Law Commons^™

Why Equity Follows The Law, Adam J. Macleod

Faculty Articles

Renewed attention to equity in higher education is welcome because true equity helps us to reason together well. When administered correctly, the jurisprudence of equity models civil discourse and, therefore, can teach us how to carry out civic engagement reasonably. Equitable interpretation of the law teaches us how to understand each other charitably. And equity’s deference to law teaches us how to reason well together about our practical problems. Law is the practical reasoning that we do together. Equity serves the ends of justice by serving law, rather than undermining it. These functions of equity in adjudication point toward a …

The Lawyer As Dream Enabler, Gerald S. Reamey

Faculty Articles

In law school and in law practice, the power of preparation is reinforced. Generations of law students have heard me extol the virtue of preparation above all others. While it is true, even the best preparation will never beat luck; luck is fickle and not subject to our control. On the other hand, we totally control the amount and quality of the preparation we put into any project. I discovered preparation is more important than good looks, nice clothes, a shiny leather briefcase, eloquence, experience, or even intelligence.

The End Of The Golden Age Of American Legal Education: My Year As Interim Dean, Vincent R. Johnson

Faculty Articles

This article is part of the story of my year as interim dean. The year began without a sign of trouble anywhere on the horizon and ended with an empty campus, cancellation of traditional law school events, face masks and social distancing requirements, uncertainty about whether new law graduates would be able to take the bar exam, and furloughs and layoffs of law school personnel. As my year drew to a close, dozens of American law school deans were meeting online every Friday to share information about how to cope with the challenges of the Covid-19 Pandemic and the uncertainties …

Happy Golden Anniversary, St. Mary's Law Journal!, Stephen M. Sheppard

Faculty Articles

Half a century ago, a handful of dedicated St. Mary's law students and faculty begat a premiere experience in legal education, the St. Mary's Law Journal. As the Journal marks its 50th anniversary, it continues to represent the diligence, imagination, practicality, and sheer effort of our faculty and students,

Law Schools Harm Genizaros And Other Indigenous People By Misunderstanding Aba Policy, Bill Piatt, Moises Gonzales, Katja Wolf

Faculty Articles

Law schools justifiably seek to enroll a diverse student body in order to enrich the academic experience and environment, and to provide attorneys who will serve all segments of our society. American law schools enjoy the constitutional right to maintain such diversity. Indeed, accreditation standards promulgated by the American Bar Association ("ABA") require it. The Association of American Law Schools carries a similar mandate.

In seeking to create a diverse student body, law schools offer applicants the opportunity to identify their backgrounds. There generally is no "diversity police" checking on the accuracy of the self-identification as a member of a …

State Bar Efforts To Deny Accreditation To Faith-Based Cle Ethics Programs Sponsored By Religiously Affiliated Law Schools, Bill Piatt

Faculty Articles

Religiously affiliated law schools focus on the integration of faith in the formation of future attorneys and leaders. Yet our students are only our students for three years. We can extend our influence and continue to provide a faith-based perspective to them and to other attorneys during the thirty, forty, or more years of their careers by offering continuing legal education (CLE) courses, which bring attorneys and judges together to provide a model for incorporating faith and morality into our professional roles. However, CLE programs must receive accreditation by state authorities if participants are to receive credit for them. Recently, …

Improving The Law School Classroom And Experience Through Prayer: An Empirical Study, David A. Grenardo

Faculty Articles

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. once said, “To be a Christian without prayer is no more possible than to be alive without breathing.” There are approximately fifty religiously affiliated law schools in the United States. As faith-based communities, these law schools can integrate their faiths into the education they provide by, among other things, incorporating in the classroom a central characteristic of most religions – prayer.

This article includes anonymous survey responses from students at four different Catholic law schools across the nation concerning whether the students liked the fact that their professors prayed at the beginning of class. The …

Foreword – Latcrit Praxis @ Xx: Toward Equal Justice In Law, Education And Society, Tayyab Mahmud

Faculty Articles

This article marks the twentieth anniversary of Latina and Latino Critical Legal Theory or the LatCrit organization, an association of diverse scholars committed to the production of knowledge from the perspective of Outsider or OutCrit jurisprudence. The article first reflects on the historical development of LatCrit’s substantive, methodological, and institutional commitments and practices. It argues that these traditions were shaped not only by its members’ goals and commitments but also by the politics of backlash present at its birth in the form of the “cultural wars,” and which have since morphed into perpetual “crises” grounded in neoliberal policies. With this …

