Digital Commons Network^™

Developing Lawyering Skills In The Age Of Artificial Intelligence: A Framework For Legal Education, Julie Kimbrough

Faculty Publications

This Article explores the emergence of generative artificial intelligence technology in legal education and law practice. It first offers historical perspective by examining the development of online legal research systems and other existing law practice technology tools that leverage artificial intelligence. This Article then proposes a framework for legal education based on twenty-first-century competencies that advance human interaction with legal technology tools. Next, this Article recommends that law schools incorporate these competencies into learning outcomes along with a holistic approach to teaching technology-driven lawyering skills as a strategy to narrow the learning gap between legal education and law practice. It …

Law School Veterans Clinics: Helping Veterans, Training Students, Improving The System, Alexander W. Scherr

Scholarly Works

This essay makes the case for law schools to create clinics and externship courses that address the needs of veterans. Veterans legal work offers excellent opportunities to represent individual veterans to obtain the benefits they earned through service to our country. At the same time, veterans clinic work can enlist students in systemic advocacy that changes how institutions address veterans' needs through appellate, administrative, and class action advocacy. Law students who work in veterans clinics develop skills they can readily transfer to other practice areas while working closely with clients and developing their professional identities. Finally, veterans clinics help law …

Harnessing The Power Of Community Through Pop-Up Legal Clinics, Elizabeth Grant, Christine M. Scartz

Scholarly Works

The article discusses the effectiveness of pop-up legal clinics in addressing the justice gap by providing free legal advice to those in need. These clinics, operating under Georgia's Rule of Professional Conduct 6.5, offer limited scope consultations, enabling attorneys to fulfill their pro bono obligations while helping individuals navigate legal issues. The initiative underscores the power of community collaboration and highlights the positive impact on both clients and volunteer attorneys.

Values-Ambiguous Clinics, Willow Tracy

Scholarly Works

As law school clinical programs have grown in recent decades, many of the newer offerings focus on business law, entrepreneurship, intellectualproperty, and technology. It is commonly presumed that social justice values, such as the amelioration ofpoverty or theprotection offundamental rights, are notfoundational goals of these non-traditional clinics. This Article calls these clinics "values-ambiguous" to highlight the frequent uncertainty and skepticism about their relationship to traditional clinical social justice values. Importantly, "values-ambiguous"does not describe a quality of the clinic itself it describes a quality ofperception of the clinic. In other words, "values-ambiguous clinics" are clinics that are typically not perceived as …

Understanding Rural Legal Deserts To Inform Public Policy: Identifying And Describing Lawyer Gaps In Non-Metropolitan Counties, David J. Peters, Emma Bartling, Emily Meyer

South Dakota Law Review

Rural legal deserts have become a growing topic of interest to legal scholars and social scientists in the U.S. However, current research is limited by measurement issues and by the lack of national-scale analyses. To address these limitations, we identify legal deserts by applying latent profile analysis to lawyer gap rates for N = 2,307 non-metropolitan counties in the U.S. Lawyer gap rates are calculated as local demand for lawyers minus the local supply, using employment in private practice law offices from the Census Bureau. Next, we statistically describe the spatial, demographic, economic, and social characteristics of legal deserts. We …

Disrupting Public Defense: A Transitions Theory Approach, Matt Bender

Lewis & Clark Law Review

Public defense problems are well known, but a solution has been elusive. This Article analyzes public defense’s adaptive features using the Multi-Level Perspective (MLP) for the first time. The MLP is a theoretical framework that is often employed to study institutional and societal barriers to innovative ideas, like climate change responses and clean energy transitions. This Article describes the MLP’s theoretical model and uses it to examine why public defense reform consistently fails.

This Article then goes beyond the MLP framework to explore how transition management tools can be used to design and nurture new approaches to public defense. I …

Executory Contract Provisions That Provide Solely For An Equitable Remedy Are Enforceable Post-Rejection., Ashley Romeo

Bankruptcy Research Library

(Excerpt)

Under Section 365(a) of title 11 of the United States Code (the "Bankruptcy Code"), "a trustee [or debtor in possession], subject to the court’s approval, may assume, or reject an executory contract." Generally, a contract is executory if "performance remains due to some extent on both sides." In general, a debtor may decide whether its executory contract is a good deal going forward. The debtor will likely want to reject a contract that is no longer a good deal in order to repudiate any further performance of its duties. When reviewing the trustee or debtor-in-possession’s decision to assume or …

Foundations Of The Right Of Charitable Uses, Adam J. Macleod, Mark David Hall

Scholarly Articles

In recent years, municipalities around the United States have enacted ordinances that prohibit or restrict food-sharing in public places. These ordinances make it difficult for charitable souls to share food with those most in need. In one case, a town in Arizona arrested a woman under an ordinance that prohibits sharing food in public for charitable purposes.
The closest analogs to these laws are the English anti-almsgiving acts of the fourteenth and sixteenth centuries. One must look that far back in history because infringements of the right of charitable uses of property are exceedingly rare. Indeed, throughout the history of …

