Legal Education Commons^™

Practicing Practical Wisdom, Deborah J. Cantrell, Kenneth Sharpe

Mercer Law Review

Here is what we believe and what we set out to test: Wisdom is not an innate character trait; no one automatically is wise; and wisdom is learned and acquired. More importantly, one can learn and acquire wisdom intentionally and skillfully-one can practice it. And, if the practice is structured in particular ways, the practice will improve one's capacities to act with wisdom. For lawyers, and even more so for law students, that should be heartening. For legal educators, the ability to improve one's capacity to act with wisdom should be a call to action.

We set out to discern …

The Course Source: The Casebook Evolved, Stephen Johnson

Articles

Law students are changing, law practice is changing, law schools are criticized for failing to prepare practice-ready lawyers, and there is nearly universal consensus that legal education must transform. However, the principal tool that many faculty members rely on to prepare their courses, the Langdellian casebook, is ill-suited for such transformation. This prototypical casebook, which is still the standard for many courses today, was designed for the Socratic dialogue and the case method mode of instruction. Although there is still a place for that method in legal education, other methods of instruction—the carriage bolts and lag screws of modern legal …