Law Commons^™

A Novel Response: How Law Libraries Adapted To The Pandemic, Aamir S. Abdullah

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No abstract provided.

A Grammar Of Legal Thought, Derek H. Kiernan-Johnson

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No abstract provided.

Developing Career Paths In Legal Academia: Prospects And Challenges, Christian N. Okeke

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Presentation given at the Academic & Career Advancement Symposium (ACAS) 2019 Held at the Faculty of Law, Enugu State University of Science & Technology, Friday, 5 July 2019.

Pulling Back The Curtain: Implicit Bias In The Law School Dean Search Process, Michele Benedetto Neitz

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This Article stems from the author’s experience chairing multiple dean searches and research interest in the existence, genesis, and effects of implicit bias. Part II of this Article will review the role of a law school dean, with special consideration of the ways the Great Recession and its outcomes transformed the role of the dean. Part III will describe the typical dean search process and evaluate decanal diversity statistics to determine which candidates are selected for these powerful roles in today’s law schools. Part IV will introduce the concept of implicit bias, specifically focusing on ingroup favoritism. This part will …

From The Courtroom To The Classroom: How A Litigator Became A Transactional Drafting Professor, Amy Bauer

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No abstract provided.

The Architecture Of Drama: How Lawyers Can Use Screenwriting Techniques To Tell More Compelling Stories, Teresa M. Bruce

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Hollywood writers have a secret. They know how to tell a compelling story—so compelling that the top-grossing motion pictures rake in millions, and sometimes billions, of dollars. How do they do it? They use a simple formula involving three acts that propel the story forward, three "plot points" that focus on the protagonist, and two "pinch points" that focus on the adversary. The attached Article argues that lawyers should build their stories in the same way Hollywood writers do. It deconstructs the storytelling formula used in movies and translates it into an IRAC-like acronym, SCOR. Attorneys who use SCOR will …

Mindfulness In Legal Ethics And Professionalism, Peter H. Huang

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Mindfulness involves paying attention with curiosity in an intentional, open, and compassionate way to life as it unfolds moment to moment. Law students, lawyers, law professors, legal clients, and indeed all people can improve their lives through mindfulness. Mindfulness can lead to individual benefits and personal transformation. Mindfulness can also lead to societal benefits and social change. This invited symposium contribution exemplifies how mindfulness can facilitate the positive personal and professional development of law students by presenting excerpts of law students’ answers discussing mindfulness to questions from the final examination of the course: Legal Ethics and Professionalism. Notably, none of …

Bridges Ii: The Law--Stem Alliance & Next Generation Innovation, Harry Surden

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Technological change recently has altered business models in the legal field, and these changes will continue to affect the practice of law itself. How can we, as educators, prepare law students to meet the challenges of new technology throughout their careers?

Adventures In Higher Education, Happiness, And Mindfulness, Peter H. Huang

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This Article recounts my unique adventures in higher education, including being a Princeton University freshman mathematics major at age 14, Harvard University applied mathematics graduate student at age 17, economics and finance faculty at multiple schools, first-year law student at the University of Chicago, second- and third-year law student at Stanford University, and law faculty at multiple schools. This Article also candidly discusses my experiences as student and professor and openly shares how I achieved sustainable happiness by practicing mindfulness to reduce fears, rumination, and worry in facing adversity, disappointment, and setbacks. This Article analyzes why law schools should teach …

Celebrating Mundane Conflict, Deborah J. Cantrell

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This Article interrogates the dominant conception of conflict and challenges the narrative of conflict as hard, difficult and painful to engage. The Article reveals two primary framing errors that cause one to misperceive how ubiquitous and ordinary is conflict. The first error is to misperceive conflict as categorical — something either is a conflict or it is not. People make that error as a way of trying to avoid conflict. People falsely hope that there might be a category of “not conflict,” like disagreements, that will be easier to navigate. The second error is to misperceive the world and individuals …

Raising Up The Work Of (S)Hero Lawyers, Rachel A. Van Cleave

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No abstract provided.

Can Practicing Mindfulness Improve Lawyer Decision-Making, Ethics, And Leadership?, Peter H. Huang

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Jon Kabat-Zinn, the founder of mindfulness-based stress reduction, defines mindfulness as paying attention in a curious, deliberate, kind, and non-judgmental way to life as it unfolds each moment. Psychologist Ellen Langer defines mindfulness as a flexible state of mind actively engaging in the present, noticing new things, and being sensitive to context. Langer differentiates mindfulness from mindlessness, which she defines as acting based upon past behavior instead of the present and being stuck in a fixed, solitary perspective, oblivious to alternative multiple viewpoints. Something called mindfulness is currently very fashionable and has been so for some time now in American …

Envisioning 100% Access To Justice In Colorado, Daniel M. Taubman, Melissa Hart

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No abstract provided.

A Prescription For Overcoming Gender Inequity In Complex Litigation: An Idea Whose Time Has Come, Suzette M. Malveaux

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No abstract provided.

Love, Anger, And Lawyering, Deborah J. Cantrell

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This essay explores how mindfulness practices helped one lawyer, now legal scholar, explore the roles of love and anger in lawyering.

From The Editor, Susan Nevelow Mart

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No abstract provided.

