Digital Commons Network^™

Law School News: A Quiet Success Story: Rwu Law's Enduring Partnership With The Center For Justice 01-09-2026, Helga Melgar

Life of the Law School (1993- )

No abstract provided.

Critical Lawyering Pedagogy: Transformational Legal Education, Carolyn Grose

Faculty Scholarship

In an era marked by democratic backsliding, systemic inequality, and widespread disillusionment with legal institutions, traditional legal education has proven not merely inadequate, but actively complicit in reproducing the institutional norms, professional identities, and hierarchies that have enabled democratic erosion and the misuse of law as a tool of exclusion and domination.

This Article describes a comprehensive, justice-oriented framework that reimagines the structure, content, and outcomes of legal education to better meet those needs. Critical Lawyering Pedagogy (CLP) draws from Critical Pedagogy, Narrative Theory, and Critical Lawyering and challenges the entrenched hierarchies and exclusionary norms that dominate most law schools …

Dual Purposes Of A Plea Bargaining Simulation: Pedagogical Skills Training And Controlled Data Collection Experiment About Crime Victim’S Access To Justice Via Counsel, Tung Yin

Indiana Journal of Law and Social Equality

No abstract provided.

Unseen Labour, Unmatched Impact: Struggles And Strategies Of Supervising Lawyers In Canadian Clinical Law Programs, Sarah Buhler, Gemma Smyth

Dalhousie Law Journal

Supervision has been described as the “beating heart” and the “core” of clinical legal education. Yet lawyers who supervise law students in clinical programs have challenging and poorly understood roles within Canadian legal education. This article analyzes interviews with lawyers who supervise students in Canadian law-school affiliated legal clinics. Supervising lawyers describe the tensions between their roles as lawyers, supervisors and mentors, university or non-profit employees, social justice advocates, members of law societies, and clinic team members. These tensions often exist within an environment of lower pay, poor job security, substandard treatment by colleagues, and inadequate training. Despite these challenges, …

The Keystone State Should Forge A New Path To Lawyer Licensure, Ashley M. London, Nachman Gutowski, Sarah J. Garrison, Steven Foster

Scholarly Works

Pennsylvania should reject the adoption of the NextGen bar examination and instead develop a new, state-specific pathway to lawyer licensure that better serves the needs of the legal profession and the public. The NextGen exam, designed by the National Conference of Bar Examiners (NCBE), introduces significant challenges, including its lack of transparency, inadequate preparation materials, and reliance on a rigid, memorization-heavy format. These deficiencies hinder equitable access to licensure, disproportionately affecting underrepresented groups and perpetuating systemic barriers within the profession.

Moreover, NextGen's failure to robustly address critical legal areas, such as trusts and estates, jeopardizes the ability of new lawyers …

Required Learning, Voluntary Service: A Critical Look At Mandatory Cle And Pro Bono Options, Rima Sirota

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

This chapter critically examines the intersection of mandatory continuing legal education (MCLE) and pro bono service in the United States, focusing on the growing practice of awarding MCLE credits for pro bono work. It argues that MCLE, widely justified as promoting lawyer competence, rests on a striking lack of empirical support and is structured in ways that undermine effective professional learning. A pro bono option for earning MCLE credit, introduced as an incentive to expand access to justice, has similarly failed to demonstrate measurable impacts on pro bono participation. Nonetheless, the pro bono option holds untapped potential because, if properly …

Holding The Line On Academic Freedom In Law School Clinics, Ty Alper, Praveen Kosuri, Beth Lyon, Alicia E. Plerhoples, Laura Riley, Robin Walker Sterling

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

Since the emergence of modern clinical legal education, law school clinics have periodically faced political interference in their selection of clients and cases, interference that threatens clinics’ essential dual missions of training practice-ready lawyers and providing legal services to marginalized clients who would otherwise lack representation. While such pressure is not new, contemporary threats differ in scale and institutional form. Today, funding, oversight, and enforcement mechanisms are weaponized in an attempt to discipline universities, heightening institutional anxiety and prompting some universities to contemplate preemptive constraints on clinic autonomy in the name of risk management and reputational protection. This shift to …

Harnessing Your Superpower As A Lawyer, Rebecca Frank Dallet

Marquette Law Review

None

Teaching Cross-Cultural Communication In Law School: Lessons From Medicine, Social Work, And Business, Mireille Butler, Jaclyn Celebrezze

Articles

Legal clients in the United States are increasingly multilingual and multicultural. More than 71 million people living in the United States communicate in a language other than English. Consequently, the lawyer’s duty of shared understanding is taking on new meaning. With the advent of ABA Ethics Opinion 500, cross-cultural communication skills are a lawyer’s ethical duty and a law school’s mandate. Additionally, ABA Standard 303(c) and the potential of increased experiential learning credit requirements make clear that immediate curricular changes are needed. To prepare for the modern practice of law, tomorrow’s lawyers need to develop cross-cultural skills while in law …

Bridging The Rural Justice Gap: A Scalable Solution Rooted In Clinical Legal Education, Michelle Paxton

Northwestern Journal of Law & Social Policy

The rural justice gap significantly impacts child welfare legal representation, exacerbating the challenges families face when navigating juvenile courts in rural America. Attorneys in these communities frequently encounter geographic isolation, limited access to specialized training, professional burnout, and inadequate resources, all of which hinder effective advocacy for vulnerable children and families.

