in law-related subjects. These programs can be taught completely online without requiring special ABA permission.

This essay reflects on the author’s experiences over a number of …

Academic Law Libraries And Scholarship: Communication, Publishing, And Ranking, Dana Neacsu, James Donovan

Law Faculty Publications

We argue that the increasing role of scholarly impact in determining a school’s status will provide a new opportunity for libraries to assume a critical institutional role behind its traditional support of scholarship and teaching. In practice, this increased role can evolve in a multitude of ways. Based on the data used here, a strong argument can be made in favor of each library taking charge of both their faculty scholarly impact and publication of its school’s journals. Based on the success story of Perma.cc, a good argument can be made in favor of creating a consortium supporting both these …

Access To Law Or Access To Lawyers? Master’S Programs In The Public Educational Mission Of Law Schools, Mark Edwin Burge

University of Miami Law Review

The general decline in juris doctor (“J.D.”) law school applicants and enrollment over the last decade has coincided with the rise of a new breed of law degree. Whether known as master of jurisprudence, juris master, master of legal studies, or other names, these graduate degrees all have a target audience in common: adult professionals who neither are nor seek to become practicing attorneys. Inside legal academia and among the practicing bar, these degrees have been accompanied by expressed concerns that they detract from the traditional core public mission of law schools—educating lawyers. This Article argues that non-lawyer master’s programs …

Access To Law Or Access To Lawyers? Master's Programs In The Public Educational Mission Of Law Schools, Mark Burge

Faculty Scholarship

The general decline in juris doctor (“J.D.”) law school applicants and enrollment over the last decade has coincided with the rise of a new breed of law degree. Whether known as a master of jurisprudence, juris master, master of legal studies, or other names, these graduate degrees all have a target audience in common: adult professionals who neither are nor seek to become practicing attorneys. Inside legal academia and among the practicing bar, these degrees have been accompanied by expressed concerns that they detract from the traditional core public mission of law schools—educating lawyers. This Article argues that non-lawyer master’s …

The Future Of Legal Education Reform, James E. Moliterno

James E. Moliterno

The article discusses the criticism raised against legal education including high cost, disconnection between law schools and profession, and lack of employment opportunities. It examines the role of the bar examinations and reflects that the model in place is dysfunctional. It suggests that modern law school should teach students not only legal analysis but also business aspect of law practice such as project management and creative resolutions of disputes.

Law School Grades And Their Effects: The University Of Michigan Law School Alumni Survey, David L. Chambers

Bibliography of Research Using UMLS Alumni Survey Data

This short paper is based on a study of graduates of the University of Michigan Law School that was initiated in 1966 and continues today. The paper draws upon information about graduates’ grades in law school as recorded in the law school’s records and combines it with data from surveys of the graduates conducted by mail five, fifteen, twenty-five, thirty-five and forty-five years after graduation. Among the central findings reported are the following. (1) grades and gradepoint averages of Michigan law students rose hugely during the 1960s and 1970s, which can be explained in part by simple grade inflation but …

The Increasing Reliance On Educational Loans By University Of Michigan Law School Graduates, David L. Chambers

Bibliography of Research Using UMLS Alumni Survey Data

Among graduates of the University of Michigan Law School in the classes of 1970 through 1979, about half borrowed to pay for their college or legal education. By the early 1980s the portion who borrowed had risen to about 80 percent and has remained at that level through the classes of early twenty-first century. Even greater growth has occurred in the average debt of those who incurred debt. In actual dollars, average debts among those with debt have increased twenty-fold from the 1970s to the early 2000s. Even in CPI-adjusted dollars, average debts have tripled. By the classes of 2000-2001, …

Political Views Of Graduates Of University Of Michigan Law School, Classes Of 1952-2001, David L. Chambers

