Law Commons^™

Book Review: “The Good Lawyer: Seeking Quality In The Practice Of Law”, Linda H. Edwards

Scholarly Works

In their first collaboration, The Happy Lawyer, the writing team of Nancy Levit and Doug Linder tackled a crucially important subject: how to have a happy life in the law. As part of that project, they interviewed more than two hundred lawyers about what makes them happy in their jobs. Levit and Linder noticed that happy lawyers nearly always talked about doing good work. Curious about the connection, the authors turned to recent research in neuroscience and learned, not to their surprise, that a key to a happy life is, indeed, the sense of doing good work. It is …

Helping International Students Avoid The Plagiarism Minefield: Suggestions From A Second Language Teacher And Writer, Diane B. Kraft

Law Faculty Popular Media

In this column for Perspectives: Teaching and Writing, Professor Diane B. Kraft provides suggestions to address the problem of plagiarism by international law students.

Stop Me If You’Ve Heard This Before: Transitions In Teaching Legal Research, Patricia Morgan

UF Law Faculty Publications

Law schools are being called upon to produce more “practice ready” graduates. To that end, the University of Florida added a librarian-taught first-year Legal Research course to its curriculum. As a result of the course addition, there was an impact on the existing Advanced Legal Research (ALR) course. For the first time, the ALR students had already received legal research instruction. This required adjustments in this higher level course.

Teaching The Wire: Integrating Capstone Policy Content Into The Criminal Law Curriculum, Roger Fairfax

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

When I first proposed teaching a seminar on The Wire at the George Washington University Law School in 2010, I encountered very disparate reactions. Those unfamiliar with the show generally wondered whether the law school curriculum was any place for a course with the name of a popular television drama in the title. Those who had heard glowing things about, but had not seen, The Wire typically professed their intention to watch the show but shared the skepticism of the former group on its suitability as the focus of a law school course. Finally, those who had viewed the series …

Teaching “The Wire”: Crime, Evidence, And Kids, Andrea L. Dennis

Scholarly Works

I have a confession: I have only watched Season 1 of The Wire, and it has been many years since I did that. Thus, both my knowledge and pedagogical use of the show are limited. What explanation can I offer for my failings? I am a Maryland native with family who resides in Baltimore City, or Charm City as it is affectionately called. I worked for several years as an assistant federal public defender in Baltimore City. Over time, I have seen the city evolve, and I have seen it chew up and spit out many good people and some …

Law School Training For Licensed 'Legal Technicians'? Implications For The Consumer Market, Elizabeth Chambliss

Faculty Publications

In January 2014, the ABA Task Force on the Future of Legal Education released its report calling, among other things, for limited licensing and the expansion of independent paraprofessional training by law schools. In Washington State, all three law schools are collaborating with community college paralegal programs to design and deliver specialized training for “Limited License Legal Technicians” (LLLTs), who will be licensed to deliver limited family law services beginning in 2015. At least three other states, including California and New York — which together contain nearly twenty-six percent of U.S. lawyers and seventy-six law schools — are actively seeking …

Teaching First-Year Law Students To Read So Carefully That They Discover A "Mistake" In A Judicial Opinion, Jane Bloom Grisé

Law Faculty Popular Media

In this column for The Learning Curve, Professor Grisé discusses how to teach critical reading skills to first-year law students.

Professor Thomas G. Field, Jr.: Pioneer In Intellectual Property Education, Teacher, Mentor, And Scholar, Jon R. Cavicchi

Law Faculty Scholarship

It is almost an impossible endeavor to summarize the forty plus year career of Thomas G. Field, Jr. Regarding this inquiry, Field might say, "If you want to know what I have done, look at my C. V. on the web!" His ten page, single-spaced "Abbreviated Curriculum Vitae" only sets the factual stage for the incredible career that spanned the entire life of the University of New Hampshire School of Law ("UNH School of Law" or "UNH Law"). The real story is only told by Field himself, his contemporaries, colleagues, and the thousands of students whose life he touched. This …

Technology And Client Communications: Preparing Law Students And New Lawyers To Make Choices That Comply With The Ethical Duties Of Confidentiality, Competence, And Communication, Kristin J. Hazelwood

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

That the use of technology has radically changed the legal profession is beyond dispute. Through technology, lawyers can now represent clients in faraway states and countries, and they can represent even local clients through a “virtual law office.” Gone are the times in which the lawyer’s choices for communicating with clients primarily involve preparing formal business letters to convey advice, holding in-person client meetings in the office, or conducting telephone calls with clients on landlines from the confines of the lawyer’s office. Not only do lawyers have choices about how to communicate with their clients, but they also frequently choose …

Learning Critical Legal Theory Across The Curriculum: An Innovative Course In Applied Feminism, Michele E. Gilman

All Faculty Scholarship

In law schools, we are so accustomed to a single professor teaching each substantive class that we rarely question this method of teaching. Imagine instead a class taught by fourteen professors, each of whom teaches for one week to share their substantive expertise through the lens of critical legal theory. At the University of Baltimore School of Law, we offer such a course, entitled Special Topics in Applied Feminism. Throughout the semester, students are exposed to feminist legal perspectives on a wide range of substantive topics, including tax law, international law, immigration law, employment law, and many others.