Internprofessional Education, Patricia E. Roberts

Faculty Articles

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 …

The American Legal Profession In The Twenty-First Century, Stephen M. Sheppard

Faculty Articles

Lawyers in the United States work in public service, private counseling, and dispute resolution, but many also work outside of traditional legal practice. The million-member American bar, second largest in the world, grows more diverse by gender, and ethnicity and older on average. All members of this learned profession must qualify by education or examination and by proof of good character and fitness before taking an oath to serve as an attorney. Thence, there are few limitations on the form of legal practice, though many law firms require an associateship before an attorney becomes an owner of the firm. Economic …

The Lawyer Bubble: A Profession In Crisis, By Stephen J. Harper (Book Review), Michael S. Ariens

Faculty Articles

Stephen J. Harper’s The Lawyer Bubble: A Profession in Crisis, is the latest iteration of the “institutional failure” or “business disaster” story. A number of such books were published around 1990, and have been quite popular since then, for businesses (such as Enron and Tyco) keep failing in such spectacular fashion. The Great Recession that began in December 2007 led to another round of business disaster books, and like their forebears these books make a hard sell for the claim that the disaster was of a titanic nature. And where the business disaster book is found, the legal disaster book …

Catholicism And Constitutional Law: More Than Privacy In The Penumbras, Bill Piatt

Faculty Articles

No abstract provided.

Legal Obstacles To Bringing The Twenty-First Century In The Classroom: Stop Being Creative, You May Already Be In Trouble, Andre Hampton

Faculty Articles

There are unimaginable benefits available if legal educators can bring the law classroom into the twenty-first century through the use of popular media and celebrities in their teaching. With the introduction of “pop culture,” the professor can permanently alter the student's view of the course material. Bringing pop culture into the classroom will make the course material more relevant to our students’ lives outside the classroom. This will enhance both their willingness and their ability to master legal concepts.

There are two major obstacles to bringing pop culture into the classroom. The initial major obstacle is the Copyright Act of …

One View To Add To The Many, Bill Piatt

Faculty Articles

The United States offers its citizens the opportunity to participate in the legal and political system through which it governs. The Constitution ensures that its citizens may engage, participate, and represent the body politics in government and the application of its laws. The recent attacks on America and the failure of the immigration system in monitoring its applicants has resulted in more restrictive immigration laws and policy.

The country’s legal education system must continue to improve its efforts in diversifying the nation’s law schools. More minorities should be represented as students, professors, and deans. Accomplishing a more diversified legal education …

Observations On The Evolution Of Minorities In The Law: From Law School To Practice, Charles E. Cantú

Faculty Articles

The St. Mary’s University School of Law has a rich history in promoting the representation of minorities in its faculty and student body. Moreover, its history in this area was a tradition long before the country found its social conscience, and before the American government, prodded by the civil rights movement, urged institutions of higher learning to engage in affirmative action. St. Mary’s and Hispanics led the way in this national movement. This year, as St. Mary’s University School of Law celebrates its seventy-fifth year, it is a perfect time to reflect upon the evolution of minorities in the Law …

The Daishonin’S Path: Applying Nichiren’S Buddhist Principles To American Legal Education, John W. Teeter Jr

Faculty Articles

The fundamental aspects of Nichiren Daishonin's teachings merit modern attention. The Daishonin was a tireless mentor for his disciples, and his call for compassion, critique, courage, and wisdom are essential for law students and teachers alike. A remarkable man, the Daishonin's perceptions ought to inform the way professors teach and advise their students, and encourage others to reflect on their own sources of spiritual sustenance and examine the contributions they can make toward deepening the relevance, meaning, and joy of legal education.

The Daishonin emphasized the primacy of The Lotus Sutra, which declares that all living beings inherently possess the …

Professor Steele’S Opus, Gerald S. Reamey

Faculty Articles

Walter Steele is a consummate teacher precisely because he always is teaching. To observe him, to converse with him, to listen to him, to read him, is to learn something. He would not talk about ethical behavior in the classroom, only to cut corners in his private life. He would not demand razor-sharp logic from his students, and then allow himself to be sloppy in his own thinking.

