Education Commons^™

Third Time's The Charm: The History Of The Merger Between The University Of Louisville And Jefferson Schools Of Law, Marcus Walker

Marcus Walker

The daytime University of Louisville School of Law and evening Jefferson School of Law existed as separate programs from the latter school's founding in 1905 until their merger in 1950. This article highlights two earlier attempts at combining the legal programs and highlights some perhaps lesser-known details of the successful attempt that extend the history of the "Ben Washer School" a bit farther than it might otherwise seem.

Third Time's The Charm, Marcus Walker

Marcus Walker

Improv & Internships: Using Improvisation Techniques To Teach Vital Lawyering Skills, Leah Young, Alison Lintal

Alison Lintal

How students choose to collaborate and communicate can have a significant impact on the outcome of a workplace project as well as their legal career. Additionally, the importance of face-to-face communication, body posture, and learning to interpret body language cues is crucial for building professional relationships. Through these interactive exercises, students get the opportunity to practice responses in a setting that fosters student development and growth. Furthermore, improvisation provides the legal profession with tools that can be used to enhance communication, active listening, collaboration, agility, trust, authenticity, and resilience.

An important emphasis in externship courses is a focus on cultivation …

A Simple Low-Cost Institutional Learning-Outcomes Assessment Process, Andrea A. Curcio

Andrea A. Curcio

Law school institutional learning outcomes require measuring nuanced skills that develop over time. Rather than look at achievement just in our own courses, institutional outcome-measures assessment requires collective faculty engagement and critical thinking about our students’ overall acquisition of the skills, knowledge, and qualities that ensure they graduate with the competencies necessary to begin life as professionals. Even for those who believe outcomes assessment is a positive move in legal education, in an era of limited budgets and already over-burdened faculty, the new mandated outcomes assessment process raises cost and workload concerns. This essay addresses those concerns. It describes a …

Roundtable – Teaching Human Rights: Challenges And Best Practices, Shayna Plaut, Kristi Kenyon, Joel Pruce, William Simmons

Joel Pruce

Over the past 20 years, courses addressing human rights have grown dramatically at both the undergraduate and graduate levels worldwide. Many of these courses are housed in specific disciplines, focus on specific issues, and require practical experience in the form of internships/practicums. Amid this growth there is a need to reflect on teaching human rights including the challenges, fears, and best practices. Recognizing that education takes place inside and outside a classroom, this roundtable brings together scholars teaching human rights in a variety of settings to examine the current state of university human rights education. This includes a discussion of …

Marking The Path From Law Student To Lawyer: Using Field Placement Courses To Facilitate The Deliberate Exploration Of Professional Identity And Purpose, Timothy W. Floyd, Kendall L. Kerew

Kendall L. Kerew

No abstract provided.

Measuring The Impact Of Social Justice Teaching: Research Design And Oversight, Lisa Radtke Bliss, Sylvia B. Caley, Leslie E. Wolf

Lisa Radtke Bliss

Research and the production of scholarship is a fundamental part of being a legal academic. Such endeavors identify issues and answer questions that further understanding of the law, the profession, and the justice system itself. Research and scholarship in the legal academy traditionally meant the study of law and legal theory. A growing body of legal academics are focusing research and scholarship on legal education itself, as well as research that measures the impact of legal education on the development of students' practical and professional skills. The impact of clinical legal education is an important aspect of this scholarship. This …

Measuring The Impact Of Social Justice Teaching: Research Design And Oversight, Lisa Radtke Bliss, Sylvia B. Caley, Leslie E. Wolf

Leslie E. Wolf

Research and the production of scholarship is a fundamental part of being a legal academic. Such endeavors identify issues and answer questions that further understanding of the law, the profession, and the justice system itself. Research and scholarship in the legal academy traditionally meant the study of law and legal theory. A growing body of legal academics are focusing research and scholarship on legal education itself, as well as research that measures the impact of legal education on the development of students' practical and professional skills. The impact of clinical legal education is an important aspect of this scholarship. This …

Welcome Remarks And Keynote, Claudio Grossman, Laurel Terry

Claudio M. Grossman

Opening Remarks

• Dean Claudio Grossman, American University Washington College of Law

Setting the Stage: Globalization and the Legal Profession

• Laurel Terry, Harvey A. Feldman Distinguished Faculty Scholar and Professor of Law, Penn State Dickinson School of Law

