Law Commons^™

Using Artificial Intelligence In The Law Review Submissions Process, Brenda M. Simon

Faculty Scholarship

The use of artificial intelligence to help editors examine law review submissions may provide a way to improve an overburdened system. This Article is the first to explore the promise and pitfalls of using artificial intelligence in the law review submissions process. Technology-assisted review of submissions offers many possible benefits. It can simplify preemption checks, prevent plagiarism, detect failure to comply with formatting requirements, and identify missing citations. These efficiencies may allow editors to address serious flaws in the current selection process, including the use of heuristics that may result in discriminatory outcomes and dependence on lower-ranked journals to conduct …

The Black-White Paradigm’S Continuing Erasure Of Latinas: See Women Law Deans Of Color, Laura M. Padilla

Faculty Scholarship

The Black-white paradigm persists with unintended consequences. For example, there have been only six Latina law deans to date with only four presently serving. This Article provides data about women law deans of color, the dearth of Latina law deans, and explanations for the data. It focuses on the enduring Black-white paradigm, as well as other external and internal forces. This Article suggests how to increase the number of Latina law deans and emphasizes why it matters.

New Media Rights' Internet & Media Law Clinic: California Western School Of Law, Art Neill

Faculty Scholarship

This article looks at the critical need for legal services addressing new media rights and the types of cases that benefit from the New Media Rights’ Internet & Media Law Clinic at California Western School of Law (New Media Rights) in San Diego.

This article will discuss New Media Rights in four parts: 1. Why do we have IP, arts, and technology clinics like New Media Rights? 2. What is New Media Rights, and how do we benefit the students and the community? 3. What is the structure and pedagogy of the clinic? 4. What are our hopes looking forward?

Reflections On Legal Education In The Aftermath Of A Pandemic, Timothy Casey

Faculty Scholarship

This essay considers two significant changes to legal education in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic. First, on-line programs will expand, based on the largely successful experiment in delivering legal education on-line during the pandemic. But this expansion must be thoughtful and deliberate. The legal education curriculum could include more on-line courses, but only if the learning outcomes and the pedagogy are aligned with on-line education. Experiential courses may not be the best fit for on-line given the specific learning outcomes and the benefits of in-person instruction in those courses. Second, student well-being will receive more attention in legal education. …

The Unified Legal Skills Program: How One Law School Adapted To Meet The Needs Of Students Online, And How Those Adaptations May Inform Post-Pandemic Teaching, David Austin, Allison D. Cato, Amy E. Day, Liam Vavasour

Faculty Scholarship

When CWSL was forced to switch to online learning for the COVID-19 pandemic, we worked hard to follow best practices for online learning by attending online conferences and voraciously reading everything we could find to make the learning experience the best we could for our students. CWSL's Legal Skills program earned high praise in student evaluations for adapting so quickly given the difficult circumstances.

During the summer of 2020, we met as a Legal Skills team to discuss how to approach the regular school term. Specifically, we faced a larger-than-anticipated first-year class and contemplated how to remedy the sense of …

Women Law Deans, Gender Sidelining, And Presumptions Of Incompetence, Laura M. Padilla

Faculty Scholarship

Discussions of presumptions of incompetence and gender sidelining all address challenges that women, especially women of color, face in leadership roles. This Article explores these topics in the context of law deans.

This Article starts with updated data on the number of women law deans, including women of color, and demonstrates increased numbers of both women and women of color in deanships. It then shifts to plausible explanations for this growth: some optimistic and some more skeptical. It may be no coincidence that as the job became less desirable, women were appointed in greater numbers.

