Legal Education Commons^™

Resigning As Dean: Stepping Down Or Stepping Up?, David E. Shipley

Scholarly Works

I am sure that I will enjoy being a regular law professor again, but there are some aspects of being Dean that I will miss. There are also some parts of the job I am happy to leave to my successor. Let me start with the things I am happy are no longer my responsibility.

Anticipatory Repudiation Of Letters Of Credit, Keith A. Rowley

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Letters of credit play a vital role in financing international transactions, and are becoming increasingly popular domestically as substitutes for more traditional secured financing. As such, they deserve substantially more scholarly attention than they receive outside of specialized treatises and banking trade publications. Moreover, as unilateral promises by issuers of the letters of credit to pay money to their beneficiaries, the fact that Article 5 of the Uniform Commercial Code and pre-UCC common law recognize the right of a beneficiary to sue for anticipatory repudiation is at odds with the prevailing rule in this country that a promisee cannot sue …

Forgetfulness, Fuzziness, Functionality, Fairness And Freedom, In Dispute Resolution, Jeffrey W. Stempel

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Professor Subrin is a self-professed traditionalist who has been one of the most forceful defenders of what I might term neo-traditional “Clarkian” litigation. By that, I mean the model of civil disputing in which litigation is a primary vehicle. More important, the litigation is based on notice pleading, broad discovery, and a preference for adjudication on the merits.

Key Subrin works over the years have focused on the historical path of the Clarkian model, which served to fuel much of the law revolution of the mid-Twentieth Century, to the “new era” of civil procedure and dispute resolution that dominated the …

Teaching Government Law & Policy In Law School: Reflections On Twenty-Five Years Of Experience, Patricia E. Salkin

Scholarly Works

No abstract provided.

Further Thoughts On Better Writing, Terrill Pollman

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As writing teachers, we frequently witness the mystery of how writing and re-writing clarifies thinking. We teach our students to let the writing process show them the gaps in their reasoning. As student edit, they learn that paring away the superfluous allows us to see the line and structure of the argument. When a section or sentence “won’t write,” it is often because we are trying to ignore a flaw in our understanding. Form is related to content. The attempt to simplify out message teaches us what is it we have to say.

Generation X In Law School: The Dying Of The Light Or The Dawn Of A New Day, Tracy L. Mcgaugh

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No abstract provided.

"Venn" And The Art Of Shared Governance, Nancy B. Rapoport

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This article discusses the concept of shared governance in the context of a law school that is part of a university. It argues that the governance of a law school is a shared process between the dean/administration and the faculty. It explains why law schools can't be run the way that businesses are run, and it tries to explain governance in terms of jurisdiction.

Introduction: Favorite Insurance Cases Symposium, Jeffrey W. Stempel

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Insurance law scholars and teachers sometimes feel, with a mixture of paranoia and justification, that insurance law simply does not receive its proper respect in the hierarchy of legal education and law generally.

Consider the law school curriculum. In none of America’s nearly 200 ABA-approved law schools in insurance law a required course. Nor is it considered a course that, although not required, prudent students “must” be sure to take before they graduate (e.g. Evidence, Corporations). Enrollments may be respectable but the class is seldom oversubscribed, even where the law school is located in an insurance hub city. Although other …

Biting Off What They Can Chew: Strategies For Involving Law Students In Problem-Solving Beyond Individual Client Representation, Katherine R. Kruse

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Problem-solving is most often taught in the context of representing individual clients in small manageable cases where students retain primary control and develop a sense of ownership. Increasingly, law school clinical programs are involving students in broader service projects designed to meet the needs of clients that go unaddressed by the legal system. Student involvement in these projects presents challenges for the traditional model of problem-solving taught in individual case representation. This article explores the challenges of translating the problem-solving techniques employed in direct representation of individual clients into the larger context of problem-solving for a client community by examining …

Building A Tower Of Babel Or Building A Discipline? Talking About Legal Writing, Terrill Pollman

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High-quality writing is one of the crafts most necessary to a successful career in law. Mature legal professionals, lawyers, judges, and law professors write every day. Often, they write cooperatively--editing and redrafting a shared document. Nevertheless, those trained in the law may lack a common language that enables them to talk with each other about writing. Like the workers building the tower in the biblical story of Babel, legal professionals sometimes find themselves unable to communicate about their work.

