Legal Education Commons^™

Legal Education's Curricular Tipping Point Toward Inclusive Socratic Teaching, Jamie Abrams

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

Two seismic curricular disruptions create a tipping point for legal education to reform and transform. COVID-19 abruptly disrupted the delivery of legal education. It aligned with a tectonic racial justice reckoning, as more professors and institutions reconsidered their content and classroom cultures, allying with faculty of color who had long confronted these issues actively. The frenzy of these dual disruptions starkly contrasts with the steady drumbeat of critical legal scholars advocating for decades to reduce hierarchies and inequalities in legal education pedagogy.

This context presents a tipping point supporting two pedagogical reforms that leverage this unique moment. First, it is …

Feminism’S Transformation Of Legal Education And Unfinished Agenda, Jamie Abrams

Contributions to Books

Feminism has had a broad influence in legal education. Feminist critiques have challenged the substance of legal rules, the methods of law teaching, and the culture of legal education. Following decades of advocacy, feminist pedagogical reforms have generated new fields, new courses, new laws, new leaders, and new feminist spaces. There are many reasons to celebrate the accomplishments of our feminist pioneers and champions. Yet, COVID-19 has also exposed all the vulnerabilities and tenuousness of feminist gains too. Critical work remains for faculty, administrators, and students to carry the work forward with a vigilant purpose and determination.

“Presentation Principles”: Connecting Core Lawyering Skills To A Contemporary Lawyering Framework In The Digital Age, Ann Shalleck

Presentations

One way we try to make the connection between core lawyering skills and those inherent in contemporary practice is to examine what unifies what might otherwise be considered discrete lawyering skills. Because we are so aware of how technology is constantly changing and how lawyers and our students need to adapt to its forms and logics in their practice, familiar issues of how to communicate become more evident to us. Technology, therefore, gives us the opportunity to reexamine long held practices, habits of mind, and approaches to teaching students how to present information to colleagues, supervisors, clients, adversaries, tribunals, and …

The Way To Barbara Armstrong, First Tenure-Track Law Professor In An Accredited Us Law School, Susan Carle

Contributions to Books

This is the third volume in a trilogy on gender issues in legal occupations. An overview of Women in the World ’ s Legal Professions (Schultz and Shaw 2003) was followed by Gender and Judging (Schultz and Shaw 2013), finally to be completed by this study on women teachers of law. All three books have been published by Hart Publishing, to whom we are grateful for their unceasing support over so many years. Our thanks also go to the International Institute for the Sociology of Law for facilitating the inclusion of all three volumes in their O ñ ati Socio-Legal …

Ordinary Clients, Overreaching Lawyers, And The Failure To Implement Adequate Client Protection Measures, Leslie C. Levin

American University Law Review

Every year, thousands of individual clients are victimized by overreaching lawyers who overcharge clients, refuse to return unearned fees, or steal their money. For more than forty years, the American Bar Association (ABA) has considered, and often proposed, client protection measures aimed at protecting clients from overreaching lawyers. These measures include requirements that lawyers use written fee agreements in their dealings with clients and rules relating to fee arbitration, client protection funds, insurance payee notification, and random audits of trust accounts. This Article examines what happened to these ABA recommendations when the states considered them and assesses the current state …

Using Experiential Learning To Create An Inclusive Classroom, Promote Equity, And Develop Professional Identity, Tianna N. Gibbs

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

Legal education is changing. As law schools diversify their student bodies, they are being more intentional about the creation of an inclusive and equitable learning environment. Law schools also are engaging in curricular and pedagogical reform to better prepare students for law practice. Incorporating experiential learning into the law school curriculum has been a significant component of these reform efforts. The development of students’ professional identity also has become a focus of preparation for practice.

Taking Our Space: Service, Scholarship, And Radical Citation Practice, Priya Baskaran

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

No abstract provided.

The Bottom Line: Law School Need To Get Serious About The Work Of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion, Lisa Sonia Taylor, Belinda Dantley

Research Reports & White Papers

North American law schools are adding Diversity, Equity, and inclusion (DEI) roles or responsibilities at an increasing pace. In early 2021 we surveyed DEI professionals at law schools across the country. We agree interested in finding out more about these professionals, their work, and their perceptions about the role they play at their law school.