Bibliography of Research Using UMLS Alumni Survey Data

In 1966, the University of Michigan Law School initiated an annual survey its graduating classes five and fifteen years after graduation. In 1981, with the survey of the graduates of the class of 1976 after they had been out of law school 5 years and the graduates of the class of 1966 after they been out 15 years, the survey instrument added questions about graduates’ current political views and their recollection of their political views when they began law school. In all years since, graduates have been asked to place themselves on a 7-point scale from “extremely liberal (left)” to …

Retirement, Partial Retirement, And Working Into Old Age: Michigan Law School Graduates 45 Years Out Of Law School, David L. Chambers

Bibliography of Research Using UMLS Alumni Survey Data

In 1966, the University of Michigan Law School began an annual survey of selected classes of its graduates. For the first few decades of the survey, only the graduating classes five and fifeen years out of law school were included in the survey. Beginning in 1997, graduates 25, 35, and 45 years out of law school were added. This memorandum focuses primarily on surveys conducted between 1997 and 2006 of the living graduates of the classes of 1952 through 1961, who had by then been out of law school for 45 years. After 45 years, the great majority were 69 …

The Effects Of Educational Debts On Career Choices Of Graduates Of The University Of Michigan Law School, David L. Chambers

Bibliography of Research Using UMLS Alumni Survey Data

In 1966, the University of Michigan Law School began an annual survey of selected classes of its graduates. Beginning in the early 1980s, annual surveys of those five and fifteen years after law school included questions about educational debts incurred during college and law school as well as about career plans at the beginning and end of law school and actual job held in the years since law school. This paper, written in 2009, examines the possible effects of debts on career decisions and job choices made before, during and after law school by the graduating classes of 1976 through …

Finding A Mentor In The Practice Of Law: An Empirical Inquiry, David L. Chambers

Bibliography of Research Using UMLS Alumni Survey Data

For many years the University of Michigan Law School has surveyed its graduates after they have been out of law school five, fifteen, twenty-five, thirty-five and forty-five years. This paper about finding mentors focuses on Michigan Law School alumni surveyed five years after graduation during the sixteen year period between 1985 and 2000 and particularly on those who have ever worked in a private law firm, a setting in which it is commonly believed that having a mentor is critical for a young lawyer’s success.

Our central findings are these: Among alumni who had worked in a law firm within …

The University Of Michigan Law School Alumni Survey Project: Description, Scope And Limits, David L. Chambers

Bibliography of Research Using UMLS Alumni Survey Data

For 41 consecutive years, from 1966 through 2006, the University of Michigan Law School surveyed by mail its graduates after they had been out of law school for 15 years, asking questions about their lives since law school and particularly about their careers as lawyers. Beginning in 1973, the graduates five years out of law school were added to the survey and beginning in 1997, the classes twenty-five, thirty-five and forty-five years out were added as well. Across the years of surveying, 79 percent of the law school’s graduates in the classes of 1952 through 2001 responded to at least …

Women And Men Graduates Of The University Of Michigan Law School: Career Patterns And Adjustments For Children, David L. Chambers

Bibliography of Research Using UMLS Alumni Survey Data

The University of Michigan Law School conducted mail surveys of classes of its alumni each year from 1966 and 2006. This memorandum builds upon the mail surveys conducted through 2006 and in particular survey questions asked about the sex of the respondent, the settings in which they have worked since law school, the hours they work and their earnings in their current settings, whether they have children and the various adjustments they have made in order to care for children, such as working part-time or leaving the work force altogether for periods of time. The memorandum has two principal focuses: …

Satisfaction With Law School Among Graduates Of The University Of Michigan Law School, Classes Of 1952-2001, David L. Chambers

Bibliography of Research Using UMLS Alumni Survey Data

The University of Michigan Law School conducted mail surveys of selective classes of its alumni each year from 1966 and 2006. The survey was revived online in 2014 and has continued to the present. This memo relates to the surveys through 2006.

