Law Commons^™

Bridging Gaps And Blurring Lines: Integrating Analysis, Writing, Doctrine, And Theory, Susan J. Hankin

Faculty Scholarship

This article is an outgrowth of the author’s participation in a July 29, 2009 panel presentation, “Change in Legal Education: Practical Skills,” at the Symposium, YES WE CArNegie: Change in Legal Education after the Carnegie Report. The article responds to the Carnegie Report’s call to “bridge the gap between analytical and practical knowledge” by presenting two models for integrating skills with doctrine in the first-year curriculum. The first model, built into the curriculum at the University of Maryland School of Law, involves teaching the first semester Legal Analysis & Writing course by pairing it with another required first-semester course, Torts, …

On Legal Education And Reform: One View Formed From Diverse Perspectives, Robert J. Rhee

Faculty Scholarship

This article identifies two interconnected problems in legal education. First, legal education and practice are more disconnected than they should be, a reality which distinguishes law schools from other professional schools. The major flaw of legal education as the failure to produce more market-ready lawyers who have a mix of skills and knowledge to add value in a complex and challenging practice environment. Second, law school imposes large direct and opportunity costs on its students. These costs combine with the problem of a deficiency in academic training and post-graduation financing of additional training in the workplace to impose a growing …

Back To The Future In Law Schools, William L. Reynolds

Faculty Scholarship

This paper first argues for the maintenance of the traditional first-year curriculum. It does so in the context of an examination of what most lawyers do in practice and, therefore, what most lawyers should know. This portion includes a defense of the Socratic Method. The paper then addresses contemporary concerns about legal education, including the devaluation of courses in the private law curriculum, and considers why legal academics are not interested in private law.

Ethical Issues In Business And The Lawyer's Role, Robert J. Rhee, Carol Morgan, Tamar Frankel, Mark Fagan

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

The Law School Firm, Bradley T. Borden, Robert J. Rhee

Faculty Scholarship

This Article introduces the concept of the law school firm. The concept calls for law schools to establish affiliated law firms. The affiliation would provide opportunities for students, faculty, and attorneys to collaborate and share resources to teach, research, write, serve clients, and influence the development of law and policy. Based loosely on the medical school model, the law school firm will help bridge the gap between law schools and the practice of law.

Clinical Professors' Professional Responsibility: Preparing Law Students To Embrace Pro Bono, Douglas L. Colbert

Faculty Scholarship

This article begins by examining the current crisis in the U.S. legal system where approximately three out of four low- and middle-income litigants are denied access to counsel's representation when faced with the loss of essential rights - -a home, child custody, liberty and deportation - - and where most lawyers decline to fulfill their ethical responsibility of pro bono service to those who cannot afford private counsel. The article traces the evolving ethical standards of a lawyer's professional responsibility that today views every attorney as a public citizen having a special responsibility to the quality of justice.

The author …

The New Rules For Law Schools, Barbara S. Gontrum

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

It Was The Best Of Practice, It Was The Worst Of Practice: Moving Successfully From The Courtroom To The Classroom, Sherri Lee Keene

Faculty Scholarship

This article discusses some of the challenges that experienced attorneys encounter when they move from practice to academia and recommends ways for new professors to bring professional knowledge successfully into classroom teaching.

Educating Lawyers With A Global Vision, Phoebe A. Haddon

Faculty Scholarship

This article is based on a presentation made at Justice & the Global Economy, a conference celebrating the appointment of Phoebe A. Haddon as the ninth Dean of the University of Maryland School of Law, October 3, 2009.

Students Schooling Students: Gaining Professional Benefits While Helping Urban High School Students Achieve Success, Susan P. Leviton, Justin A. Browne

Faculty Scholarship

This article looks at the educational plight of urban low income children and explores the opportunities for success that small urban high schools provide. It then distills commonalities among successful small schools to demonstrate three central points: 1) that small is essential but not sufficient; 2) that small schools offer an opportunity for urban school districts to help improve educational opportunities for disadvantaged students by providing a fertile environment where individualized instruction, more class time, better-trained teachers, and a curriculum that prepares students psychologically and emotionally, as well as intellectually can help them overcome the adverse effects of poverty; and …

Alinsky's Prescription: Democracy Alongside Law, Barbara L. Bezdek

Faculty Scholarship

This Article examines the import of the life’s work of Saul Alinsky—arguably the most prominent founder of contemporary organizing—to the content and methodologies of today’s legal education. I review the community organizing theory and practice of Saul Alinsky for its synergies and lessons on two approaches by legal theorists and educators working in law schools today — “community lawyering” and “social justice”education. These approaches embrace the special responsibility of the legal profession for the quality of justice in society[1] by extending the traditional conceptions of lawyers’ relationships with clients in ways that are informed by the insights of community organizers, …

Research Stories: Video Tales From The Summer Associate Workplace, Susan Herrick

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Recalibrating The Moral Compass: Expanding "Thinking Like A Lawyer" Into "Thinking Like A Leader", Karen H. Rothenberg

Faculty Scholarship

This essay was prepared for the Leadership in Legal Education Symposium IX.

