Legal Education Commons^™

The Keystone State Should Forge A New Path To Lawyer Licensure, Ashley M. London, Nachman Gutowski, Sarah J. Garrison, Steven Foster

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Pennsylvania should reject the adoption of the NextGen bar examination and instead develop a new, state-specific pathway to lawyer licensure that better serves the needs of the legal profession and the public. The NextGen exam, designed by the National Conference of Bar Examiners (NCBE), introduces significant challenges, including its lack of transparency, inadequate preparation materials, and reliance on a rigid, memorization-heavy format. These deficiencies hinder equitable access to licensure, disproportionately affecting underrepresented groups and perpetuating systemic barriers within the profession.

Moreover, NextGen's failure to robustly address critical legal areas, such as trusts and estates, jeopardizes the ability of new lawyers …

Ai Bots As Law Teachers: What Is Left For Human Professors To Do?, Harold I. Abramson

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This article considers what bots can do as AI law teachers, how students are already using bots for learning, how to integrate the use of AI into law courses, and what faculty can do to stay ahead of the bots in their classrooms. During this discussion, the article confronts the existential question of what is left for human law professors to do in an AI world. It concludes that there is a future for humans for now, and one that might make us better teachers.

Breaking The Cycle: Rethinking Bar Exam Scoring And Portability For Nextgen Examinees, Steven Foster, Nachman Gutowski

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The development of the NextGen Bar Exam presents a crucial opportunity to address longstanding challenges in both bar exam scoring and portability concerns. The reliance on recent graduates' performance on the Uniform Bar Examination (UBE) as a baseline for setting future standards is flawed due to relative scoring and scaling. In addition to concerns regarding how the future bar exam is scored, there are also concerns regarding how the new scoring metric on the NextGen bar exam will be used for portability and, more specifically, what will happen between 2026 and 2028 as the NextGen bar exam is progressively adopted …

Forging Ahead Or Proceeding With Caution; Developing Policy For Generative Artificial Intelligence In Legal Education, Nachman Gutowski, Jeremy W. Hurley

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Generative Artificial Intelligence is rapidly being integrated into every facet of society, including a growing impact on law schools. It has become abundantly clear that there is a need to develop well-defined governing policies for its use and adoption in legal education. This article offers an introductory analysis of related approaches currently taken in various law schools, exploring the factors influencing these policies and their ethical implication. A comparative review of institutional policies reveals both similarities and unique approaches. Common themes include the need for balance between limited use and outright reliance, as well as the need for transparency and …

Restorative Justice In Legal Education, Lindsey Pointer, Aparna Polavarapu, Alanna Ojibway

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No abstract provided.

Law School Veterans Clinics: Helping Veterans, Training Students, Improving The System, Alexander W. Scherr

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This essay makes the case for law schools to create clinics and externship courses that address the needs of veterans. Veterans legal work offers excellent opportunities to represent individual veterans to obtain the benefits they earned through service to our country. At the same time, veterans clinic work can enlist students in systemic advocacy that changes how institutions address veterans' needs through appellate, administrative, and class action advocacy. Law students who work in veterans clinics develop skills they can readily transfer to other practice areas while working closely with clients and developing their professional identities. Finally, veterans clinics help law …

Values-Ambiguous Clinics, Willow Tracy

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As law school clinical programs have grown in recent decades, many of the newer offerings focus on business law, entrepreneurship, intellectualproperty, and technology. It is commonly presumed that social justice values, such as the amelioration ofpoverty or theprotection offundamental rights, are notfoundational goals of these non-traditional clinics. This Article calls these clinics "values-ambiguous" to highlight the frequent uncertainty and skepticism about their relationship to traditional clinical social justice values. Importantly, "values-ambiguous"does not describe a quality of the clinic itself it describes a quality ofperception of the clinic. In other words, "values-ambiguous clinics" are clinics that are typically not perceived as …

Sharing The Tuna Platter: A Uniform System Of Assessment For Clinical Education, Melina Healey

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Legal education’s current methods for the measurement of student achievement in clinics, and the measurement of a clinic course’s effectiveness, are often unsatisfying, unreliable, and incomplete. This article presents a methodology for uniform and integrated systems of assessment across clinical programs that can provide more reliable evaluation of student progress and achievement, and better feedback to clinical programs on their effectiveness. It also shares how Touro University Jacob D. Fuchsberg Law Center’s Clinical Program applied these strategies with both success and challenges.

