Legal Education Commons^™

Southeastern Association Of Law Libraries Annual Meeting, Beth Adelman, Constance Ard, Jan Baker, John Beatty, Erika Beck, Jennifer Behrens, Billie J. Blaine, Pamela Bluh, Elizabeth D. Bradsher, Pam Brannon, Kevin Butterfield, Charlene Cain, Sean Chen, Terrye Conroy, Jessica De Perio Wittman, Marin Dell, James M. Donovan, Maureen A. Eggert, Robb Farmer, Elizabeth Farrell, Vicen Feliu, Sarah Glassmeyer, Suzanne R. Graham, Ismael Gullon, Edward T. Harte, Christine Heaton, James Heller, Sally Irvin, Kate Irwin-Smiler, Faye Jones, David Lehmann, Andrew Lentini, Terry Long, Shannon L. Malcolm, Terrance Manion, Roxanne Marmion, Katherine Marsh, Sarah Mauldin, Rebekah Maxwell, Pamela R. Melton, Marian Parker, Merryl Penson, Gordon Russell, James C. Smith, Dick Spinelli, Kay Todd, Robert T. Trotter, Carol A. Watson, Julie Webster-Matthews, Laura Weidig, Sarah K. Wiant, Patrick Wiseman

Jessica de Perio Wittman

The 2009 SEAALL Annual Meeting was held in Athens Georgia, April 16-18, 2009.

Keynote Address: Remarks At The Workshop On Tapping Into The World Of Electronic Legal Knowledge , Muna Ndulo

Muna B Ndulo

Professor Muna Ndulo of Cornell Law School presented the keynote address at the 2007 Starr Workshop, “Tapping into the World of Electronic Legal Knowledge.” The workshop took place at Cornell Law School October 7-10, 2007 and was co-sponsored by the Starr Foundation, New York University Law Library, and Cornell Law Library. Professor Ndulo addresses the topic of new information technologies and their importance to legal research and teaching.

Hot Topics In Legal Writing Curricular Development, Tanya Pierce

Tanya Pierce

No abstract provided.

Beyond Admissions: Racial Equality In Law Schools, Sharon E. Rush

Sharon E. Rush

Beginning with a discussion of the United States Supreme Court’s decision in McLaurin v. Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education, this article discusses the meaning of “integration.” In McLaurin, the University of Oklahoma was forced to abandon its segregation policy and not separate black students from their white classmates in all settings (not just the classroom). The McLaurin decision raised the fundamental questions: "What is integration?" and "How is integration related to racial equality?" Significantly, the McLaurin Court clarifies that equality is premised on integration and that integration means more than just having a presence in an institution. The case …

Southeastern Association Of Law Libraries Annual Meeting, Beth Adelman, Constance Ard, Jan Baker, John Beatty, Erika Beck, Jennifer Behrens, Billie J. Blaine, Pamela Bluh, Elizabeth D. Bradsher, Pam Brannon, Kevin Butterfield, Charlene Cain, Sean Chen, Terrye Conroy, Jessica De Perio Wittman, Marin Dell, James M. Donovan, Maureen A. Eggert, Robb Farmer, Elizabeth Farrell, Vicen Feliu, Sarah Glassmeyer, Suzanne R. Graham, Ismael Gullon, Edward T. Harte, Christine Heaton, James Heller, Sally Irvin, Kate Irwin-Smiler, Faye Jones, David Lehmann, Andrew Lentini, Terry Long, Shannon L. Malcolm, Terrance Manion, Roxanne Marmion, Katherine Marsh, Sarah Mauldin, Rebekah Maxwell, Pamela R. Melton, Marian Parker, Merryl Penson, Gordon Russell, James C. Smith, Dick Spinelli, Kay Todd, Robert T. Trotter, Carol A. Watson, Julie Webster-Matthews, Laura Weidig, Sarah K. Wiant, Patrick Wiseman

Patrick Wiseman

The 2009 SEAALL Annual Meeting was held in Athens Georgia, April 16-18, 2009.

