Legal Education Commons^™

Work With Me Here: Collaborative Learning In The Legal Research Classroom, Susan Azyndar

Journal Articles

From the Article

This article seeks to contribute to this pedagogical project by seeking out links between Millennial student needs, legal workplace expectations, and thoughtful pedagogical strategies; it centers on the important legal skill of collaboration.

What Is Criminal Law About?, Guyora Binder, Robert Weisberg

Journal Articles

In a recent critique, Jens Ohlin faults contemporary criminal law textbooks for emphasizing philosophy, history and social science at the expense of doctrinal training. In this response, we argue that the political importance of criminal law justifies including reflection about the justice of punishment in the professional education of lawyers. First, we argue that both understanding and evaluating criminal law doctrine requires consideration of political philosophy, legal history, and empirical research. Second, we argue that the indeterminacy of criminal law doctrine on some fundamental questions means that criminal lawyers often cannot avoid invoking normative theory in fashioning legal arguments. Finally, …

'Truth And Reconciliation': A Critical Step Toward Eliminating Race And Gender Violations In Tenure Wars, Angela Mae Kupenda, Tamara F. Lawson

Journal Articles

In this Article, the co-authors confront one of the next generation issues for underrepresented groups in legal education: what happens after tenure victories, especially for the victors in a war wrought with gender and racial inequities? Even if all is fair in love, war, and tenure battles, it remains most troubling when, even in this century, acts of racial and/or gender aggression are targeted at qualified tenure candidates. These violations of the "tenure rules of engagement" based on implicit or explicit racial or gender bias preserve discriminatory practices that impact underrepresented groups and maintain the status quo in the academy …

Chip Off The Old Block, Jim Rosenblatt

Journal Articles

What a proud moment it is for a father or mother to have a child pursue the same vocation as the parent. There is something affirming about knowing that a child has observed your work, your lifestyle, your colleagues, and your impact on the world, and chooses to follow in your vocational footsteps. A child who claims the lifestyle and work of the parent, after having observed it close at hand for a number of years, sends a positive message to the parents that what they are doing is worthwhile enough to be emulated. One son chose to attend law …

Latcrit Praxis @ Xx: Toward Equal Justice In Law, Education And Society, Tayyab Mahmud, Athena D. Mutua, Francisco Valdes

Journal 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 …

Reaching Backward And Stretching Forward: Teaching For Transfer In Law School Clinics, Shaun Archer, James Parry Eyster, James J. Kelly Jr., Tonya Kowalski, Colleen F. Shanahan

Journal Articles

In thinking about education, teachers may spend more time considering what to teach than how to teach. Unfortunately, traditional teaching techniques have limited effectiveness in their ability to help students retain and apply the knowledge either in later classes or in their professional work. What, then, is the value of our teaching efforts if students are unable to transfer the ideas and skills they have learned to later situations?

Teaching for transfer is important to the authors of this article, four clinical professors and one psychologist. The purpose of this article is to provide an introduction to some of the …

Reflections On Presumed Incompetent: The Intersections Of Race And Class For Women In Academia Symposium--The Plenary Panel, Maritza I. Reyes, Angela Mae Kupenda, Angela Onwuachi-Willig, Stephanie M. Wildman, Adrien K. Wing

Journal Articles

Presumed Incompetent was produced thanks to the vision and commitment of its editors: Dr. Gabriella Gutiérrez y Muhs, Dr. Yolanda Flores Niemann, Carmen G. González, and Angela P. Harris. This symposium came to fruition because the Berkeley Journal of Gender, Law & Justice invited the two law professor editors, Professor Harris and Professor González, to convene a distinguished group of scholars from Canada and the United States to expand and deepen the conversation initiated by the book. The very successful day-long symposium and the publication of the resulting articles were made possible by the resources, time, and dedication provided by …

On The Receiving End Of Influence: Helping Craft The Scholarship Of My Students And How Their Work Influences Me, Angela Mae Kupenda

Journal Articles

My essay is divided into two parts. In part one I share about the struggle I had to endure to even allow myself the opportunity to be influenced by my students. Institutional struggles and professorial expectations as to how the academy should operate were hurdles I had to clear. Also, I had personal hurdles of making the commitment that I did for over five years. In part two, I primarily focus on some of my law students’ scholarship over the past five years and reflect on the life changing influence they have had on me. Their work and dedication have …

