Law Commons^™

Defying Middle Child Syndrome: A Proposal For Achieving Bar Success By Reimagining The 2l Experience, Eurilynne A. Williams

Journal Publications

Middle child syndrome is the belief that middle children are excluded, ignored, or even outright neglected because of their birth order. Traditional American law schools, just like many families, are comprised of several “children,” or more accurately stated, groupings of children consisting of 1L, 2L, and 3L students. The unspoken (or at least not very often spoken) truth about law schools is that the proverbial middle children, the 2Ls, have to a degree been excluded, ignored, or even outright neglected by the legal academy. While there is a body of research dedicated to children's personality traits based upon birth order,2 …

Historically Black Colleges & Universities: A Model For American Education, Jennifer M. Smith

Journal Publications

Hungry for freedom and knowledge, enslaved Blacks engaged in a massive general strike against slavery by transferring their labor from the Confederate planter to the Northern invader, and this decided the Civil War. In 1865, the North conquered the South, and slavery officially ended. Having been starved of the opportunity to learn to read or write, the recently emancipated Blacks were eager to learn. Within a year after slavery ended, however, Florida and other Southern states enacted laws to ensure the continuation of the vestiges of slavery in the United States. The legacy of slavery and racism evolved into an …

The Pink Ghetto Pipeline: Challenges & Opportunities For Women In Legal Education, Renee N. Allen, Alicia Jackson

Journal Publications

The demographics of law schools are changing and women make up the majority of law students. Yet, the demographics of many law faculties do not reflect these changing demographics with more men occupying faculty seats. In legal education, women predominately occupy skills positions, including legal writing, clinic, academic success, bar preparation, or library. According to a 2010 Association of American Law Schools survey, the percentage of female lecturers and instructors is so high that those positions are stereotypically female.

The term coined for positions typically held by women is "pink ghetto." According to the Department of Labor, pink-collar-worker describes jobs …

Advising 2.0: Helping Students Achieve Academic Success Through Meaningful Academic Advising, Alicia Jackson

Journal Publications

It is becoming increasingly clear that current law students are seeking more wraparound support than previously provided by legal education, which begs the question, why? The answer is simple - modern law students are different and come to law school with very different expectations and experiences than students from previous years. To aid our students in achieving academic success, it is essential that we understand the complex needs of our students by first examining their previous educational experiences.

Academic advising is commonplace at institutions that serve undergraduate students. In fact, some would argue that academic advising is the cornerstone of …

The Big Bad Wolf: Helping Students Conquer Their Fear Of The Bar Exam Through P.A.S.S.- Preparation, Assessment, Self-Regulated Reflection, And Support, Alicia Jackson

Journal Publications

In light of the national decline in bar pass rates, coping with and addressing a law school’s bar passage rate is viewed by some as an insurmountable undertaking. However, I see it as an invaluable opportunity to redefine who are as law professors. Most importantly this challenge provides an opportunity for us as educators to train future attorneys to become self-aware, confident, and component to handle the challenges presented by the legal profession.

tion (“ABA”) has made it quite clear to accredited law schools and those seeking accreditation that bar passage is now a paramount factor in retaining and obtaining …

Contemporary Teaching Strategies: Effectively Engaging Millennials Across The Curriculum, Renee N. Allen, Alicia Jackson

Journal Publications

American Bar Association ("ABA") Standard 314, Assessment of Student Learning, requires law schools to "utilize both formative and summative assessment methods in its curriculum to measure and improve student learning and provide meaningful feedback to students."' This article will connect multiple formative assessments to Bloom's taxonomy to demonstrate how law teachers can transform and enhance student learning, while promoting key steps in the self-regulated learning cycle. First, it is imperative law teachers understand the education background and social landscape that our students, mostly Millennials, bring to law school. We can acknowledge that our Millennial students are different, but what does …

The "New Normal" For Educating Lawyers, Nicola A. Boothe-Perry

Journal Publications

This article examines who law professors are and what their roles consist of when educating law students. The article discusses the ethical and moral dilemmas that law professors can find themselves in while trying to be competent and trustworthy in their teaching. The article also discusses the role of mentor and counselor as they guide students’ in creating their professional identities.

