Legal Education Commons^™

The Care And Feeding Of Law Student Research Assistants, Alyssa Dragnich, Rachel H. Smith

Faculty Publications

(Excerpt)
Hiring, training, managing, and mentoring research assistants can be highly gratifying. When it works well, the relationship between a professor and a research assistant (RA) can be a distillation of all the best parts of teaching legal writing. It benefits professor and student. It results in a bond of friendship and collegiality. It produces useful and thoughtful work.

But it can also go horribly wrong. The relationship can be a waste of student and professor time and energy. The professor can feel burdened, rather than assisted. The student can feel confused and underappreciated. As any professor knows who has …

Tribute To Professor Jonathan L. Entin, B. Jessie Hill

Faculty Publications

Tribute to Professor Jonathan Entin.

Tribute To Professor Jonathan L. Entin, Jessica W. Berg, Michael P. Scharf

Faculty Publications

Tribute for Professor Jonathan Entin.

Tribute To Professor Jonathan L. Entin, Sharona Hoffman

Faculty Publications

Tribute to Professor Jonathan Entin.

Book Review: Divergent Paths: The Academy And The Judiciary, S. I. Strong

Faculty Publications

Judge Richard Posner's most recent book, Divergent Paths: The Academy and the Judiciary touches on a number of important issues, but the most revolutionary element involves Judge Posner's discussion of how the legal academy can assist with the education of current and future judges.

How Top Law Schools Can Resuscitate An Inclusive Climate For Minority And Low-Income Law Students, Taifha N. Baker

Faculty Publications

(Excerpt)

I would not wish my law school experience on my worst enemy. Georgetown University Law Center (GULC), my social-justice focused law school, has largely ignored the recent racially-motivated, legally-upheld killings of people of color and their effects on marginalized communities. As an African-American law student from a welfare-reliant household, GULC's silence has been especially painful because it suggests that my law school does not care about events that impact my community.

At each critical point of my first year in law school, GULC remained silent to the nationally recognized, racially-motived, and repeated police killings of unarmed African-American men. On …

Contemporary Teaching Strategies: Effectively Engaging Millennials Across The Curriculum, Renee Nicole Allen, Alicia R. Jackson

Faculty Publications

(Excerpt)

"Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, and you feed him for a lifetime." - Chinese Proverb

American Bar Association ("ABA") Standard 314, Assessment of Student Learning, requires law schools to "utilize both formative and summative assessment methods in its curriculum to measure and improve student learning and provide meaningful feedback to students." This article will connect multiple formative assessments to Bloom's taxonomy to demonstrate how law teachers can transform and enhance student learning, while promoting key steps in the self-regulated learning cycle. First, it is imperative law teachers …

Incorporating Social Justice Into The Law School Curriculum With A Hybrid Doctrinal/Writing Course, Rosa Castello

Faculty Publications

Educating future lawyers is about more than just teaching them substantive law. We are preparing professionals who will go out into our world and shape and affect it in deep and impacting ways. They will make law, enforce law, determine policy, defend people, advocate, and influence lives and businesses. Therefore, any thorough law school education should teach social justice and encourage students to become more engaged in activism.

One way to incorporate social justice into the law school curriculum is to offer specific courses focused on social justice. However, administrators may be concerned about demand for such classes or ability …

Bridging The Reading Gap In The Law School Classroom, Patricia G. Montana

Faculty Publications

Many students struggle in law school, particularly in the first year, because they are weak readers. They do not know how to read text closely and have limited practice in reading complex or lengthy pieces of writing. Nor are they accustomed to reading works that demand deep thinking and reflection.

Yet legal analysis and writing depends on a careful reading and thoughtful understanding of the authority on which a lawyer relies. Without strong reading and critical thinking skills, it is no surprise that incoming law students have difficulty following a structured analysis and mastering legal writing. As the gap between …

An All-Volunteer Force: Law Students And Pro Bono Lawyers Helping Veterans, Patricia E. Roberts

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Inward Bound: An Exploration Of Character Development In Law School, Heather D. Baum

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Choosing A Criminal Procedure Casebook: On Lesser Evils And Free Books, Ben L. Trachtenberg

Faculty Publications

Among the more important decisions a law teacher makes when preparing a new course is what materials to assign. Criminal procedure teachers are spoiled for choice, with legal publishers offering several options written by teams of renowned scholars. This Article considers how a teacher might choose from the myriad options available and suggests two potentially overlooked criteria: weight and price.