Next, this Article provides narrative …

Time For A Change: 20 Years After The "Working Group" Principles, Barbara Cox

Faculty Scholarship

This article discusses three aspects of the Association of American Law Schools (AALS) Section on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity’s history. First, it reviews the section’s activities at the 1992 AALS Annual Meeting. Second, it discusses how the AALS implemented its Bylaw and Executive Committee Regulations that prohibit discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation (and now gender identity after a recent revision). Finally, it encourages the AALS to discontinue use of some of the guidelines adopted in the early 1990s to guide its interactions with religiously affiliated law schools when conflicts arise concerning allegations of sexual orientation or gender …

Whoosh - Declining Law School Applications And Entering Credentials: Responding With Pivot Pedagogy, Laura M. Padilla

Faculty Scholarship

The number of law school applications and entering law students and the credentials of those students, declined all at once. This trend has continued for many years, however, given the cyclical nature of law school applications, it will likely reverse eventually and credentials will improve, but not overnight. The first part of the article briefly discusses the decline in law school applicants and applications, including the confluence of perfect storm factors that resulted in more of the crash landing we experienced than a gradual drop. It also details the corresponding drop in entering credentials which accompanied that decline. The article …

Fiduciary-Isms: A Study Of Academic Influence On The Expansion Of The Law, Daniel B. Yeager

Faculty Scholarship

Fiduciary law aspires to nullify power imbalances by obligating strong parties to give themselves over to servient parties. For example, due to profound imbalances of legal know-how, lawyers must as fiduciaries pursue their clients’ interests, not their own, lest clients get lost in the competitive shuffle. As a peculiar hybrid of status and contract relations, politics and law, compassion and capitalism, fiduciary law is very much in vogue in academic circles. As vogue as it is, there remains room for my “Fiduciary-isms...”, a meditation on the expansion of fiduciary law from its origins in the law of trusts through partnerships, …

Teamwork, Linda H. Morton, Janet Weinstein

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Collaboration And Teamwork, Janet Weinstein, Linda H. Morton

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

The Parts Are Greater Than The Sum: What I Learned From My Mediation Clinic Students, Floralynn Einesman

Faculty Scholarship

I co-created the Mediation Clinic at California Western School of Law (hereafter CWSL) with my colleague Linda Morton in 1996 to provide students the opportunity to learn the process of mediation and to mediate live disputes in the community. We recognized the importance of “soft skills” such as communication, collaboration, initiative, and adaptability and therefore we sought to create an experiential learning opportunity for the students that encouraged them to nurture those skills. We wanted to teach students conflict resolution skills and to have them work together to use those skills to help individuals in the community resolve actual disputes. …

Law School Based Incubators And Access To Justice, Patricia Salkin, Ellen Suni, Niels Schaumann, Mary Lu Bilek

Faculty Scholarship

At the end of February 2015, law professors, law deans, incubator staff and attorneys, and self-selected others gathered at California Western School of Law for the Second Annual Conference on Law School Incubators and Residency Programs. The incubators that are the subject of this article tend to focus on transition to law practice and access to justice, and some are also working to incorporate technology for the practice of law as a means of enhancing access to justice. As more law schools decide to host, sponsor or offer an incubator, and following our panel discussion at the February 2015 incubator …

Reflective Practice In Legal Education: The Stages Of Reflection, Timothy Casey

Faculty Scholarship

Experiential legal education programs include reflection as an explicit learning outcome. Although many teachers and students have seen the value of reflection, few have studied the process of reflection. Drawing from research in the fields of cognitive development, reflective judgment, and moral reasoning, this article presents an organizational model for teaching reflection in six stages. The Stages of Reflection model provides teachers and students with a deeper understanding of the process of reflection, and creates a pathway for the development of reflective practice.

Teaching Teamwork To Law Students, Linda Morton, Janet Weinstein, Howard Taras, Vivian Reznik

Faculty Scholarship

Despite law firms’ demand for first year associates who can work collaboratively, teamwork is infrequently taught in legal education. Law professors unfamiliar with teamwork theory and practice are unlikely to use teams to engage students in their learning. As a result, law schools continue to graduate students who are unfamiliar and uncomfortable with the concept of working in teams, particularly interdisciplinary teams.