For many years, the survey instrument has included questions about graduates’ satisfaction with their law school experience “overall” as well as specific questions about their satisfaction with law school “intellectually,” “as career training” and “socially.” Strongly related to overall satisfaction with law school is the length of time that graduates have been out of law school – the …

The Changing Student Body At The University Of Michigan Law School, David L. Chambers

Bibliography of Research Using UMLS Alumni Survey Data

Most of the content of the memo that follows has been previously published in the article "Who We Were and Who We Are: How Michigan Law Students Have Changed Since the 1950s: Findings from 40 Years of Alumni Surveys." T. K. Adams, co-author. Law Quad. Notes 51, no. 1 (2009): 74-80, available through this website. This memo provides more detail about changing entry credentials and about the great expansion beginning in the 1970s in the numbers of women students and of racial/ethnic minority students. It also provides information not in the article about the patterns over time in students’ …

Incorporating Social Justice Into The 1l Legal Writing Course: A Tool For Empowering Students Of Color And Of Historically Marginalized Groups And Improving Learning, Sha-Shana Crichton

Michigan Journal of Race and Law

The media reports of police shootings of unarmed Black men and women; unprovoked attacks on innocent Jews, Muslims, religious minority groups, and LGBTQ persons; and current pervasive, divisive, and misogynistic rhetoric all cause fear and anxiety in impacted communities and frustrate other concerned citizens. Law students, and especially law students of color and of historically marginalized groups, are often directly or indirectly impacted by these reports and discrimination in all its iterations. As a result, they are stressed because they are fearful and anxious. Research shows that stress impairs learning and cognition. Research also shows that beneficial changes are made …

Digital Pro Bono: Leveraging Technology To Provide Access To Justice, Kathleen Elliott Vinson, Samantha A. Moppett

St. John's Law Review

(Excerpt)

Part I of this Article explores the United States justice system’s failure to adequately serve all people irrespective of wealth and position. Next, Part II discusses the ABA’s call to leverage technology to increase access to justice. Part III explores ABA Free Legal Answers Online, the program that the ABA pioneered to help confront the justice gap in the United States. Subsequently, Part IV illustrates how law schools can leverage technology to increase access to justice for low-income communities while providing pro bono opportunities for attorneys and students in their state. This Part highlights Massachusetts as an example of …

Foundations: Curriculum & Faculty, University Of Michigan Law School

Miscellaneous Law School History & Publications

Michigan Law Faculty are the best of the best. As you look through these pages, you will see some of their accomplishments: They serve as senior advisers to policymakers and governments around the world, they argue important cases in courts of every level, and they produce superb research that addresses society's greatest problems.

Our faculty also take teaching very seriously. They are dedicated to using their research and experience to help create a curriculum that will challenge and transform you. Michigan Law's rich curriculum features foundational courses that evolve with the needs of the profession, a wide array of upper-level …

The New Normal Ten Years In: The Job Market For New Lawyers Today And What It Means For The Legal Academy Tomorrow, Bernard A. Burk

FIU Law Review

No abstract provided.

Persons And The Point Of The Law, Richard Garnett

Journal Articles

This short essay is a comment and reflection on a manuscript by Professors John Breen and Lee
Strang, "A Light Unseen: A History of Catholic Legal Education in the United States." It is based on remarks presented at a February 14, 2020 conference, sponsored by the Journal of Catholic Legal Studies and the Center for Law and Religion at St. John's University School of Law. It
addresses, among other things, Breen and Strang's argument that a Catholic law school should have a distinctive "intellectual architecture" and proposes that a distinctive moral anthropology -- that is, an account of what the …

How Many Copies Are Enough Revisited: Open Access Legal Scholarship In The Time Of Collection Budget Constraints, Kincaid C. Brown

Law Librarian Scholarship

This article discusses the results of a study into the open access availability of law reviews, followed by a discussion of why open access has such a high rate of adoption among law reviews, especially in comparison to the journal literature in other disciplines.