Legal Education Commons^™

What Judges Want And Need: User-Friendly Foundations For Effective Judicial Education, Duane Benton, Jennifer A.L. Sheldon-Sherman

Journal of Dispute Resolution

This article evaluates the connection between judicial education and judges’ needs and preferences. In Part I, we begin by discussing the history, purpose, and form of judicial education, charting its evolution over time. In Part II, we examine current judicial education programs and scholarship, highlighting differences and similarities between federal and state programming. In Part III, we analyze the limitations of existing scholarship and programming, arguing judicial education programs are insufficiently tied to evidence of judicial demands. We conclude in Parts IV and V by suggesting two proposals to align programming with needs: (1) an annual needs-based assessment of judicial …

Making Sausage: What, Why And How To Teach About Legislative Process In A Legislation Or Leg-Reg Course, Deborah A. Widiss

Articles by Maurer Faculty

Although a rapidly growing number of law schools require students to take a course on legislation, many of these courses teach very little about how laws are actually enacted. This essay, written for a special issue of the Journal of Legal Education, argues that study of the legislative process helps students interpret and apply statutory language.

The essay surveys existing text books and supplemental resources that could be easily integrated into a Leg-Reg or Legislation class to explain modern Congressional procedure. The focus is the multiple distinct paths that bills may take through a legislative body and the written …

Foreword: Reflections On Our Founding, Luis Fuentes-Rohwer, Guy-Uriel Charles

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

Redefining Attention (And Revamping The Legal Profession?) For The Digital Generation, Lauren A. Newell

Scholarly Works

No abstract provided.

Crisis And Trigger Warnings: Reflections On Legal Education And The Social Value Of The Law, 90 Chi.-Kent L. Rev. 615 (2015), Kim D. Chanbonpin

UIC Law Open Access Faculty Scholarship

This Essay begins by understanding the law school crisis through the framework of disaster capitalism. This framing uncovers the ways in which reformers are taking advantage of the current crisis to restructure legal education. Under the circumstances, faculty may reasonably read the contemporaneous student-led movement to require trigger warnings in the classroom as an assault on academic freedom. This reading, however, clouds the water. Part II attempts to clear the confusion by decoupling the trigger-warning movement from the broader phenomenon of law school corporatization. Trigger-warning demands might alternatively be read as a student critique of traditional law school pedagogy. Especially …

No Lawyer For A Hundred Miles? Mapping The New Geography Of Access Of Justice In Canada, Jamie Baxter, Albert Yoon

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

Abstract

Recent concerns about the geography of access to justice in Canada have focused on the dwindling number of lawyers in rural and remote areas, raising anxieties about the profession’s inability to meet current and future demands for localized legal services. These concerns have motivated a range of policy responses that aim to improve the education, training, recruitment and retention of practitioners in underserved areas. We surveyed lawyers across Ontario to better understand their physical proximity to clients and how, if at all, that proximity promotes access to justice. We find that lawyers’ scope of practice varies based on a …

Judicial Education And Regulatory Capture: Does The Current System Of Educating Judges Promote A Well-Functioning Judiciary And Adequately Serve The Public Interest?, S. I. Strong

Faculty Articles

This phenomenon suggests a pressing need for further scrutiny into matters relating to the education of judges in this country. This Essay therefore considers of a number of fundamental issues relating to judicial education in the United States so as to consider, at least as a preliminary matter, whether regulatory capture exists. Given the scope of this Essay, some issues are necessarily excluded. Nevertheless, this Essay hopes to trigger a deeper debate about judicial education in this country.

The structure of the analysis is as follows. First, the Essay considers certain obstacles to research concerning judicial education as a means …

The Influence Of Juridical Cant On Edificatory Approaches In 21st-Century America, David Pozen

Faculty Scholarship

This essay reframes the debate over the "growing disjunction" between legal scholarship and legal practice. Law review articles continue to make the world a better place, the essay stipulates. But are judicial opinions becoming less useful to students and scholars? A rigorous analysis and concrete prescriptions follow.

