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Criminal Defense Clinic, Legal Clinic Program

Course Descriptions and Information

This clinic focuses on the representation of indigent clients charged with misdemeanor criminal offenses in county courts in the Ninth Judicial Circuit of Florida. Students will represent low-income clients charged with misdemeanor criminal offenses from the surrounding community as well as those defendants appointed by the court who qualify for free legal services.

Homelessness And Legal Advocacy, Legal Clinic Program

Course Descriptions and Information

This clinic offers a comprehensive set of legal services focused on assisting and empowering low income individuals in their interaction with the legal system. Students explore the facets of homelessness and the role of legal advocacy in addressing its causes and alleviating its consequences.

Housing Clinic, Legal Clinic Program

Clinical Programs Brochures

The Housing Clinic offers a comprehensive set of legal services focused on assisting and empowering low income individuals in housing related matters. Its goal is to instill in students a sense of compassion and responsibility in representing the interests of the under represented. It also provides students with practical training in core legal skills and an understanding of the rules of professional responsibility. Students also study relevant government Programs and policies and assess their success or failure in meeting the needs of people who are homeless or at risk of becoming so.

Fresh Approaches To Teaching Transactional Drafting, Joan Macleod Heminway, Richard K. Neumann Jr., Katherine M. Koops

Scholarly Works

No abstract provided.

The Twenty-First Century Delivery Of Legal Services: Thoughts For Legal Education, Laurel A. Rigertas

Faculty Articles, Papers, and Other Scholarship

The twenty-first century lawyer will face rapid and unsettling changes in the way legal services are delivered. Legal futurists foresee many aspects of legal services being delivered more efficiently with the use of technology. For example, future breakthroughs in artificial intelligence may expand the ability to automate many tasks that currently require the skill of a lawyer. Similarly, less complex legal services such as the drafting of wills and trusts are being commoditized and provided more quickly and cheaply by new market entrants, such as LegalZoom, which provide on-line documents to millions of satisfied consumers. Additionally, new categories of licensed …

Teaching Compliance, D. Daniel Sokol

UF Law Faculty Publications

Compliance is a growing field of practice across multiple areas of law. Increasingly companies put compliance risk among the most important corporate governance issues facing them. Moreover, as “JD plus” jobs proliferate, the demand for hiring both at the entry level and for former students currently in practice who are experienced in the compliance field will continue to grow. The growth in compliance jobs comes at a time in shifting demand for legal jobs for law school graduates. Traditional law firm entry level jobs at large law firms, which were the staple of on campus recruiting before 2007, have not …

Thoughts On American Legal Education: Past, Present And Future, Marc D. Falkoff

Faculty Articles, Papers, and Other Scholarship

As a professor and administrator at a public law school, I have witnessed firsthand widespread changes in the legal market for our graduates, and I have observed how that transformation has affected how and what we teach our students. Some of the disruption in the legal market was undoubtedly hastened by the Great Recession. But the truth is that law firms had already turned to computer programs for document review, were increasingly relying on contract lawyers, and had begun outsourcing legal work to India and the Philippines well before the fall of Lehman Brothers in 2008. Moreover, innovations like Legal …

Post-Graduate Legal Training: The Case For Tax-Exempt Programs, Adam Chodorow, Philip T. Hackney

Journal Articles

The challenging job market for recent law school graduates has highlighted a fact well known to those familiar with legal education: A significant gap exists between what students learn in law school and what they need to be practice-ready lawyers. Legal employers historically assumed the task of providing real-world training, but they have become much less willing to do so. At the same time, a large numbers of Americans – and not just those living at or below the poverty line – are simply unable to afford lawyers. In this Article, we argue that post-graduate legal training, similar to post-graduate …

Newsroom: Yelnosky On Master Of Studies In Law, Roger Williams University School Of Law

Life of the Law School (1993- )

No abstract provided.