This article focuses on the teamwork teaching methods we use in the interdisciplinary courses we teach at California Western. We first provide a rationale for teaching teamwork and a brief description of what professional graduate schools are currently …

Legal Education At A Crossroads: Innovation, Integration, And Pluralism Required!, Karen Tokarz, Antoinette Sedillo Lopez, Peggy Maisel, Robert F. Seibel

Faculty Scholarship

We conclude in this Article that expanded practice-based, experiential education will provide foundational learning for the successful transition from law student to law practice, and that clinical education (in-house clinics, hybrid clinics, and externships) is crucial to the preparation of competent, ethical law graduates who are ready to become professionals. We urge law schools to require each graduate complete a minimum of twenty-one experiential course credits over the three years of law school, including at least five credits in law clinics or externships. Twenty-one required credits (or roughly 25 percent of the eighty-three required credits for graduation from an American …

Financing The Future Of Legal Education: "Not What It Used To Be", Steven R. Smith

Faculty Scholarship

This Article will first review the substantial improvements in legal education and track the sources of the funding for these improvements. It will look at whether law school is, and continues to be, a good economic investment for most students. It will then consider the current economic circumstances of legal education and the possible coming disconnect between expectations and reality. It will conclude by considering what could improve the lot of legal education in the future and, to the contrary, what could make matters much worse.

Teaching Interdisciplinary Collaboration: Theory, Practice, And Assessment, Linda Morton, Howard Taras, Vivian Reznik

Faculty Scholarship

In this article, we offer our own theory-based methodology for teaching interprofessional collaboration to law students and we present our preliminary data on its effectiveness. Part I explicates the definition and development of interdisciplinary collaboration. Part II describes how we have grounded our course in current theory, and Part III explains the extent to which our efforts have been successful. Finally, in Part IV, we offer additional thoughts regarding the teaching of interdisciplinary collaboration and pose questions and ideas for future data collection.

Addressing Problems Of Power And Supervision In Field Placements, Nancy M. Maurer, Robert F. Seibel

Faculty Scholarship

Power dynamics play a role in all workplace relationships and are of particular significance in field placement programs where such dynamics can have an impact on the learning opportunities for law students. This article examines power issues in relation to supervision of law students. The article begins by exploring the parameters of the problem through examples, and then examines the potential consequences of failing to address such issues in field placement programs, including ethical ramifications. Faculty in field placement programs, who generally are not responsible for client work product, have a unique opportunity to address power and supervision issues with …

Interactive Group Learning In The Legal Writing Classroom: An International Primer On Student Collaboration And Cooperation In Large Classrooms, Roberta K. Thyfault, Kathryn Fehrman

Faculty Scholarship

Research has long shown that students who work in small groups learn and retain more than students who are taught by other techniques. This crucial bit of information has led many scholars and educators to explore a variety of models for supporting and involving students in group learning. Part II of this article will provide an overview of the scholarship of collaborative and cooperative learning and the associated definitions and techniques. Part III discusses the application of collaborative and cooperative learning techniques in the law school classroom and special considerations and suggestions for international and large law school classrooms. Finally, …

Clara Shortridge Foltz Professorship Acceptance, Barbara Cox

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Gresham’S Law In Legal Education, Steven R. Smith

Faculty Scholarship

This article will first examine the traditional Gresham's Law regarding currency and then its broader application to instances in which the nominal and intrinsic values of something are separated. It will then look at the licensing of attorneys and how Gresham's Law may justify both the general accreditation of legal education and specific accreditation Standards. Viewed from this perspective it is the interests of the public, and not the more parochial interests of law schools, that deserve primary consideration in accreditation related to licensure. The article will conclude with a consideration of a coming debate about the appropriate place of …

Interdisciplinary Problem Solving Courses As A Context For Nurturing Intrinsic Values, Janet Weinstein, Linda Morton