Skills For Law Students, Jonathan Van Patten

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

A Contemporary Model For Using Teaching Assistants In Legal Writing Programs, Patricia G. Montana

Faculty Publications

(Excerpt)

As law schools downsize their faculty to offset falling student enrollment, faculty members will likely face greater teaching loads and increased pressure to produce graduates who can not only pass the bar, but are “practice ready.” Formative assessment, prompt and individualized feedback, mentoring, and one-on-one conferences are all integral to achieving those goals. As a consequence, faculty will need to rethink their approach to teaching so that they can meet these new expectations. This is particularly true in legal writing courses, where students are researching and writing throughout the year, and the demand for practice writing opportunities and feedback …

American Legal Education, Skills Training, And Transnational Legal Practice: Combining Dao And Shu For The Global Practitioner, Michael A. Simons, Margaret E. Mcguinness

Faculty Publications

Transnational law subjects have become an integral part of U.S. law school curricula, and international students are vital members of our law school communities. However, to adequately prepare lawyers more effectively for global legal practice, law schools must integrate skills training into the teaching of transnational law. This essay discussing one comparative approach follows a recent symposia addressing current issues facing global legal education, and China’s reform programs for legal education.

Post 9/11 Veterans: Welcoming Them Home As Colleagues And Clients, Patricia E. Roberts

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Intergrating Skills And Collaborating Across Law Schools: An Example From Immigration Law, Anna R. Welch

Faculty Publications

This Essay discusses the design and implementation of introductory Immigration Law courses taught at two different law schools, Western State College of Law in Orange County, California and the University of Maine Law School in Portland, Maine. Although the courses took place on opposite coasts and did not engage in a formal partnership that was visible to students, the authors deliberately planned the courses in close collaboration with one another behind the scenes. In doing so, the courses shared the explicit goal of increasing students’ exposure to practical lawyering skills while reinforcing students’ understanding of the substantive immigration laws. This …

From Students To Colleagues: The Legal Writing Classroom Can Create Conscientious & Empathetic Practitioners, Rachel H. Smith

Faculty Publications

(Excerpt)

As we teach legal writing to new law students, we want them to learn to be good writers, good researchers, and good counselors and advocates. But I also want each of my students to learn about being a good colleague—to develop a professional identity that depends on being conscientious, empathetic, and collegial. The legal writing course has a special role in exposing students to the significance of these qualities, which makes it the most important course in the first year of law school.

Intercultural Effectivenss, Mary A. Lynch, Robin Boyle, Rhonda Magee, Antoinette Sedillo López

Faculty Publications

(Excerpt)

The legal profession has recognized the need for cross-culturally competent lawyers. The American Bar Association, state and local bar associations, and other professional development experts have called for lawyers to develop cultural competencies. While the terminology used is not consistent, at its core, this call expresses a commitment to legal education that embraces the strengths of diverse student bodies and client populations. Legal education should more effectively help students examine how legal structures can ignore, silence, and devalue alternative perspectives and diverse identities.

BEST PRACTICES FOR LEGAL EDUCATION suggested that legal education should include training about cross-cultural competence, cited …

Using Principles From Cognitive Behavioral Therapy To Reduce Nervousness In Oral Argument Or Moot Court, Larry Cunningham

Faculty Publications

Sarah, a new attorney at a public defender’s office, is assigned to the appeals bureau. Ordinarily, Sarah spends her days researching and writing briefs, talking with clients, and brainstorming legal issues with colleagues. Today, however, she opened the mail to find a notice from the court setting a date for her first oral argument. She suffers the first of several anxiety attacks: rapid heart rate, racing thoughts, shortness of breath, sweaty palms, nausea, and feelings of panic and tension. As she reads the form letter, her hands tremble. This is the day she has dreaded. She loves to write and …

Educación Legal En Los Estados Unidos Ii: Educación De Postgrado, Educación Continuada, Y Consideraciones Comparativas, Maria Elena Cobas Cobiella, M C. Mirow

Faculty Publications

This series of two articles describes the most important features of legal education in the United States. Part I, published previously in this journal, discusses law schools and the juris doctor. Part II, published here, discusses graduate legal education, continuing legal education, and some comparative aspects of U.S. legal education in light of the Bologna Plan.

Educación Legal En Los Estados Unidos I: Facultades De Derecho Y El Juris Doctor, Maria Elena Cobas Cobiella, M C. Mirow

Faculty Publications

This series of two articles describes the most important features of legal education in the United States. Part I, found here, discusses law schools and the juris doctor. Part II, published later in the same journal, discusses graduate legal education, continuing legal education, and some comparative aspects of U.S. legal education in light of the Bologna Plan.

