Law Commons^™

The Unified Legal Skills Program: How One Law School Adapted To Meet The Needs Of Students Online, And How Those Adaptations May Inform Post-Pandemic Teaching, David Austin, Allison D. Cato, Amy E. Day, Liam Vavasour

Faculty Scholarship

When CWSL was forced to switch to online learning for the COVID-19 pandemic, we worked hard to follow best practices for online learning by attending online conferences and voraciously reading everything we could find to make the learning experience the best we could for our students. CWSL's Legal Skills program earned high praise in student evaluations for adapting so quickly given the difficult circumstances.

During the summer of 2020, we met as a Legal Skills team to discuss how to approach the regular school term. Specifically, we faced a larger-than-anticipated first-year class and contemplated how to remedy the sense of …

Law Faculty Experiences Teaching During The Pandemic, Bridget J. Crawford, Michelle S. Simon

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

When colleges and universities abruptly shifted to online teaching in March 2020 all focus (appropriately) was on ensuring continuity of education for students. In adapting courses to the new online environment, professors were encouraged to take into account the incredible stress students were experiencing, their new living conditions and, in some cases, lack of access to technology and educational resources. For the Spring 2020 semester, almost all U.S. law schools shifted to some form of pass/fail grading in recognition of the enormous upheaval to students’ educational plans.

Less discussed during the initial months of the coronavirus pandemic was how faculty …

The Incorporation Of Government Lawyering In The Teaching Of Legal Ethics In Canadian Law Schools, Andrew Martin, Leslie Walden

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

Government lawyers, and the specific legal ethics issues that arise in their practices, remain largely overlooked in Canadian legal education. The authors argue that government lawyering should be better incorporated into legal ethics curricula in law schools, for both practical and conceptual reasons. Most importantly, understanding issues unique to government lawyering helps students better understand core concepts in legal ethics, and thus better prepare for the practice of law both in the public and private sectors. While law teachers face serious challenges in incorporating government lawyering into legal ethics education, many of those challenges can be confronted and ameliorated. The …

Legal Writing Manual (2nd Edition), Jean Mangan, Brittany Blanchard, Gabrielle Gravel, Chase Lyndale, Connely Doizé

Books

This manual provides you with an overview of first-year legal writing topics and provides checkpoints during your writing process. On the other hand, this manual does not answer every question you have ever had on any legal writing concept and it is certainly not a spellbook that will make you instantly awesome at legal writing. Writing as a skill is a lifelong development process. Everyone can be an effective legal writer. Put in the time to study the concepts and then to practice using those concepts in your writing. Seek feedback on your writing and implement the feedback you receive. …

Why We Should Provide More Support For Women Of Color In Academia, Silvia Chairez-Perez

Golden Gate University Race, Gender, Sexuality and Social Justice Law Journal

My experience as a woman of color in higher education is not unique. In this piece, I will share my own story and discuss challenges women of color face to succeed in academia and how their absence in these spaces negatively affects the success of female students of color. Additionally, I will describe methods institutions of higher learning can implement to hire more women of color and how having women of color teachers has impacted my educational journey.

Burnout Doesn't Frighten Me, Meredith A.G. Stange

College of Law Faculty Publications

This past semester we all taught during an unprecedented worst-case scenario, moving our courses online at the literal drop of a hat. Although I know my experience is not unique, from March to the end of the semester in May, I felt like I was just treading water. I realized that feeling unsure of myself, feeling disconnected from my students, and feeling like I was just treading water really was not me. In fact, I had not felt this way in the classroom since my first few years of teaching. Those were days I did not want to revisit because, …

Deal Me In: Leveraging Pedagogy To Integrate Transactional Skills Into The First Year Legal Research And Writing Curriculum, Adam N. Eckart

Suffolk University Law School Faculty Works

When nearly fifty percent of attorneys practice transactional law, why do only seven percent of first year legal research and writing courses teach transactional skills? Despite a decade of emphasis by legal scholars on the need to teach transactional skills, most first year legal research and writing courses still focus disproportionately on litigation-based instruction. When more incoming law students want to practice transactional law than litigation, half go on to hold transactional-based jobs, transactional drafting courses are the most popular legal writing electives, and employers say graduates are unprepared for transactional practice, something needs to change. A path forward for …

Dean A. Benjamin Spencer: A Message To The William & Mary Law School Community About Events On January 6 In Washington, D.C., A. Benjamin Spencer

2020–present: A. Benjamin Spencer

No abstract provided.

Latina And Latino Critical Legal Theory: Latcrit Theory, Praxis And Community, Marc-Tizoc Gonzaléz, Sarudzayi Matambanadzo, Sheila I. Vélez Martínez

Faculty Scholarship

LatCrit theory is a relatively recent genre of critical “outsider jurisprudence” – a category of contemporary scholarship including critical legal studies, feminist legal theory, critical race theory, critical race feminism, Asian American legal scholarship and queer theory. This paper overviews LatCrit’s foundational propositions, key contributions, and ongoing efforts to cultivate new generations of ethical advocates who can systemically analyze the sociolegal conditions that engender injustice and intervene strategically to help create enduring sociolegal, and cultural, change. The paper organizes this conversation highlighting Latcrit’s theory, community and praxis.

