Law Commons^™

Paying Attention To The Signs, Susan P. Koniak, Geoffrey C. Hazard

Faculty Scholarship

After all our efforts and all Keck's money, where are we? Some good has been accomplished. By committing its resources to the study of legal ethics, the W.M. Keck Foundation has encouraged law schools to pay attention to a subject all too often ignored. That itself is good. The money has made things happen. Schools have held conferences devoted to legal ethics that otherwise would not have been held;¹ schools have experimented with teaching programs in legal ethics that otherwise might have been left untried;' members of the practicing bar have had conversations and debates with academics about the …

Stories Out Of School: Teaching The Case Of Brown V. Voss, Elizabeth Samuels

All Faculty Scholarship

As a law teacher, I have observed these benefits of the case method, particularly with conducive appellate opinions and a skillfully assembled text. But I have also experienced, as I suspect most law teachers have, instances in which a case that lacks a sufficiently revealing narrative seems to mystify more than elucidate. One example is the case of Brown v. Voss, which appears in a number of property law casebooks, including the widely used Property by Jesse Dukeminier and James E. Krier. In Brown v. Voss the State of Washington Supreme Court departs, in a somewhat disingenuous way, from an …

Tomorrow's Law Schools: Globalization And Legal Education, Alberto Bernabe-Riefkohl

San Diego Law Review

This Article focuses on the globalization of world political and economic structures, and how this affects the legal community. The globalization movement opens opportunities for the expansion of the market of legal services, as well as affecting the availability and accessibility of those services. This movement places legal educators in a crucial juncture. This article describes the effects of globalization on legal education, and proposes changes for legal educators in order to help meet the challenge of preparing lawyers for practice in this rapidly changing world.

A Teacher's Trouble: Risk, Responsibility And Rebellion, Margaret Martin Barry, Lisa Lerman, Homer La Rue, Odeana R. Neal

All Faculty Scholarship

What follows is an edited transcript of a session at the 1995 Annual Meeting of the Association of American Law Schools, held in New Orleans, Louisiana, January 7, 1995. The meeting was a joint plenary session of the AALS Section on Professional Responsibility and the Section on Clinical Legal Education. The meeting was planned and the role plays were written by Professors Margaret Martin Barry and Lisa Lerman of The Catholic University of America and Professor Homer La Rue of Howard University.

The purpose of the program was to foster interaction among teachers of professional responsibility and clinical teachers about …

The Architecture Of A Lawyer’S Operation: Learning From Frank Lloyd Wright, John F. Nivala

John F. Nivala

No abstract provided.

Teaching Commercial Law In The Third Year: A Short Report On A Business Organizations Commercial Law Clinic, John F. Dolan, Russell A. Mcnair Jr.

Law Faculty Research Publications

No abstract provided.

Rosalie Wahl: Her Extraordinary Contributions To Legal Education, James F. Hogg

Faculty Scholarship

Justice Rosalie Wahl is well-known as the first woman to be appointed to the Minnesota Supreme Court, but she has made a lesser known, yet critical, contribution to the quality and effectiveness of legal education in this country. As chair of the American Bar Association's Section on Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar, Wahl created the MacCrate Commission. The MacCrate Report charts the way for improvement in law school teaching and learning, and the discussion following the report lead to the creation of an ABA Commission to take testimony and review the ABA Accreditation Standards. Wahl also chaired this …

Our Perspective On Irac, Christina L. Kunz, Deborah A. Schmedemann

Faculty Scholarship

In this brief article, the authors present their view of IRAC, an acronym for Issue, Relevant law, Application to facts, and Conclusion. The authors conclude that IRAC can be taught so that students understand not only why it is useful as a thinking and writing tool, but also that proper use of it requires judgment and creativity. When IRAC is presented this way, the authors assert, it can serve first-year students well as they study legal writing. And they will operate accordingly, even without being aware of its influence, during their years as practicing lawyers.

Learning By Doing - Preparing Law Students For The Practice Of Law: The Legal Practicum, John O. Sonsteng, Roger S. Haydock

Faculty Scholarship

The MacCrate Report outlined ten skills that are essential for every practicing attorney and should ideally be taught in every law school. The Association of American Law Schools (AALS) concluded that these ten skills cannot be effectively obtained through every law school curriculum because of each school's individual, economic limitations. This article demonstrates how one law school—William Mitchell College of Law, in St. Paul, Minnesota—has , since 1984, incorporated a cost effective Legal Practicum course into its curriculum to help meet the MacCrate Report goal of providing the law student with the opportunity to learn and apply fundamental lawyering skills. …

A Short History Of Hearsay Reform, With Particular Reference To Hoffman V. Palmer, Eddie Morgan And Jerry Frank, Michael S. Ariens

Faculty Articles

Much of the history of the American law of evidence, including its most contentious issue, hearsay, is the story of stasis and reform. The case of Hoffman v. Palmer represents one of few cases concerning hearsay known by name, and illustrates that “false” evidence has often been used to caution against efforts proclaiming “radical reform” of the law of evidence.

In this case involving a collision between a car and a train, the critical question was: Is the defendant railroad permitted to introduce into evidence the transcript of a question and answer session made two days after the accident between …

Some Thoughts On A More Humanist And Equitable Legal Education, A. Wayne Mackay

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

This article starts with the premise that all teaching is a communication of values between student and teacher. An important challenge in confronting law is making it more inclusive and equitable. A critical step in this process is first recognizing one's own biases. Only then will genuine dialogue about the inherent biases in the legal profession and in law schools be possible. Making law schools more inclusive entails not only superficial changes, but an examination of what is taught, how it is taught and how students are evaluated.

A Holistic Approach To Criminal Justice Scholarship, William T. Pizzi

Publications

No abstract provided.

Of Rat Time And Terminators, David R. Barnhizer

Law Faculty Articles and Essays

A version of rat time is being created within the legal profession as law schools pump 40,000 graduates a year into a saturated system. Understanding our present condition as a period of rat time can help us diagnose the problems of the legal profession, identify the future responsibilities of law schools and the profession, and create more effective solutions than the bandaids that have been proposed or applied thus far. This is particularly important because lawyers and law schools have lost their way. They are afraid to address their most troubling problems and to take the principled actions necessary for …

Business Lawyers And Value Creation For Clients, Ronald J. Gilson, Robert H. Mnookin

Faculty Scholarship

This Symposium marks an important milestone in legal scholarship and education: The spotlight falls on business lawyers for a change. Ten years ago, when one of us first wrote about what business lawyers really do, no one had devoted much attention to this part of the profession. In his broadside against lawyers, Derek Bok, then President of Harvard University and formerly dean of its law school, reserved his invective for litigators and the litigation process. Business lawyers captured the attention of very few critics; even on the unusual occasion when we were noticed, the criticism was at least funny. If …

The Gulf Of Mexico, The Academy, And Me, Fran Ansley

Scholarly Works

No abstract provided.

Book Review, Challenging The Hart And Wechsler Paradigm, Mary Brigid Mcmanamon

Mary Brigid McManamon

No abstract provided.