Law Commons^™

Foreword, Jennifer Taub

Faculty Scholarship

This Foreword highlights the central points of the Articles in Volume 43, Issue 1 of Western New England Law Review. The Article topics include emotional support animals, distribution rights for small beer brewers, fairness in accident insurance coverage, alternative legal education materials, and custody challenges for parents with abusive partners. Each share the identification of a perceived problem with the legal status quo and presents proposed solutions.

Challenges And Opportunities: Intersectional Leadership In Law Schools, Sudha Setty

Faculty Scholarship

In 2019, the Author organized with Maria Isabel Medina and participated as a panelist in the Roundtable on Intersectionality and Strengths and Challenges in Leadership at the Fourth National People of Color Legal Scholarship Conference. This Essay is one of four in the cited article. The Essay summarizes the Author’s remarks at the Roundtable on contemplating a leadership role, the value of mentorship, and the profound impact that a woman of color as dean can have, simply by occupying that role.

Foreword, Sudha Setty

Faculty Scholarship

In this Article, the Author reflects on legal education and the role of law reviews. Law reviews not only serve as an educational opportunity, but offer potential legal reforms to help legal scholars, practitioners, and the public understand possible shortcomings of the current state of the law and help law and policy makers contemplate potential improvements.

Teaching Communication Skills In Transactional Simulations, Eric J. Gouvin, Katherine M. Koops, James E. Moliterno, Carol E. Morgan, Carol D. Newman

Faculty Scholarship

This Article describes the role of communication exercises in transactional law and skills education, and provides several examples of such exercises. After a discussion of fundamental differences between communication in the context of litigation and transactional law, the Article discusses exercises designed to improve written communication skills, including the use of e-mail, in the context of transactional law. It follows with a similar discussion of exercises focusing on oral communication skills, including listening, interviewing, counseling, negotiation, and presentations. The Article concludes with examples of exercises combining oral and written communication skills in the context of simulated transactions.

Mini-Law School: Civic Education Making A Difference In The Community, Pat Newcombe, Beth Cohen

Faculty Scholarship

Western New England’s Mini-Law School Program increases civic engagement and awareness and provides opportunities for law schools and educators to help non-lawyers better understand the legal system. This article will discuss the Mini-Law School Program, a creative and extremely successful five-week community outreach program focused on demystifying the law. Our society is in dire need of greater civic education. Public policy surveys consistently reveal disturbing statistics about the public’s lack of civic awareness (e.g., 15 percent of the public knew that John Roberts is Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, but 66 percent could name an American Idol judge; 70 …

Teaching Bioethics: The Role Of Empathy & Humility In The Teaching And Practice Of Law, Barbara A. Noah

Faculty Scholarship

This essay considers the role of empathy and humility in the professional practices of physicians and lawyers and in those who prepare students for these professions. Beginning with an overview of the goals and methods of legal education, it compares similar goals in medical education and the value of practicing law (and medicine) with empathy and humility. The essay then describes exercises used in the law school classroom designed both to teach law students about end-of-life law and also to allow them to practice counseling clients. Through these exercises, law students can experience firsthand the challenges of advising a client …

What Legal Writers Can Learn From Paint Nite, Beth Cohen, Pat Newcombe

Faculty Scholarship

Paint Nite activities and adult coloring have captured the nation’s interest and gone mainstream. Creating something on our own is what drives similar trends like the popular Do It Yourself movement and the resurgence of knitting after 9/11. At the same time, these fun, creative activities can provide us with a window into the process of legal writing. Using Paint Nite as a reference point throughout a legal writing course allows faculty to present a holistic view of the writing process and provides a useful analogy for faculty as well as an accessible context for students. Legal writing instructors share …

Writing Can Be Taught And Assessed, Beth Cohen

Media Presence

No abstract provided.