A Tale Of One Cali Lesson: Librarians Share A New Approach, Terrance K. Manion, Ronald E. Wheeler

Terrance K Manion

No abstract provided.

Choosing The Top Candidate: Best Practices In Academic Law Library Hiring, Ronald Wheeler, Nancy Johnson, Terrance Manion

Terrance K Manion

The authors discuss successful hiring practices in academic law libraries. Their discussion details each step of the hiring process, from vacancy to offer, and explores strategies for implementing the steps successfully. The processes examined include: reviewing the vacancy, assessing the library needs, forming an effective search committee, writing a winning job description, checking references, conducting an interview, and making an offer. The authors assert that a successful hire will influence every aspect of your library and, as such, a library needs to devote considerable attention and resources to librarian searches.

Experiential Legal Writing: The New Approach To Practicing Like A Lawyer, Adam Lamparello, Charles E. Maclean

Adam Lamparello

Law students engage in various types of “experiential” learning activities while in school, such as clinics and externships, but they graduate without the experience necessary to practice law. This is traceable to a glaring deficiency at most law schools: a writing program that is comprehensive, properly sequenced, and integrated across and throughout the law school curriculum.

First, most graduates have never drafted the documents they will encounter in law practice. Additionally, they have not drafted and re-drafted such documents while also participating in real-world simulations as they would in actual practice. Instead, students graduate having drafted an appellate brief, a …

Not Your Parents' Law Library: A Tale Of Two Academic Law Libraries, Julian Aiken, Femi Cadmus, Fred Shapiro

Femi Cadmus

As academic law libraries continue to face the inevitability of a rapidly changing landscape which includes a new breed of digital users with sophisticated technological needs, it remains to be seen what libraries will look like in years to come. It is certain that libraries as we know them today will have changed, but to what extent? An ability to remain adaptable and to anticipate the evolving needs of users in a dynamic environment will continue to be key for libraries to remain relevant, and even to survive, in the 21st century; vital to this endeavor will also be an …

Meeting The Challenges Of Instructing International Law Graduate Students In Legal Research, Nina E. Scholtz, Femi Cadmus

Femi Cadmus

Teaching international LL.M. students legal research offers its own peculiar challenges. The brevity of the LL.M. program and the limited time available for thoroughly introducing basic research concepts have made it particularly difficult, but the innovative and creative methods of instruction highlighted in this article have provided good solutions.

Enigma: A Variation On The Theme Of Legal Writing's Place In Contemporary Legal Education, Ian Gallacher

Ian Gallacher

No abstract provided.

Whose Article Is It Anyway? Student Editors And The Law Review Process, Josephine R. Potuto

Josephine R Potuto

Law professors publish in law reviews, not peer-reviewed journals. They are edited by law students. The editing process can be both irritating and exasperating. From experiences lived and those shared by colleagues across the country, I provide concrete examples of where law student editors go wrong, and also explain why.

Inventing The New Classroom, Jennifer Mart-Rice, Debra Denslaw, Susan Boland, Jesse Bowman

Jennifer Mart-Rice

No abstract provided.

A Proposal To The Aba: Integrating Legal Writing And Experiential Learning Into A Required, Six-Semester Curriculum That Trains Students In Core Competencies, 'Soft Skills,' And Real-World Judgment, Adam Lamparello, Charles E. Maclean

Adam Lamparello

Experiential learning is not the answer to the problems facing legal education. Simulations, externships, and clinics are vital aspects of a real-world legal education, but they cannot alone produce competent graduates. The better approach is to create a required, six-semester experiential legal writing curriculum where students draft and re-draft the most common litigation documents and engage in simulations, including client interviews, mediation, depositions, settlement negotiations, and oral arguments in the order that they would in actual practice. In so doing, law schools can provide the time and context within which students can truly learn to think like lawyers, do what …

A Proposal To The Aba: One Required Legal Writing Course For All Six Semesters Of Law School, Adam Lamparello

Adam Lamparello

If you decide to run a marathon, but stop training after the eighth week of a sixteen-week training schedule, you will not finish. Why? Your muscles atrophied, and your stamina declined. If you stop writing after the second or third semester of law school, you will not become a good legal writer. Why? Your skills atrophied. You did not develop mental memory—just like the marathon runner did not develop muscle memory.