This article argues that clinical legal education, when paired with structured post-graduate training and multidisciplinary consultation, offers a replicable model for addressing the rural attorney shortages in juvenile court advocacy. The Nebraska Children’s Justice and Legal Advocacy Center (NCJC) illustrates how this model can be designed and scaled to …

Casebooks, Canons, And Constitutional Memory, Jack M. Balkin, Sanford Levinson

William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal

Casebooks on constitutional law take a lot of time and effort to prepare. What is the point of bothering to edit one? There are several possible reasons. First, you might want to make money from sales. For the vast majority of law professors, the financial return to the hours spent organizing and editing cases is simply not worth it. Second, you might be the sort of person who just likes to do things by yourself. If you are going through the bother of preparing your own materials, then why not publish them and possibly influence others as well? Most law …

Learning By Doing: The Importance Of Thoughtful And Limited Generative A.I. Use In The Il Legal Writing Classroom, Luke Repici

Faculty Publications

Technological advances that impact lawyers day-to-day work are nothing new. From typewriters, dictaphones, and computers to electronic legal research, email, and e-discovery, new technologies have changed the nuts and bolts of how lawyers practice for decades. Previous technologies may have replaced the pen with the typewriter and supplanted the letter for the email, but the lawyer remained the one doing the work. For more junior lawyers, this meant assigned tasks – reading cases, drafting motions, dictating client updates, summarizing discovery, and creating deposition outlines – could not be outsourced to technology.

The emergence of generative artificial intelligence (“Gen AI”) presents …

The Law Fox Manifesto, Benjamin H. Barton

Kentucky Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Law Review Symposium: Prisoners' Rights: Protecting Civil Liberties Behind Bars & Beyond 11-7-2025, Roger Williams University School Of Law

School of Law Conferences, Lectures & Events

No abstract provided.

Beyond Mass Deportation, Nancy Plankey-Videla, Huyen Pham, Angela D. Morrison, Luz E. Herrera

Faculty Scholarship

Donald Trump’s threats to carry out the mass deportation of unauthorized immigrants helped propel him to a second term as President of the United States. For the estimated 11 million people in the U.S. without lawful status, those threats have increased fears of forced returns to their countries of origin. While American immigration law is heavily focused on the legal processes leading to deportation, little attention has been paid to the post-deportation experiences of individuals who must reintegrate into their home countries. This gap in understanding is especially alarming given the high stakes of reintegration. A successful transition can empower …

The Splintering Of “Catalyst Theory” In New York, Nancy Larcher

Cardozo Journal of Equal Rights and Social Justice (ERSJ) Blog

Some of the New York Supreme Court, Appellate Divisions are now recognizing “catalyst theory” as a part of the New York State Equal Access to Justice Act (“EAJA”). To preserve the intent of the EAJA, it is time for the Court of Appeals to decide in favor of catalyst theory for litigants. Recently, the New York Supreme Court, Appellate Division, Third Department ruled in favor of Peter Markey, a disabled Navy veteran who sued New York State after they denied him rental assistance. The EAJA allows for plaintiffs to obtain attorneys’ fees when they prevail in certain actions against New …

Tax Law Panel, Cardozo Tax Law Society, Heyman Center On Corporate Governance, Cardozo Business Law Society

2025–2026 Flyers

Joined By:

• Kirkland & Ellis
• Troutman Pepper Locke
• Lewis Brisbois
• Legal Services of NYC

Kwanza Jones & José E. Feliciano Commit $6 Million To Name Clinical Education Program At Cardozo School Of Law, Benjamin N. Cardozo School Of Law

Cardozo Law News Archive

Cardozo School of Law announced a $6 million gift from alumna Kwanza Jones and José E. Feliciano to renovate and expand its clinical education facilities. The gift will establish the Kwanza Jones and José E. Feliciano Program for Clinical Education, supporting experiential legal education and increasing access to justice through Cardozo's nationally recognized clinical programs.

Res Gestate 2025 Fall Issue, Lindsay Wilcox, Angela Turnbow, Austen Diamond, Lexie Kite, Violet Maw, Henry Randolph, Robert Rice, Dave Titensor, Elizabeth Kronk Warner

Law School Historical Documents

The Alumni Magazine for the S.J. Quinney College of Law, University of Utah

The Role Of "Light Plagiarism" In Legal Writing , From A Recent Practitioner's Perspective, Donna L. Eng

UF Law Faculty Publications

Because practitioners are pressured to complete their tasks as quickly and efficiently as possible, lawyers regularly use documents previously drafted by other lawyers as a starting point for their drafting. Law students may be surprised to learn that in the modern practice of law, plagiarism is so widely accepted and encouraged. This article proposes several reasons why Legal Writing Professors should consider addressing that fact by discussing the process by which many lawyers draft documents in the real-world practice of law today.

