Law Commons^™

The Humanities In The Law School Curriculum: Courtship And Consummation, Linda H. Edwards

Scholarly Works

Today the humanities occupy a small corner of the law school curriculum. Might they instead become a more vibrant partner in legal education? Might law and humanities scholarship escape the pages of law reviews and teach us something important about how to read and understand the law?

Despite the long theoretical dominance of legal realism in scholarly circles, much of legal education as we know it has remained mired in Langdell's formalist vision of the law—a vision of a narrow, abstract, impersonal system bereft of human meaning and value. But we can do better. We can approach law, and teach …

Seeing Higher Education And Faculty Responsibility Through Richard Matasar's Critiques Of Law Schools: College Completion, Economic Viability, And The Liberal Arts Ideal In Higher Education, John Valery White

Scholarly Works

Professor John Valery White argues that the crisis in higher education has been framed around discomfort with and critiques of changes that have taken place in the last few decades as universities grew and became more complex, and more expensive. These arguments raise valid and significant concerns about higher education and its subcomponents like legal education but on the whole have missed the true challenge to higher education of recent years. He argues that the significant current policy push to improve college attainment has led to the loss of academic authority and leadership by higher education institutions, their administrators, and …

Finishing The Job Of Legal Education Reform, Mary Beth Beazley

Scholarly Works

In this article, Professor Beazley advocates for the extension of tenure to skills faculty for the good of law faculty and of legal education. She argues that extending tenure to legal writing and other skills faculty will help to advance the goals of education reform in a variety of ways. First, equalizing the power of skills faculty will allow law schools to get the full benefit of their teaching and scholarship, a benefit that is currently blunted by ignorance and bias. Second, fair treatment of skills faculty will advance the values of equality, diversity, and inclusion: law students will benefit …

What Predicts Law Student Success? A Longitudinal Study Correlating Law Student Applicant Data And Law School Outcomes, Alexia Brunet Marks, Scott A. Moss

Publications

Despite the rise of “big data” empiricism, law school admission remains heavily impressionistic; admission decisions rely on anecdotes about recent students, idiosyncratic preferences for certain majors or jobs, or mainly the Law School Admission Test (LSAT). Yet no predictors are well-validated and studies of the LSAT or other factors fail to control for other factors. The lack of evidence for what actually predicts law school success is especially surprising since, after the 2010s downturn, law schools now compete for fewer applicants. We fill this gap with a two-school, 1,400-student, 2005--2011 longitudinal study. We coded nondigitized applicant data and used multivariate …

Teaching Compliance, D. Daniel Sokol

UF Law Faculty Publications

Compliance is a growing field of practice across multiple areas of law. Increasingly companies put compliance risk among the most important corporate governance issues facing them. Moreover, as “JD plus” jobs proliferate, the demand for hiring both at the entry level and for former students currently in practice who are experienced in the compliance field will continue to grow. The growth in compliance jobs comes at a time in shifting demand for legal jobs for law school graduates. Traditional law firm entry level jobs at large law firms, which were the staple of on campus recruiting before 2007, have not …

Teaching Cost-Effective Research Skills: Tips For Effective And Efficient Legal Research, Rebecca Mattson, Theresa K. Tarves

Law Library Faculty Works

Being a cost-effective researcher is not necessarily just about the legal research resources available where an attorney practices. Budgetary concerns are prevalent across all legal markets, from solos and public interest to large law firms. As the legal field struggles with clients who want greater efficiencies from their attorneys and alternative fee arrangements, many of which state that attorneys will not bill clients for legal research database fees, it is becoming more important than ever to teach law students and attorneys how to use alternative resources effectively and efficiently.

The "New Normal" For Educating Lawyers, Nicola A. Boothe-Perry

Journal Publications

This article examines who law professors are and what their roles consist of when educating law students. The article discusses the ethical and moral dilemmas that law professors can find themselves in while trying to be competent and trustworthy in their teaching. The article also discusses the role of mentor and counselor as they guide students’ in creating their professional identities.

