Legal Education Commons^™

Introducing Law Students To Transactional Practice: From Using Precedent To Closing The Deal, Ben Fernandez

Transactions: The Tennessee Journal of Business Law

No abstract provided.

A Tribute To Professor Marjorie Corman Aaron Upon Her Retirement, Sandra F. Sperino

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

The Need For Corporate Guardrails In U.S. Industrial Policy, Lenore Palladino

Seattle University Law Review

U.S. politicians are actively “marketcrafting”: the passage of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, the CHIPS and Science Act, and the Inflation Reduction Act collectively mark a new moment of robust industrial policy. However, these policies are necessarily layered on top of decades of shareholder primacy in corporate governance, in which corporate and financial leaders have prioritized using corporate profits to increase the wealth of shareholders. The Administration and Congress have an opportunity to use industrial policy to encourage a broader reorientation of U.S. businesses away from extractive shareholder primacy and toward innovation and productivity. This Article examines discrete opportunities within the …

Securities Regulation And Administrative Deference In The Roberts Court, Eric C. Chaffee

Seattle University Law Review

In A History of Securities Law in the Supreme Court, A.C. Pritchard and Robert B. Thompson write, “Securities law offers an illuminating window into the Supreme Court’s administrative law jurisprudence over the last century. The securities cases provide one of the most accessible illustrations of key transitions of American law.” A main reason for this is that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is a bellwether among administrative agencies, and as a result, A History of Securities Law in the Supreme Court is a history of administrative law in the Supreme Court of the United States as well.

Delegated Corporate Voting And The Deliberative Franchise, Sarah C. Haan

Seattle University Law Review

Starting in the 1930s with the earliest version of the proxy rules, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has gradually increased the proportion of “instructed” votes on the shareholder’s proxy card until, for the first time in 2022, it required a fully instructed proxy card. This evolution effectively shifted the exercise of the shareholder’s vote from the shareholders’ meeting to the vote delegation that occurs when the share-holder fills out the proxy card. The point in the electoral process when the binding voting choice is communicated is now the execution of the proxy card (assuming the shareholder completes the card …

Capitalism Stakeholderism, Christina Parajon Skinner

Seattle University Law Review

Today’s corporate governance debates are replete with discussion of how best to operationalize so-called stakeholder capitalism—that is, a version of capitalism that considers the interests of employees, communities, suppliers, and the environment alongside (if not before) a company’s shareholders. So much focus has been dedicated to the question of capitalism’s reform that few have questioned a key underlying premise of stakeholder capitalism: that is, that competitive capitalism does not serve these various constituencies and groups. This Essay presents a different view and argues that capitalism is, in fact, the ultimate form of stakeholderism. As such, the Essay urges that the …

The Esg Information System, Stavros Gadinis, Amelia Miazad

Seattle University Law Review

The mounting focus on ESG has forced internal corporate decision-making into the spotlight. Investors are eager to support companies in innovative “green” technologies and scrutinize companies’ transition plans. Activists are targeting boards whose decisions appear too timid or insufficiently explained. Consumers and employees are incorporating companies sustainability credentials in their purchasing and employment decisions. These actors are asking companies for better information, higher quality reports, and granular data. In response, companies are producing lengthy sustainability reports, adopting ambitious purpose statements, and touting their sustainability credentials. Understandably, concerns about greenwashing and accountability abound, and policymakers are preparing for action.

In this …

Table Of Contents, Seattle University Law Review

Seattle University Law Review

Table of Contents

The Marijuana Insurgency: Federalism And Social Reframing In Policy Reform, Matthew P. Cavedon

Seattle University Law Review

After fifty years of federal prohibition, marijuana reform efforts have won political and legal success. These victories hold lessons for anyone seeking to resist federal law without being able to directly affect it.

Victory can come from reframing an issue. For marijuana reform, social reframing—not formal legal analysis or material factors—provides the best explanation for how advocates achieved change. Their unconventional political tactics, akin to those used by insurgents in wartime, undercut federal prohibition by winning hearts and minds.