A teoria LatCrit é um gênero relativamente recente de teoria do direito “outsider” …

Lessons And Opportunities For Negotiation Teachers Following The Covid-19 Pandemic, Ana Lenard

LL.M. Essays & Theses

In 2020-2021, and resulting from the Covid-19 pandemic, I taught and studied university negotiation courses online. In this essay I reflect on my experiences of teaching and learning online, ground them in pedagogical research, and distil key lessons and opportunities for negotiation teachers across three topics (creating inclusive classrooms, the role of technology, and equipping our students to meet the demands of the modern world). Teaching online has led to a collective upskilling in our understanding of our students, of what matters in life, and of how technology can enhance our teaching. We have agency in our classrooms to help …

Reloading The Canon: Thoughts On Critical Legal Pedagogy, Chantal Thomas

University of Colorado Law Review

On the first day of the first-year contracts class that I teach, I preview for the students both the general contours of the “blackletter law” that we will be learning throughout the course, and some of the perspectives that I will incorporate in developing our critical thinking and analysis of the law. My aim is to impress upon the students that their understanding of the blackletter law––the technical training that many law students think of as constituting the bulk of their educational mission––varies positively with their understanding of and capacity for critical analysis. I go about this in part by …

We Are...Community!, Michael A. Mogill

Faculty Scholarly Works

The concept of “community” has become increasingly important in law schools, relating both to our professionalism and the education of our students. During the recent celebration of our school’s 185^th anniversary of its founding, I addressed one of the school’s core values, that of “community”. This article explores that value and its meaning both within our law schools and the greater society, serving to advance the public interest and the interests of our law students, the legal academy and practicing attorneys everywhere. The message conveys is universal and contemporary, going well beyond our anniversary celebration. Ultimately, it can help …

Justice Ginsburg, Civil Procedure Professor And Champion Of Judicial Federalism, Rodger D. Citron

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

Justice Ginsburg, Civil Procedure Professor And Champion Of Judicial Federalism, Rodger D. Citron

Scholarly Works

No abstract provided.

A Tribute To Professor Catherine Mahern, Lawrence Raful

Scholarly Works

No abstract provided.

Antiracism, Reflection, And Professional Identity, Monte Mills, Eduardo R.C. Capulong, Andrew King-Ries

Articles

Intent on more systematically developing the emerging professional identities of law students, the professional identity formation movement is recasting how we think about legal education. Notably, however, the movement overlooks the structural racism imbedded in American law and legal education. While current models of professional development value diversity and cross-cultural competence, they do not adequately prepare the next generation of legal professionals to engage in the sustained work of interrupting and overthrowing race and racism in the legal profession and system. This article argues that antiracism is essential to the profession’s responsibility to serve justice and therefore key to legal …

How And Why Did It Go So Wrong?: Theranos As A Legal Ethics Case Study, G. S. Hans

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

The Theranos saga encompasses many discrete areas of law. Reporting on Theranos, most notably John Carreyrou's Bad Blood, highlights the questionable ethical decisions that many of the attorneys involved made. The lessons attorneys and law students can learn from Bad Blood are highly complex. The Theranos story touches on multiple areas of professional responsibility, including competence, diligence, candor, conflicts, and liability. Thus, Theranos serves as a helpful tool to explore the limits of ethical lawyering for Professional Responsibility students. This Article discusses the author's experience with using Bad Blood as an extended case study in a new course on Legal …

Educating Antiracist Lawyers: The Race And The Equal Protection Of The Laws Program At Dickinson Law, Dermot M. Groome

Faculty Scholarly Works

The year 2020 has forced us, as a nation, to recognize painful realities about systemic racism in our country and our legal system. The fallacies in our founding documents and the vestiges of our slave past are so woven into our national culture that they became hard to see except for those who suffered their daily indignities, hardships, and fears. As legal educators, we must face the role we have played in helping build the machinery of structural racism by supplying generation after generation of those who maintain that machinery and prosper within it. In this critical moment of our …

E-Memos 2.0: An Empirical Study Of How Attorneys Write, Brad Desnoyer

Faculty Works

Email has changed law practice. It is now changing the legal writing classroom. For over a decade, scholars have developed a foundation for teaching e-memos. But as e-memo pedagogy evolved, scholars diverged in their advice and their textbook samples, leaving professors and students with contradictory instruction. This Article seeks to bridge that divide and build upon the scholarly foundation with empirical evidence.

