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Full-Text Articles in Law
What The Access To Justice Crisis Means For Legal Education, Kathryne M. Young
What The Access To Justice Crisis Means For Legal Education, Kathryne M. Young
GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works
Despite enormous social, legal, and technological shifts in the last century, the structure of legal education has remained largely unchanged. Part of the reason so little change has occurred is that the current model mostly “works”; it produces a professional class of lawyers to populate the ranks of law firms and government entities. At the same time, for decades, legal education researchers have considered it practically axiomatic that law school has room for improvement.
In this Article, I argue that the access to justice crisis—a deficit of just resolutions to justiciable civil justice problems for everyday people—compels an overdue examination …
Duty To Rescue? Exploring Legal Analysis Through The Lens Of Photojournalists’ Storytelling Dilemmas, Iselin Magdalene Gambert
Duty To Rescue? Exploring Legal Analysis Through The Lens Of Photojournalists’ Storytelling Dilemmas, Iselin Magdalene Gambert
GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works
In depicting scenes of tragedy, what happens when photojournalists become the story? Do photojournalists have a duty to rescue those they photograph? Should they? This article will use a series of iconic images – and the stories of the photojournalists behind the camera – to illustrate how exploring these questions can be a provocative vehicle through which to engage new law students in legal writing and analysis. The article focuses on an exercise that centers around a fictional “Duty to Rescue” statute modeled after European statutes of the same kind. The exercise is anchored by four images – three still …
The World Is Not Flat: Conference Planning And Presentation As Part Of A Multidimensional Understanding Of Scholarship, Iselin Magdalene Gambert, Karen Thornton, Amy R. Stein
The World Is Not Flat: Conference Planning And Presentation As Part Of A Multidimensional Understanding Of Scholarship, Iselin Magdalene Gambert, Karen Thornton, Amy R. Stein
GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works
Scholarship. For many academics, the word is filled with a combination of excitement, anticipation, obligation, and dread. Academics are expected to reliably produce scholarship, much like sculptors are expected to produce art, baristas cappuccinos, and stockbrokers profits. While “scholarship” has perhaps traditionally been viewed as strictly words on a page, some scholars view it to be a multidimensional enterprise, something that encompasses the many aspects of the life of a scholar. The idea of scholarship as comprising more than just the generation of a tangible written product is taken up in Maksymilian Del Mar’s Living Legal Scholarship, which asserts “five …
Grades Matter; Legal Writing Grades Matter Most, Jessica L. Clark
Grades Matter; Legal Writing Grades Matter Most, Jessica L. Clark
GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works
In this study of 380 students in a law school’s 2011 graduating class, the data demonstrates a strong correlation between high performance in legal writing courses and high performance in non-legal writing courses. There is also a strong correlation at the opposite end: low performers in legal writing courses are low performers in non-legal writing courses. This article provides the hard data to support the significance of writing skills by demonstrating the correlation between performance in legal writing courses and performance in other law school courses by comparing grades and Grade Point Averages (GPAs). Of course grades and GPA data …
The Changing Face Of Legal Education: Its Impact On What It Means To Be A Lawyer, Thomas D. Morgan
The Changing Face Of Legal Education: Its Impact On What It Means To Be A Lawyer, Thomas D. Morgan
GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works
In recent years, it has become less clear what it means to be a lawyer. Current efforts by the ABA to change accreditation standards for U.S. law schools make it important to think about the ways in which lawyers have common qualities. This paper considers both the changes in law practice and what they are likely to mean for U.S. law schools as they try to equip lawyers for the new reality.
Calling Law A 'Profession' Only Confuses Thinking About The Challenges Lawyers Face, Thomas D. Morgan
Calling Law A 'Profession' Only Confuses Thinking About The Challenges Lawyers Face, Thomas D. Morgan
GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works
It is appropriate to want lawyers to be mature, moral people and to help legal education reinforce those qualities. It is also appropriate to be sure students understand lawyers’ fiduciary responsibilities and the ways lawyers fall short of meeting them. It only confuses work on those issues, however, to call them part of teaching "professionalism." Law is not a "profession" as that term has traditionally been used. Calling law a profession does not help understanding the challenges lawyers face.
