Law Commons^™

Who Should Be Our Moral Compass Now?, Rachel A. Van Cleave

Publications

Educating Tomorrow's Lawyers conducted a survey of over 27,000 lawyers across the country about the qualities, skills and competencies necessary for new lawyers. Almost 73 percent said having a "strong moral compass" is necessary for a lawyer to be successful in the short term. Only 17 (out of 147) other skills, competencies and characteristics, received a higher percentage of votes. Included among these were "treat others with courtesy and respect" (91.9 percent), act with "integrity and trustworthiness" (92.3 percent), and "honor commitments" (93.9 percent).

The full results of the survey have not been published, but were presented to a small …

Letter To The Editor, Rachel A. Van Cleave

Publications

Letter to the Editor of the New York Times in response to the articles "College for the Masses" and "Push, Don't Crush, the Students" in the April 26, 2015 edition of the New York Times.

When Experiential Learning Takes Center Stage - Not Yet, Wes R. Porter

Publications

While experiential learning for decades has been part of the law school experience, it was not the part traditionally portrayed as integral to a student’s path to becoming an attorney. Law schools today, however, appear to celebrate and even extoll experiential learning and the once isolated pockets of law schools which brought it into the mainstream. Unfortunately, closer inspection reveals that the experiential learning movement in law school may be more marketing and spin than an honest shift in pedagogy, curriculum and culture. The next step for experiential learning may be the most difficult: progressing beyond the marketing doublespeak and …

Notes From The Field: The Role Of The Lawyer In Grassroots Policy Advocacy, Hina B. Shah

Publications

In the past decade, domestic workers have built a national, grassroots, worker-led movement to address the systemic exclusion of domestic workers from basic wage and hour laws. They have been widely successful in the last three years with the passage of a state domestic worker bill of rights in several states, the adoption by the International Labour Organization of the Convention and Recommendation Concerning Decent Work for Domestic Workers, and federal policy changes by the Department of Labor. Building visibility through worker leadership and broad-based coalitions, the domestic work campaigns have succeeded in gaining fairer treatment under the law. Behind …

The Cambodian Law Faculty: Blueprint For A Curriculum Rich In Research And Experiential Education, Stephen A. Rosenbaum

Publications

Experiential education. Rigorous research and writing. Scholarly engagement. A window onto the ASEAN nations and beyond. These should be the hallmarks of today’s law faculty in Cambodia. The objective is to provide a professional education for the future thinkers and leaders of a nation in the throes of rapid development.

A New Day: Prime Time To Advance Afghan Clinical Education, Stephen A. Rosenbaum

Publications

In a previous issue of the Journal, Richard Grimes discussed the role that legal clinics can play in facilitating access to justice in a post-­‐conflict society, such as Afghanistan’s, wracked by decades of civil war, external military intervention, and consequential regime changes. 1 ASIAN J. LEGAL EDUC. 71 (2014). As foreign military forces withdraw, this Central Asian nation faces renewed security concerns and uncertainty about its politico-­‐economic future. Yet, there is now a critical mass of law and Shari’a professors trained in the principles of experiential education, a few legal clinics are in place, and many deans are keen on …

Prepared For Practice? Developing A Comprehensive Assessment Plan For A Law School Professional Skills Program, Anthony S. Niedwiecki

Publications

Part I of this Article will outline the accreditation requirements for developing and publishing learning outcomes. Part II will provide an overview of the process of curricular planning in light of the new ABA Standards. Part III will explain the steps schools can take to develop learning outcomes and map those across the curriculum. Part IV will discuss the elements of what makes an assessment plan effective, with a focus on the best ways to use formative assessment to improve the metacognitive skills of the students. Part V will detail the approach The John Marshall Law School took to improve …

From Access To Success: Affirmative Action Outcomes In A Class-Based System, Matthew N. Gaertner, Melissa Hart

Publications

Scholarly discussion about affirmative action policy has been dominated in the past ten years by debates over "mismatch theory'"--the claim that race-conscious affirmative action harms those it is intended to help by placing students who receive preferences among academically superior peers in environments where they will be overmatched and unable to compete. Despite serious empirical and theoretical challenges to this claim in academic circles, mismatch has become widely accepted outside those circles, so much so that the theory played prominently in Justice Clarence Thomas's concurring opinion in Fisher v. University of Texas. This Article explores whether mismatch occurs in …

The More Things Change . . . : Exploring Solutions To Persisting Discrimination In Legal Academia, Melissa Hart

Publications

No abstract provided.

Lawyers And Spoiled Identity, Paul Campos

Publications

No abstract provided.

How Improving Decision-Making And Mindfulness Can Improve Legal Ethics And Professionalism, Peter H. Huang

Publications

Lawyers who behave unethically and unprofessionally do so for various reasons, ranging from intention to carelessness. Lawyer misconduct can also result from decision-making flaws. Psychologist Chip Heath and his brother Dan Heath, in their best-selling book, Decisive: How to Make Better Decisions in Life and Work, suggest a process to improve people’s decision-making. They introduce the acronym WRAP as the mnemonic for these decision-making heuristics: (1) Widen your options, (2) Reality-test your assumptions, (3) Attain distance before deciding, and (4) Prepare to be wrong. The WRAP process mitigates these cognitive biases: (1) narrow framing of a decision problem, (2) …

Research Analysis And Planning: The Undervalued Skill In Legal Research Instruction, Robert M. Linz

Publications

This article describes a method of research analysis and planning for legal problems. It introduces the framework of research plan, log, and product and provides a detailed research plan and log that students can use as a template for learning research. The article suggests how to teach the method in legal research classes, shares some of the author's experiences in teaching the method, and addresses some possible criticisms of this approach.

The Zombie Lawyer Apocalypse, Peter H. Huang, Corie Rosen Felder

Publications

This Article uses a popular cultural framework to address the near-epidemic levels of depression, decision-making errors, and professional dissatisfaction that studies have documented are prevalent among law students and lawyers today.

Zombies present an apt metaphor for understanding and contextualizing the ills now common in the American legal and legal education systems. To explore that metaphor and its import, this Article will first establish the contours of the zombie literature and will apply that literature to the existing state of legal education and legal practice, ultimately describing a state that we believe can only be termed "the Zombie Lawyer Apocalypse." …

Reflections On Teaching Business Associations: The Case For Teaching More Agency And Unincorporated Business Entity Law, Mark J. Loewenstein

Publications

This paper argues for increased coverage of the law of agency and alternative entities in business associations courses.