Practicing Practical Wisdom, Deborah J. Cantrell, Kenneth Sharpe

Publications

Wisdom is not an innate character trait; no one automatically is wise; wisdom is learned and acquired. More importantly, one can learn and acquire wisdom intentionally and skillfully — one can practice it. And, if the practice is structured in particular ways, the practice will improve one’s capacities to act with wisdom. This article clarifies theoretical muddiness and pedagogical imprecision by bringing together two important and robust strands of legal ethics literature. The first strand focuses on what the appropriate role of a lawyer is in a just society, while the second focuses on how a lawyer learns to be, …

What Legal Writers Can Learn From Paint Nite, Beth Cohen, Pat Newcombe

Faculty Scholarship

Paint Nite activities and adult coloring have captured the nation’s interest and gone mainstream. Creating something on our own is what drives similar trends like the popular Do It Yourself movement and the resurgence of knitting after 9/11. At the same time, these fun, creative activities can provide us with a window into the process of legal writing. Using Paint Nite as a reference point throughout a legal writing course allows faculty to present a holistic view of the writing process and provides a useful analogy for faculty as well as an accessible context for students. Legal writing instructors share …

Do We Need Subject Matter-Specific Pedagogies?, Kris Franklin

Articles & Chapters

No abstract provided.

Assessment Of Learning Outcomes In Transactional Skills Courses, Carol Morgan, Carol Newman

Scholarly Works

The following description of our guided discussion reflects our questions from our original presentation and our own insights and experiences, together with the insights and ideas suggested by our audience. Our audience represented a variety of law schools, varying in size, geographic location, and curricular emphasis on transactional law and skills, and varying in types of transactional courses, including clinics, simulations, and courses focusing on transactional skills. We are grateful to our audience, who served as a thoughtful, vibrant discussion group in generously sharing their experiences, ideas, and suggestions regarding assessing learning outcomes in transactional skills-based courses.

Preparing Law Students For Information Governance, Susan David Demaine

Articles by Maurer Faculty

Information governance is a holistic business approach to managing and using information that recognizes information as an asset as well as a potential source of risk. Law librarians and legal information professionals are well situated to take leadership roles in information governance efforts, including instructing law students in information governance principles and practices. This article traces the development of information governance and its importance to the legal profession, offers a primer on information governance principles and implementation, and discusses how academic law librarians and other legal educators can teach information governance to law students using problem-based learning or similar pedagogical …

Book Review. Rethinking The Law School: Education, Research, Outreach And Governance By Carel Stolker, Ashley A. Ahlbrand

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

Grit And Legal Education, Emily Zimmerman, Leah Brogan

Pace Law Review

One factor that has received much attention in recent years is “grit,” which has been defined as “perseverance and passion for long-term goals.” Although grit has been studied in a number of different contexts, grit is understudied in the context of legal education. In light of the existing research regarding grit and performance, and the ongoing interest in law student learning, motivation, and performance, we undertook a research project to investigate the relationship between grit and law school academic performance. Although we hypothesized that grit would be positively related to law school GPA, we did not find a statistically significant …

The Viability Of The $30 Casebook: Intellectual Property, Voluntary Payment, Open Distribution, And Author Incentives, Lydia Pallas Loren

Journal of Intellectual Property Law

It is not uncommon for a new hardbound copy of today’s law school casebooks to exceed $200. And, each year, the prices inch ever higher. After exploring the various dynamics in the traditional publishing market that have led to the current prices for casebooks, this article describes the experiences of Semaphore Press, a publisher of law school casebooks that offers a very different approach to providing law school casebooks. Semaphore Press offers digital copies of required textbooks for law school classes, (in pdf format with no digit rights management (DRM) restrictions), at a suggested price of $30. In addition, students …

Newsroom: Affordable Excellence Extended To 2016-17, Roger Williams University School Of Law

Life of the Law School (1993- )

No abstract provided.