Unlike most subjects in the legal academy, legal writing has emerged as an area of serious study in law schools only …

Why I Teach, Suzanne Darrow Kleinhaus

Scholarly Works

No abstract provided.

Law School Externships: Building Another Bridge Over Troubled Waters, Martin A. Geer

Scholarly Works

A commitment to an excellent externship program in which students are intensely engaged in learning lawyering skills, values, responsibilities, and how the law and legal systems affect communities, families, and individuals, further advances William S. Boyd School of Law’s goals. It is another bridge over gaps between legal education, the profession, and the community. This article discusses the externship program at William S. Boyd School of Law.

Do Best Practices In Legal Education Include Emphasis On Compositional Modes Of Studying Law As A Liberal Art?, Linda L. Berger

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Reporter's Notes on "A Liberal Education in Law: Engaging the Legal Imagination through Research and Writing Beyond the Curriculum."

In Memoriam: Yale Rosenberg, Nancy B. Rapoport

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In memory of Yale Rosenberg, much-appreciated colleague at the University of Houston Law Center.

Is "Thinking Like A Lawyer" Really What We Want To Teach?, Nancy B. Rapoport

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This article argues that the phrase thinking like a lawyer assumes that other professions don't have their own ways of approaching problems and that law schools only need to teach how lawyers think, rather than how lawyers do what they do. It suggests that law schools should do much more than just teach law students how to think.

The William S. Boyd School Of Law Juvenile Justice Clinic, Mary E. Berkheiser

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This article reviews the work of the Juvenile Justice Clinic at the William S. Boyd School of Law.

Legal Education Reform: Modest Suggestions, Alan Watson

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No approach to legal education will be perfect, given that (in my opinion) a law school should serve various purposes. But I should like to offer a few modest and practical suggestions. They are modest in that they do not require additional time for law studies. They are practical in that they will increase the exposure of students both to law as practice and to law as an intellectual discipline. In addition they involve no greater burden on law schools.

First, and this should not be controversial -- but I fear will be the most controversial -- would be the …

The Cult Of Hostile Gender Climate: A Male Voice Preaches Diversity To The Choir, Dan Subotnik

Scholarly Works

No abstract provided.

The Lawyering Process Program: Building Competence And Confidence, Terrill Pollman, Jennifer B. Anderson

Scholarly Works

In this article, the authors describe the Lawyering Process Program at the William S. Boyd School of Law. Like their colleagues at law schools across the country, students at the Boyd School of Law spend the early part of their law school careers learning the basics of legal research and writing. Unlike many of their fellow IL's, however, Boyd students also learn other important concepts and skills. The Lawyering Process Program at Boyd is a unique, three-semester class that includes significant instruction and experience in four areas: (1) legal writing and analysis; (2) legal research; (3) lawyering skills; and (4) …

A Brief History Of Anticipatory Repudiation In American Contract Law, Keith A. Rowley

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This article traces the evolution of the doctrine of anticipatory repudiation from its foundations laid years before the landmark case of Hochster v. De la Tour, 118 Eng. Rep. 922 (Q.B. 1853), through Hochster, its growing acceptance by American courts in the late-1800s and early-1900s, its canonization in the first Restatement of Contracts (despite the Restatement's principal Reporter's personal objections to the doctrine), its codification in the Uniform Commercial Code, its standardization in the Restatement (Second) of Contracts, and its inclusion in the U.N. Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods. This article devotes considerable attention not only …

