Legal Education Commons^™

Providing Effective Feedback, Jennifer Carr

Scholarly Works

This article discusses the process of giving effective feedback in an academic context. Effective feedback gives students a clear explanation of what they should do, concrete steps for doing it, and the ability to ascertain whether those steps have adequately addressed the problem. The author discusses five steps that go into providing effective feedback to students.

Defining International Law Librarianship In An Age Of Multiplicity, Knowledge, And Open Access To Law, Richard A. Danner

Faculty Scholarship

Many law librarians are experts in international law and legal research. The concept of ‘international law librarianship’, however, encompasses something more than a field of study in which a group of experts practise their profession. In the broader sense, the idea suggests a common calling, similar interests, and goals shared by librarians with a range of specialties beyond international law, working in all types of law libraries. What commonalities create and sustain the concept of international law librarianship? This paper suggests that they can be found in: law librarians’ common need to respond to the ‘multiplicity’ of information sources facing …

They Do Teach That In Law School: Incorporating Best Practices Into Land Use Law, Patricia E. Salkin

Scholarly Works

This article, prepared as a follow-up to Salkin & Nolon, Practically Grounded: Convergence of Land Use Pedagogy and Best Practice, 60 J.Legal Education 519 (2011), describes how practice-based assignments can supplement the traditional casebook method of instruction to meet goals and measure outcome assessments for students in the course. The article is based on my own course goals and explains how each assignment relates to individual outcome assessments.

Celebrating The Twenty-Fifth Issue Of The Annual Survey Of Virginia Law, Marguerite R. Ruby, Sarah Warren S. Beverly

University of Richmond Law Review

No abstract provided.

Pining For Sustainability, Timothy M. Mulvaney

University of Richmond Law Review

In the legal academic community, there are significant positive signs demonstrating attention to sustainable practices, from course offerings to many day-to-day operations. Scholarly research also reflects this positive trend. Much of this recent scholarship assesses sustainability-focused regulatory and normative efforts to address the impacts associated with a warming planet in marked detail, and there is an additional plethora of writing on the many topics beyond the changing climate that raise sustainability questions.

Making Effective Use Of Practitioners' Briefs In The Law School Curriculum, Anna P. Hemingway

St. Thomas Law Review

This article argues that practitioners' briefs do have a place in the law school classroom. Part II of this article discusses the pedagogy behind using practitioners' briefs in the legal writing classroom. It demonstrates how using practitioners' briefs enriches lesson plans, heightens interest in the classroom, and helps students gain a richer appreciation for lawyers' goals when they write as advocates. Part III presents some different ways of using practitioners' briefs to teach persuasive writing. It examines how the author has used practitioners' briefs to teach persuasive writing of the statement of facts, point headings and summary of the argument. …

On-Line Legal Research Workshops, Frederick B. Jonassen

St. Thomas Law Review

Like riding a bicycle, playing tennis, or driving a car, legal research is a skill, and like any other skill, it is learned by doing, and not by listening to a lecture. However, lectures are indispensable for introducing the skill. The mental processes applied in electronic legal research may differ from those applied to book legal research. But because both electronic and book research are skills, a guided workshop in electronic legal research may be based on similar principles to those underlying a workshop in book legal research, with appropriate modifications. The aspects of the electronic legal workshop proposed here …

Legal Education Reform, Claudio Grossman

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

No abstract provided.

The Excitement Of Interdictory Ideas: A Response To Professor Anders Walker, Marc O. Degirolami

Faculty Publications

The very first time that I taught criminal law, I would occasionally tell my six-year-old son, Thomas, about selected cases and situations that I had come across. Thomas enjoyed these discussions—more than I would have guessed: he was captivated by the horror of Dudley & Stephens, he was uncomfortably intrigued by shaming punishments, he was appropriately outraged at all manner of outcomes that seemed to him too harsh or too lenient. But most of all, he wanted to test his own burgeoning intuitions about right and wrong, good and evil, the permitted and the forbidden, against my "criminal law stories." …

Teaching Problem-Solving And Preventive Law Skills Through International Labour And Employment Law, Ruben J. Garcia

Scholarly Works

This essay describes how problem-solving and preventive law principles apply in the teaching of international labor and employment law. This is because the subject itself crosses disciplinary and geographical boundaries. Students are taught about the importance of the lawyer's role as a counselor, rather than simply a litigator, which is at the center of the model of the lawyer as a problem solver.

The Case For "Thinking Like A Filmaker": Using Lars Von Trier's Dogville As A Model For Writing A Statement Of Facts, Elyse Pepper

Faculty Publications

Part I of this Article introduces movies as a persuasive medium. Part II examines the value of movies as teaching tools in the law school context. Part III breaks down the movie Dogville and demonstrates how it might be used to create two Statements of Facts in a fictionalized criminal case. Part IV recaps the lessons learned from using a film as a model for fact writing.