Why did the marathon runner stop? Maybe life got in the way, or training became too hard. But it’s the difficult moments—the grind—that separates the marathon runner from the …

New Frontiers In Legal Research Education: Implementing Alternative Methods Of Legal Research Instruction – One Year Later, Stephanie Miller, Caroline Osborne, Alyson Drake, Franklin Runge

Stephanie C. Miller

No abstract provided.

Language Acculturation Processes And Resistance To In"Doctrine"Ation In The Legal Skills Curriculum And Beyond: A Commentary On Mertz's Critical Anthropology Of The Socratic, Doctrinal Classroom, 34 J. Marshall L. Rev. 131 (2000), Brook K. Baker

Brook K. Baker

No abstract provided.

There's A Competency For That! Competency Standards For The Successful Researcher., Gail A. Partin, Mary Jenkins

Gail A. Partin

No abstract provided.

No Shoehorn Required: How A Required, Three- Year, Persuasion-Based Legal Writing Program Easily Fits Within The Broader Law School Curriculum, Adam Lamparello

Adam Lamparello

In this article, we incorporate our proposal into the broader curricular context, and argue for more separation, not more integration, among the analytical, practical, and experiential pillars of legal education. All three are indispensable—and independent—pillars of real-world legal education:[1] (1) the analytical focuses on critical thinking; (2) legal writing combines—and refines—thinking through practical skills training; and (3) experiential learning involves students in the practice of law. To help law students master all three, the curriculum should be designed in a largely sequential (although sometimes concurrent) order, to embrace, not blur, their substantive differences, and to approach inter-foundational collaboration with …

Legal Writing - What's Next? Real-World, Persuasion Pedagogy From Day One—It’S Not What You Offer; It’S What You Require – Part Ii (In A Three-Part Series), Adam Lamparello, Charles Maclean

Adam Lamparello

This essay (part two of a three-part series) strives to begin a collaborative discussion with legal writing, clinical, and doctrinal faculty about what “change” in legal education should mean. In Part I, the authors rolled out a blueprint for transformative change in legal writing pedagogy, which includes: (1) more required skills courses that mirror the actual practice of law; (2) a three-year program that includes up to four writing credits in every semester; and (3) increased collaboration between legal writing professors and doctrinal faculty. In this essay, we get more specific, and propose a three-year legal writing curriculum that builds …

The Evolution Of The Digital Millennium Copyright Act; Changing Interpretations Of The Dmca And Future Implications For Copyright Holders, Hillary A. Henderson

Hillary A Henderson

Copyright law rewards an artificial monopoly to individual authors for their creations. This reward is based on the belief that, by granting authors the exclusive right to reproduce their works, they receive an incentive and means to create, which in turn advances the welfare of the general public by “promoting the progress of science and useful arts.” Copyright protection subsists . . . in original works of authorship fixed in any tangible medium of expression, now known or later developed, from which they can be perceived, reproduced, or otherwise communicated, either directly or with the aid of a machine or …

Amicus Briefs: Friends Of Lawyering Skills Pedagogy, Adam Lamparello, Charles Maclean

Adam Lamparello

No abstract provided.