We took the opportunity to ask DEI professionals about their role in light of the global pandemic and focus on racial injustice after the protests against police violence in the summer of 2020.

From The Editors, Ezra Rosser, Robert Dinerstein

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

Although this issue arrives on desks roughly two years after the start of the coronavirus pandemic, it offers a degree of continuity with our usual fare concerning scholarship about legal education. Our next double-length issue will explore in depth matters of teaching modality, technology, and change connected with the ongoing pandemic. This issue offers fresh perspectives on matters of long-standing concern-line drawing, pro bono requirements, pedagogy, law student instruction of high school students, and bar exams. We found the articles, as well as the three book reviews that fill out this issue, to be engaging and insightful and we hope …

The Current Anxiety About "Jd Advantage" Jobs: An Analysis, Susan Carle

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

No abstract provided.

The Failure To Grapple With Racial Capitalism In European Constitutionalism, Jeffrey Miller

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

Since the 1980s prominent scholars of European legal integration have used the example of U.S. constitutionalism to promote a federal vision for the European Community. These scholars, drawing lessons from developments across the Atlantic, concluded that the U.S. Supreme Court had played a key role in fostering national integration and market liberalization. They foresaw the possibility for the European Court of Justice (ECJ) to be a catalyst for a similar federal and constitutional outcome in Europe. The present contribution argues that the scholars who constructed today’s dominant European constitutional paradigm underemphasized key aspects of the U.S. constitutional experience, including judgments …

The Legal Scholar's Guide Book Reviews, Jamie Abrams

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

Success in law school and in the legal profession often involves mastering and navigating the plethora of unwritten rules and norms that govern institutions and communities. Differences in access to those unwritten rules can privilege and advance some while disadvantaging others. A second-generation law student, for example, is far more likely to know about the professional value of law review than a first-generation law student. Law scholarship is particularly plagued by an insularity that can yield a problematic echo chamber within elite institutions and privileged communities. Thus, the more legal scholarship can be explicitly demystified, taught, and mentored, the more …

From The Editors, Ezra Rosser, Robert Dinerstein

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

For many law professors, the experiences they had as law students often serve as the primary lens through which they make sense of their own students' experiences. Who could doubt the value in connecting with students over the stress of the first legal research and writing memo or over the challenge involved in learning the rule against perpetuities? But the legal academy will surely prosper from learning directly from students themselves. That is where the Law School Survey of Student Engagement (LSSSE) project comes in.

Panel 1: Prison Reform In The United States And Abroad, Brenda V. Smith, William Hellerstein, Deborah Labelle, Juan E. Mendez

Presentations

Professor Emeritus Herman Schwartz’s distinguished career has focused attention on the cause of human rights, civil liberties, and the rule of law. From the UN to Helsinki Watch, and from Israel and Eastern Europe to the United States, his work on emerging democracies, constitutional reform, and rule of law has inspired a generation of students, scholars, and practitioners to engage in this important work. Join us for a symposium on prison reform, comparative constitutionalism, voting rights, and human rights in Israel, with experts, activists, and academics in celebration of his contributions.

The Clinical Law Review At 25 - What Have We Wrought, Robert Dinerstein

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

No abstract provided.

Accidental Scholar: Navigating Academia As A Clinician And Reflecting On Intergenerational Change, Binny Miller

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

No abstract provided.

Junk Tales: Incorporating Drug Addicts' Narratives In Law School Courses, Sara Schotland

Criminal Law Practitioner

No abstract provided.

The Deconstructed Issue-Spotting Exam, Jamie Abrams

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

This article proposes a teaching technique for use in large, Socratic-style law school classes to embed exam preparation, formative assessment, and lawyering simulations in the course without overburdening the professor or students. This technique is sustainable, yet highly efficacious for students.

Law schools nationwide are implementing new reforms pushing law schools toward stronger assessment techniques and client-based simulations better preparing students for the practice of law. Many law schools have implemented these reforms around the margins or outside of the traditional doctrinal course. Law schools have generally added new classes with experiential learning components or with simulations integrated into the …

Unique Collaboration With Internal And External Partners, Laura Fernandez, Carrie Field

International Legal Education Abroad Conference

No abstract provided.