Have You Seen The New Library Bar?: Designing A Legal Research Toolbar, Jennifer L. Wondracek

UF Law Faculty Publications

It seems like more and more people today are selecting their legal research results based on ease of access rather than the completeness of the results. After hearing one too many third-year law students say "I researched my entire paper on Google," I set off to create a tool that would satisfy both the desire for speed and the need for complete and authoritative research results. The tool is a legal research toolbar that integrates into a web browser and provides constant and quick access to library-sanctioned websites and databases. This paper walks readers through the design process of the …

Why Care About The Polar Bear?: Economic Analysis Of Natural Resources Law And Policy [Outline], Lisa Heinzerling

The Future of Natural Resources Law and Policy (Summer Conference, June 6-8)

1 page.

"Lisa Heinzerling, Georgetown Law School" -- Agenda

Confessions Of A Self-Study Coordinator: A Guide For The Perplexed, Daniel Gordon

St. Thomas Law Review

The author of this article remained addicted to Westerns on television and in theaters as a child during the 1950s. He remembers a recurring image in the Westerns of that era: a couple of unshaven townspeople sitting on a rustic wooden bench outside the sheriff's office with their faces partially covered by cowboy hats as they slept slumping in a sitting position on the bench. When the sheriff left or entered his office, one or more of these people might lift his or their hats and open one eye greeting the sheriff with a "howdy sheriff." In August, 2003, at …

The Gift Of Milner Ball, Thomas L. Shaffer

Journal Articles

My friend and teacher Milner Ball speaks of the law as "systemic injustice." I find that a bit harsh and tend instead toward a way of looking at injustice that comes from the equally melancholy reflections of Robert E. Rodes, Jr., also my friend—my colleague, too—and also my teacher (in two senses, including the I-once-paid-tuition sense). Bob Rodes has noticed injustice as much as Milner has, but Bob, who tends to be an Erastian, would say it is not the law that is the source of injustice; it is not even the "system"; it is lawyers who are the source …

Building On Strong Foundations: Rethinking Legal Education With A View To Improving Curricular Quality, Veronica Henderson

Dalhousie Law Journal

Recent increases in law school tuition provide an occasion for criticalreflection on precisely what law students are being offered in their formal education. The aim of this article is to help catalyze discussion of what quality legal education entails. It begins by outlining the current underpinnings of Canadian legal education, especially the foundation of issue identification. Newer developments in legal education are also canvassed.A foundational critique is then applied to elucidate the main weakness of thepresent curricular structure: students are graduating with a flat understanding of the law Employing Dr Oliver Sacks's critique of medical education as a starting point, …

Legal Writing Programs And Professionalism: Legal Writing Professors Can Join The Academic Club, James M. Boland

St. Thomas Law Review

Sociological jurisprudence has been a major factor in legal interpretive schemes for over a century, but this has not been reflected in most legal writing programs. These programs must produce legal writers who not only are competent writers, but are also competent legal theorists who know the difference between classical rule-based reasoning and modem interpretive methods. Concomitantly, legal writing professors must produce scholarship that reflects the diversity of these more complex schemes, rather than just writing about writing. This article will first describe the current condition of legal writing programs, and then suggest changes that more thoroughly introduce students to …

Coastal Kingdom, A New Vehicle For Teaching Property: How I Became Queen For More Than A Day, Ann R. Shorstein

St. Thomas Law Review

The creation of Coastal Kingdom, as described in the following sections, is my attempt to maximize the limited time that the students spend in a first year survey course by emphasizing infusion and rigor.

The Impact Of The 9/11 Attacks On National Security Law Casebooks, Tung Yin

St. Thomas Law Review

In this book review, I use the 9/11 attacks and the subsequent American responses as a framework for reviewing four casebooks currently available for use in courses on national security or antiterrorism. It is hardly surprising that law professors might themselves respond to the 9/11 attacks by adjusting content in appropriate courses. While casebooks may have other uses, their primary purpose is undoubtedly intended to be in law school courses. In turn, law school courses have a number of goals, among them the imparting of substantive knowledge in the particular field of law, as well as the development of students' …

Toward A New Student Insurgency: A Critical Epistolary, Rachel J. Anderson, Marc-Tizoc Gonzalez, Stephen Lee

Scholarly Works

Taking the form of an epistolary (a collection of letters), this law review article explores the relationship between law and social change in the context of student activism at the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law (Berkeley Law formerly Boalt). The author’s contribution to this essay examines the simultaneously linear and circular history of social justice activism at Berkeley Law and discusses the relationship between social crises and resurging waves of activism, focusing on student activism in the sphere of legal scholarship.

Introduction, Barbara J. Pariente

St. Thomas Law Review

Attorneys as collaborators and counselors. Judges who promote resolution of conflict. Law as a healing agent and court proceedings that minimize rather than exacerbate harm. Problem-solving courts. Restorative justice. Collaborative law.