This is an analysis of the sociology of legal change. It is also the story of how ordinary Americans retook personal …

Why Equity Follows The Law, Adam J. Macleod

Faculty Articles

Renewed attention to equity in higher education is welcome because true equity helps us to reason together well. When administered correctly, the jurisprudence of equity models civil discourse and, therefore, can teach us how to carry out civic engagement reasonably. Equitable interpretation of the law teaches us how to understand each other charitably. And equity’s deference to law teaches us how to reason well together about our practical problems. Law is the practical reasoning that we do together. Equity serves the ends of justice by serving law, rather than undermining it. These functions of equity in adjudication point toward a …

Language Models, Plagiarism, And Legal Writing, Michael L. Smith

Faculty Articles

Language models like ChatGPT are the talk of the town in legal circles. Despite some high-profile stories of fake ChatGPT-generated citations, many practitioners argue that language models are the way of the future. These models, they argue, promise an efficient source of first drafts and stock language. Others make similar claims about legal writing education, with a number of professors urging the acknowledgment of language models. Others go further and argue that students ought to learn to use these models to improve their writing and prepare for practice. I argue that those urging the incorporation of language models into legal …

Abolish The Mpre, Michael Ariens

Faculty Articles

In nearly every jurisdiction, applicants to the bar must pass the Multistate Professional Responsibility Examination (MPRE). Its purpose, according to its owner, the National Conference of Bar Examiners (NCBE), is "to measure candidates' knowledge and understanding of established standards related to the professional conduct of lawyers." It does test whether an examinee has kept in short-term memory the rules and exceptions that make up part of the understanding of what it means to serve as a lawyer. However, success (or initial failure) on the MPRE has not been correlated with ethical conduct or misconduct. For example, the Texas Board of …

Navigating Legal Ethics And Law School Curricula: Attempting To Find Technology Competency Without A Compass, Jessica De Perio Wittman, Kathleen (Katie) Brown

Faculty Articles and Papers

Comment 8 of Model Rule 1.1 of the Professional Rules of Conduct requires attorneys to be ethically accountable for technology competence. However, the drafting of the language of Rule 1.1 is vague. As a result, attorneys, law firms, and law schools apply Rule 1.1 differently and emphasize topics they deem most important. Per American Bar Association (ABA) Standard 301, law schools must maintain a rigorous program of legal education that prepares their students for effective, ethical, and responsible participation as members of the legal profession. Law schools have summarily responded to Rule 1.1 and Standard 301 by adding and offering …

Helping Students To Organize Their Thoughts About The Erie Doctrine, William Casto

Indiana Law Journal

This little Essay presents a framework for teaching the Erie Doctrine. It is not a grand analysis of the federal courts’ puzzle. It does not even offer a wondrously insightful vision of one of the puzzle’s colorful pieces. Rather, the purpose is quite modest. The essay simply aims to help students to organize their thoughts about whether a particular legal issue is governed by state or federal law. Given the Essay’s limited and wholly heuristic purpose, the usual endless parade of all possible cases and the careful rehearsal of exquisite and finely-tuned factors and considerations are eschewed.

Gender And Incivility In A Law School Moot Court Competition, Frank Rosenblatt, Irene Victoria Massimino

Journal Articles

The authors recently coached a team in a law school moot court competition that featured troublesome behavior from several male judges towards the female participants. This post first describes the competition and what happened. It then considers how this example speaks to larger truths about gender and incivility in litigation particularly, and the legal profession generally.

Lists In Legal Drafting: How Brain Science Can Help Student Drafters Produce Documents That Are Easier To Read And Comprehend, Karin Mika

Law Faculty Articles and Essays

Lists play an important role in legal drafting of every type. A list helps the reader break down larger pieces of information, and a well-constructed list's visuals can aid in comprehension. A good list can also head off future legal disputes by making it easier for all parties to read and understand its contents. But a list, in and of itself, is not beneficial unless it is organized in such a way that the brain can easily group like items. By understanding the basics of how the brain processes information, the legal writer can better understand how to group pieces …

Standard 303 And The Development Of Student Professional Identity: A Framework For The Intentional Exploration Of The Profession's Core Values, Neil Hamilton, Jerome M. Organ, David Grenardo, Louis D. Bilionis, Barbara Glesner Fines, Kendall L. Kerew

Faculty Works

No abstract provided.

Holdings As Hypotheses: Teaching Contextual Understanding And Enhancing Engagement, Lisa M. De Sanctis

UF Law Faculty Publications

When the Pinball Wizard asked his well-timed question, he not only lit up the 1L classroom with a cacophony of opinions but also illuminated deep confusion about the meaning of, and distinctions between, “rules” and “holdings.”

The practice of both oversimplifying and conflating the parts of a judicial opinion, particularly rules and holdings, is common among law professors, law school success materials, and, to an extent, even legal writing texts. Coupled with the novice law student’s search for right answers and found meaning, 1Ls often find themselves understandably frustrated and confused. This Article argues that the resulting confusion about rules …

Attributing Ai Authorship: Towards A System Of Icons For Legal And Ethical Disclosure, Joseph J. Avery, Patricia S. Abril, Alissa Del Riego

Articles

Over the past year, the pervasive role of large language models (LLMs) and artificial intelligence (Al) in text generation has precipitated concerns about ethical usage, authorship, and transparent attribution. This has been true in legal practice, academia, and the corporate world, as well as in countless other arenas. In this Article, we identify the gap that has opened between those demanding proper disclosure (we should know when and to what extent Al is an author) and those struggling to respond to these demands. Part of the problem is that there is no system in place, no lingua franca, no set …

The Rhetoric Of Abortion In Amicus Briefs, Jamie Abrams

Presentations

No abstract provided.