Tax Recognition, Barry Cushman

Journal Articles

This article was prepared for the St. Louis University Law Journal’s “Teaching Trusts & Estates” issue. Many law students take a course in Trusts & Estates, but comparatively few enroll in a class devoted to the federal wealth transfer taxes. For most law students, the Trusts & Estates course provides the only opportunity for exposure to some of the basic features of the estate tax, the gift tax, the generation-skipping transfer tax, and some related features of the income tax. The coverage demands of the typical Trusts & Estates course do not allow for intensive discussion of these issues, but …

Legal Education In Crisis, And Why Law Libraries Are Doomed, James G. Milles

Journal Articles

The dual crises facing legal education - the economic crisis affecting both the job market and the pool of law school applicants, and the crisis of confidence in the ability of law schools and the ABA accreditation process to meet the needs of lawyers or society at large - have undermined the case for not only the autonomy, but the very existence, of law school libraries as we have known them. Legal education in the United States is about to undergo a long-term contraction, and law libraries will be among the first to go. A few law schools may abandon …

Retaining Color, Veronica Root

Journal Articles

It is no secret that large law firms are struggling in their efforts to retain attorneys of color. This is despite two decades of aggressive tracking of demographic rates, mandates from clients to improve demographic diversity, and the implementation of a variety of diversity efforts within large law firms. In part, law firm retention efforts are stymied by the reality that elite large law firms require some level of attrition to function properly under the predominant business model. This reality, however, does not explain why firms have more difficulty retaining attorneys of color — in particular black and Hispanic attorneys …

Time: An Empirical Analysis Of Law Student Time Management Deficiencies, Christine P. Bartholomew

Journal Articles

This Article begins the much needed research on law students’ time famine. Time management complaints begin early in students’ legal education and generally go unresolved. As a result, practicing attorneys identify time famine as a leading cause of job dissatisfaction. To better arm graduating students, law schools must treat time as an essential component of practice-readiness. Unfortunately, most law schools ignore their students’ time management concerns, despite growing calls for greater “skills” training in legal education.

To date, legal scholarship has overlooked psychological research on time management. Yet, this research is an essential starting point to effective instruction. Rather than …

Law Clinics And Lobbying Restrictions, Marcy L. Karin, Kevin Barry

Journal Articles

“Can law school clinics lobby?” This question has plagued professors for decades but has gone unanswered, until now. This Article situates law school clinics within the labyrinthine law of lobbying restrictions and concludes that clinics may indeed lobby. For ethical, pedagogical, and, ultimately, practical reasons, it is critical that professors who teach in clinics understand these restrictions. This Article offers advice to professors and students on safely navigating this complicated terrain.

Towards Engaged Scholarship, John R. Nolon, Michelle Bryan Mudd, Michael Burger, Kim Diana Connolly, Nestor Davidson, Matthew Festa, Jill I. Gross, Lisa Heinzerling, Keith H. Hirokawa, Tim Iglesias, Patrick C. Mcginley, Sean Nolon, Uma Outka, Jessica Owley, Kalyani Robbins, Jonathan Rosenbloom, Christopher Serkin

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No abstract provided.

Piety And Profession: Simon Greenleaf And The Case Of The Stillborn Bowdoin Law School, 1850–1861, Alfred S. Konefsky

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In 1850, Bowdoin College turned to former Harvard professor Simon Greenleaf when it sought to establish a law school. Although the school did not materialize, Greenleaf wrote a remarkable report that reveals anxieties about the profession, competing visions of legal education, and controversies over the meaning of the science of law in antebellum New England.

Law Schools Under Siege: The Challenge To Enhance Knowledge, Creativity, And Skill Training, Robert I. Reis

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No abstract provided.

Encountering Attica: Documentary Filmmaking As Pedagogical Tool, Teresa A. Miller

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No abstract provided.

When Things Go Wrong In The Clinic: How To Prevent And Respond To Serious Student Misconduct, Robert L. Jones Jr., Gerard F. Glynn, John J. Francis

Journal Articles

This article documents the types of misconduct that students commit, explores why serious misconduct occurs, examines whether such conduct can be anticipated and reduced by prescreening and monitoring potentially problematic students, and suggests how misconduct might be addressed once it occurs. The authors' analysis thus encompasses both legal obligations and pedagogical considerations, and it takes account of the differing perspectives of clinical professors, law school administrators, and bar examiners. The authors operate from a "student centered" perspective that emphasizes the support and development of law students. This article is prescriptive, therefore, in the extent to which it emphasizes preventive actions …