Using Therapeutic Jurisprudence In Teaching Lawyering Skills: Meeting The Challenge Of The New Aba Standards, Bruce J. Winick

St. Thomas Law Review

At some law schools, existing courses already involve a simulation component. Some use a problem method approach whereby students are provided with written problems in advance and asked to come to class prepared to role play attorneys solving the problems or presenting opposing arguments concerning them. In the past, when I taught courses in Administrative Law and Federal Courts, I used a problem method approach that sought to blend skills training with doctrinal learning. For many years I have taught, and continue to teach, a course in Advanced Criminal Procedure using a variety of problems crafted over the years that …

Reflections On The Therapeutic Jurisprudence, Creative Problem Solving, And Clinical Education In The Transactional Curriculum, Edward A. Dauer

St. Thomas Law Review

No abstract provided.

Therapeutic Jurisprudence In An Interprofessional Practice At The University Of St. Thomas Interprofessional Center For Counseling And Legal Services, Jennifer L. Wright

St. Thomas Law Review

The Interprofessional Center for Counseling and Legal Services (the "Center" or "Interprofessional Center") is a joint effort by the School of Law, the School of Social Work and the Graduate School of Professional Psychology at the University of St. Thomas' in Minneapolis, Minnesota. In the Center, law, social work and psychology students gain practice skills by working with clients under the supervision of experienced supervisors. The Center provides pro bono professional services to low-income, working poor and other underserved populations who would otherwise have no access to such assistance. The same can be said of many clinical programs. In addition, …

Taking Hold Of The Elephant In Child Dependency And Neglect Cases, Christina A. Zawisza

St. Thomas Law Review

In order to place this article in context, I will first describe Tennessee's practice rule for attorneys representing children as Guardians ad Litem. It is an example of the "Elephant," the many component parts of a child's life that the child's lawyer is required to bring together to represent the child holistically. In Part II, I will describe and apply three developing jurisprudential movements that embrace the techniques I utilize: interdisciplinary practice, creative problem-solving and Therapeutic Jurisprudence. In Part III, I will provide an overview of ecomaps and genograms as they are commonly used in the social sciences. In Part …

George's Story: Voice And Transformation Through The Teaching And Practice Of Therapeutic Jurisprudence In A Law School Child Advocacy Clinic, Bernard P. Perlmutter

St. Thomas Law Review

In recent years, the Therapeutic Jurisprudence and preventive law model has begun to penetrate legal education. As this article attempts to show, this model has much to offer clinical legal education and child advocacy clinics, in particular. This article describes how Therapeutic Jurisprudence and the Therapeutic Jurisprudence/preventive law model are used in the Children & Youth Law Clinic, and demonstrates their value in the context of representing one foster care client of the Clinic. Specific examples of our activity are rewound to analyze the strategies or techniques the Clinic used or, in retrospect, should have used, to address or prevent …

The Birth Of A Therapeutic Courts Externship Program: Hard Labor But Worth The Effort, Gregory Baker, Jennifer Zawid

St. Thomas Law Review

In this article, we focus on the use of externships to introduce law students to the concepts of Therapeutic Jurisprudence and problem solving courts (also referred to herein as therapeutic courts). We begin with an examination of the birth of William & Mary Law School's therapeutic courts practice externship, arguably the most comprehensive externship of its kind. Next, we will focus on an alternative model of a therapeutic court externship clinic, still in its infancy, at the University of Miami School of Law. Our goals are both simple and lofty. We want as many law students as possible to be …

Validation Through Other Means: How Immigration Clinics Can Give Immigrants A Voice When Bureaucracy Has Left Them Speechless, Evelyn H. Cruz

St. Thomas Law Review

To better frame this discussion, I will first describe the immigration process and its anti-therapeutic effects on immigrants in some detail. I will then proceed to discuss the use of community presentations and contextual representation practices to preserve a client's voice and validation in the immigration process. Throughout this article, and more specifically in my conclusion, I will examine how students who understand the need to address "psycho-legal soft spots" naturally gravitate to client-centered representation, thereby becoming empathetic and competent practitioners.

Must We Bankrupt The Spirit Also: The Benefits Of Incorporating Therapeutic Jurisprudence Into Law School Bankruptcy Assistance Programs, Michael L. Stines

St. Thomas Law Review

This paper will examine the psychological effects associated with filing for consumer bankruptcy and techniques that can be learned by law students and young lawyers to help soften the blow for those who will inevitably experience those effects. First, the progression of bankruptcy will be discussed, tracking changes from its origins to modem times and the effect those changes may have had on those attempting to take advantage of the system's benefits. Second, the actual process of filing for bankruptcy will be examined, pointing out the aspects that cause damage to an individual's mental health. Third, this paper will analyze …

Heart And Soul: A New Rhythm For Clinical Externships, Leslie Larkin Cooney

St. Thomas Law Review

The message of Therapeutic Jurisprudence is simple - focus on emotional life and psychological well-being and practice law as a healing profession - but the application of Therapeutic Jurisprudence to clinical teaching can have far ranging results. "Lawyers trained to be professionals have not been trained in how to respond to the anxiety, hurt feelings, and other emotions ... ," Law students arriving today in our clinical education settings require extra attention to the development of interpersonal skills for a variety of reasons. This article explores the concepts and development of Therapeutic Jurisprudence and outlines the benefits derived from incorporating …