The course …

Impact Of Uniform Laws On The Teaching Of Trusts And Estates, David M. English

Faculty Publications

Beginning in 1969 with the approval of the Uniform Probate Code (UPC), uniform laws have had a major impact on the teaching of the basic Trusts and Estates course. This is not the place to list the close to thirty uniform acts relating to Trusts and Estates that have been approved. Rather, this Article will focus on the impact that uniform laws have had on the content of what is taught in the Trusts and Estates course. Uniform laws are not written in a vacuum. Like other legislative enactments, they are the product of societal changes and changes in legal …

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 …

Reflections On Presumed Incompetent: The Intersections Of Race And Class For Women In Academia Symposium - The Plenary Panel, Maritza I. Reyes

Journal Publications

No abstract provided.

A Promising Beginning, Jeremiah A. Ho

Faculty Publications

When I began teaching at the University of Massachusetts in August 2012, one of my first encounters was with the newly-formed UMass Law Review. The editorial staff was wrapping up its initial preparations for publishing the inaugural volume. Now, over a year later, those nascent processes have since been refined; the inaugural year is over. We are excited to say that the UMass Law Review enters its sophomore year with this current issue, affectionately dubbed “9:1”.

Escaping From Lawyers' Prison Of Fear, John Lande

Faculty Publications

Lawyers regularly experience numerous fears endemic to their work. This is not surprising considering that lawyers generally operate in environments that frequently stimulate many fears. Lawyers’ fears can lead them to enhance their performance due to increased preparation and effective “thinking on their feet.” Fear is problematic when it is out of proportion to actual threats, is expressed inappropriately, or is chronically unaddressed effectively. It can lead to sub-optimal and counterproductive performance through paralysis, ritualized behavior, or inappropriate aggression. Some lawyers’ fears unnecessarily prevent them from performing well, producing good results for clients, earning more income, and experiencing greater satisfaction …

Returning To The Basics: Rethinking The Meaning Of “Practice” In Law School, Reichi Lee

Publications

Legal education is in crisis and everyone is talking about it. When the economy took a nosedive, legal jobs were no long-er handed out on a silver platter and law firms began to balk at the expense of training lawyers. You can’t surf the internet without reading yet another blogger’s lament on ‘what law school does not teach you’ or why one ‘should not go to law school.’ Those forces, coupled with the sky-rocketing costs of legal education, have even the United States President (himself a former law professor) suggesting that law school should be shortened to two years. In …

Beyond The Fakultas' Four Walls: Linking Education, Practice, And The Legal Profession, Stephen A. Rosenbaum

Publications

More than fifty years after the first post-colonial Southeast Asian regional conference on legal education, commentators and educators do not necessarily agree on the appropriate curricular balance between theory, doctrine, and practice, or what role the government should play in directing the orientation of legal studies and careers in Indonesia’s law schools. The author argues in favor of legal education that is rich in experiential learning and integrates the involvement of practitioners and doctrinal faculty. This objective may be a relatively new reality in Indonesia, but also one that needs revitalization in other Southeast Asian nations and beyond. This article …

Beg, Borrow, Or Steal: Ten Lessons Law Schools Can Learn From Other Educational Programs In Evaluating Their Curriculums, Debra Curtis

Faculty Scholarship

INDISPUTABLY, LAW SCHOOLS are under attack.' Because of concerns about the legal field and legal education's responsibility in the crisis of new graduates without jobs, law schools are clamoring to respond by seeking and working toward curriculum change. Generally, higher education institutions acknowledge a "responsibility to endeavour to prepare graduates who are able to manage and respond effectively to change and its inherent demands challenges and tensions." However, there are questions about law schools' ability to do just that. There have been many years of repeated criticisms of the case method and active discussions regarding curriculum reform.