Keep Calm And Carry On, René Reich-Graefe

Faculty Scholarship

This Essay examines some of the hard data available for today’s legal market and develops very basic forecasts and hypotheses about what the future will bring for the U.S. legal profession during the next decades. In conclusion, it projects that recent law school graduates and current and future law students are standing at the threshold of the most robust legal market that ever existed in this country—a legal market which will grow, exist for, and coincide with, their entire professional careers. Using admittedly back-of-the-envelope math based on current trends affecting the legal market (in particular, lawyer retirements, population growth, and …

Preparing "Main Street" Lawyers: Practicing Without Big Firm Experience, Lisa Reel Schmidt, Steve Garland, Robert Statchen

Faculty Scholarship

This Article is the transcript of a panel presented at Emory’s Third Biennial Conference on Transactional Education. The panelists advance two premises: First, that law schools need to teach transactional skills because many students will either focus on transactional law or practice general law where transactional skills are necessary; and second, that some of the transactional skills the schools teach should be specific to main street lawyering because a number of students will be main street lawyers. The panelists explain how the transactional skills necessary for main street lawyering differ from skills needed in litigation and big law firms. They …

The Lawyer's Toolbox: Teaching Students About Risk Allocation, Dana Malkus, Scott Stevenson, Eric J. Gouvin, Usha Rodriques

Faculty Scholarship

This Article is the transcript of a panel presented at Emory’s Third Biennial Conference on Transactional Education. The panel focuses on techniques for teaching risk allocation as part of transactional skills classes. The panelists describe their approaches to teaching risk allocation, from syllabus design to final evaluations. How can a professor help students to understand the basic concepts of risk, the role risk plays in business and legal decisions, and how they can help clients manage risk. The techniques for teaching risk allocation include hypotheticals, visual aids, and hands-on assignments. The panelists each take their students down a different path …

Interdisciplinary Transactional Courses, Eric J. Gouvin, Robert Statchen, Anthony J. Luppino, William Kell

Faculty Scholarship

This Article represents a panel presentation on interdisciplinary work in law school transactional courses. The Authors’ focus is on the Small Business Clinic at Western New England University School of Law. Topics covered are: interdisciplinary work and the classroom, professional liability and competency issues in rendering services through a clinic, culture class issues, ethical dilemmas, delivering professional products to the client, and co-curricular opportunities.

Renaissance Or Retrenchment: Legal Education At A Crossroads, Lauren Carasik

Faculty Scholarship

This Article begins to synthesize the literature criticizing the current state of legal education with the scholarship proposing solutions, and argues that whatever review is undertaken must be expansive, with a careful and critical look at how each piece supports the endeavor. None of the ideas discussed, taken alone, are novel, as scholarship abounds on all of the topics. Considered together, the analysis suggests that a comprehensive and holistic approach to reform is necessary. In essence, the goal is to catalyze a wholesale reconsideration of the very foundation of legal education. Many of the seemingly disparate themes comprise a Gordian …

Upper-Level Courses: Three Exemplars, Eric J. Gouvin, Mark Fagan, Tamar Frankel, Kathy Z. Heller

Faculty Scholarship

This Article presents three exemplars of upper-level law school classes, and is divided into three parts. Part I discusses "Securitization and Asset-Backed Securities"; Part II discusses "Using Transactions to Teach Secured Transactions"; and Part III discusses "Teaching Deals Through a Focus on the Entertainment Industry."

Teaching Transactional Skills In A Clinic, Robert Statchen, Serge Martinez

Faculty Scholarship

In May 2008, the Center for Transactional Law and Practice at Emory University School of Law held a conference entitled “Teaching Drafting and Transactional Skills—The Basics and Beyond.” This Article reflects the Authors’ discussion of teaching drafting and transactional skills to law students in the context of a law school clinic.

Teaching Business Lawyering In Law Schools: A Candid Assessment Of The Challenges And Some Suggestions For Moving Ahead, Eric J. Gouvin

Faculty Scholarship

As a result of several recent studies and changes in the ABA's Standards for Approval of Law Schools, legal education is paying more attention to skills training for law students. The need to bring the skills and values of business lawyers into the classroom has never been greater, yet there remains a real risk that "skills training" may be skewed in favor of litgation skills, with little emphasis given to transactional practice. This Article assesses some of the obstacles that stand in the way of effective integration of transactional skills into the law school curriculum and offers some concrete suggestions …

"Think Glocal, Act Glocal": The Praxis Of Social Justice Lawyering In The Global Era, Lauren Carasik