The Ownership Delusion: When Law Libraries "Buy" Electronic Documents, Are They Getting More, Or Simply Paying More?, Simon Canick

Faculty Scholarship

This article explores the issues surrounding electronic document ownership in academic libraries. It discusses the guidelines of AALL with regard to licensing electronic materials, and how it measures up to what vendors are willing to offer. The author takes a critical stance on who benefits from the electronic document ownership agreements.

Tributes To Professor Andy King, Karen H. Rothenberg, William L. Reynolds, Jana B. Singer, Gordon G. Young, David Rosen

Faculty Scholarship

Tributes to Professor Andrew King upon his retirement from the University of Maryland School of Law.

Conversations On "Community Lawyering:" The Newest (Oldest) Wave In Clinical Legal Education, Karen Tokarz, Nancy L. Cook, Susan Brooks, Brenda Bratton Blom

Faculty Scholarship

This Article explores the pedagogical and professional challenges and rewards of community lawyering and clinical legal education. The authors are clinical law faculty who self-identify as community lawyers and teachers of community lawyering clinics. They have gathered in recent years with a larger group of similarly engaged colleagues to discuss what is meant by community lawyering, how it is taught, and how it is practiced. This Article seeks to capture some of those conversations, crystallize some of the ideas that have arisen out of the discussions, and examine the implications of these ruminations for future directions in clinical legal education.

Accepting The Court's Invitation, Martha M. Ertman

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Teaching Legal Research And Writing With Actual Legal Work: Extending Clinical Education Into The First Year, Michael A. Millemann, Steven D. Schwinn

Faculty Scholarship

In this article, the co-authors argue that legal research and writing (LRW) teachers should use actual legal work to generate assignments. They recommend that clinical and LRW teachers work together to design, co-teach, and evaluate such courses. They describe two experimental courses they developed together and co-taught to support and clarify their arguments. They contend that actual legal work motivates students to learn the basic skills of research, analysis and writing, and thus helps to accomplish the primary goals of LRW courses. It also helps students to explore new dimensions of basic skills, including those related to the development and …

Misuse And Abuse Of The Lsat: Making The Case For Alternative Evaluative Efforts And A Redefinition Of Merit, Phoebe A. Haddon, Deborah W. Post

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

A Formstone Of Our Federalism: The Erie/Hanna Doctrine & Casebook Law Reform, Robert J. Condlin

Faculty Scholarship

The one I feel sorry for is John Ely. More than thirty years ago, in his classic article The Irrepressible Myth of Erie, he explained painstakingly, if not clearly, how thinking of the Erie/Hanna doctrine as a constitutional cornerstone of our federalism was just a mistake. Such a view, he pointed out, makes a major mystery out of what are really three distinct and rather ordinary problems of statutory and constitutional interpretation. He described the analytical and practical costs of the mistake, showed how the analysis ought to go, explained why academics and judges had failed to get it …

Legal Writing And Academic Support: Timing Is Everything, Dionne L. Koller

Faculty Scholarship

The conventional wisdom is that legal writing and academic support go hand-in-hand. Most law schools assume that struggling students can be reliably identified for academic support through their first-year legal writing course, and that first-year legal writing instructors can fairly easily and effectively provide this support. Indeed, this is the prevailing view in current academic support and legal writing scholarship. Professor Koller's article challenges the conventional wisdom and instead points out several issues that should be considered if a law school relies on the first-year legal writing course as a component of, or in lieu of, an academic support program. …

Tributes To Professor Alan Hornstein, David S. Bogen, Karen H. Rothenberg, William L. Reynolds, Howard S. Chasanow, P. Michael Nagle

Faculty Scholarship

Tributes to Professor Alan Hornstein upon his retirement from the University of Maryland School of Law.

Tributes To Professor Alice Brumbaugh, Alan D. Hornstein, Abraham Dash, Frederic N. Smalkin, Lynne A. Battaglia, Karen H. Rothenberg, David S. Bogen

Faculty Scholarship

Tributes to Professor Alice Brumbaugh upon her retirement from the University of Maryland School of Law.

Setting The Record Straight: Maryland's First Black Women Law Graduates, Taunya Lovell Banks

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Coalescing With Salt: A Taste For Inclusion, Phoebe A. Haddon

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

The Unplanned Obsolescence Of American Legal Education, Rena I. Steinzor, Alan D. Hornstein

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Eulogy For Stan Herr, Karen H. Rothenberg

Faculty Scholarship

This Eulogy was delivered at Stanley S. Herr's funeral on September 25, 2001.

The Practice Of Law, Karen H. Rothenberg

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

The Mdp Controversy: What Legal Educators Should Know, Phoebe A. Haddon

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

How Does The Dean Resemble The Islets Of Langerhans?, Donald G. Gifford

Faculty Scholarship

In this essay, I suggest an admittedly bizarre analogy between the roles played by an effective dean and the functions of an obscure component of the human body.