Toward Integrated Law Clinics That Train Social Justice Advocates, Marcy L. Karin, Robin R. Runge

Journal Articles

The integrated approach to clinical legal education enables law students to explore and to utilize more than one legal advocacy strategy simultaneously to achieve social change. This framework facilitates law students’ ability to develop a range of essential lawyering skills including reflecting upon the connection between law and social justice by addressing the broader social problems impacting our communities. The integrated approach has been accepted as an effective clinic structure, and is being successfully developed and applied in a range of ways that are best suited to specific legal issues and geographic regions. In this article the authors, who are …

Negotiating Social Mobility And Critical Citizenship: Institutions At A Crossroads, Michelle D. Deardorff, Angela Mae Kupenda

Journal Articles

A Black law professor who teaches at a predominantly White law school and a White public law professor who teaches at a historically Black university in the same southern, urban community are co-authors of this Article. Here, in this piece, we explore the tension between the goals of our institutions and many other institutions to improve the socioeconomic status of our students with our personal goals of preparing students to challenge societal injustice and to be critical citizens who are willing to challenge a government that engages in abusive actions or is exploitative of its citizenry.

Academic War Strategies For Nonviolent Armies Of One, Angela Mae Kupenda

Journal Articles

To engage the legal system in necessary critical action, critical actors are required. The law cannot be uprooted, re-sowed, and re-cultivated, unless future legal professionals engage in such action. And for future legal professionals to engage in such action, generally, they must first be engaged in critical thought during their legal educations. Moreover, for such thought to occur, the legal academy must include a diverse group of voices, minds, and experiences to engage with those seeking such a critical education. These critical voices may be in short supply in the academy for multiple reasons. One specific reason, though, is that …

The Tenure Of A Law School Dean: It's Not How Long You Make It - It's How You Make It Long, Jim Rosenblatt

Journal Articles

In May 2003, I attended the New Deans Course in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. This event took place several months before I assumed my responsibilities as the Dean of Mississippi College School of Law in Jackson, Mississippi (“MC Law”). Although some “repeat deans” attended this course, the great majority were serving as deans for the first time. A topic of discussion amongst those deans was the question of how long they planned to serve. Even at this early juncture, some knew that in the not too distant future they would be returning to the faculty to resume teaching. Others took the …

Distributed Graduate Seminars: An Interdisciplinary Approach To Studying Land Conservation, Jessica Owley, Adena R. Rissman

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No abstract provided.

American Legal Theory And American Legal Education: A Snake Swallowing Its Tail?, John Henry Schlegel

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No abstract provided.

Teaching Public Citizen Lawyering: From Aspiration To Inspiration, Mae Quinn

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A longtime social justice activist and clinical professor, Douglas Colbert,2 recently sought information from colleagues across the country3 for the second part of an important project examining a lawyer’s ethical obligation to engage in pro bono work during a time of crisis, such as the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina or 9/11.4 He sent out surveys to learn which schools actually taught the Preamble to the ABA Model Rules of Professional Conduct in ethics or other courses.5 As Professor Colbert’s letter explained, the Preamble states: “A lawyer, as a member of the legal profession, is a representative of clients, an officer …

Normalizing Trepidation And Anxiety, Christine P. Bartholomew, Johanna Oreskovic

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No abstract provided.

The Status Of Part-Time Evening Programs?: Transcript Of Proceedings, Katherine S, Broderick

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No abstract provided.

Finding Power, Fighting Power (Or The Perpetual Motion Machine), Mae Quinn

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No abstract provided.

The Nation's Urban Land Grant Law School: Ensuring Justice In The 21st Century, Katherine S. Broderick

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FOR ten years I have had the honor and the privilege to serve as dean of the University of the District of Columbia David A. Clarke School of Law (UDC-DCSL), a diverse and progressive law school bent on training advocates for justice. I was delighted to accept when Dean Douglas Ray of the University of Toledo College of Law invited me to write about our unique mission and curriculum and our extraordinary cadre of social justice-driven faculty, staff, and administrators who have stayed the course through a stormy history to deliver a very different law school experience to a very …

Profiling Minority Law Librarians: An Update, Dwight B. King, Rhea Ballard-Thrower, Grace M. Mills

Journal Articles

This is a 2007 update of a survey of minority law librarians first conducted in 1992. It offers a recent profile of our minority colleagues, enabling one to see how things have changed - or remained the same - over the course of fifteen years.