Between 2018 and 2019, over 100 practicing attorneys reviewed and ranked sample, substantive e-memos and answered questions about e-memo preferences and habits. The results of the study reveal attorneys prefer e-memos with explicit and detailed legal reasoning, not …

Latina And Latino Critical Legal Theory: Latcrit Theory, Praxis And Community, Marc Tizoc Gonzaléz, Sarudzayi M. Matambanadzo, Sheila I. Velez Martinez

Articles

LatCrit theory is a relatively recent genre of critical “outsider jurisprudence” – a category of contemporary scholarship including critical legal studies, feminist legal theory, critical race theory, critical race feminism, Asian American legal scholarship and queer theory. This paper overviews LatCrit’s foundational propositions, key contributions, and ongoing efforts to cultivate new generations of ethical advocates who can systemically analyze the sociolegal conditions that engender injustice and intervene strategically to help create enduring sociolegal, and cultural, change. The paper organizes this conversation highlighting Latcrit’s theory, community and praxis.

Addressing Allyship In A Time Of A “Thousand Papercuts”, Rangita De Silva De Alwis

All Faculty Scholarship

In 2020, a team of students in the class on Women, Law and Leadership students interviewed 100 male law students on their philosophy on leadership and conducted several surveys on allyship and subtle bias. Complementing the allyship interviews, the class developed several survey instruments to examine emerging bias protocols and stereotype threats among a new generation of leaders at Penn Law from a diverse demographic. This exploration looked at individual patterns of conduct, institutional policies and organizational behavior that could combat a new generation of structural and systemic biases. Thirty years after the landmark study by Lani Guinier, we look …

The Covid Crisis In Legal Education, Indiana University Bloomington. Center For Postsecondary Research

AALL Legal Website of the Month

Legal education has been challenged, and the LSSSE Annual Report reveals that while the core of legal education remains relatively unchanged, the “intangibles” of law school learning were certainly affected. Above all, the data show unequivocally that our students have been in crisis. Students have struggled to meet their basic needs, with troubling percentages reporting increased worries about housing, financial instability, and even food insecurity. While most made efforts to build relationships with faculty, staff, and classmates, their overall quality of life declined along with opportunities for academic engagement and professional development. The pandemic is a wake up call for …

Aba Employment Summary Class Of 2021, University Of Tennessee College Of Law

ABA Disclosures

No abstract provided.

Making The Critical Moves: A Top Ten In Progressive Legal Scholarship, Jorge L. Esquirol

University of Colorado Law Review

No abstract provided.

Conversations After Class: 'Becoming Critical,' Or The Steps Necessary To Achieve Critical Thought For Law Students, Daniel J. Sequeira

University of Colorado Law Review

No abstract provided.

Setting The Health Justice Agenda: Addressing Health Inequity & Injustice In The Post-Pandemic Clinic, Emily Benfer, James Bhandary-Alexander, Yael Cannon, Medha Makhlouf, Tomar Pierson-Brown

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

The COVID-19 pandemic surfaced and deepened entrenched preexisting health injustice in the United States. Racialized, marginalized, poor, and hyper-exploited populations suffered disproportionately negative outcomes due to the pandemic. The structures that generate and sustain health inequity in the United States—including in access to justice, housing, health care, employment, and education—have produced predictably disparate results. The authors, law school clinicians and professors involved with medical-legal partnerships, discuss the lessons learned by employing a health justice framework in teaching students to address issues of health inequity during the pandemic. The goal of health justice is to eliminate health disparities that are linked …

Change At The Speed Of Leadership, Lee Fisher

Law Faculty Articles and Essays

“The most dangerous leadership myth is that leaders are born—that there is a genetic factor to leadership. . . That’s nonsense; in fact, the opposite is true. Leaders are made rather than born.”

“Lawyers are in the anomalous position of serving as leaders but generally lacking leadership training and skills. Competency in lawyering skills often functions as a proxy for leadership skills, despite the evidence that leadership skills are distinct and may take years to develop. Our neglect of leadership skills is reaching crisis proportions because nearly half of all current law firm partners will retire within the next ten …

Technology And The (Re)Construction Of Law, Christian Sundquist

Articles

Innovative advancements in technology and artificial intelligence have created a unique opportunity to re-envision both legal education and the practice of law. The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the technological disruption of both legal education and practice, as remote work, “Zoom” client meetings, virtual teaching, and online dispute resolution have become increasingly normalized. This essay explores how technological innovations in the coronavirus era are facilitating radical changes to our traditional adversarial system, the practice of law, and the very meaning of “legal knowledge.” It concludes with suggestions on how to reform legal education to better prepare our students for the emerging …

Moving Ahead: Finding Opportunities For Transactional Training In Remote Legal Education, Jen Randolph Reise

Mitchell Hamline Law Review

No abstract provided.

How To Train Your Supervisor, Kris Franklin, Paula J. Manning

Articles & Chapters

In an ideal world every meeting between law students and professors, or between beginning lawyers and their supervisors, would leave supervisors impressed by their charges and junior lawyers/students with a clear sense of direction for their work. But we do not live in that ideal world. Instead, supervisors, supervisees, law professors and law students frequently leave such meetings feeling frustrated, disconnected and without a shared understanding of how to improve the experience (and future performance).

This Article seeks to improve supervisory meetings, and to do so from the perspective of the ones under supervision. There is a genuine art to …