A Primer On Higher Education In The 21st Century: The University As A Whole And Contributions Made By Law Schools, Ronald Griffin

Journal Publications

Citizens live within their unit's belief systems and superstitions. Truth is derived from family narratives, stories spun by old friends, outbursts from neighbours, barbers, religious figures, and priests. Certainty and comfort come from living in these spaces. But there is a wider world out there with characters doing things that conflict with routine. Higher education illuminates this realm. Legal education predicts what authorities will do about their antics and, while this is a laudable undertaking in the abstract, legal education should do more. It should arm the next generation with tools to cope with cultural ruptures, social confusion, dislocations, avatars, …

Next Phase Pedagogy Reform For The Twenty-First Century Legal Education: Delivering Competent Lawyers For A Consumer-Driven Market, Ann Marie Cavazos

Journal Publications

The underpinnings for law school training has or, I submit, soon will be, outstripped by real world requirements dictated by the demands of the legal profession marketplace. This Article is designed to add to the discourse relating to the question of what law schools supply and what law practice requires-a paradigm shift in the methodology of implementing legal education. The Article begins by reporting on the state of the law school process and how it has evolved from an apprenticeship, replete with on-the-job training, to an intellectual exercise that is somewhat removed from the requirements for becoming competent legal professionals. …

Standard Lawyer Behavior? Professionalism As An Essential Standard For Aba Accreditation, Nicola A. Boothe-Perry

Journal Publications

This article addresses the ABA as a source of pressure to encourage and foster professionalism education in law schools. The ABA holds a uniquely powerful position in the American legal community, and with it the ABA enjoys the attendant ability to influence professionalism training and awareness. The principal tool at the ABA's disposal considered in this article is the ABA's ability to promulgate standards for professionalism as a requirement for law school accreditation. This article argues that this is the proper time for the ABA to institute a specific standard in an effort to increase professionalism in the legal profession.

Demands Of The Marketplace Require Practical Skills: A Necessity For Emerging Practicioners, And Its Clinical Impact On Society--A Paradigm For Change, Ann Marie Cavazos

Journal Publications

Many articles have been written focusing on the benefits that the law students receive from participating in a rigorous program of clinical study early on in their careers. However, little focus has been given to the clients who participate in law school clinics. Most of the time these clients are poor and minorities with few, if any, options for legal representation. In general, law student clinical work has been confined to local clients with local issues. Even law schools that handle national issues have clients that are local and the issues that give rise to the national representation occur locally. …

Enforcement Of Law Schools' Non-Academic Honor Codes: A Necessary Step Towards Professionalism?, Nicola A. Boothe-Perry

Journal Publications

As law schools strive to enforce their codes of student conduct, enforcement has called into question the legal standing of the schools, since enforcement affects the fundamental rights of students. Consequently, this Article will address the following question: to what extent can law schools fulfill their responsibility and opportunity to enforce behavioral codes-specifically codes governing non-academic conduct-with a goal of improving professionalism? Through analysis of law schools' enforcement capabilities, this Article will suggest a practical framework by which law schools can promulgate and enforce codes and rules affecting students' non-academic conduct.

The Journey Toward Excellence In Clinical Legal Education: Developing, Utilizing And Evaluating Methodologies For Determining And Assessing The Effectiveness Of Student Learning Outcomes, Ann Marie Cavazos

Journal Publications

This Article proposes pedagogy and methodology for the assessment of student learning outcomes in a Model Clinic Program, intended to accomplish the clinic's goal of preparing students for the practice of law. The Clinic Model emphasizes apprenticeship methodology and assessment pedagogy to ensure that students are learning and developing the legal skill sets that they are expected to learn. In this Article, the Author will depict the Clinic Model in the present tense to illustrate a working, not just a theoretical, model.

