Law Commons^™

Ok, Google, Will Artificial Intelligence Replace Human Lawyering?, Amy Vorenberg, Julie A. Oseid, Melissa Love Koenig

Law Faculty Scholarship

Will Artificial Intelligence (AI) replace human lawyering? The answer is no. Despite worries that AI is getting so sophisticated that it could take over the profession, there is little cause for concern. Indeed, the surge of AI in the legal field has crystalized the real essence of effective lawyering. The lawyer’s craft goes beyond what AI can do because we listen with empathy to clients’ stories, strategize to find that story that might not be obvious, thoughtfully use our imagination and judgment to decide which story will appeal to an audience, and creatively tell those winning stories.

This article reviews …

Legal Education Unbundled (And Rebundled), Megan Carpenter

Law Faculty Scholarship

This essay calls for an unbundling of legal education, much like the kind of unbundling we have seen in the cable, music, and print news media. It suggests that the standard legal education "bundle"-the generalized JD-is just one of many forms of legal education that can be packaged appropriately for today's legal education market needs.

Teaching And Assessing Soft Skills, Sophie M. Sparrow

Law Faculty Scholarship

[excerpt from article] It is our job as legal educators to put our law graduates in the best position to succeed as new lawyers.1 And to succeed, law graduates must possess certain qualities or character traits that will enable them to thrive within legal organizations.2 Despite many calls for reform in legal education to include more practice-related skills, including professionalism, many law professors teaching doctrinal courses are reluctant to incorporate teaching professional competencies and behaviors.3 They are unwilling to do so even though they have long decried students’ lack of professional skills.4 Professors complain that students show up late for …

Professor Thomas G. Field, Jr.: Pioneer In Intellectual Property Education, Teacher, Mentor, And Scholar, Jon R. Cavicchi

Law Faculty Scholarship

It is almost an impossible endeavor to summarize the forty plus year career of Thomas G. Field, Jr. Regarding this inquiry, Field might say, "If you want to know what I have done, look at my C. V. on the web!" His ten page, single-spaced "Abbreviated Curriculum Vitae" only sets the factual stage for the incredible career that spanned the entire life of the University of New Hampshire School of Law ("UNH School of Law" or "UNH Law"). The real story is only told by Field himself, his contemporaries, colleagues, and the thousands of students whose life he touched. This …

The Educational Pipeline To Law School—Too Broken And Too Narrow To Provide Diversity, Sarah E. Redfield

The University of New Hampshire Law Review

[Excerpt] “The legal profession remains markedly out of sync with the changing demographics of the country, where the population is projected to be over 50 percent minority by 2050. Against this trend, law school enrollment hovers around 20 percent minority, including over 7 percent Asian students. Enrollment of some minority groups shows a decline rather than improvement. These numbers will remain static or continue to decline if the profession does not pay far more serious attention to the current leaks and gaps along the educational pipeline, far before students seek admission at the law school gates.”

Franklin Pierce Law Center: Leading The Way In Legal Education For New Hampshire, John D. Hutson

The University of New Hampshire Law Review

[Excerpt] "This issue of the Pierce Law Review is the first devoted entirely to the practice of law in New Hampshire. This venture is appropriate because the Franklin Pierce Law Center is the only law school in the State. We are truly New Hampshire’s law school. Our Trustees, faculty, staff, and students feel this responsibility profoundly. Pierce Law serves as both a state law school and a national and international school. While we send a greater percentage of our graduates out of state than any other law school in the country except one, our alumni comprise fully one-third of the …

Herding Cats: Improving Law School Teaching, Mitchell M. Simon, M. E. Occhialino, Robert L. Fried

Law Faculty Scholarship

What makes a good law teacher? Is excellence in teaching largely a matter of intellectual brilliance, of superior organization and delivery of material, of friendliness and fairness to one's students? Or does it have more to do with style, with stage presence, with the ability to engage an audience in the act of reflective and spontaneous thinking?

While the question of how to define and evaluate teaching necessarily bedevils deans and tenure committees who must make personnel decisions, the focus on defining the competent teacher has obscured from faculty attention the more fundamental question: how can we implement a system …