Legal Education Commons^™

Dinner With Andre: A Personal Tribute To Andre Hampton, David Dittfurth

Faculty Articles

A tribute to long-time St. Mary's University School of Law professor Andre Hampton upon his retirement.

High Anxiety: Racism, The Law, And Legal Education, Elayne E. Greenberg

Washington and Lee Journal of Civil Rights and Social Justice

Conspicuously absent from the United States’ ongoing discourse about its racist history is a more honest discussion about the individual and personal stressors that are evoked in people when they talk about racism. What if they got it wrong? The fear of being cancelled -- the public shaming for remarks that are deemed racist -- has had a chilling effect on having meaningful conversations about racism. What lost opportunities!

This paper moves this discussion into the law school context. How might law schools rethink their law school curricula to more accurately represent the role systemic racism has played in shaping …

Reaching Out Through The Universal: The Powerful And Positive Role Of A Jesuit Catholic Law School On The Secular Line, Judith A. Mcmorrow

Touro Law Review

There are multiple ways in which Catholic law schools can provide an education that supports and reflects a Catholic vision. Some schools align more closely to an orthodox view in which text and doctrine are the starting lens. Catholic law schools closer to the secular end of the spectrum play a powerful role by actively building bridges with the secular world. These schools, either implicitly or explicitly, start with values framed in more universal terms -- a moral or ethical worldview that can implement the common good in the secular world. A Catholic law school that emphasizes the universal generally …

Restoring Confidence In Educational Technologies, Ariel Newman

Faculty Works

This article explores how adaptable digital learning tools, originally designed for K-12 education, can enhance engagement and comprehension in law school classrooms. In response to lingering skepticism toward educational technology following the pandemic, the article advocates for a strategic approach that integrates interactive and student-centered methods rather than reverting entirely to traditional instruction. Newman emphasizes the importance of leveraging digital tools that align with the learning preferences of Generation Z students, fostering more dynamic and effective legal education. By rethinking how technology is used in law schools, educators can create more engaging and responsive learning environments that better prepare students …

High Anxiety: Racism, The Law, And Legal Education, Elayne E. Greenberg

Faculty Publications

Conspicuously absent from the United States’ ongoing discourse about its racist history is a more honest discussion about the individual and personal stressors that are evoked in people when they talk about racism. What if they got it wrong? The fear of being cancelled - the public shaming for remarks that are deemed racist - has had a chilling effect on having meaningful conversations about racism. What lost opportunities!

This paper moves this discussion into the law school context. How might law schools rethink their law school curricula to more accurately represent the role systemic racism has played in shaping …

Integrating An Oral Presentation Assignment Into A Course On Drafting Contracts, Patricia G. Montana

Faculty Publications

(Excerpt)

Law schools have a critical responsibility to train students in effective oral communication skills. Indeed, the American Bar Association’s Standard 302 requires that law schools establish learning outcomes that include student “competency” in, among other things, “[l]egal analysis and reasoning, legal research, problem-solving, and written and oral communication in the legal context.” Yet, apart from clinical and externship offerings, where students can regularly interact with clients, lawyers, judges, and others, and courses like trial or appellate advocacy, which focus on essential courtroom communications, students generally have limited opportunities to practice oral communication skills in a traditional law school classroom. …

The Secret Sauce: Examining Law Schools That Overperform On The Bar Exam, Derek T. Muller, Christopher J. Ryan Jr.

Journal Articles

Since 2010, law schools have faced declining enrollment and entering classes with lower predictors of success despite recent signs of improvement. At least partly as a result, rates at which law school graduates pass the bar exam have declined and remain at historic lows. Yet, during this time, many schools have improved their graduates' chances of success on the bar exam, and some schools have dramatically outperformed their predicted bar exam passage rates. This Article examines which schools do so and why.

Research for this Article began by accounting for law schools' incoming class credentials to predict an expected bar …

Winter 2023: Evolution

The Weldon Times

A student-run publication from the Schulich School of Law at Dalhousie University.

Editor in Chief: Madeline Heinke

Leading Law Schools: Relationships, Influence, And Negotiation, Michael T. Colatrella Jr.

University of Cincinnati Law Review

No abstract provided.

Teaching Case Theory, Binny Miller

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

As the key means of framing a case, case theory is the central problem that lawyers confront in constructing a case, and many of the decisions made during the life of a case are decisions that rest on case theory. Building on the author's earlier scholarship on case theory, this essay articulates a concept of case theory called "storyline," and sets out a framework for teaching this concept. The framework for this process has three basic stages - imagining case theory, evaluating (and constructing) case theory, and choosing case theory. The material for this process is stories, which are the …

Fall 2022: Relaunch

The Weldon Times

A student-run publication from the Schulich School of Law at Dalhousie University.

