Legal Education Commons^™

The Incorporation Of Government Lawyering In The Teaching Of Legal Ethics In Canadian Law Schools, Andrew Martin, Leslie Walden

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

Government lawyers, and the specific legal ethics issues that arise in their practices, remain largely overlooked in Canadian legal education. The authors argue that government lawyering should be better incorporated into legal ethics curricula in law schools, for both practical and conceptual reasons. Most importantly, understanding issues unique to government lawyering helps students better understand core concepts in legal ethics, and thus better prepare for the practice of law both in the public and private sectors. While law teachers face serious challenges in incorporating government lawyering into legal ethics education, many of those challenges can be confronted and ameliorated. The …

Train Wrecks: 3m National Teaching Fellows Explore Creating Learning And Generative Responses From Colossal Failures, William B. Strean, Patrick T. Maher, Kim Brooks

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

We all fail. We also like to look good and avoid looking bad. So, even though we know that taking risks and trying new approaches are important for enhancing our teaching and students’ learning (Strean, 2017), we rarely talk about our failures. Our claim in this paper is that our insecurities create a substantial barrier to improving and enriching our teaching practices. If we do not find time to take big risks, and then to explore and critically reflect on failures that result sometimes from those risks, we lose out on the chance to become better teachers; more fundamentally, we …

'...And The Learners Shall Inherit The Earth': Continuing Professional Development, Life Long Learning And Legal Ethics Education, Richard Devlin, Jocelyn Downie

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

After many years of debate and resistance the Canadian legal profession is finally accepting that compulsory professional development is a necessity. We argue that as the legal profession begins to design and deliver these programmes it should take into consideration the insights of the educational literature on lifelong learning. By way of a concrete example we explore the ways in which lifelong learning theory can inform the design and delivery of legal ethics education.

Reflections On Recommendation 12, Naiomi Metallic

Reports & Public Policy Documents

This article focuses on the Marshall Commission Report’s specific recommendation for increased representation of racialized persons within the judiciary.

Fitness For Purpose: Mandatory Continuing Legal Ethics Education For Lawyers, Jocelyn Downie, Richard Devlin

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

The authors argue that if we want lawyers to be fit for the purpose of practicing law, and law societies to be fit for the purpose of regulating in the public interest, then it is incumbent upon the Canadian legal profession to adopt programmes of compulsory legal ethics education (CLEE). In support of this argument the authors: provide several reasons why Canadians might be concerned about the ethical fitness of lawyers and law societies; analyse several arguments both in supporting and resisting CLEE; suggest several strategies for overcoming the ethical indolence of the legal profession; and draw inspiration from recent …

Mandatory Legal Education Is A Step In The Right Direction, Richard Devlin, Jocelyn Downie

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

For decades, and from sea to sea to sea, many Canadian lawyers have resisted and ridiculed mandatory continuing legal education (MCLE). But the winds of change are blowing from the West.

As of January 2009 all lawyers in British Columbia will be obliged to complete 12 hours of “continuing professional development” per year. While some other provinces have imposed mandatory reporting obligations for CLE, British Columbia is the first to grasp the nettle and make actual participation in CLE mandatory. There are a number of compelling reasons for concluding that this is a very good thing.

Normative, And Somewhere To Go? Reflections On Professional Responsibility, Richard F. Devlin Frsc

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

In this article the author offers some reflections on professional responsibility. He straddles the optimist and pessimist perspectives espousing ''pessoptimism" as a more adequate position than either extreme. The author begins by deconstructing the title of the conference in which the paper was delivered: "A New Look: A National Conference on the Legal Profession and Ethics," which took place in Calgary, in June 1994. Pursuing a middle path between the optimistic and pessimistic approaches to professional responsibility, the author outlines the parameters of his ethical vision which provides some directions for legal practice. There are three elements to his restructured …