Llm Scholarship Trends, Andrew Horsfall

International Legal Education Abroad Conference

No abstract provided.

International Recruiting In A Virtual Age, Miki Hamstra, Julie Sculli

International Legal Education Abroad Conference

No abstract provided.

Supporting Professional Goals For International Students, Lesley Davis, Carrie Field, Melanija Radnovic

International Legal Education Abroad Conference

No abstract provided.

Best Practices In Structuring International Program Administration, Diane Pennys Edelman, Theresa Kaiser-Jarvis, Sara Mcfarlane Polly, Louis Thompson

International Legal Education Abroad Conference

No abstract provided.

The Key To Law Student Well-Being? We Have To Love Our Law Students, David Jaffe

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

No abstract provided.

The Economic Justice Imperative For Lawyers In Trump Country, Priya Baskaran

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

This article serves as a call to action for rural law schools to meaningfully incorporate economic justice into transactional legal education, and in doing so, train much needed rural advocates, legal experts, and local leaders. Rural areas are continuously portrayed as “Trump Country” in today’s mainstream media coverage, which largely focuses on socio-cultural differences between urban and rural areas. Many rural scholars and activists are troubled by the “Trump Country” label as it masks the structural poverty issues that lead to housing insecurity, water insecurity, poor public health indicators, unemployment, underemployment, troubled public education systems, and environmental degradation impacting both …

Practice And Fitness Making Writing Perfection More Nearly Attainable, Heather Ridenour, David Spratt

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

No abstract provided.

Legal Education En Español: A Pedagogical Model, Jayesh Rathod

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

Law schools in the United States are pursuing various strategies to prepare their graduates to compete in a global marketplace for jobs. One such strategy is the development of courses and programs designed to equip law graduates with the knowledge and skills needed to serve as effective bilingual advocates. As part of this effort, in recent years, teachers and scholars have engaged in curricular experimentation and ongoing theorizing about the optimal methods and approaches for bilingual legal education. This essay builds upon existing theoretical work and outlines a unique, bilingual instructional model that involves adding an optional credit hour – …

The Innocence Movement And Misdemeanors, Jenny M. Roberts

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

In recent years, the Innocent Movement has begun to focus its attention on wrongful misdemeanor convictions as a systemic problem. This Article analyzes eighty-five documented misdemeanor exonerations and concludes that innocence has been demonstrated primarily in two ways: laboratory tests of alleged unlawful drugs that reveal “no controlled substance” despite the individual having pled guilty to misdemeanor drug possession; and police body camera or citizen videos that surface after a misdemeanor conviction to contradict the factual basis for that conviction. Strategic use of these relatively definitive methods of revealing wrongful misdemeanor convictions can call attention to the flaws in misdemeanor …

The Global Diffusion Of U.S. Legal Thought: Changing Influence, National Security, And Legal Education In Crisis, Fernanda Giorgia Nicola Dr.

Contributions to Books

During the twentieth century, the center of production of legal ideas shifted from France to Germany and then to the United States. Here, the dominant legal reasoning framed the law as a phenomenon of social organization that was not confined to a specific legal system. There were both external and internal factors influencing U.S. legal thought which explain this change of wind from continental Europe to the United States. Externally, after World War II the United States garnered influence by positioning itself for political and economic global leadership. Internally, the critique of social purpose functionalism articulated by the legal realists …

Exploring The Meaning Of Experiential Deaning, Robert Dinerstein, Margaret Martin Barry

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

This article explores the position of associate dean of experiential education in law schools across the country and the central role associate deans play in the changing landscape of legal education. Experiential deans have broad responsibility for overseeing law schools’ experiential education programs. Additional responsibilities differ between institutions, but range from leading efforts to comply with new ABA standards to overseeing the integration of experiential education into the broader curriculum. Analyzing survey data collected from associate experiential deans across the country, the authors find the structure, content, and authority of the position is under-developed. The authors make recommendations on how …