Legal Education Commons^™

The Innocence Movement And Misdemeanors, Jenny M. Roberts

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

In recent years, the Innocent Movement has begun to focus its attention on wrongful misdemeanor convictions as a systemic problem. This Article analyzes eighty-five documented misdemeanor exonerations and concludes that innocence has been demonstrated primarily in two ways: laboratory tests of alleged unlawful drugs that reveal “no controlled substance” despite the individual having pled guilty to misdemeanor drug possession; and police body camera or citizen videos that surface after a misdemeanor conviction to contradict the factual basis for that conviction. Strategic use of these relatively definitive methods of revealing wrongful misdemeanor convictions can call attention to the flaws in misdemeanor …

Exploring The Meaning Of Experiential Deaning, Robert Dinerstein, Margaret Martin Barry

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

This article explores the position of associate dean of experiential education in law schools across the country and the central role associate deans play in the changing landscape of legal education. Experiential deans have broad responsibility for overseeing law schools’ experiential education programs. Additional responsibilities differ between institutions, but range from leading efforts to comply with new ABA standards to overseeing the integration of experiential education into the broader curriculum. Analyzing survey data collected from associate experiential deans across the country, the authors find the structure, content, and authority of the position is under-developed. The authors make recommendations on how …

The Uneasy History Of Experiential Education In U.S. Law Schools, Peter A. Joy

Dickinson Law Review (2017-Present)

This article explores the history of legal education, particularly the rise of experiential learning and its importance. In the early years of legal education in the United States, law schools devalued the development of practical skills in students, and many legal educators viewed practical experience in prospective faculty as a “taint.” This article begins with a brief history of these early years and how legal education subsequently evolved with greater involvement of the American Bar Association (ABA). With involvement of the ABA came a call for greater uniformity in legal education and guidelines to help law schools establish criteria for …

Measuring Law School Clinics, Colleen Shanahan, Jeffrey Selbin, Alyx Mark, Anna Carpenter

Faculty Articles

Legal education reformers have long argued that law school clinics address two related needs: first, clinics teach students to be lawyers; and second, clinics serve low-income clients. In clinics, so the argument goes, law students working under the close supervision of faculty members learn the requisite skills to be good practitioners and professionals. In turn, clinical law students serve clients with civil and criminal justice needs that would otherwise go unmet. Though we have these laudable teaching and service goals — and a vast literature describing the role of clinics in both the teaching and service dimensions — we have …

Advising 2.0: Helping Students Achieve Academic Success Through Meaningful Academic Advising, Alicia Jackson

Journal Publications

It is becoming increasingly clear that current law students are seeking more wraparound support than previously provided by legal education, which begs the question, why? The answer is simple - modern law students are different and come to law school with very different expectations and experiences than students from previous years. To aid our students in achieving academic success, it is essential that we understand the complex needs of our students by first examining their previous educational experiences.

Academic advising is commonplace at institutions that serve undergraduate students. In fact, some would argue that academic advising is the cornerstone of …

If A 6 Turned Out To Be 9, I Don't Mind (But 3? Or 2!): The Uneven Implementation Of Mandatory Experiential Credits, Robert R. Kuehn

Scholarship@WashULaw

Legal education took almost 100 years before requiring that all J.D. students receive instruction in professional skills. Even then, the American Bar Association acted modestly by adopting a six-credit experiential coursework requirement beginning with students graduating in 2019.

This essay shares the results of a survey of how law schools are implementing the new requirement. It finds that approximately 90% of schools reacted to the new ABA requirement by simply increasing their experiential requirements from “a course” (the prior ABA requirement of as few as one professional skills credit) to the minimum six credits. But 22 (of approximately 200 law …

Mandatory Professional Skills Training: What A Long Strange Trip It's Been, Robert R. Kuehn

Scholarship@WashULaw

The American Bar Association did not require that each J.D. student receive training in professional skills until 2005, and even then "one solid credit" hour was considered adequate training to begin the practice of law. In 2014, the ABA recognized the inadequacy of its one-credit skills requirement and increased it to six-credits effective with the graduating class of 2019.

With a decade of mandatory professional skills training now completed, this short article examines enrollment trends in law clinic, externship, and simulation courses over the past ten classes of law students. It finds that total enrollment in these experiential courses has …

The Uneasy History Of Experiential Education In U.S. Law Schools, Peter A. Joy

Scholarship@WashULaw

This article explores the history of legal education, particularly the rise of experiential learning and its importance. In the early years of legal education in the United States, law schools devalued the development of practical skills in students, and many legal educators viewed practical experience in prospective faculty as a “taint.” This article begins with a brief history of these early years and how legal education subsequently evolved with greater involvement of the American Bar Association (ABA). With involvement of the ABA came a call for greater uniformity in legal education and guidelines to help law schools establish criteria for …

Best Practices For Teaching Advanced Legal Research Asynchronously Online, Khelani Clay, Shannon M. Roddy

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

No abstract provided.

