Law Commons^™

Vulnerable Populations And Transformative Law Teaching: A Critical Reader, Chapter 6 - Vulnerability In Contracting: Teaching First-Year Law Students About Inequality And Its Consequences, Deborah Post, Deborah Zalesne

Deborah W. Post

Traditional legal pedagogy fails to demonstrate the relationship of contract to the subordination of vulnerable populations. As a result, students rarely see the complex web of interrelationships where economic activity takes place or the legal regime that maintains it. Students are not taught how to interrogate the discourse or dismantle the systems and structures that oppress subordinated communities. This Essay describes a technique that we have developed to help students learn the meaning of law and its cultural, social, and structural significance. The traditional framing of the study of contract doctrine as one that is objective, neutral, and fair avoids …

More Dialogue Over Law School Cost And Curriculum, Mark Mckenna, Geoffrey Bennett

Mark P. McKenna

Mark McKenna and Geoffrey Bennett were quoted in The Indiana Lawyer article More dialogue over law school cost and curriculum about Retired Indiana Supreme Court Chief Justice Randall Shepard’s Clynes Chair Lecture by Marilyn Odendahl. “So you’re trying to take students who have learned a subject matter and then put them in a practice environment where they have to make use of that. Both reinforce what they learned in the classroom, but then it also helps them understand the context that you can’t necessarily get from the pages of a book,” McKenna said. “If (states adequately funded their schools), that …

A People's Guide To U.S. Immigration Law, Irene Scharf

Irene Scharf

The goal of this book is to help those who are already here to understand their rights, responsibilities, and choices under the ever-more complicated immigration laws. In these insecure times, it is crucial to understand one's legal rights during work and home raids, how to act if charged by the authorities, how to avoid being deported/removed, how to decide whether to hire a lawyer and if hiring one how to choose one, how to assist one's lawyer to reduce fees, and much more.

Nourishing Justice And The Continuum: Implementing A Blended Model In An Immigration Law Clinic, Irene Scharf

Irene Scharf

The purpose of this Article is to describe how the new Immigration Law Clinic at Southern New England School of Law has combined attention to the School's mission of educating students and expanding justice by serving the community with the broader goal of addressing the continuing educational needs of recent law school graduates. The Clinic not only offers direct legal services to clients but also trains and mentors recently graduated local attorneys, who offer both pro bono client representation as well as student supervision. Through the Immigration Law Clinic, these attorneys are trained in both immigration law and clinical supervision. …

Symposium Introduction: Humanism Goes To Law School, Marjorie A. Silver

Marjorie A. Silver

By now, the knowledge that law students experience more than their fair share of distress is old news. The studies about law student (and lawyer) unhappiness have been widely discussed in both academic literature and trade publications. Less well known, however, are the increasing number of programs that law schools, and individuals within those schools, have implemented to counter that distress,and to help students develop a positive professional identity,both as students and as the lawyers they are about to become.

Overcoming Writer's Block And Procrastination For Attorneys, Law Students, And Law Professors, Meehan Rasch

Meehan Rasch

Law is a particularly writing-heavy profession. However, lawyers, law students, and law professors often struggle with initiating, sustaining, and completing legal writing projects. Even the most competent legal professionals experience periods in which the written word just does not flow freely. This article provides a guide for legal writers who are seeking to understand and resolve writing blocks, procrastination, and other common writing productivity problems.

Understanding The Cycle Of Procrastination, Meehan Rasch

Meehan Rasch

Procrastination is one of the enduring challenges of human existence, as well as one of the chief problems with which law students struggle. Understanding the cycle of procrastination can help law professors and advisors more constructively address students’ issues in this area—not to mention our own.

No Money, Mo' Problems: Why Unpaid Law Firm Internships Are Illegal And Unethical, Eric M. Fink

Eric M Fink

The practice of law firms offering unpaid internships in lieu of paid employment should concern law students and law school graduates who face an increasingly tight market for entry-level legal jobs. This article argues that such unpaid internships are impermissible under the Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”). It further argues that lawyers who illegally hire unpaid interns should be subject to discipline under the ethics rules of the legal profession.

While law students collectively have an interest in ending this exploitative practice, they have a disincentive against taking action themselves, lest they hurt their prospects in the already unfavorable postgraduate …

Silence Is Golden: Using A "Silent Scrolling Powerpoint" Series To Enhance Your Course Dynamic, Julia M. Glencer Professor

Julia M. Glencer

This article explores the use of an alternative teaching tool in a law school classroom as a method of inspiring law students and prompting excited engagement in both the underlying course and the legal profession. The author, a seven-year Legal Research & Writing Professor, first explains how she has used the automatic advance feature in Microsoft PowerPoint to create a semester series of weekly “Silent Scrolling PowerPoints,” 5 to 7 minutes in length, on a variety of topics of interest and inspiration to her first-year law students. She then summarizes the six benefits observed while experimenting with this tool over …