The First-Semester Student: The Legal-Problem-Solving Apprentice, Kylie Fletcher

Kylie Fletcher

Students are asked to answer hypothetical legal problems very early in their studies. They are typically introduced to legal-problem-solving processes (eg IRAC, FILAC, MIRAT and CLEO) very early in their first- semester subjects. An ability to answer hypothetical legal problems is critical to the student’s success at law school. In my role as a teacher in a firstsemester subject (Principles of Contractual Liability), I observe that some students remain confused about the process that they adopt to answer hypothetical legal problems well into their first semester. Further, many students fail to understand that the process they adopt can be applied …

Designing And Implementing Jd/Llm Programs, Diane Edelman, Toni M. Fine, Matthew Wladyka, Emily Miletello

Diane Penneys Edelman

Designing and Implementing JD/LLM Programs Diane Penneys Edelman, Director of International Programs & Professor of Legal Writing, Villanova University School of Law Toni M. Fine, Assistant Dean, Fordham Law School Matthew Wladyka, Associate, Hunton & Williams, Washington, DC (J.D. Villanova ’11, LLM Commercial Law, University of Edinburgh ’11) Emily Miletello, Analyst, National Pollution Funds Center, U.S. Coast Guard, Washington, DC (J.D. Villanova ’10, LLM Public International Law, University of Leiden ’10)

Addressing Barriers To Cultural Sensibility Learning: Lessons From Social Cognition Theory, Andrea A. Curcio

Andrea A. Curcio

Understanding subconscious biases, their pervasiveness, and their impact on perceptions, interactions, and analyses, helps prepare lawyers to represent people from cultural and racial backgrounds different from their own, and to address both individual and institutional injustice. Two law student surveys suggest many students believe lawyers are less susceptible than clients to having, or acting upon, stereotypes or biases. The survey results also indicate that many students suffer from bias blind spot – i.e. they believe that while others cannot recognize when they are acting based upon stereotypical beliefs and biases, the students know when they are doing so. The survey …

Interprofessional Education, Lisa Bliss, Sylvia Caley, Patty Roberts, Emily Suski, Robert Pettignano

Sylvia B. Caley

As legal educators consider how to improve the outcomes of legal education, maximizing the knowledge, skills, and values taught during the law school experience, consideration should be given to increasing interprofessional learning opportunities in the curricula. As Best Practices for Legal Education suggested, the creative thinking necessary for effective problem-solving includes an understanding of interprofessional dimensions of practice, but interprofessional opportunities are still the exception rather than the norm in legal education. Interprofessional legal education intentionally asks law students to blend the knowledge, skills, and values of two or more professions in order to address complex legal problems. Placing students …

Dean's Desk: Legal Clinics Cultivate Essential Lawyering Skills, Andrea Lyon

Andrea D. Lyon

No abstract provided.

Where Tradition Meets Innovation: Providing A Practice-Oriented Curriculum, Andrea Lyon

Andrea D. Lyon

No abstract provided.

Welcome Remarks And Keynote, Claudio Grossman, Laurel Terry

Laurel S. Terry

Opening Remarks Dean Claudio Grossman, American University Washington College of Law Setting the Stage: Globalization and the Legal Profession Laurel Terry, Harvey A. Feldman Distinguished Faculty Scholar and Professor of Law, Penn State Dickinson School of Law

Addressing Barriers To Cultural Sensibility Learning: Lessons From Social Cognition Theory, Andrea A. Curcio

Andrea A. Curcio

Understanding subconscious biases, their pervasiveness, and their impact on perceptions, interactions, and analyses, helps prepare lawyers to represent people from cultural and racial backgrounds different from their own, and to address both individual and institutional injustice. Two law student surveys suggest many students believe lawyers are less susceptible than clients to having, or acting upon, stereotypes or biases. The survey results also indicate that many students suffer from bias blind spot – i.e. they believe that while others cannot recognize when they are acting based upon stereotypical beliefs and biases, the students know when they are doing so. The survey …

International Adoption & International Comity: When Is Adoption Repugnant, Malinda L. Seymore

Malinda L. Seymore

Do judges have the authority to recognize decrees of foreign adoption? Since 1989, over 167,000 parents of children adopted in other countries have needed to know the answer to that question. Adoption creates a parent-child relationship that is not legally different from a biologically created parent-child relationship. Parents are entitled to the same rights and owe the same obligations to adopted children as they do to biological children, and adopted children are entitled to the same benefits as biological children. Adopted children are entitled to the financial support of their parents to the same extent as biological children. Thus, in …

Tyranny Of The Meritocracy?: A Disputation Over Testing With Professor Lani Guinier, Dan Subotnik

Dan Subotnik

No abstract provided.