Faculty Scholarship

Millions of people in the world struggle to survive in extreme economic deprivation, and deteriorating conditions have highlighted the failure of international development policies to "lift all boats." The complex and globalized context of poverty compels social justice lawyers to innovate transnational advocacy strategies, expanding human rights norms as part of those efforts. This Article suggests a cross-border, collaborative advocacy model for clinical education. The model is premised on theories of global interconnectedness that integrate progressive lawyering, social change theory and anti-poverty work in the global era, thereby contributing to the discourse about and praxis of combating international economic injustice. …

Justice In The Balance: An Evaluation Of One Clinic's Ability To Harmonize Teaching Practical Skills, Ethics And Professionalism With A Social Justice Mission, Lauren Carasik

Faculty Scholarship

A number of developments have firmly established the role of clinics in legal education, allowing law school clinicians greater latitude in designing programs consistent with law school curricular values and priorities. Consequently, current law school clinical offerings are comprised of richly varied structures and goals. A myriad of goals fall under the general rubric of clinical legal education. Among the most widely cited goals are providing practical skills training in a real world context, instilling a public interest ethos in students, advancing social justice, encouraging the critique of the law and legal institutions, inculcating high standards of ethics and professionalism …

Helping Students Develop A Humanistic Philosophy Of Lawyering, Beth Cohen

Faculty Scholarship

This Article considers the need to help students develop a cohesive philosophy of lawyering and suggests some ideas and methods to help introduce these concepts and concerns to students. Although this Article focuses primarily on aspects of the legal research and writing curriculum and pedagogy as well as professional development programs that can enhance the curriculum, the concepts are applicable and transferable to other subjects and courses. The purpose of this Article is to explore the issues raised by a conscious decision to help students consider and develop a beneficial philosophy of lawyering in areas including the development of legal …

Tribute: An Extraordinary Lawyer, Arthur Leavens

Faculty Scholarship

Charles Ogletree, Jr., is one of those persons who, by virtue of his many and varied achievements, has become almost larger than life. Ogletree is a leader in the struggle for civil rights. The Author pays tribute to this tenured Harvard Law School professor.

Using A Literary Case Study To Teach Lawyering Skills: How We Used Damages By Barry Werth In The First-Year Legal Writing Curriculum, Jeanne M. Kaiser, Myra Orlen

Faculty Scholarship

First-year law students arrive for their first day of classes with varying perceptions about the practice of law and what it means to be a lawyer. Although some students have first-hand knowledge of the profession based on their work in a law office or from family members who are attorneys, many students base their entire conception of what it means to be a lawyer on images from popular media. The Authors discuss how they used a literary account to acquaint students with an authentic picture of litigation, while still teaching the rudiments of legal research and writing. The book used …

The Dangers Of The Ivory Tower: The Obligation Of Law Professors To Engage In The Practice Of Law, Amy B. Cohen

Faculty Scholarship

This Article considers whether law professors have a professional obligation to keep current with the practice of law by actually engaging in such practice on some limited or occasional basis.

The Author proposes that, at a minimum, law professors should be encouraged, if not required, to stay connected to the world of practice. Law professors could spend a sabbatical in practice, engage in some outside work while teaching, or simply observe, study, or communicate regularly with those who are actively engaged in the practice of law. If seen as a form of class preparation or as an nspiration for scholarship, …

Learning Business Law By Doing It: Real Transactions In Law School Clinics, Eric J. Gouvin

Faculty Scholarship

This Article discusses the business clinic movement and how legal educators view them as being an excellent vehicle for inculcating the values and practices that business lawyers hold dear. Business clinics may help students better appreciate the challenges of business lawyering, which they sometimes misunderstand as merely a forms practice. The Author believes that by putting students in the middle of real transactions, they gain a deeper understanding of the subtleties of making a transaction come together.

The Document Package Exam As A Teaching Tool, Eric J. Gouvin

Faculty Scholarship

This Article discusses an exam technique that uses realistic hypothetical corporations to test on course material. These fact scenarios are more enjoyable for the students to complete than traditional exams. In addition, the technique helps the Author achieve important pedagogical goals. Students are given a document package composed of corporate articles of incorporation, bylaws, SEC filings, a Standard & Poors Company report, financial statements, and a trust indenture, for example. They have a few weeks before the end of the term to digest the material. They understand that in order to answer the take-home exam questions completely they will have …