A Plea For Rationality And Decency: The Disparate Treatment Of Legal Writing Faculties As A Violation Of Both Equal Protection And Professional Ethics, Peter Brandon Bayer

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This article builds on the work of others by demonstrating that as a matter of academic ethics, informed by cardinal legal standards of decency, the disparate treatment and adverse terms and conditions imposed on writing professors are not simply unfair but defy the ethical aspirations of American law schools. Specifically, as the construct for analysis, this article establishes and utilizes the proposition that the discordant status of legal writing professors fails to satisfy minimal professional ethics. As a model, this article shows that it is not even minimally rational under the Equal Protection Clause of the United States Constitution, our …

Incorporating Bar Pass Strategies Into Routine Teaching Practices, Suzanne Darrow-Kleinhaus

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No abstract provided.

Linguistic Issues: Is Plain English The Answer To The Needs Of The Jurors?, Leon D. Lazer

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No abstract provided.

When Local Is Global: Using A Consortium Of Law Schools To Encourage Global Thinking, Nancy B. Rapoport

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Dean Rapoport will discuss students and faculty consortia focusing on the North American Consortium on Legal Education (NACLE), which, among other things, promotes student and faculty exchanges between and among three law schools in the U.S., three in Canada, and three in Mexico.

Of Cat-Herders, Conductors, Fearless Leaders, And Tour Guides, Nancy B. Rapoport

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This article discusses four distinct approaches to the role of the dean and the pros and cons of each approach.

The Personal Side Of A Deanship, David E. Shipley

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So why have I been deaning for over 10 years? I do, in fact, enjoy most aspects of the job including the many challenges, the fact that there is nothing routine about the work, and the many public aspects of the position such as receptions, bar meetings, tailgate parties, law review banquets, and bar luncheons. I enjoy students. We would not have these wonderful jobs in law teaching without them. I like faculty and still think of myself as a law professor first. It is fun to do alumni relations and developmental work, and I would love to have more …

Riddikulus!: Tenure-Track Legal Writing Faculty And The Boggart In The Wardrobe, Mary Beth Beazley

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Professor Beazley compares myths to boggarts in this examination of the reasons schools cite when explaining their lack of tenure-track positions for legal writing faculty. These boggarts are the living myths that pop out and whisper in faculty ears whenever someone suggests that law schools should create tenure-track - or even permanent - faculty positions in legal writing. Although some faculties have defeated these boggarts, they are still out there, popping out not from under the bed or from behind the closet door, but at lunch in the faculty lounge, after the committee meeting, and during the conversation in the …

Alwd Citation Manual: A Professional System Of Citation, Terrill Pollman, Leah A. Kane

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The Association of Legal Writing Directors (ALWD) has written a new citation manual that is easy to teach from and easy to use.

Although the ALWD Manual provides a very different teaching and learning experience, practitioners should experience few difficulties adjusting to the new manual.

Foreword: The Many Passions Of Teaching Corporations, Charles R.T. O'Kelley

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This Symposium belies such skeptical views of the Corporations course and those of us who teach it. The 1999 Teaching Corporate Law Conference was organized around teachers' self-identified passions in teaching Corporations--the themes, insights, skills or puzzles about which they are most intrigued or enthused. Thirty-seven professors made presentations at the Conference; twenty-eight have converted their presentations into the essays in this Symposium edition, which have been grouped substantively rather than in the exact order presented at the Conference.

Delaware Corporation Law And Transaction Cost Engineering, Charles R.T. O'Kelley

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I have a passionate belief that a very good way to teach Corporations is to structure the course around a core goal--to teach Delaware corporate law systematically--not just bits and pieces of it, but the entire system, much the way we approach the teaching of constitutional law. This Essay is an elaboration of my reasoning and strategies, organized as a presentation and discussion of the core rationales for organizing the course in this way. The first justification flows axiomatically from the following proposition: we create value for many of our students, and harm none, by giving them an opportunity to …