Webex From An Instructor's Perspective, Jennifer Mart-Rice, Terri Iacobucci, Jaesook Gilbert

Jennifer Mart-Rice

No abstract provided.

Embracing Change In International Program Planning: Strategies For Financing International Programs In Times Of Economic Turbulence, Diane Penneys Edelman, Toni Jaeger-Fine

Diane Penneys Edelman

Embracing Change in International Program Planning: Strategies for Financing International Programs in Times of Economic Turbulence Law schools are being compelled to examine their ability to begin and continue international programs, and to market programs aggressively to keep them viable. Should a law school start a new program at this time? Should a law school discontinue any programs, or offset losses in programs with gains from other programs? Presentation will encourage an open discussion of strategies for developing or continuing economically feasible programs in these difficult times. Presenters: Diane Penneys Edelman, Director of International Programs, Villanova University School of Law …

Essay Question Formative Assessments In Large Section Courses: Two Studies Illustrating Easy And Effective Use, Andrea Curcio, Gregory Jones, Tanya Washington

Tanya Monique Washington

Do formative assessments, via practice exercises accompanied by generalized feedback, make a difference in student final essay and short-answer examination performance? If so, does the practice help some students more than others? We sought to answer these questions in two studies performed with law students. We also sought to devise a duplicable model for examining those same questions across disciplines. Finally, we hoped to develop an easily workable method to provide practice and feedback to large section courses without unduly burdening faculty. This chapter discusses our findings that practice exercises and generalized feedback formative assessments can be done in large …

A Message From Your Body: Dream The Answer, Jalae Ulicki

Jalae Ulicki

Why Law Teachers Should Teach Undergraduates, Kevin Clermont, Robert Hillman

Kevin M. Clermont

For many years, members of the law school faculty at Cornell have taught an introduction to law course that is offered by the government department in the College of Arts and Sciences. The course has surveyed law in general, structured thematically around what law is and what law can and cannot do. Although its teachers have used law school pedagogic techniques in the undergraduate setting, they certainly have not intended the course to be a prelaw practice run. In short, the course--The Nature, Functions, and Limits of Law--is a general education course about law. Our experience leads us to believe …

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

Jennifer Mart-Rice

No abstract provided.

The Trading Card Effect, Adam Epstein

Adam Epstein

The purpose of this article is to demonstrate a teaching method that I have used for the last several years and have found to be effective particularly during the challenging final weeks of the semester. I reward students with trading cards for answering questions currently during an unannounced quiz to provide positive reinforcement in an engaging way. Students ultimately form teams and receive a relevant and classic football, baseball, basketball, hockey, or other trading card that they can keep as a souvenir to the class and the course. The intent is to give something to the students directly relevant to …

The Birth Of A New Teaching Idea.Pdf, Jalae Ulicki

Jalae Ulicki

Presumed Incompetent: Continuing The Conversation (Part I), Carmen G. Gonzalez, Angela P. Harris

Carmen G. Gonzalez

On March 8, 2013, the Berkeley Journal of Gender, Law & Justice hosted an all-day symposium featuring more than forty speakers at the University of California, Berkeley School of Law to celebrate and invite responses to the book entitled, Presumed Incompetent: The Intersections of Race and Class for Women in Academia (Gabriella Gutiérrez y Muhs, Yolanda Flores Niemann, Carmen G. González & Angela P. Harris eds., 2012). Presumed Incompetent presents gripping first-hand accounts of the obstacles encountered by female faculty of color in the academic workplace, and provides specific recommendations to women of color, allies, and academic leaders on ways …

Crowdsourced Coursebooks, Stephen E. Henderson, Joseph T. Thai

Stephen E Henderson

Given increasing criticism and dropping admissions, American legal education is likely to change, hopefully reversing the unsustainable trend of increasing expense without increasing value. Much debate focuses on restructuring the curriculum to make it more “practical” and skills-infused; here we instead propose a rethinking of the basic unit of law teaching, the casebook. Casebook authors and publishers are cautiously venturing into electronic editions, but they fail to harness the power of social learning to make textbooks dramatically smarter as well as cheaper. Working with a technology startup, we are developing an online platform that reinvents both authorship and learning. The …

Shareholder Primacy In The Classroom After The Financial Crisis, David Millon

David K. Millon

No abstract provided.