Editor in Chief: Madeline Heinke

Law’S Contributions To The Mindfulness Revolution, Elizabeth F. Emens

Utah Law Review

These are phenomenally challenging times. Mindfulness is a tool that can help lawyers support themselves, each other, their clients, and their collaborators in the hard work needed to build community and take action. For these and other reasons, mindfulness has made major inroads into law and legal institutions. Law firms, law schools, and courthouses offer training in mindfulness meditation to support the cognitive clarity and emotional self-regulation necessary for the demanding work of analyzing problems, resolving conflicts, overcoming bias, and doing justice. A growing literature, from empirical social science to legal scholarship, catalogs these and other benefits of mindfulness for …

“If It Learns Easy, It Taught Hard” Applying Lessons From Practice To The Lawyering Skills Classroom, Laura E. D'Amato

Faculty Scholarship

The end of the academic year is a natural time for reflection. As I complete my fifth year teaching Lawyering Skills at Boston University School of Law, I am taking time to reflect on my experience. I came to teaching mid-career, after practicing in the litigation group at a Boston firm for fifteen years. I enjoyed mentoring and training junior associates, so teaching was a logical next step. As I reflect on my work as a Lawyering Skills Instructor, I realize that many of the lessons I learned in practice also apply to teaching. The most ubiquitous of these lessons …

The Black-White Paradigm’S Continuing Erasure Of Latinas: See Women Law Deans Of Color, Laura M. Padilla

Faculty Scholarship

The Black-white paradigm persists with unintended consequences. For example, there have been only six Latina law deans to date with only four presently serving. This Article provides data about women law deans of color, the dearth of Latina law deans, and explanations for the data. It focuses on the enduring Black-white paradigm, as well as other external and internal forces. This Article suggests how to increase the number of Latina law deans and emphasizes why it matters.

The Foundational Skill Of Reflection In The Formation Of A Professional Identity, Neil W. Hamilton

St. Mary's Journal on Legal Malpractice & Ethics

There is a growing scholarly literature on the professional development and formation of law students into the core values, guiding principles, and well-being practices considered foundational to successful legal practice.* This growing scholarly literature can guide effective curriculum development to foster student growth toward later stages of development on these learning outcomes. This Article focuses on the skill of reflection as one of the most effective curricular strategies to foster each student’s growth toward later stages of these learning outcomes. This same curricular strategy will also be effective in engaging practicing lawyers to grow toward these same goals. Part II …

Reflections On Law Student Mental Health By A Dean Of Students After 25 Years, David Jaffe

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

Your faculty need to be educated about how to refer students, how to speak with students who pop into their office. Your Dean, writ-large nationally, Deans need to have the willingness, and again, the bravado, the willingness to go to the faculty and say, "You need to be part of this movement." Whatever that may mean. I would love to see every faculty member taking 30 seconds at the beginning of every class for students to breathe. Thirty seconds of breathing. If you've never done it, do it at home today, deep breaths, and see what it feels like. I …

Spring 2022

The Weldon Times

A student-run publication from the Schulich School of Law at Dalhousie University.

Editors in Chief: Zainab Adejumobi, Tiffany Ward

Graphic Design & Layout: Alexandra Fox

Photography: Syameena Pullai

A Book Club With No Books: Using Podcasts Movies, And Documentaries To Increase Transfer Of Learning, Incorporate Social Justice Themes, Create Community, And Bolster Traditional And Character-Based Legal Skills During A Pandemic, Marni Goldstein Caputo, Kathleen Luz

Faculty Scholarship

In the fall of 2020, students entered law school under extreme circumstances. The COVID-19 pandemic led to isolation, depression, and restrictions on activities. A new hybrid learning environment was created. Social upheaval also caused unease. The 2020 national elections loomed, bringing divisive political discourse. The murder of George Floyd and other BIPOC, at the hands of police, led to a reckoning around the country. Additionally, with the COVID-19 pandemic came a rash of anti-Asian violence.

Faced with these unprecedented realities, we, as legal educators, struggled with how to adapt our curriculum to this new normal. These realities forced us to …

Reexamining Relative Bar Performance As A Function Of Non-Linearity, Heteroscedasticity, And A New Independent Variable, Rory Bahadur, Kevin Ruth, Katie Tolliver Jones

New Mexico Law Review

One might believe that a law school's graduates doing better on the bar exam than their matriculating credentials predicted must be primarily attributable to the teaching ability and performance of the institution's faculty. Some scholarship makes such a claim. However, it is empirically untrue. Prestidigitation rather than legal pedagogy yields such superficial results. Law schools manipulating their matriculant pools via academic attrition and transfer is the sleight-of- hand that improves their graduates' bar performance rates. This article reveals the math behind the magic.

This article demonstrates that effective pedagogy may not be the only driver of a law school's students …

Pipeline Programs At Iu Maurer School Of Law, Austen Parrish, Terrance Blackman Stroud

Austen Parrish (2014-2022)

In this guest column, Indiana Lawyer invited us to discuss some of the initiatives occurring at the Indiana University Maurer School of Law that help recruit talented and diverse students. Terrance Stroud, ‘03, a dedicated alumnus who has played a key role in helping establish several diversity pipeline programs for the law school, joins me in this column.