Law Libraries And Laboratories: The Legacies Of Langdell And His Metaphor, Richard A. Danner

Faculty Scholarship

Law Librarians and others have often referred to Harvard Law School Dean C.C. Langdell’s statements that the law library is the lawyer’s laboratory. Professor Danner examines the context of what Langdell through his other writings, the educational environment at Harvard in the late nineteenth century, and the changing perceptions of university libraries generally. He then considers how the “laboratory metaphor” has been applied by librarians and legal scholars during the twentieth century and into the twenty-first. The article closes with thoughts on Langdell’s legacy for law librarians and the usefulness of the laboratory metaphor.

Library Director As Change Agent: Analysis Two, Implementing Change In Difficult Times, Femi Cadmus

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

How Teaching About Therapeutic Jurisprudence Can Be A Tool Of Social Justice, And Lead Law Students To Personally And Socially Rewarding Careers: Sexuality And Disability As A Case Example, Michael L. Perlin, Alison Lynch

Articles & Chapters

Therapeutic jurisprudence (TJ) asks us to look at law as it actually impacts people’s lives and focuses on the law’s influence on emotional life and psychological well-being. It suggests that law should value psychological health, should strive to avoid imposing anti-therapeutic consequences whenever possible, and — when consistent with other values served by law — should attempt to bring about healing and wellness. The ultimate aim of TJ is to determine whether legal rules and procedures or lawyer roles can or should be reshaped to enhance their therapeutic potential while not subordinating due process principles. An inquiry into therapeutic outcomes …

Tilting At Stratification: Against A Divide In Legal Education, Rebecca Roiphe

Articles & Chapters

Critics suggest we divide law schools into an elite tier whose graduates serve global business clients and a lower tier, which would prepare lawyers for simple disputes. This idea is not new. A similar proposal emerged in the early twentieth century. This article draws on the historical debate to argue that this simplistic approach cannot solve the myriad problems facing the legal profession and legal education. Supporters of separate tiers of law school rely on a caricature of the early history to argue that the Bar is acting in a protectionist way to ensure its own monopoly and keep newcomers …

Leaping Language And Cultural Barriers With Visual Legal Rhetoric, Michael D. Murray

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

This Article discusses the scholarship of popular culture, cognitive studies and brain science, data visualization studies, modern argument theory in rhetoric, the rapid development of technology in the production of documents, and technology in the reading and reception of documents, which all point to one outcome: the tools of legal education and law practice must become more visual by following principles of visual legal rhetoric and visual narrativity. Visual has become the "new normal" in communication, and legal rhetorical communication in law school and law practice must not let itself fall behind the times.

This Is Your Brain On Law School: The Impact Of Fear-Based Narratives On Law Students, Abigail A. Patthoff

Utah Law Review

Law students regularly top the charts as among the most dissatisfied, demoralized, and depressed of graduate-student populations. As their teachers, we cannot ignore the palpable presence of this stress in our classrooms—unchecked, it stifles learning, encourages counterproductive behavior, and promotes illness.

By more thoughtfully using cautionary tales, we can actively manage one source of law student anxiety. Although reining in cautionary tales will certainly not be a panacea to law student distress, elimination of all law student anxiety is neither a realistic nor a desirable goal. Fear-based stress, in moderation, can compel students to overcome challenges they never thought possible; …

Scholarship Against Desire, Shari Motro

Law Faculty Publications

This article uses my own experience navigating the law review placement process to reflect on the dynamics that shape intellectual life at American law schools. My recent work focuses on the legal relationship between unmarried lovers who conceive. At its heart, it is about the law’s role in shaping the precursor to pregnancy—heterosexual sex. When I began researching this topic what I was most curious about was how law and culture might conspire to foster connections that are more loving and less violent, more authentic and less alienated. Pursuing this topic—which would entail exploring big existential questions to which I …