What Lawyers Could Learn From The Corporate Practice Of Medicine, Melissa D. Mortazavi

Faculty Articles

Proponents of the United States’ domestic experiments in non-lawyer ownership (NLO) of legal practice justify them in terms of increasing “access to justice.” But what if opening ownership of legal practice to investment capital only exacerbates market failures (leading to further consolidation and increased costs to clients), while also compromising professional autonomy and fiduciary duty? The legal profession must be clear-eyed about who are the real winners and losers of such a shift and avoid being blinded by wishful thinking. Prominent legal scholars have repeatedly touted NLO as a solution to the access to justice crisis. However, there is scant …

The Growing Role Of Venture Studios In Startup Finance, David Nows, Lawrence J. Trautman

Case Western Reserve Law Review

No abstract provided.

Donor Impact Report 2024-2025, University Of San Diego School Of Law

Donor Impact Report

No abstract provided.

Judicial Economy In The Age Of Ai, Yonathan Arbel

University of Colorado Law Review

No abstract provided.

Public Constitutional Ai, Gilad Abiri

Georgia Law Review

We are increasingly subjected to the power of AI authorities. Machine learning models now underpin algorithmic markets, determine whose speech is amplified or restricted, shape government decisions ranging from resource allocation to predictive policing, and influence our access to information on critical issues such as voting and public health. As AI decisions become inescapable, entering domains such as healthcare, education, and law, we must confront a vital question: How can we ensure that AI systems, which increasingly regulate our lives and make decisions that shape our societies, have the authority and legitimacy necessary for effective governance?

To secure AI legitimacy, …

Annual Report, Fiscal Year 2025, Tennessee. Department Of Correction

Annual Reports

This document is the annual report for the Tennessee Department of Correction during the fiscal year.

Understanding The Duty Of Competence For Attorneys Using Generative Ai, Anna C. Conley

Faculty Law Review Articles

Ethical duties appear poised to be the primary regulatory tool for responsible use of generative AI (“GAI”) by attorneys. This reality necessitates a clear understanding of what the duty of competence requires for attorneys using GAI. Recent state bar and American Bar Association (“ABA”) guidance have coalesced around a foundational concept of informed decision-making, which requires that attorneys have sufficient knowledge about the GAI tool they are using and the specific task at hand to make an informed decision that employing the tool for that task is in the client’s best interests. Competence also requires attorneys avoid automation bias and …

The Faster Horse Fallacy: How The Law Idealizes Technology, Youngsieg P. Kim

Hofstra Law Faculty Scholarship

How does the legal profession understand new technology? Lawyers are involuntary experts in technology: we are not professionally trained in technology like engineers are but must know technology better than the typical citizen does, because the law must regulate how the typical citizen that is, society uses technology. The increasing complexity and variety of technologies that affect everyday life, such as artificial intelligence (AI), make our jobs as involuntary experts in technology all the more important. To prepare lawyers to regulate technology effectively, we must first examine how lawyers understand (or misunderstand) technology in the present. This Article examines a …

Individual Academic Freedom And The Current Forces Of Economics And Technology, George R. Wright

FIU Law Review

There are always a number of cultural constraints on higher education institutions. Such cultural constraints always matter. But sometimes, as in our day, such constraints are especially severe. These constraints are broadly economic; more specifically market-based; and technological in nature. They operate on public and private universities and on law schools in particular. Our concern herein is for such constraints in the many cases in which a faculty member’s speech on some matter of public interest arguably impairs a legitimate interest of the employer-university or law school. The weight of the educational institution’s interests in such academic speech cases is, …

Financial Abuse Of The Elderly In Florida: The Current Landscape And Additional Steps For A State With A Large Elderly Population, Alexander Romanach

FIU Law Review

An overview of Florida’s statutory punishments preventing the Financial Abuse of the Elderly.

Undo Process: Examining Agency Procedural Levers To Access To Counsel, Haiyun Damon-Feng

Articles

Every day, through internal adjudicative proceedings, agencies make thousands of rights determinations that affect critical matters such as financial security, family unity, personal safety, and individual liberty. Scholars and policymakers have recognized the significant impact that representation can have on adjudicative outcomes across the administrative state. Many agencies have implemented policies affirmatively seeking to boost an individual's ability to bring an advocate to assist with the adjudication process. In the immigration context, however, agencies have enacted procedural hurdles that have made it more difficult for individuals to reap the benefits of this assistance.