First, the rules against plagiarism do not relate to the real-world practice of law. Unlike law students, who …

Curricular Choices: Misconceptions Regarding Law School Courses, Constance Backhouse, Holland Stille, Avery Esford

Dalhousie Law Journal

Canadian law schools offer their upper-year students a wealth of optional curricular choices. Yet many students choose narrowly and poorly. This article addresses the misconceptions that many hold as they select their second- and third-year courses. Often students believe they need certain courses to get a job, to prepare for articling, to pass the bar exams, or to prepare for future legal careers. In most cases, these concerns are erroneous. This article urges students to choose based on factual evidence rather than imagined anxieties and on personal interest rather than the “group think” rigidity that infects much of the curricular …

Case Global: A Winning Tradition, Case Western Reserve University School Of Law, The Frederick K. Cox International Law Center

Case Global Newsletter

Volume 17, No. 1 (2025)

• CWRU once again ranked among the best in 2025 PreLaw magazine and US News & World Report rankings of International Law Program...
• Case Western Journal of International Law Tackles the Need to Update the Geneva Conventions
• Building on a Winning Tradition
• CWRU Launches New International Development Law Lab
• CWRU Establishes Spring Break in the Hague Program
• Professor Michael Scharf leads Team to Prepare Ukrainian Judges and Prosecutors to Try Environmental War Crimes
• Professor Rapp teaches Comparative Law to Saudi Administrative Judges in Riyadh
• Yemen Accountability Project publishes two new White Papers
• Immigration Clinic Builds Momentum …

Law School News: The Surprising Impact Of Pro Bono Opportunities 9-2-2025, Suzi Morales

Life of the Law School (1993- )

No abstract provided.

Changemakers: Nate Reid : L'26 : The Surprising Impact Of Pro Bono Opportunities 09-02-2025, Suzi Morales

Life of the Law School (1993- )

No abstract provided.

Reforming The Indian Bar: The Limits Of Technological Solutions, Varsha Aithala, Karthik Suresh

Articles

A majority of Indians do not have effective access to legal services, despite the constitutional promise of access to justice. There are two intertwined reasons for this: the unavailability of a sufficient number of good quality lawyers, and the high costs of accessing legal services. The Indian legal profession is highly unequal, with ‘prestige’ being the currency of upward professional mobility. The professional regulator, the Bar Council of India, simply lacks the capacity to regulate quality. As a consequence, clients lack the information to access lawyers, and to understand the outcomes they desire from them, and the fees they have …

Law School News : Spotlight On Trial Advocacy With Jamie Gau, L'16 : Alum And Adjunct Professor Reflects On The Strengths Of Rwu Law's Trial Advocacy Program 08-25-2025, Helga Melgar

Life of the Law School (1993- )

No abstract provided.

Cardozo Law Launches The National Immigration Habeas Institute, As Part Of Its New Center For Immigration Innovation, National Immigration Habeas Institute, Center For Immigration Innovation

Cardozo Law News Archive

Cardozo School of Law has launched the Center for Immigration Innovation, which will serve as a hub for immigration-related initiatives, including the new National Immigration Habeas Institute (NIHI). A partnership with the National Immigration Litigation Alliance, NIHI will train attorneys to litigate federal habeas petitions—an increasingly critical tool to protect noncitizens facing detention or deportation. The Center will also house the Kathryn O. Greenberg Immigration Justice Clinic and a new Immigration Research Institute, which will host scholarship workshops, speaker series, and service-learning trips. Co-Directors Peter Markowitz and Lindsay Nash emphasized that the Center will strengthen advocacy, scholarship, and hands-on training …

What 2 Profs Noticed As Transactional Law Students Used Ai, Celia Bigoness, David Reiss

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

We teach entrepreneurship law clinics in which our students do transactional work on a wide range of matters, including business formation, contracts, intellectual property protection and regulatory compliance.

This past semester, we had access to generative artificial intelligence tools from Lexis, Westlaw and Bloomberg Law, as well as those that are more broadly available to the general public, including ChatGPT and Perplexity.

While we have not done a rigorous study of these tools, we have some early observations about how AI is changing how transactional lawyers do their jobs, particularly new transactional lawyers. Our own experience has been mostly positive, …

The Role Of Proactive Management Based Regulation In Assisting Lawyers And Promoting Public Protection, Susan Saab Fortney

Faculty Scholarship

Increasingly, jurisdictions around the world are exploring and implementing proactive, management-based regulation (PMBR) as an alternative to traditional regulatory approaches that discipline attorneys after misconduct occurs. This essay examines the proof and potential of PMBR to empower lawyers and enhance public protection, while transforming the relationship between regulators and practicing lawyers. The essay is based on the Distinguished Lecture the author delivered at the Joseph G. Miller and William C. Becker Center for Professional Responsibility at the University of Akron School of Law.

Masthead & Table Of Contents

Dalhousie Law Journal

No abstract provided.