Law, Universities, And The Challenge Of Moving A Graveyard, Wendy Collins Perdue

Law Faculty Publications

Against this dark narrative genre, Carel Stolker‘s new book, Rethinking the Law School, stands in sharp contrast. Having been both a law school dean and university president at Leiden University in The Netherlands, Stolker brings the perspective of a dean who has sought to innovate, and of a university president who has dealt with the political, academic, financial, and managerial complications of a modern university. The book offers a broad look at legal education around the world, along with a thoughtful exposition of the challenges facing law schools and law deans. Stolker is no cheerleader for the current state of …

Teaching To The Test: The Incorporation Of Elements Of The Bar Exam Preparation In Legal Education, Emmeline Paulette Reeves

Law Faculty Publications

This essay stops far short of advocating for a three-year bar exam course in place of a traditional law school education. It does not even argue for dedicating the final semester of law school to bar exam preparation. Rather, it suggests that the incorporation of elements of bar preparation into the law school curriculum actually can accomplish the dual objectives of, first, making law school education more efficient, and, second, enhancing the students' educational experience and grasp of the legal principles and skills necessary for passing the bar and, ultimately, becoming better lawyers.

Specifically, this essay urges law schools and …

Alternative Spring Break 2015 Report, Roger Williams University School Of Law, Association For Public Interest Law

School of Law Conferences, Lectures & Events

No abstract provided.

Rwu Law: The Magazine Of Roger Williams University School Of Law (Issue No. 8) (2015), Roger Williams University School Of Law

RWU Law

No abstract provided.

From Access To Success: Affirmative Action Outcomes In A Class-Based System, Matthew N. Gaertner, Melissa Hart

Publications

Scholarly discussion about affirmative action policy has been dominated in the past ten years by debates over "mismatch theory'"--the claim that race-conscious affirmative action harms those it is intended to help by placing students who receive preferences among academically superior peers in environments where they will be overmatched and unable to compete. Despite serious empirical and theoretical challenges to this claim in academic circles, mismatch has become widely accepted outside those circles, so much so that the theory played prominently in Justice Clarence Thomas's concurring opinion in Fisher v. University of Texas. This Article explores whether mismatch occurs in …

The Zombie Lawyer Apocalypse, Peter H. Huang, Corie Rosen Felder

Publications

This Article uses a popular cultural framework to address the near-epidemic levels of depression, decision-making errors, and professional dissatisfaction that studies have documented are prevalent among law students and lawyers today.

Zombies present an apt metaphor for understanding and contextualizing the ills now common in the American legal and legal education systems. To explore that metaphor and its import, this Article will first establish the contours of the zombie literature and will apply that literature to the existing state of legal education and legal practice, ultimately describing a state that we believe can only be termed "the Zombie Lawyer Apocalypse." …

The More Things Change . . . : Exploring Solutions To Persisting Discrimination In Legal Academia, Melissa Hart

Publications

No abstract provided.

Libraries And Legal Education, Jonathan Franklin

Librarians' Chapters in Books

Academic law libraries are in the midst of radical change, probably more so than at any time in the past 100 years. Two factors are converging that make business as usual no longer viable for academic law libraries: transition of legal resources from print to digital formats and economic changes in legal education.