Igniting The Conversation: Embracing Legal Literacy As The Heart Of The Profession, Laura J. Ax-Fultz

Faculty Scholarly Works

Law librarians are experts in instruction, databases, scholarship, and more. This broad expertise has exacerbated an identity crisis in the profession. The author argues that law librarians must develop a core identity, such as legal literacy, to navigate an ever-changing legal landscape that questions the future necessity of law librarians.

Newsroom: A Master's In Law For Non-Lawyers, Roger Williams University School Of Law

Life of the Law School (1993- )

No abstract provided.

Newsroom: Master's In Law For Non-Lawyers, Roger Williams University School Of Law

Life of the Law School (1993- )

No abstract provided.

How Teaching About Therapeutic Jurisprudence Can Be A Tool Of Social Justice, And Lead Law Students To Personally And Socially Rewarding Careers: Sexuality And Disability As A Case Example, Michael L. Perlin, Alison J. Lynch

Nevada Law Journal

No abstract provided.

With Every Curse There Comes A Wish: Legal Education In A Time Of Change, Olympia Duhart, Ruben J. Garcia

Nevada Law Journal

No abstract provided.

The Call For Lawyers Committed To Social Justice To Champion Accessible Legal Services Through Innovative Legal Education, George Critchlow, Brooks Holland, Olympia Duhart

Nevada Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Human Rights Institute Annual Report 2014-2015, Human Rights Institute

Human Rights Institute

The Human Rights Institute sits at the heart of human rights teaching, practice, and scholarship at Columbia Law School. Founded in 1998 by the late Professor Louis Henkin, the Institute draws on the Law School’s deep human rights tradition to support and influence human rights practice in the United States and throughout the world. The activities of the Human Rights Clinic are included in the Institute’s work, enabling us to multiply our impact on the field and engage students more fully in our efforts. The Institute’s newly formed Columbia Advisory Committee provides input and feedback on the Institute’s activities and …

International Trade V. International Property Lawyers: Globalization And The Brazilian Legal Profession, Vitor Martins Dias

Maurer Theses and Dissertations

This work analyzes a distinctive characteristic of the globalizing Brazilian legal profession. Namely, intellectual property (IP) lawyers who once were leaders in opening the Brazilian economy and were key players in cross-border transactions are now losing ground to their peers with an expertise in international trade. The thesis of this article is that the manner in which Brazilian lawyers are being educated is in shambles. Generally speaking, Brazilian legal education has, overall, become degraded and provincial. Yet, Brazilian international trade lawyers, unlike Brazilian IP-lawyers, have overcome their deficient legal training by seeking legal education abroad. By traveling overseas, especially to …

Law & Lawyering In The Work Place: Building Better Lawyers By Teaching Students To Exercise Critical Judgment As Creative Problem Solver, Alan M. Lerner

Akron Law Review

This article is about the evolution of that course from the earliest planning through its presentation. Hopefully, having the two of us involved in the day-to-day teaching of the course would send the message to our students that collaboration was a positive aspect of the learning and lawyering processes. Additionally, we hoped that the students would see that “academic” and “clinical” faculty are partners in their legal education.

The Need For Prompt Action To Revise American Law Schools, Richard A. Westin

Akron Law Review

American law students are in a crisis. The ghost fishing crisis was cured when the law required that the lobster trap’s door eventually open, thanks to biodegradable metal hinges or gates. Unfortunately, there is no such relief for the glut of law students. The ABA Journal reports that 85% of graduates from accredited law schools in 2010 were burdened with debts averaging $98,500, but they are graduating into a weak economy where their prospects for employment have narrowed greatly. Students in previous classes have far from been absorbed into the legal industry and classes behind them promise a continuing flow …

What It Means To Be A Lawyer In These Uncertain Times: Some Thoughts On Ethical Participation In The Legal Education Industry, Susan Carle

Akron Law Review

I will first take a quick look in Part II at the basic data regarding employment statistics for recent law school graduates. This is the primary source of concern cited by those who argue that legal education is in profound crisis. What those statistics show, in a nutshell, is that large law firm hiring is down, but that small firm hiring is up by even more significant amounts, and that salaries for employed graduates continue to rise. What also continues to rise is the new law graduate unemployment rate, though not by the exaggerated dimensions some reports imply. New lawyers …