Current Higher Education Legal Issues And The Roles Of Legal Leadership On Campus, Louis H. Guard, Joyce P. Jacobsen, Patricia E. Salkin

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No abstract provided.

Restorative Justice And Building Communities Of Radical Belonging In The Law School Classroom, Aparna Polavarapu

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No abstract provided.

Opening Up The In-House: A Model For Collaborative Holistic Services And Education In Law School Clinical Programs, Melina Healey

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Individual in-house clinics too commonly operate autonomously behind separate walls. These barriers impair the meaningful holistic representation of clients and the educational opportunities of clinic students. This article provides an argument and framework for opening the doors between clinics to enrich clinic student education and enhance client representation. Part I identifies the benefits of holistic inter-clinic collaboration for both clinic students and the clients they serve. Part II shares a model for how to integrate education and client service across practice areas of clinical programs. A forthcoming article, published separately, will further describe how clinical programs can be improved by …

Boyd Law School Working To Address Rural Legal Services Provider Shortage In Nevada, Rachel J. Anderson

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No abstract provided.

The Futures Of Law, Lawyers, And Law Schools: A Dialogue, Benjamin H. Barton, Sameer M. Ashar, Michael J. Madison, Rachel F. Moran

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On April 19 and 20, 2023, Professors Bernard Hibbitts and Richard Weisberg convened a conference at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law titled “Disarmed, Distracted, Disconnected, and Distressed: Modern Legal Education and the Unmaking of American Lawyers.” Four speakers concluded the event with a spirited conversation about themes expressed during the proceedings. Distilling a lively two days, they asked: what are the most critical challenges now facing US legal education and, by extension, lawyers and the communities they serve? Their agreements and disagreements were striking, so much so that Professors Hibbitts and Weisberg invited those four to extend their …

The Case For (And Against) Aba Regulation Of Non-J.D. Programs, Benjamin H. Barton

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American law schools have pulled out of what looked like a death spiral. From 2008-18 job placement and bar passage cratered and applications and JD enrolment followed. Some law schools found themselves trapped between Scylla and Charybdis – if they did not loosen admissions, they would not have the funds to keep the doors open. But if they loosened admissions too much bar passage and placement suffered, prompting a possible closure via disaccreditation by the ABA (or the DOE).

There are (broadly speaking) two models of profitable higher education in the United States. The first is the old school, classic …

Aba Standard 303(C) And Divisive Concepts Legislation And Policies: Challenges And Opportunities, Sherley Cruz, Becky L. Jacobs, Karen L. Tokarz, Kendall Kerew, Andrew King-Ries, Carwina Weng

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This article by six clinicians discusses the challenges and opportunities of new ABA Standard 303 (c), including the implications of and interactions between Standard 303(c) and “divisive concepts” laws and other threats to representation, academic freedom, and free speech in legal education. The article also highlights the intersection of Standard 303(c) and Standard 303(b)(3), which addresses professional identity formation; discusses opportunities to adapt current curriculum and teaching and create new curricular responses to meet the new accreditation standards and interpretations; and explores ways to resist increasing limitations and find a supportive academic community to sustain hope and resilience.

Tapping Into The Talent Pipeline While Repairing The Leaky Pipe, Michelle M. Kwon

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Diversity in the legal profession matters. It helps legitimize our legal system, giving everyone confidence that they will be treated fairly. Diverse legal teams make it more likely that the team will understand different perspectives and avoid “group think.” Having diverse groups make, enforce, and interpret laws leads to better outcomes. And yet, the legal profession is one of the least diverse in the country. The vast majority of lawyers are White men even though women constitute half of the population and about 40% of the U.S. population is not White. The percentage of Black lawyers has remained virtually unchanged …

Training Law Students To Model Civility When Social Media Makes Civility Harder To Maintain, Nancy B. Rapoport

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No abstract provided.