The Pedagogy Of "Yes We Can": Teaching Reformative Legal Justice In The Age Of Obama, Leroy Pernell

Journal Publications

These brief comments, delivered as part of the 5th Annual Fred Gray Sr. Civil Rights Symposium, Faulkner University, Thomas Goode Jones School of Law October 21, 2009, do not challenge whether law schools and the profession sufficiently make the case for public service and commitment to societal good; admittedly most existing standards and curricula do. Rather, these comments address the opportunity for legal education to tap, and expand on, a heightened psychological and emotional commitment that might be engendered in law students following the election of Barack Obama as President of the United States.

Now You See It Now You Don't: Addressing The Issue Of Websites Which Are "Lost In Space", Patricia A. Broussard

Journal Publications

This article asks the following question: should the average law professor, who works mightily to churn out a large journal article every two years or so, be penalized for relying heavily on Internet citations provided full and accurate credit is given to all sources? I believe that in order to attempt to answer this question, it is important to first examine the roots of scholarship in academia and revisit its original purpose and second, to discuss the rise of technology and the impact it has had on the academy. This article will eventually set out some guidelines for the use …

Professionalism’S Triple E Query: Is Legal Academia Enhancing, Eluding, Or Evading Professionalism?, Nicola A. Boothe-Perry

Journal Publications

The focus of this Article will be law schools' specific role and responsibility in the propaedeutic instruction of professionalism in the legal community. This article is composed of five sections. Part II of this paper discusses the ubiquitous yet illusory definition of professionalism. Part III addresses the practicing bar's approach to the issue of professionalism, reflecting in Subsection A on the public's perception of lawyers, and discussing in Subsection B the response of the governing bodies to such perception. Part IV highlights the role of legal education in fostering professionalism, discussing in Subsection A the fertile ground for change in …

The Anatomy Of A "Pantsuit": Performance, Proxy And Presence For Women Of Color In Legal Education, Deleso Alford Washington

Journal Publications

This essay is intended to begin a dialogue on how the presence of women of color standing at the intersection of gender, race and class can don a pantsuit or not and still experience under-discussed social realities that influence the attainment of 21st Century leadership roles in the legal academy.

Reflecting On The Dream Of The Marathon Man: Black Dean Longevity And Its Impact On Opportunity And Diversity, Leroy Pernell

Journal Publications

At the beginning of the 2005-2006 academic year there was, what many viewed, as a comparatively bounteous crop of African-American deans of ABA-approved law schools. However, several changes during that year caused the crop to diminish rapidly. At the time of this writing, there are eighteen deans of color at American Bar Association approved law schools within the United States. Of these, fifteen are African-American and two are Latino. Of this number, five African-American deans are deans of law schools associated with historically black universities. These comments address, not necessarily the absolute number of African-American or Latino deans at any …

Jubilee, Ronald C. Griffin

Journal Publications

This essay chronicles the work and celebrates the achievements of blacks and others who lived in and escaped the thralldom of white supremacy.

Deans Of Color Speak Out: Unique Voice In A Unique Role, Leroy Pernell

Journal Publications

These comments are a reflection on, and an expansion of, points made during the author’s introduction of the panel for “Deans of Color Speak Out,” presented as part of the First National Meeting of the Regional People of Color Legal Scholarship Conferences, and Deans of Color Legal Scholarship Conference.

In Memoriam: Rodolphe Jean Alexander De Seife (1925-1998), Leroy Pernell, Daniel Reynolds

Journal Publications

No abstract provided.

The Indentured Servants Of Academia: The Adjunct Faculty Dilemma And Their Limited Legal Remedies, John C. Duncan, Jr.

Journal Publications

In this half of the twentieth century, the academic equivalent of the indentured servant is the adjunct faculty member in higher education. Adjuncts cannot say or do much about their plight. The dilemma of adjunct faculty leads to what should be considered a violation of due process rights. This Article first examines who are the adjunct faculty, what are their dilemmas, and how are they viewed in the academic world. The heart of the paper then explores the limited legal remedies available. The essential problems of lack of due process and minimal protection through collective bargaining and contractual agreements are …

In Memoriam: Professor Charles A. Thompson, Leroy Pernell

Journal Publications

No abstract provided.