Who Should Be Our Moral Compass Now?, Rachel A. Van Cleave

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Educating Tomorrow's Lawyers conducted a survey of over 27,000 lawyers across the country about the qualities, skills and competencies necessary for new lawyers. Almost 73 percent said having a "strong moral compass" is necessary for a lawyer to be successful in the short term. Only 17 (out of 147) other skills, competencies and characteristics, received a higher percentage of votes. Included among these were "treat others with courtesy and respect" (91.9 percent), act with "integrity and trustworthiness" (92.3 percent), and "honor commitments" (93.9 percent).

The full results of the survey have not been published, but were presented to a small …

How To Create A Less-Stressful Workplace, Michele Benedetto Neitz

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Imagine leading a staff meeting at your company. A deadline is looming and your staff is behind schedule.

But instead of feeling stressed, your fellow employees feel relaxed. Instead of exhibiting a sense of being overwhelmed, your colleagues are showing signs of being energized. As a result, everyone in the room is focused and attentive, and the work is ultimately completed well.

Law schools and legal professionals are turning to meditation training and relaxation responses to reduce anxiety.

Lawyers And Spoiled Identity, Paul Campos

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No abstract provided.

How Improving Decision-Making And Mindfulness Can Improve Legal Ethics And Professionalism, Peter H. Huang

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Lawyers who behave unethically and unprofessionally do so for various reasons, ranging from intention to carelessness. Lawyer misconduct can also result from decision-making flaws. Psychologist Chip Heath and his brother Dan Heath, in their best-selling book, Decisive: How to Make Better Decisions in Life and Work, suggest a process to improve people’s decision-making. They introduce the acronym WRAP as the mnemonic for these decision-making heuristics: (1) Widen your options, (2) Reality-test your assumptions, (3) Attain distance before deciding, and (4) Prepare to be wrong. The WRAP process mitigates these cognitive biases: (1) narrow framing of a decision problem, (2) …

The Zombie Lawyer Apocalypse, Peter H. Huang, Corie Rosen Felder

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This Article uses a popular cultural framework to address the near-epidemic levels of depression, decision-making errors, and professional dissatisfaction that studies have documented are prevalent among law students and lawyers today.

Zombies present an apt metaphor for understanding and contextualizing the ills now common in the American legal and legal education systems. To explore that metaphor and its import, this Article will first establish the contours of the zombie literature and will apply that literature to the existing state of legal education and legal practice, ultimately describing a state that we believe can only be termed "the Zombie Lawyer Apocalypse." …

Engaging Work, Working While Engaged, Rachel A. Van Cleave

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Several recent items have led me to reflect on the meaning of work. Law students often ask my advice about their careers, and I typically ask them what they enjoy. “Do what you love and you’ll never work a day” is one of my favorite quotes. Therefore, Gordon Marino’s piece in the New York Times, Sunday Review, A Life Beyond ‘Do What You Love’ (May 18, 2014), gave me pause. Marino questions whether the advice of do what you love is really sound advice, as well as whether it is advice only for the elite who might have the luxury …

Shades Of Enron: The Legal Ethics Implications Of The General Motors Scandal, Michele Benedetto Neitz

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Here we go again. "Where were the Lawyers?" is becoming a predicable refrain in response to any wide-ranging corporate scandal. General Motors is battling a rising deluge of lawsuits, investigations, and government fines in the wake of its February 2014 recall of millions of cars for a safety defect. The defect, a faulty ignition switch, is allegedly responsible for 13 fatalities and hundreds of injuries.

The sorrow of the tragic loss of life in this case is now joined by growing public anger about a cover-up at the company to avoid liability for the defect. GM's engineers and managers may …

Your Career: Ten Steps To Making A Career Change, Susanne Aronowitz

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Many of us anticipate the beginning of a new year with a sense of optimism. If you have been thinking about a change in your professional life, you may have an earnest but ill-defined New Year's resolution to make it happen in 2014. It's rare for such an opportunity to land in one's lap. Rather than relying on chance, here are some tangible strategies to bring those plans to fruition.

Internships As Invisible Labor, Melissa Hart

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No abstract provided.

Legal Academia And The Blindness Of The Elites, Paul Campos

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No abstract provided.

Your Career: A Path To Scholarship, Rachel A. Van Cleave

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Golden Gate Dean Rachel Van Cleave interviews Professor Benedetta Faedi Duramy about her journey through academia.

Viewpoint: Coming Together, Crafting Solutions, Rachel A. Van Cleave

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I have previously called for greater collaboration among a broad variety of lawyers to address the critical issues facing legal education and the legal profession. Private lawyers, government attorneys, public interest lawyers, legal educators, and even law school regulators must come together at the table for the betterment of the profession. Last week, two conferences made some initial and very positive strides in this direction. The NALP Foundation and West LegalEdcenter held a one-day forum, Tomorrow's Law Practice: A Forum on the Market, Demand and Opportunities for Lawyers; and the Educating Tomorrow's Lawyers Initiative held its annual conference entitled, Connecting …

Value(S) Of Lawyers, Rachel A. Van Cleave

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Top concerns facing legal educators and the legal profession today are the cost and quality of a legal education and the job market for graduates. President Barack Obama's comments in August about whether law school should be shortened to two years have generated healthy discussions about the trifecta we are grappling with: cost, quality and employment. These are critical issues. However, it is important not to lose sight of both the value of the legal profession as well as our fundamental values as lawyers and what model might best support these.

Professionalism And The New Normal, Philip J. Weiser

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No abstract provided.