Best Practices for Legal Education did not address the role of law libraries in the delivery of legal education. The changes facing law schools suggest now is the time to articulate how libraries can best contribute to the endeavor. How can best practices for law libraries be …

Cross-Boarder Teaching And Collaboration, Kimberly D. Ambrose, William H.D. Fernholz, Catherine F. Klein, Dana Raigrodski, Stephen A. Rosenbaum, Leah Wortham

Chapters in Books

Since the publication of Best Practices for Legal Education, the globalization of both legal education and law practice has exploded. Today’s lawyers increasingly serve border-crossing clients or clients who present with transnational legal issues. As law schools expand their international programs, and enroll increasing numbers of non-U.S. law students, law students transcend cultural and legal borders. As a result, they deepen their understanding of—and sharpen their critical perspective on—their own national systems. Similarly, U.S. law teachers are increasingly called to engage in border-crossing teaching and other academic pursuits. Best Practices did not address these issues. The primary aim of …

Business And Financial Literacy, Dwight Drake

Chapters in Books

Law practice continues to become more complex and demand a broader range of specialized knowledge. Business and financial literacy skills, once viewed as only important in business school or for law students who intend to become lawyers representing business owners or entities, are being viewed differently by legal educators who desire to ensure that law students are prepared for practice.

The world is driven by business, and core business and financial issues routinely surface in various types of legal disputes, transactions, and planning challenges. At a minimum, knowledge of basic business and financial concepts will help a lawyer deal with …

Transfer Of Learning, Deborah Maranville

Chapters in Books

A key characteristic of effective education is that students are able to retain and build on the information, skills, and values they learn in their work in later courses and in the world. Doing so is known as transfer of learning. Ultimately, for law students that means they are able to transfer what they learn into the work they do as professionals. Best Practices for Legal Education did not delve deeply into the educational literature on transfer of learning.

Underlying its preparation for practice theme, however, was an implicit recognition that both individual law teachers and law schools as institutions …

Pathways, Integration, And Sequencing The Curriculum, Deborah Maranville, Cynthia Batt

Chapters in Books

Law school course offerings have proliferated in recent decades. This development reflects the addition of specialized doctrinal courses, a growing emphasis on interdisciplinary knowledge, and the incorporation of practice-oriented courses. From the perspective of the individual student, an expanded curriculum may create exciting educational opportunities while posing trade-offs between a generalist education and specialization.

Law schools face two key challenges. First, they must structure the curriculum so that the experiences of individual law students have some coherence, or, if you will, seem integrated. Second they must incorporate the full range of what the Carnegie Reports referred to as the apprenticeships …

Incorporating Experiential Education Throughout The Curriculum, Deborah Maranville, Cynthia Batt, Lisa Radtke Bliss, Carolyn Wilkes Kaas

Chapters in Books

In discussing experiential education, Best Practices for Legal Education focused primarily on the three traditional types of separate experiential courses: in-house clinics, externships, and simulations, and treated them in a separate chapter. These courses were defined as those where “experience is a significant or primary method of instruction” rather than a secondary method, and where “students must perform complex skills in order to gain expertise.”

Arguably, this separate treatment reinforced what has too often been a divide between doctrinally-focused teaching and practice-focused teaching. Best Practices recognized that “experiential education can be employed as an adjunct to traditional methodologies regardless of …

Faculty Status And Institutional Effectiveness, Deborah Maranville, Ruth Anne Robbins, Kristen K. Tiscione

Chapters in Books

Legal education has expanded to incorporate practice-oriented topics and courses over the past several decades, and student academic support services have multiplied in response to changing student populations. As a consequence of these changes, law schools are overdue to address the issue of the status of the individuals they hire to fill the multiple and ever expanding needs and interests of students.

Should law schools hire new personnel as teachers, staff, or administrators? If hired as teachers, what titles and governance rights should they be given? Should they be eligible for tenure, presumptively renewable long-term contracts, or short-term contracts? What …

Ensuring Effective Education In Alternative Clinical Models, Deborah Maranville

Chapters in Books

Best Practices for Legal Education organized its discussion of experiential courses around the “simulation-based courses, in-house clinics, and externships” typology without specifically defining what structures fall within each category or discussing the variations. The discussion of in-house clinics focused on fundamental principles for effective teaching and supervision and the need for appropriate facilities and office support. It only implicitly addressed the range of issues presented by alternative structures for clinics and did not address alternative externship structures or variations that combine features of both.