Legal Writing - What's Next? Real-World, Persuasion Pedagogy From Day One, Adam Lamparello

Adam Lamparello

Law schools have an ethical duty to train effective legal writers who understand that the skills acquired in law school are intended to serve something greater than themselves — the bench, bar, and broader community. Training good writers — and good people — can happen by creating a writing curriculum that focuses on persuasive advocacy, public service, and honest legal representation from the first semester to the last. This change will be a challenge to legal writing professors everywhere, but with proper institutional support and collaboration, law schools can prepare their students for a profession “that depends on flawless writing, …

Requiring Three Years Of Real-World Legal Writing Instruction: Law Students Need It; Prospective Employers Want It; The Future Of The Legal Profession Demands It, Adam Lamparello, Charles Maclean

Adam Lamparello

Part I of this three-part series set forth a blueprint for change. In this essay, we get more specific and propose a three-year legal writing curriculum that is designed to mirror the actual practice of law, from start to finish, and provide alternative paths for students who prefer to focus on transactional drafting or alternative dispute resolution. In so doing, we include: (1) required courses for each of the six semesters of law school; (2) a discussion of the practical skills that students will acquire in each course; (3) electives that students may take to complement their required courses; and …

Show, Don't Tell: Legal Writing For The Real World (Chapter Outline), Adam Lamparello, Megan E. Boyd

Adam Lamparello

Show, Don’t Tell is designed to help all members of the legal profession learn to effectively draft the most common litigation documents. Far too many books offer tips and advice about good writing, but don’t actually show the reader specific examples of good writing or show the reader why examples offered are effective. The authors have read many books on legal writing, but once we learned the basics of legal writing, we didn’t learn anything in those books to make us better writers. Why? We were exposed to the best theories, but never given practical, how-to tips to turn book …

Legal Writing--What's Next? Real-World Persuasion Pedagogy From Day One, Adam Lamparello, Charles E. Maclean

Adam Lamparello

So, why didn’t they teach me this in law school?” The problem has nothing to do with ‘bad’ or uncaring teachers, but with a pedagogical approach that mistakenly divorces the acquisition of legal knowledge—and practical skills training—from their functional roles in the real world. In law school, students are typically required to write a memorandum or an appellate brief, but without knowing how each document fits into the broader context of actual law practice, the student’s ability to put that knowledge to practical use is limited. Every litigation document, whether it is, for example, a legal memorandum, complaint, motion to …

No Shoehorn Required: How A Required, Three-Year, Persuasion-Based Legal Writing Program Easily Fits Within The Broader Law School Curriculum, Adam Lamparello, Charles Maclean

Adam Lamparello

In prior articles, we advocated for a required fifteen-credit, three-year, persuasion-based, linear legal writing curriculum. Our model begins with persuasive advocacy from the first day of law school, and takes a sequential approach that mirrors the practice of law — from the initial client meeting to the appellate brief.

It includes a separate track for those interested in transactional work, incorporates alternative dispute resolution and settlement simulations, and involves students in researching and drafting amicus briefs before federal appellate courts. Students are also offered several electives each semester to complement their required course load, and receive intense training in narrative …

The Metacognitive Imperative, Paul D. Callister

Paul D. Callister

This book chapter elucidates why metacognition is a seminal pedagogical principle of legal research instruction and information literacy. This begins with a holistic definition of metacognition as the ability to assess, not only the result of a research activity, but the schemata, including the processes leading to the result; and then relating this to other concepts and principles applicable to legal education. It then explains why students’ development of metacognitive abilities is an imperative to legal information literacy and other signature pedagogies currently under development. The relationship of metacognition to the pedagogical underpinnings and objectives of the Carnegie Report is …

Law Firm Legal Research Requirements And The Legal Academy Beyond Carnegie, Patrick Meyer

Patrick Meyer

What types of research resources must new hires know how to use, and in which format(s)? To answer this question, this article starts by identifying the historical research deficiencies of new attorneys. The author goes on to summarize four recent and regarded law firm practice skills studies, as well as results of the author's 2010 law firm survey. This article concludes by identifying a three part plan to improve the lacking research skills of new attorneys.

How Flipping The Classroom Made My Students Better Legal Researchers And Me A Better Teacher, Alex Berrio Matamoros

Alex Berrio Matamoros

No abstract provided.