This Essay uses recent developments in the …

Book Review: Biglaw's Race Problem, Angela Onwuachi-Willig, Anthony V. Alfieri

Faculty Scholarship

Ever since the 1970s when BigLaw firms began to hire Black lawyers into their associate ranks, these firms have wrestled with problems in both recruiting and retaining Black associates. During the ensuing decades, BigLaw firms have minimally increased the low numbers of Black attorneys who have become partners, particularly equity partners, within their organizations. Numerous scholars have explored how racial bias and discrimination, both within BigLaw firms and greater society, have contributed to such failures in the recruitment, retention, and promotion of Black lawyers. In his new book The Black Ceiling: How Race Still Matters in the Elite Workplace, …

Predicting Federal Third-Party Funding Regulation, Victoria Sahani

Faculty Scholarship

Third-party funding is a global phenomenon, although regulatory enforcement is local. Regulatory approaches vary widely from country to country and within countries, especially in federal legal systems, such as Canada, Australia, and the United States. The United States federal government is learning about third-party funding with an eye toward potential future regulation. Congress has been investigating funding, as evidenced by testimony in congressional hearings, proposed federal legislation, and a nonpartisan study on third-party funding by the Government Accountability Office. In addition, after more than a decade of observation, the United States Federal Civil Rules Advisory Committee recently formed a committee …

Sharing The Tuna Platter: A Uniform System Of Assessment For Clinical Education, Melina Healey

Scholarly Works

Legal education’s current methods for the measurement of student achievement in clinics, and the measurement of a clinic course’s effectiveness, are often unsatisfying, unreliable, and incomplete. This article presents a methodology for uniform and integrated systems of assessment across clinical programs that can provide more reliable evaluation of student progress and achievement, and better feedback to clinical programs on their effectiveness. It also shares how Touro University Jacob D. Fuchsberg Law Center’s Clinical Program applied these strategies with both success and challenges.

Operational Solutions To Everyday Problems From Border Advocates At Jewish Family Service Of San Diego, Kate Clark, Reilly Frye

San Diego Law Review

Day in and day out, across administrations at all levels of government, a cadre of impassioned change agents, including advocates, service providers, community stakeholders, and grassroots organizations, are called to action to fight. Through exhaustion and fatigue, this group unequivocally continues to center humanity and uplift sustainable solutions.

As a “border attorney,” I have been proximate to this work and space for more than fourteen years, the entirety of which has been at Jewish Family Service of San Diego (JFS), a refugee resettlement organization, pro bono legal service provider, and operator of the San Diego Rapid Response Network Migrant Shelter …

Administrative Law's Unavailing Duties, Daniel Z. Epstein

Texas A&M Law Review

Through a novel empirical approach, this Article shows that legal doctrine does not determine whether federal courts provide remedies when agencies fail to enforce a statutory duty. Plaintiffs are most likely to succeed against the government when litigating statutory procedures located within agency-specific statutes and which raise major policy questions in immigration, healthcare, Native American rights, public housing, the environment, or labor. Others are more likely to lose against the government: plaintiffs litigating statutory violations involving procedures not specific to an agency, but which apply to officers and agencies throughout the bureaucracy. These cases involve duties governing ethics, transparency, recordkeeping, …

Building Successful Justice Worker Programs: Emerging Insights From Research And Practice, Rebecca L. Sandefur, Matthew Burnett

Alaska Law Review

America's deep access to justice crisis has long seemed intractable. But new and potentially transformative models for giving people access to legal services and to their own law are emerging around the country. Among the most promising of these are community justice workers. These are people already trusted in their communities, such as social workers, librarians, health aides, community leaders, teachers, mediators, and everyday citizens who are trained to help people understand and act on the legal challenges involved in critical life issues. These issues implicate basic needs like nutrition, health, income security, shelter, education, and care of dependents, and …

Expanding Access To Justice Through Regulatory Reform And Innovation: Arizona Lessons From The Past, Present, And Future, Samuel A. Thumma

University of Cincinnati Law Review

No abstract provided.

Power-Conscious Legal Work: Building A Roadmap For Rural Access To Justice Through Trust, Accountability, & Trauma-Informed Practices, Cayley Balser, Antonio M. Coronado

Alaska Law Review

The importance of trauma-informed practices has never been greater. In the United States, most of the population has experienced at least one traumatic event in their life. Experiencing a traumatic event may have long-lasting impacts on physical health, including disruption to all major system functioning. Mental health impacts may include behavior changes, memory challenges, inability to complete routine tasks, difficulty with interpersonal relationships, and other symptoms associated with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Extant literature examines the association between past trauma experiences and later interactions with the civil justice system, including litigant conceptualizations of legal system engagement as a traumatic event …

Addressing The Access To Justice Crisis: Think Systemically, Act Locally, Nikole Nelson

Alaska Law Review

No abstract provided.

Community Justice Workers: Part Of The Solution To Alaska's Legal Deserts, Joy Anderson, Sarah Carver, Dr. Robert Onders

Alaska Law Review

Legal deserts—large geographic areas where there are few or no attorneys—are found throughout the United States, including Alaska. These deserts are a major contributor to the access to justice gap. Further compounding the scarcity of legal resources in these areas, many people living in legal deserts cannot afford legal help, even when a lawyer is available. Legal aid organizations have struggled to overcome these challenges in meeting the legal needs of low-income Americans and are often forced to turn away as many people as they are able to help. Alaska Legal Services Corporation (ALSC) is responding to this challenge in …

Note From The Editor

Alaska Law Review

No abstract provided.