Law Schools And The Legal Profession: A Way Forward, Peter A. Joy

Akron Law Review

This essay proceeds in four parts. Part II briefly examines the disengagement of law schools from the legal profession both in much of the scholarship produced and through courses required for graduation. Part III analyzes why some state bar regulators are imposing admission requirements in response to law schools failing to prepare students better for the practice of law. Part IV discusses the types of bar admission requirements being considered. Finally, in Part V, I argue that rather than being reactive and resistant to change, law schools should be forward looking and incorporate changes that will not only better prepare …

The Changing Face Of Legal Education: Its Impact On What It Means To Be A Lawyer, Thomas D. Morgan

Akron Law Review

I have written a book called The Vanishing American Lawyer. My premise is not that too few people have a legal education. I say, instead, that what people now do with legal training is changing rapidly and likely will continue to become more diverse. That leaves me suggesting that there is little left to the general concept of being a lawyer. Yet people still talk about lawyers, and the question of what it means to be a lawyer is especially timely in light of current American Bar Association efforts to revise the standards by which American law schools are accredited. …

Entrepreneurial Esquires In The New Economy: Why All Attorneys Should Learn About Entrepreneurship In Law School, J. Mark Phillips

The Journal of Business, Entrepreneurship & the Law

As the legal industry continues to recover from the shock of the recent recession, it finds itself in a fundamentally different place than it was ten years ago, with even more tumultuous change on the horizon. Economic pressure coupled with continued technological innovation has increased attorney unemployment levels, shifted law firm business models, and changed the expectations of legal clientele. Yet, despite this radically shifting market place, legal education has remained fundamentally unchanged. This article examines the current state of the legal industry through an entrepreneurial lens and juxtaposes it with the current state of legal education. In doing so, …

The Next Move In Legal Education Is Ours…., Luke Bierman

Journal of Experiential Learning

No abstract provided.

Portals To Practice: A Multidimensional Approach To Integrating Experiential Education Into The Traditional Law School Curriculum, Myra Berman

Journal of Experiential Learning

No abstract provided.

The Importance Of Experiential Learning For Development Of Essential Skills In Cross-Cultural And Intercultural Effectiveness, Mary Lynch

Journal of Experiential Learning

No abstract provided.

Teaching For Change: How The Legal Academy Can Prepare The Next Generation Of Social Justice Movement Lawyers, Alexi Freeman

Sturm College of Law: Faculty Scholarship

The call for “practice ready” lawyers has been heard loud and clear across the country. Legal education has overwhelmingly responded to that call, finding ways to help students gain more practical experience and better understand what it actually looks like to be a lawyer. Students intending to practice “social justice movement lawyering,” however, have been largely ignored, albeit with some notable exceptions. But, working in partnership to build the power of low-income communities of color and effect long-term social change requires distinct training and distinct framing.

This article proposes ways in which the legal academy can better prepare the next …

Crisis And Trigger Warnings: Reflections On Legal Education And The Social Value Of The Law, Kim D. Chanbonpin

Chicago-Kent Law Review

In the same moment that law schools are embracing neoliberal strategies in response to the economic crisis caused by declining admissions, students in the classroom have begun to agitate for advance content notices (or “trigger warnings”) to alert them to any potentially trauma-inducing course materials. For faculty who have already adopted a defensive posture in response to threats to eliminate tenure, this demand feels like an additional assault on academic freedom; one that reflects a distressing student-as-consumer mentality. From this vantage point, students are too easily cast as another group of adversaries when, in actuality, students are straw targets who …

"Practice Ready Graduates": A Millennialist Fantasy, Robert J. Condlin

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

Plyler Students At Work: The Case For Granting Law Licenses To Undocumented Immigrants, Lindy Stevens

Washington and Lee Journal of Civil Rights and Social Justice

No abstract provided.