Post-Graduate Legal Training: The Case For Tax-Exempt Programs, Adam Chodorow, Philip T. Hackney

Journal Articles

The challenging job market for recent law school graduates has highlighted a fact well known to those familiar with legal education: A significant gap exists between what students learn in law school and what they need to be practice-ready lawyers. Legal employers historically assumed the task of providing real-world training, but they have become much less willing to do so. At the same time, a large numbers of Americans – and not just those living at or below the poverty line – are simply unable to afford lawyers. In this Article, we argue that post-graduate legal training, similar to post-graduate …

Newsroom: Yelnosky On Master Of Studies In Law, Roger Williams University School Of Law

Life of the Law School (1993- )

No abstract provided.

Filling The Google Gaps: Harnessing The Power Of Google Through Instruction, Rebecca Mattson

Law Library Faculty Works

This article discusses teaching proper use of Google and Google Scholar in the legal research classroom.

Igniting The Conversation: Embracing Legal Literacy As The Heart Of The Profession, Laura J. Ax-Fultz

Faculty Scholarly Works

Law librarians are experts in instruction, databases, scholarship, and more. This broad expertise has exacerbated an identity crisis in the profession. The author argues that law librarians must develop a core identity, such as legal literacy, to navigate an ever-changing legal landscape that questions the future necessity of law librarians.

Queering Indigenous Legal Studies, Emily Snyder

Dalhousie Law Journal

A handful of scholars have examined sex, gender, and sexuality in relation to Indigenous laws; yet their work is infrequently taken up in the field, and there is a broader need for conversations about what it means to "queer" Indigenous legal studies. In this paper, I centre and examine work that contributes to this queering so as to promote inclusive critical legal education and engagement. I also discuss the implications of not attending to sexuality and develop preliminary propositions for queering Indigenous legal studies.

Newsroom: A Master's In Law For Non-Lawyers, Roger Williams University School Of Law

Life of the Law School (1993- )

No abstract provided.

Newsroom: Master's In Law For Non-Lawyers, Roger Williams University School Of Law

Life of the Law School (1993- )

No abstract provided.

Toward A Writing-Centered Legal Education, Adam Lamparello

Res Gestae

The future of legal education—and experiential learning—should be grounded in a curriculum that requires students to take writing courses throughout law school. Additionally, the curriculum should be one that collapses the distinction between doctrinal, legal writing, and clinical faculty, as well as merges analytical, practical, and clinical instruction into a real world curriculum.

The justification for a writing-intensive program of legal education is driven by the reality that persuasive writing ability is among the most important skills a lawyer must possess and a skill that many lawyers and judges claim graduates lack. Part of the problem is that law schools …

With Every Curse There Comes A Wish: Legal Education In A Time Of Change, Olympia Duhart, Ruben J. Garcia

Nevada Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Integrating Skills And Collaborating Across Law Schools : An Example From Immigration Law, Jennifer Lee Koh, Anna Welch

Nevada Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Teaching Remedial Problem-Solving Skills To A Law School's Underperforming Students, John F. Murphy

Nevada Law Journal

No abstract provided.

How Teaching About Therapeutic Jurisprudence Can Be A Tool Of Social Justice, And Lead Law Students To Personally And Socially Rewarding Careers: Sexuality And Disability As A Case Example, Michael L. Perlin, Alison J. Lynch

Nevada Law Journal

No abstract provided.

The Call For Lawyers Committed To Social Justice To Champion Accessible Legal Services Through Innovative Legal Education, George Critchlow, Brooks Holland, Olympia Duhart

Nevada Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Do Law School Outcomes Follow The Legal Myth Of Thirds?: An Analysis Of The After The J.D. Study, Michael W. Raphael, Tanesha A. Thomas

Graduate Student Publications and Research

The legal myth of thirds is the belief that each graduating class of law students can be divided into thirds where the top third end up becoming law professors, the middle third become judges and the bottom third become lawyers. Such discourse is indicative of a meritocratic society and a 2014 survey done at a small New England law school found that 36.9% of respondents (N=92) have indeed heard that this was the case. The authors feel that the mere existence of such a rumor suggests that there is concern regarding intra-professional stratification. Using data from the American Bar Foundation’s …