What I Talk About When I Talk About Charity Scott, Elizabeth Weeks

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This essay pays tribute to Professor Charity Scott’s transformative impact on health law, legal education, and medical-legal partnerships. Reflecting on personal experience and Scott’s pioneering work, It highlights Scott’s integrity, compassion, and dedication to improving individual and community well-being through law. Scott’s role in establishing the Health Law Partnership (HeLP) and advancing the medical-legal partnership model is situated within the broader evolution of health justice, social determinants of health, and interprofessional collaboration. The essay underscores her legacy as a scholar, mentor, and innovator whose work continues to shape health law and inspire future generations of advocates, educators, and practitioners

Merging The Bench, Bar, And Law Schools: How A Student Scholars Program Achieves Professional Identity Through Scholarly Writing, Mentorship, And Presentation, Joan Foley, Robin Boyle, Troy Kessler

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This Article describes an innovative co-curricular program, the Student Scholars Program, that provides law students with an opportunity to present their scholarly papers before the bench, bar, and law school community. The Program aids law schools in meeting accreditation standards, such as the ABA Standards 302 and 303. Standard 302 requires law schools to achieve specific learning outcomes. Standard 303(b)(3) requires law schools to provide "substantial opportunities" for students to develop a "professional identity." This program aids schools in achieving these standards. Furthermore, this program increases interaction between students and the legal profession by creating episodic mentoring opportunities. Launched in …

Is Now A(Nother) Teachable Moment Honoring The Memory Of Dr. William S. Spriggs, Francine J. Lipman

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No abstract provided.

Nextgen Licensure & Accreditation, Nachman Gutowski

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No abstract provided.

Challenges And Rewards Of Educating First Generation Law Students, Lori D. Johnson

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No abstract provided.

Generative Ai And The Future Of Legal Education, Joseph Regalia

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No abstract provided.

Boyd Law School: Transforming Nevada’S Legal Community For 25 Years, Leah Chan Grinvald

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No abstract provided.

Promoting Technological Competency Through Microlearning And Incentivization, Eliza Boles

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No abstract provided.

Stop The Count; The Historically Discriminatory Nature Of The Bar Exam Requires Adjustments In How Bar Passage Rates Are Reported, If At All, Nachman Gutowski

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Despite its ugly history and persistent disparate impact on racial and minority groups, the Bar Exam is still a required step for (nearly) every jurisdiction in a law school graduate’s quest to become an attorney. Deficiencies abound in the exam’s inability to effectively evaluate the minimum competency of what newly minted attorneys should possess. It is left to the local jurisdiction to collect, analyze, and determine what mode to release and calculate results. There has been a recent shift in focus, and change of scope, in the American Bar Association Ultimate Bar Passage, Standard 316. Nevertheless, the local authorities provide …

Beyond Response: Reimagining The Legal Academy's Role In Disaster Recovery And Preparedness, Latisha Nixon-Jones

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This Article proposes expanding the legal academy's role in responding to disasters and emergencies, specifically through creating disaster clinics that take a community-based lawyering approach. The Article is one of the first to identify the need for community-based disaster legal clinical education that goes beyond the immediate response phase. It also proposes creating a disaster legal pipeline from the clinic through post-graduation employment. The Article furthers the literature's discussion of the need for sustained disaster legal education. As the global pandemic caused by COVID-19 coronavirus continues to impact vulnerable populations and the frequency of natural disasters continues to increase, this …

“The Cruelty Is The Point”: Using Buck V. Bell As A Tool For Diversifying Instruction In The Law School Classroom, Tiffany C. Graham

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Instructors who are looking for opportunities to expose their students to the ways in which intersectional forms of bias impact policy and legal rules can use Buck v. Bell to explore, for instance, the impact of disability and class on the formation of doctrine. A different intersectional approach might use the discussion of the case as a gateway to a broader conversation about the ways in which race and gender bias structured the implementation of sterilization policies around the nation. Finally, those who wish to examine the global impact of American forms of bias can use this case and the …

New York’S Professor John R. Nolon: A National Leader In Land Use Law With A Large Impact Across The Hudson Valley And The State Of New York, Patricia E. Salkin, Samuel Stewart

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As Professor John R. Nolon steps down from active law teaching, this article reflects not only on his contributions as a national thought leader in the field, but also on how he has a hand in changing the land use and conservation patterns in New York while promoting affordable housing and combating discrimination.

Zoning And The Bar Exam, Michael Lewyn

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The National Conference of Bar Examiners (NCBE), which develops American bar examinations, recently released a proposed outline of the subjects to be tested on future examinations. NCBE's property outline omits zoning law. This article argues that the NCBE's proposal is unwise, because zoning law is more frequently litigated than many subjects included in the NCBE outline.