Over the years, the word former students seem to use most often to describe Professor Steele is “intimidating.” He is intimidating because of his power; not the power some law professors wield …

A Short History Of Hearsay Reform, With Particular Reference To Hoffman V. Palmer, Eddie Morgan And Jerry Frank, Michael S. Ariens

Faculty Articles

Much of the history of the American law of evidence, including its most contentious issue, hearsay, is the story of stasis and reform. The case of Hoffman v. Palmer represents one of few cases concerning hearsay known by name, and illustrates that “false” evidence has often been used to caution against efforts proclaiming “radical reform” of the law of evidence.

In this case involving a collision between a car and a train, the critical question was: Is the defendant railroad permitted to introduce into evidence the transcript of a question and answer session made two days after the accident between …

Dutiful Justice (Book Review), Michael S. Ariens

Faculty Articles

Sheldon Novick’s biography, Honorable Justice: The Life of Oliver Wendell Holmes, is a traditional biography of one of the most important public figures in the United States since the Civil War.

Although the author disclaims it, Honorable Justice is a defense of Holmes. Novick writes of some of Holmes’ faults, but too often Holmes’ human imperfections are defended as strengths. It appears that Novick was trying hard to defend Holmes from late twentieth century critiques. This defense of Holmes seems a misguided attempt to re(de)ify Holmes to a group of readers which will likely include a large proportion of skeptical, …

Teaching Transformative Jurisprudence (Film Review), Vincent R. Johnson

Faculty Articles

The Road to Brown is a film that deals with the transformative judicial ruling of Brown v. Board of Education. Many regard this case as the most important holding ever made by a United States court. The Road to Brown offers law professors a superb vehicle for bringing to the classroom the attention to persons, sense of history, and focus on litigation strategy that a great decision demands.

The Road to Brown provides a rich socio-legal-historical perspective on the events that culminated in the 1945 Supreme Court ruling barring racial segregation in public elementary schools. The program blends together photographs, …

Celluloid Legal Ethics: Discipline Redux (Video Review), Vincent R. Johnson

Faculty Articles

A recent addition to the field of video legal ethics is The Rest of the Story: Interviews with Two Disciplined Attorneys. Produced by Gerald Sternberg and Dyann Hafner, the film focuses on two attorneys who have been through the disciplinary process, covering how these attorneys got into trouble, what the disciplinary authorities did, and what advice the attorneys would give to other lawyers.

As an exercise in legal ethics “storytelling,” The Rest of the Story is a partial success. The second attorney on the film—who was disciplined for alcohol-related neglect of post-conviction criminal representation—is animated, engaging, and believable. He is …

Law-Givers, Story-Tellers, And Dubin’S Legal Heroes: The Emerging Dichotomy In Legal Ethics (Video Review), Vincent R. Johnson

Faculty Articles

Two camps have begun to emerge from the rich ferment in legal ethics teaching and scholarship over the last twenty years. The first group, whose members might be termed “law-givers,” consists of those who view legal ethics as chiefly concerned with the identification, transmission, and enforcement of uniform standards governing the conduct of lawyers. The second group—considerably smaller, but increasingly well-defined—might be called the “story-tellers.” The story-tellers place a higher value on persons and context than on principles and procedures, and on the cultivation of a deeper, less mechanical sense of professionalism than detailed rules can provide.

Larry Dubin’s most …

The Politics Of Law (Teaching) (Book Review), Michael S. Ariens

Faculty Articles

The satiric novel, as a “message” novel, can provide unvarnished truths about the object of satire. Institutions of higher learning, particularly law schools, and the denizens of those institutions, are prime subjects for satire because they take themselves so seriously. Unfortunately, though, The Socratic Method by Michael Levin takes itself as seriously as the law school it is criticizing.

One of the hazards of the satiric novel is that the message may overwhelm the plot and characterization. Levin, in his zeal to awaken the reader to the torture of the law school, and particularly the torture of the law school …

Audiovisual Enhancement Of Classroom Teaching: A Primer For Law Professors, Vincent R. Johnson

Faculty Articles

It is increasingly hard to avoid the idea that audiovisual techniques are appropriate—if not essential—to the contemporary law school classroom. Audiovisual aids are already widely employed in the practice of law, continuing legal education, and in most fields of higher and professional education. Yet, what little empirical evidence exists suggests that modern media techniques have had little impact on the traditional law school classroom. Thus it is relevant to ask whether and how audiovisual media can effectively augment the teaching of standard substantive law courses.