Leadership For The Transactional Business Law Student, Joan Macleod Heminway

Scholarly Works

We do not always acknowledge this in legal education, but our students are learning to be leaders, because lawyers are leaders. That is as true of transactional business lawyers as it is of litigators, lawyers who hold political or regulatory appointments, lawyers engaged with compliance, and lawyers in general advisory practices. Yet, most law schools do little, if anything, to teach law students about leadership, or allow them to explore the contours and practices of lawyer leadership.

This edited transcript explains the importance of teaching leadership skills, traits, and processes to transactional business law students and offers insights on how …

What Law Schools Must Change To Train Transactional Lawyers, Stephanie Mcmahon

Faculty Articles and Other Publications

Not all lawyers litigate, but you would not know that from the first-year curriculum at most law schools. Despite 50% of lawyers working in transactional practices, schools do not incorporate its legal doctrines or skills in the foundational first year. That the Progressives pushed through antitrust laws and the New Dealers founded the modern administrative state reframed how people use the law, particularly in transactional practices, and should be given equal weight as the appellate-based common law in any legal introduction. Nevertheless, the law school model created by Christopher Columbus Langdell in the 1870s remains dominant. As this review of …

Aba Employment Summary Class Of 2022, University Of Tennessee College Of Law

ABA Disclosures

No abstract provided.

Teaching A Hybrid Administrative Law Simulation Class Using Jurassic Park, Roberto L. Corrada

Sturm College of Law: Faculty Scholarship

For more than a decade, educators and scholars have been calling for changes in methods of instruction, especially in higher education, based on developments in the field of learning science. This has been true for legal education as well, but additionally based on fundamental shifts in the way legal employers, especially law firms, hire and train new lawyers? These suggested changes for legal education include more emphasis on professional skills training, leadership development, and teamwork. While there has been no dearth of writing about the need for change in legal education, and even about specific outcomes or goals for legal …

What Inclusive Instructors Do Book Review, Jamie Abrams

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

Inclusive teaching is not just an aspirational goal. It is our ethical obligation to students. Our students can spend years dreaming of attending law school and working to achieve that goal. They can spend decades paying off the costs of attendance. Law faculty owe every student of all backgrounds, races, religions, genders, learning abilities, ages, socioeconomic statuses, immigration statuses, and military statuses an environment in which they feel like they belong and can thrive. WHAT INCLUSIVE INSTRUCTORS Do powerfully reminds us that inclusive teaching is not identified by obscenity law's "I know it when I see it" murkiness. Rather, it …

Exploring Race And Racism In The Law School Curriculum: An Administrator's View On Adopting An Antiracist Curriculum, Amy Gaudion

Faculty Scholarly Works

This article provides a candid assessment of the demanding, and rewarding, work that is required to put into action the written words of institutional support for implementing an Antiracist curriculum. This article starts by describing the two Penn State Dickinson Law faculty resolutions that committed the faculty to condemn racism and bias against our Black and Brown brothers and sisters, while committing to teach and learn according to Antiracist pedagogy and best practices. It then describes the resolve to become Antiracist teachers, discusses the investments in curricular policy and reform, and details the bureaucratic processes to accomplish the following: adding …

The Rise Of The Decanal Collective Voice, Danielle M. Conway

Faculty Books

The United States is a nation of laws, and its Constitution and the rule of law have allowed it to confront and successfully navigate many threats to democracy throughout the nation’s complex history, including a Civil War. All of these threats challenged the nation in various ways, but never has there been a challenge to the truth of our elections like what happened on January 6, 2021.

The Insurrection represents a turning point in America’s history. In addition to the unprecedented assault on the U.S. Capitol, members of the government sought to undermine an election and supported an attack on …

In Memoriam Professor Emeritus Egon Guttman, Claudio Grossman, Walter A. Effross, David V. Snyder

American University Law Review

This Issue of the American University Law Review is dedicated to the memory of Egon Guttman, longtime professor at American University Washington College of Law and an esteemed member of the American University Law Review’s Faculty Advisory Committee.

Law Student Mindfulness For Cold Calling, Heather Simmons

Popular Media

Consider starting a daily mindfulness practice. While nothing can completely dispel the terror that cold calling initiates, having a specific plan can help.

Robert Cover’S Call To Teaching And Journey To Judaism, Randy Lee

Touro Law Review

As a teacher, Yale law professor Robert Cover never “dazzled,” “zinged,” nor “entertained”; he just engaged his students on a journey to the real and true that ultimately invited them to become the best version of themselves. As a Jew, Professor Cover wore an oversized skull cap, covered himself in a multicolored prayer shawl, and studied from a huge Talmud. He also, however, made everyone around him feel valued and welcomed and swept them up in a faith Professor Cover saw as wondrous and life-changing. This essay considers what the life of Robert Cover can teach us about what it …