Making Workshops Work (For Everyone): Creating And Capturing A Student-Driven Writing Workshop Series, Iselin Magdalene Gambert, Benjamin James Grillot
Making Workshops Work (For Everyone): Creating And Capturing A Student-Driven Writing Workshop Series, Iselin Magdalene Gambert, Benjamin James Grillot
GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works
It's not uncommon for new law students to arrive at law school anxious for support on their legal writing assignments and looking for strategies to improve their time management and exam preparation skills. At the same time, upper-level law students are often eager for opportunities to develop their public speaking, presentation development, and leadership skills. This article presents an overview of the 2009-10 Fall Writing Workshop Series, sponsored by the GW Law Writing Center, which successfully met both sets of goals. The article provides readers with concrete ideas for implementing a similar program at their law schools, and includes ideas …
Implementing The Social And Economic Promise Of The Constitution: The Role Of South African Legal Education, Susan R. Jones, Peggy Maisel
Implementing The Social And Economic Promise Of The Constitution: The Role Of South African Legal Education, Susan R. Jones, Peggy Maisel
GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works
The South African Constitution recognizes socio-economic rights as a necessary foundation for the enjoyment of civil and political rights. The South African Constitution, one of the most progressive in the world, contains many important protections such as the rights to equality, housing, and education. The Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment Law (BEE) was designated to address the economic inequities of apartheid. South Africa’s commitment to economic justice is also evidenced by the fact that it is a signatory to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR). The challenge is translating these rights into opportunities for social and economic …
Choosing A Text For The Family Law Curriculum Of The Twenty-First Century, Catherine J. Ross
Choosing A Text For The Family Law Curriculum Of The Twenty-First Century, Catherine J. Ross
GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works
This article describes the Family Law Education Reform (FLER) Project Report and provides recommendations as to how a family law professor should select a course textbook. I note that the FLER Report focuses on the importance of new lawyers being sensitive to gender, race, and class and discuss how a textbook focusing on policy, practice problems, and collaborative skills will satisfy the FLER project’s recommendations.
An Introduction To The United States Legal System: Cases And Comments, Alberto M. Benítez
An Introduction To The United States Legal System: Cases And Comments, Alberto M. Benítez
GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works
This casebook introduces non-U.S trained lawyers, law students, and college undergraduates to the intricacies and nuances of our legal system. The world is becoming a smaller place and as a consequence of this globalization, the need for lawyers who are international in perspective and competence is increasing. Whatever one's opinion about globalization, there is no doubt that the U.S. legal system is at the forefront of these changes. This book attempts to compress three years of U.S. legal education into one casebook.
The following materials in this chapter, and throughout this book, will help non-United States law students and pre-law …
Scholarly Profit Margins And The Legal Scholarship Network: Reflections On The Web, Lawrence A. Cunningham
Scholarly Profit Margins And The Legal Scholarship Network: Reflections On The Web, Lawrence A. Cunningham
GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works
Controversy surrounding scholastic rankings arises, in part, because of complexities associated with measuring academic contributions. Legal researchers use various methodologies to assess scholarly production and impact but all suffer from inherent limitations and none provides data useful to scholarly self-reflection. The 10-year old Legal Scholarship Network (LSN) offers potential to improve considerably on both scores of public and personal assessment. This Essay critically evaluates approaches to conceptualizing scholarly profit margins, explores how LSN can enhance these conceptions, and opens new frontiers for this innovative Web-based repository of legal writing.
Promoting Social And Economic Justice Through Interdisciplinary Work In Transactional Law, Susan R. Jones
Promoting Social And Economic Justice Through Interdisciplinary Work In Transactional Law, Susan R. Jones
GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works
Drawing upon the author's experience with a law school Small Business Clinic, this article claims that business law transactional practice is inherently interdisciplinary, involving collaboration from various disciplines, including law, business, accounting, finance, engineering, computer science, and the social sciences. The author explores the need for legal assistance for entrepreneurs and other small businesses, especially for women and minority business owners, and discusses the recent rise in small business clinics and community economic development (CED) clinical programs, which the author attributes to a trend away from government entitlements and toward personal responsibility and economic self-sufficiency, the failure of the litigation …
Including Law In The Mix: The Role Of Law, Lawyers, And Legal Training In Child Advocacy, Catherine J. Ross
Including Law In The Mix: The Role Of Law, Lawyers, And Legal Training In Child Advocacy, Catherine J. Ross
GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works
This chapter describes the recent trends in family law scholarship, training, and practice. The first section of this chapter provides an overview of the scope of modern family law and the range of skills brought by lawyers. The second section considers the legal profession’s interest in using its collective talents to improve children’s lives in context of the broader intellectual trends in thinking about family issues. In the third section, I describe the current goals of legal education, explain why law schools should offer interdisciplinary training to students who plan to work in family law, and discuss some innovative multidisciplinary …
Reconstructing Langdell, W. Burlette Carter
Reconstructing Langdell, W. Burlette Carter
GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works
This article traces the development of the modern American law school curriculum including the case method, as designed by Christopher Columbus Langdell and the Socratic method as implemented by James Barr Ames; discusses early tensions between law schools and the American Bar Association and the ultimate triumph of law schools as the primary method of law study and frames the Langdell legacy for a modern time.