The Wire As A Gap-Filling Class On Criminal Law And Procedure, Adam M. Gershowitz

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Law School Training For Licensed 'Legal Technicians'? Implications For The Consumer Market, Elizabeth Chambliss

Faculty Publications

In January 2014, the ABA Task Force on the Future of Legal Education released its report calling, among other things, for limited licensing and the expansion of independent paraprofessional training by law schools. In Washington State, all three law schools are collaborating with community college paralegal programs to design and deliver specialized training for “Limited License Legal Technicians” (LLLTs), who will be licensed to deliver limited family law services beginning in 2015. At least three other states, including California and New York — which together contain nearly twenty-six percent of U.S. lawyers and seventy-six law schools — are actively seeking …

Impact Of Uniform Laws On The Teaching Of Trusts And Estates, David M. English

Faculty Publications

Beginning in 1969 with the approval of the Uniform Probate Code (UPC), uniform laws have had a major impact on the teaching of the basic Trusts and Estates course. This is not the place to list the close to thirty uniform acts relating to Trusts and Estates that have been approved. Rather, this Article will focus on the impact that uniform laws have had on the content of what is taught in the Trusts and Estates course. Uniform laws are not written in a vacuum. Like other legislative enactments, they are the product of societal changes and changes in legal …

From "War On Poverty" To Pro Bono: Access To Justice Remains Elusive For Too Many, Including Our Veterans, Patricia E. Roberts

Faculty Publications

Fifty years ago, President Lyndon B. Johnson launched the War on Poverty. The Legal Services Program of 1965, along with the Legal Services Corporation formed in 1974, considerably increased civil legal aid to America’s poor. Yet today, there is only one legal aid attorney for every 6,415 people living in poverty. Veterans, comprising 4.6%of those living in poverty, often suffer additional obstacles and extensive legal needs, including assistance in obtaining benefits to which they are entitled. While encouraging additional pro bono service among attorneys incrementally increases the availability of legal services to the poor, law school clinics across the country …

Report Of The Aals Committee On Libraries And Technology, Subcommittee On Law Library Reporting Structures, Aals Committee On Libraries And Technology, Subcommittee On Law Library Reporting Structures, Anne Klinefelter, Kay L. Andrus, Joanne A. Epps, Frank Liu, Susan Nevelow-Mart, Spencer Simons

Faculty Publications

The reporting structure for academic law libraries is a topic of renewed debate. Tradition and accreditation standards for law schools have supported law school oversight of law libraries to ensure that library services would focus on the goals of the law school. Because legal research has been considered a bedrock component of legal education and legal practice, law libraries have long been closely aligned with law schools. However, new information technologies, increased pressures for efficiencies, growing interest in interdisciplinary work, and growing interdisciplinary demand for lawyer librarian expertise in information law have inspired questions about potential advantages of strengthening the …

Review Essay: Bilingual Legal Education In The United States: An Idea Whose Time Has Come, S. I. Strong

Faculty Publications

The long-standing and close connection among law, language and the state has traditionally led law schools to provide legal education in a single language. Indeed, bilingual legal education could in some cases be viewed as potentially contrary to state interests, given that "[t]he main instrument of nation-building is the imposition of a common state language. Indeed, bilingual legal education could in some cases be viewed as potentially contrary to state interests, given that "[t]he main instrument of nation-building is the imposition of a common state language."' However, the historical model of monolingual legal education may be in jeopardy. For example, …

The U.S. Supreme Court Fellows Program; The Opportunity Of A Lifetime, S. I. Strong

Faculty Publications

One reason why the Supreme Court Fellowship is one of the best-kept secrets in Washington, D.C., is its size. Unlike the White House Fellows program, which invites 12 people to join its ranks each year, and the Congressional Fellows program, which has over 30 participants annually, the Supreme Court accepts only four extremely talented individuals into its Fellows program each year. Every fall, these fortunate few begin a 12-month journey that offers them an unparalleled opportunity to observe and participate in the work of the federal judiciary at the highest levels.

Toward A Critical Corporate Law Pedagogy And Scholarship, André Ddouglas Pond Cummings, Steven A. Ramirez, Cheryl L. Wade

Faculty Publications

(Excerpt)

In recent years, the publicly held corporation has assumed a central position in both the economic and political spheres of American life. Economically, the public corporation has long acted as the key institution within American capitalism. Politically, the public corporation now can use its economic might to sway electoral outcomes as never before. Indeed, individuals who control public firms wield more economic power and political power today than ever before. These truths profoundly shape American society. The power, control, and role of the public corporation under law and regulation, therefore, hold more importance than ever before.

Even though corporate …