Law Commons^™

Why Legal Writers Should Think Like Teachers, Laura A. Webb

Law Faculty Publications

This article proposes that new legal writers can improve their work by “thinking like teachers.” I assert that legal writing is fundamentally educative. Good writing thus requires good teaching. The article discusses the “curse of knowledge,” which makes it difficult for a writer who fully understands her topic to remember how a reader who is less knowledgeable about the topic will approach the material. It then explores three concepts from the science of learning — context, chunking, and connections — and discusses how a writer can use these concepts to effectively teach her readers.

Law, Universities, And The Challenge Of Moving A Graveyard, Wendy Collins Perdue

Law Faculty Publications

Review of Carel Stolker's book, Rethinking the Law School.

Law, Universities, And The Challenge Of Moving A Graveyard, Wendy Collins Perdue

Law Faculty Publications

Against this dark narrative genre, Carel Stolker‘s new book, Rethinking the Law School, stands in sharp contrast. Having been both a law school dean and university president at Leiden University in The Netherlands, Stolker brings the perspective of a dean who has sought to innovate, and of a university president who has dealt with the political, academic, financial, and managerial complications of a modern university. The book offers a broad look at legal education around the world, along with a thoughtful exposition of the challenges facing law schools and law deans. Stolker is no cheerleader for the current state of …

Teaching To The Test: The Incorporation Of Elements Of The Bar Exam Preparation In Legal Education, Emmeline Paulette Reeves

Law Faculty Publications

This essay stops far short of advocating for a three-year bar exam course in place of a traditional law school education. It does not even argue for dedicating the final semester of law school to bar exam preparation. Rather, it suggests that the incorporation of elements of bar preparation into the law school curriculum actually can accomplish the dual objectives of, first, making law school education more efficient, and, second, enhancing the students' educational experience and grasp of the legal principles and skills necessary for passing the bar and, ultimately, becoming better lawyers.

Specifically, this essay urges law schools and …

Experiential Education In The Lecture Hall, Jessica Erickson

Law Faculty Publications

Legal education today is composed of two separate worlds. The first world includes clinical faculty, law skills faculty, and other related faculty. These faculty members have long embraced experiential education, and they organize and attend conferences like the "Experience the Future" symposium, hosted by Northeastern University School of Law and the Alliance for Experiential Learning in Law. The other world includes people like me- doctrinal faculty members who are still largely teaching the way we always have. As we see it, our role is to teach doctrine and legal analysis, leaving skills training and other experiential teaching to others. Experiential …

Educating New Lawyers, Tara L. Casey

Law Faculty Publications

In this article, the author discusses how law schools have been challenged recently to place greater emphasis on preparing students for the realities of legal practice through skills training and community-based learning.

How Are Law Schools Addressing Major Changes In The Practice Of Law And In Accrediting Standards For Legal Education?, Margaret Ivey Bacigal

Law Faculty Publications

There was a consensus at the first panel discussion on how law schools are addressing major changes in legal practice and accrediting standards for legal education, that law schools are doing a good job teaching critical thinking and legal analysis. A recurring theme was that more experiential legal education is needed to help students become "practice ready." Deficits in legal writing, problem solving, and understanding the various contexts within which legal problems arise were concerns. A major issue is how do schools enhance legal education given the unsustainable costs and changes in the legal profession?

Providing A Framework For Learning, Mary L. Heen

Law Faculty Publications

This new book on teaching law draws upon the wisdom of hundreds of legal educators to provide ideas, materials, and alternatives for teaching a variety of law school courses. The book offers guidance for new and experienced law teachers to plan and deliver effective courses. From Business Associations to Family Law, Federal Income Taxation to Torts, each chapter addresses one of the fifteen courses most students take during their legal education.

Each chapter has five sections: (1) Approach, encompassing global issues about a course, such as goals, organizational scheme, general philosophy, syllabi, and coverage; (2) Materials, evaluating what kinds of …

The History Of Legal Education In Virginia, William Hamilton Bryson

Law Faculty Publications

Many methods of legal education have been used over the years. Each has its strengths and its weaknesses. The study of the past is instructive and useful in showing both the good and bad goals and methods. We must cultivate the good and uproot the bad. This study suggests that there has always been progress, slow but constant improvement. The teaching of law is vital to the administration of justice, a noble cause. The continuing challenge is ever to strive for the improvement thereof.

Review On The First Hundred Years: A Short History Of The School Of Law Of The University Of Virginia For The Period 1826-1926, William Hamilton Bryson

Law Faculty Publications

A book review on The First Hundred Years: A Short History of the School of Law of the University of Virginia for the Period 1826-1926 by John Ritchie.

The Problem Method Adapted To Case Books, William Hamilton Bryson

Law Faculty Publications

Although it is obvious that the teaching style of every successful academic must be the product of his own personality and experience, I do, nevertheless, believe that the exchange of ideas on the subject of legal education is constructive. It may suggest ways to make minor changes and thereby to improve one's own methods or approaches. Therefore, I present here some thoughts on the Socratic method of teaching law and the results of my own experimentation with cases as problems for classroom debate. This approach has been successful for me, and it is my hope that these ideas may be …