Shareholder Primacy Versus Shareholder Accountability, William W. Bratton

Seattle University Law Review

When corporations inflict injuries in the course of business, shareholders wielding environmental, social, and governance (“ESG”) principles can, and now sometimes do, intervene to correct the matter. In the emerging fact pattern, corporate social accountability expands out of its historic collectivized frame to become an internal subject matter—a corporate governance topic. As a result, shareholder accountability surfaces as a policy question for the first time. The Big Three index fund managers, BlackRock, Vanguard, and State Street, responded to the accountability question with ESG activism. In so doing, they defected against corporate legal theory’s central tenet, shareholder primacy. Shareholder primacy builds …

Verses Turned To Verdicts: Ysl Rico Case Sets A High-Watermark For The Legal Pseudo-Censorship Of Rap Music, Nabil Yousfi

Seattle University Law Review

Whichever way you spin the record, rap music and courtrooms don’t mix. On one side, rap records are well known for their unapologetic lyrical composition, often expressing a blatant disregard for legal institutions and authorities. On the other, court records reflect a Van Gogh’s ear for rap music, frequently allowing rap lyrics—but not similar lyrics from other genres—to be used as criminal evidence against the defendants who authored them. Over the last thirty years, this immiscibility has engendered a legal landscape where prosecutors wield rap lyrics as potent instruments for criminal prosecution. In such cases, color-blind courts neglect that rap …

Academically Productive Talk In The Classroom Through Fishbowl Discussions, Mandee Baumer

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Inescapable Skills: Testing Legal Research Skills In An Escape Room, David H. Michels, Hannah Rosborough

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

This micro-ethnographic case study explores the effectiveness of an escape room format game to test legal research skill retention. Previous attempts to benchmark legal research and information literacy skills of Schulich Law students across the program have met with limited success in part because of the difficulty in recruiting participants. This study used a game format to gather data on student skill retention over the course of the program. Using an adaption of the popular escape room format, student teams in the first and second years of the JD program solved a series of research problems to “escape.” Observations of …

Preparing Future Lawyers To Draft Contracts And Communicate With Clients In The Era Of Generative Ai, Kristen Wolff

Articles

Thank you all for coming today. This is, I think, a really important topic. Important enough that the conference has decided to have two talks on the same topic, and Mark will be presenting on this in the next session, too. I plan on attending because I don’t think you can get enough perspectives on it right now. And hearing this information, I had to attend several talks myself before I really digested it and understood what this was all about. So, I hope that I can give you a little bit of that today. My name is Kristen Wolff. …

Forward-Looking Academic Impact Rankings For U.S. Law Schools, Matthew Sag

Faculty Articles

Although the very concept of law school rankings is currently under fire, rankings abolitionism is misplaced. Given the number, diversity, and geographic dispersion of the more than 190 law schools fully ac­credited by the American Bar Association, rankings are essential to en­able various stakeholders to make comparisons between schools. How­ever, the current rankings landscape is dire. The U.S News law school rankings rely on poorly designed, highly subjective surveys to gauge "reputational strength," rather than looking to easily available, objec­tive citation data that is more valid and reliable. Would-be usurpers of U.S. News use better data but make other arbitrary …

Finding Our Way: Teaching Legislative Advocacy Clinics, Anita Weinberg, Elizabeth B. Cooper

Faculty Publications & Other Works

Legislative advocacy clinics are excellent vehicles for teaching lawyering skills, for achieving broad-based social change, and for imparting to law students the important roles they can play in preserving and strengthening our democracy. Notwithstanding their growth over the last 15 years, there has been little scholarly reflection about the pedagogy of teaching such clinics. This Article helps to fill this gap. We provide a roadmap through the challenges that come with teaching legislative advocacy clinics-some inherent to working within legislative bodies and some that accompany working with organizational clients and advocacy partners-identifying ways that clinicians can ensure an excellent learning …

Dedication To Professor Emerita Marie Failinger, Edwin Butterfoss

Mitchell Hamline Law Review

No abstract provided.

Turn The Question Around: The Case For Early Student-Critique Exercises, Alison M. Mikkor

Mitchell Hamline Law Review

No abstract provided.

Teaching The Choice Between Vagueness And Precision In Contracts, Naveen Thomas

Transactions: The Tennessee Journal of Business Law

No abstract provided.