One Small Step For Legal Writing, One Giant Leap For Legal Education: Making The Case For More Writing Opportunities In The "Practice-Ready" Law School Curriculum, Sherri Lee Keene

Faculty Scholarship

Legal writing is more than an isolated practical skill or a law school course; it is a valuable tool for broadening and deepening law students’ and new attorneys’ knowledge and understanding of the law. If experienced legal professionals, both professors and practitioners alike, take a hard look back at their careers, many will no doubt remember how their work on significant legal writing projects advanced their own knowledge of the law and enhanced their professional competence. Legal writing practice helps the writer to gain expertise in a number of ways: first, the act of writing itself promotes learning; second, close …

"Practice Ready Graduates": A Millennialist Fantasy, Robert J. Condlin

Faculty Scholarship

The sky is falling on legal education say the pundits, and preparing “practice ready” graduates is one of the best strategies for surviving the fallout. This is a millennialist version of the argument for clinical legal education that dominated discussion in the law schools in the 1960s and 1970s. The circumstances are different now, as are the people calling for reform, but the two movements are alike in one respect: both view skills training as legal education’s primary purpose. Everything else is a frolic and detour, and a fatal frolic and detour in hard times such as the present.

No …

Infusing Technology Skills Into The Law School Curriculum, Simon Canick

Faculty Scholarship

Legal education has never considered technological proficiency to be a key outcome. Law professors may debate the merits of audiovisual teaching tools: do they work when they should?; do they facilitate learning objectives or are they just toys?; whom should they call when something breaks?; and so on. Teachers use course management sites like TWEN and Blackboard to share information and manage basic course functions. Many fear that laptops and other devices distract students in class, and some institute outright bans. Among many law teachers, technology is warily accepted, but only for the purpose of achieving traditional educational objectives.

What …

Teaching The Art Of Defending A White Collar Criminal Case, Katrice Bridges Copeland

Journal Articles

This Article discusses the author's experience with effectively teaching a white collar crime course.

Erasing Boundaries: Inter-School Collaboration And Its Pedagogical Opportunities, Ian Gallacher

College of Law - Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Lights! Camera! Law School?: Using Video Interviews To Enhance First Semester Writing Assignments, Ian Gallacher

College of Law - Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

William Mitchell College Of Law's Hybrid Program For J.D. Study: Answering The Call For Innovation, Eric S. Janus, Gregory M. Duhl, Simon Canick

Faculty Scholarship

In January 2015, William Mitchell College of Law will launch the first American Bar Association (ABA)-approved, on-campus/ online J.D. program to further the college's mission: to provide accessible, experiential, rigorous training for tomorrow's lawyers. Known as the hybrid program, it will offer a legal education to talented, hard-working students who cannot access a traditional J.D. program because of location or family or work commitments. In this article, we explain the origins and pedagogical foundations of the program, as well as give an overview of the program.

Balancing Between Two Worlds: A Dakota Woman’S Reflections On Being A Law Professor, Angelique Eaglewoman

Faculty Scholarship

There were many paths I considered as a young woman and none of them included becoming a law professor. My journey to my present life as a Dakota woman law professor is about balancing between the worlds I travel back and forth in. There is my tribal world, where I feel replenished and part of an on-going community experience stretching back to time immemorial. I feel that I am part of an unfolding history of endurance, strong Native women, and a participant in sustaining our traditional Native ways. On the other hand, there is the non-Indian world, where I often …

The American Legal Profession In The Twenty-First Century, Stephen M. Sheppard

Faculty Articles

Lawyers in the United States work in public service, private counseling, and dispute resolution, but many also work outside of traditional legal practice. The million-member American bar, second largest in the world, grows more diverse by gender, and ethnicity and older on average. All members of this learned profession must qualify by education or examination and by proof of good character and fitness before taking an oath to serve as an attorney. Thence, there are few limitations on the form of legal practice, though many law firms require an associateship before an attorney becomes an owner of the firm. Economic …

Experiential Education As Critical Pedagogy: Enhancing The Law School Experience, Spearit, Stephanie Ledesma

Articles

This article examines the shift to greater experiential education in law school through the lens of critical pedagogy. At its base, critical pedagogy is about devising more equitable methods of teaching, helping students develop consciousness of freedom, and helping them connect knowledge to power. The insights of critical pedagogy are valuable for a fuller understanding of experiential education and its potential to affect students in profound ways, particularly as a means of empowerment. Although this is an understudied area of pedagogical scholarship, power relations are at the heart of legal education. Critical pedagogy offers a frame for considering how experiential …

Legal Education In Crisis, And Why Law Libraries Are Doomed, James G. Milles

Journal Articles

The dual crises facing legal education - the economic crisis affecting both the job market and the pool of law school applicants, and the crisis of confidence in the ability of law schools and the ABA accreditation process to meet the needs of lawyers or society at large - have undermined the case for not only the autonomy, but the very existence, of law school libraries as we have known them. Legal education in the United States is about to undergo a long-term contraction, and law libraries will be among the first to go. A few law schools may abandon …