Faculty Scholarship

Intrinsic values and motivations are important foundations for career satisfaction and professionalism. The research of Lawrence Krieger and Kennon Sheldon highlights factors critical to the development of intrinsic values and motivations. Our aspiration was to create courses that could stimulate such development in our law students. This article discusses the foundation and goals for our courses, describes our courses, reviews our successes and failures, and poses questions for further study. Throughout our discussion we provide anecdotal data from comments by students and the professionals with whom they worked, indicating the degree to which students seem to be incorporating the goals …

Three Modes Of Legal Problem Solving–And What To Do About Them In Legal Education, Thomas D. Barton

Faculty Scholarship

Legal problems are addressed in at least three basic ways, or modes, each of which is associated with a particular "tense": (1) through judgment, an authoritative decision pronounced by an empowered third party concerning the legal significance of past behaviors; (2) through consent, a "present tense" resolution in which the parties to a legal concern resolve it privately by negotiated or mediated agreement; and (3) through prevention, a future-oriented process that designs contracts, legal arrangements, compliance regimes, education and training programs, organizational structures, or even physical environments so as to keep legal risks from erupting into injuries or legal liability. …

A Gendered Update On Women Law Deans: Who, Where, Why, And Why Not?, Laura M. Padilla

Faculty Scholarship

This article examines law school deans, how many are women, when they became deans, and what the trajectory is like for their numbers in the future. This article will provide additional empirical information through the 2005-2006 academic year. It will also present results from a survey mailed to all women deans in the fall of 2005 and to a similar number of male deans. Rather than present all the survey summaries at once, I have elected to include results where substantively appropriate.

Aals As Creative Problem Solver: Implementing Bylaw 6-4(A) To Prohibit Discrimination On The Basis Of Sexual Orientation In Legal Education, Barbara Cox

Faculty Scholarship

I wrote this article because it is important for the legal education community to understand the important leadership that the AALS has provided in lessening the discrimination that sexual minorities encounter in legal education, and to know of the challenges and problems it encountered in making Bylaw 6-4(a) into more than a membership requirement in name only.

A New Approach To Health Care Adr: Training Law Students To Be Problem Solvers In The Health Care Context, Linda H. Morton

Faculty Scholarship

This article focuses on the use of actual public health problems to train law students in interdisciplinary problem solving. The author describes the planning, structure, challenges and rewards in teaching her clinical course, Problem Solving and Prevention in Healthcare, to students initially reluctant to work collaboratively in teams, intimidated by a broader community context, and hesitant to interact strategically with other professionals.

Deaning's Seven Deadly Sins And Seven Deanly Virtues, Steven R. Smith

Faculty Scholarship

Deans sin. There are the petty offenses: the occasional missed reception, the student's name forgotten, or the parliamentary gaff at a faculty meeting. These are generally forgiven and dismissed before the next graduation.

There are, however, the more serious decanal transgressions that are not so easily forgiven or forgotten. The worst of these are

The Seven Deadly Sins of Deaning are Deception, Revenge, Narcissism, Pessimism, Taciturnity, Disloyalty and Aimlessness. The "opposite" evils are noted in italics at the end of each section.

The Meaning Of Quality, Steven R. Smith

Faculty Scholarship

This essay considers the qualities that constitute excellent lawyers in any society. It thereby suggests the qualities that law schools should seek to ensure that their graduates possess as they leave law schools and enter the practice of law.

Stuck In A Rut: The Role Of Creative Thinking In Problem Solving And Legal Education, Janet Weinstein, Linda H. Morton

Faculty Scholarship

This article focuses on the mental process of creative thinking. We discuss what it is, why we have difficulty engaging in it, and how we can overcome this difficulty through specific techniques and a more conducive environment. Creative thinking is an essential component to problem solving. In training future lawyers, we must do a better job of incorporating and supporting creative thinking in legal education. We conclude the article with a description of some of our efforts toward this objective.