Every Silver Lining Has A Cloud: Defensive Pessimism In Legal Education, Emily Zimmerman, Casey Laduke

Catholic University Law Review

This Article presents the results of the first empirical research project to investigate law students’ use of defensive pessimism. Previous researchers have suggested that defensive pessimism may benefit law students academically. Defensive pessimism is a strategy that involves setting low expectations and reflecting extensively on what could go wrong in connection with a future event in order to manage anxiety and improve performance. However, up until now, law students’ use of defensive pessimism has not been empirically studied.

We investigated law students’ use of defensive pessimism. Contrary to the suggestions of other scholars, we did not find statistically significant relationships …

International Law In National Schools, Ryan M. Scoville

Indiana Law Journal

Why is international law ineffective at times in achieving its aims, such as preventing human rights abuses, forestalling armed conflict, and ensuring global cooperation on matters ranging from the environment to nuclear proliferation? This Article offers original empirical research to suggest that an important and underappreciated part of the answer lies in legal education. Conducting a global survey on the study of international law at thousands of law schools in over 190 countries, the Article reveals significant cross-national disparities in the pervasiveness of international legal training, and draws on other research to highlight similar variations in instructional quality, topical emphases, …

College Graduation As An Entrance Requirement To Law Schools, W. Harrison Hitchler

Dickinson Law Review (2017-Present)

No abstract provided.

Changing The Modal Law School: Rethinking U.S. Legal Education In (Most) Schools, Nancy B. Rapoport

Dickinson Law Review (2017-Present)

This essay argues that discussions of educational reform in U.S. law schools have suffered from a fundamental misconception: that the education provided in all of the American Bar Association-accredited schools is roughly the same. A better description of the educational opportunities provided by ABA-accredited law schools would group the schools into three rough clusters: the “elite” law schools, the modal (most frequently occurring) law schools, and the precarious law schools. Because the elite law schools do not need much “reforming,” the better focus of reform would concentrate on the modal and precarious schools; however, both elite and modal law schools …

Reflecting On The Past, Preparing For The Future: A Q&A With Aals President Paul Marcus, Jim Greif, Paul Marcus

Popular Media

No abstract provided.

Borrowing From Bob Dylan, "The Times They Are A-Changin' ", Paul Marcus

Popular Media

No abstract provided.

92nd Henry M. Campbell Moot Court Competition Final Round, University Of Michigan Law School

Event Materials

Program for the final round of the 92nd Moot Court Competition.

Risks And Rewards Of Externships: Exploring Goals And Methods, Linda F. Smith, Jeff Giddings, Leah Wortham

Utah Law Faculty Scholarship

This article explored the risks and rewards of designing and teaching in an externship program, the goals one might have, and the methods one might use. We have argued that it is important to pay attention to the principles of intentional design when developing an externship program. In particular, we have identified and challenged the assumption that skills development must be the predominant goal for externships. This is a common assumption on the part of legal education regulators in our respective home countries, the USA and Australia, as well as in England and Wales. Skills development can, but does not …

International Legal Education And Specialist Certification [Year In Review], Marissa Moran, Diane Edelman, Richard J. Peltz-Steele

Publications and Research

The American Bar Association (ABA) promulgates rules and regulations that apply to all United States law schools with ABA-accreditation and approval. Those rules apply specifically to schools offering programs leading to a J.D. degree. In August 2016, the ABA Council approved certain changes to the ABA Standards and Rules of Procedure for Approval of Law Schools, which became effective on August 9, 2016. The changes affected not only J.D. programs, but also study abroad programs offered by ABA member schools.

Contemporary Teaching Strategies: Effectively Engaging Millennials Across The Curriculum, Renee N. Allen, Alicia Jackson

Journal Publications

American Bar Association ("ABA") Standard 314, Assessment of Student Learning, requires law schools to "utilize both formative and summative assessment methods in its curriculum to measure and improve student learning and provide meaningful feedback to students."' This article will connect multiple formative assessments to Bloom's taxonomy to demonstrate how law teachers can transform and enhance student learning, while promoting key steps in the self-regulated learning cycle. First, it is imperative law teachers understand the education background and social landscape that our students, mostly Millennials, bring to law school. We can acknowledge that our Millennial students are different, but what does …

The Big Bad Wolf: Helping Students Conquer Their Fear Of The Bar Exam Through P.A.S.S.- Preparation, Assessment, Self-Regulated Reflection, And Support, Alicia Jackson

Journal Publications

In light of the national decline in bar pass rates, coping with and addressing a law school’s bar passage rate is viewed by some as an insurmountable undertaking. However, I see it as an invaluable opportunity to redefine who are as law professors. Most importantly this challenge provides an opportunity for us as educators to train future attorneys to become self-aware, confident, and component to handle the challenges presented by the legal profession.

tion (“ABA”) has made it quite clear to accredited law schools and those seeking accreditation that bar passage is now a paramount factor in retaining and obtaining …

Universal Clinical Legal Education: Necessary And Feasible, Robert R. Kuehn

Scholarship@WashULaw

Although bar officials and most legal educators agree that law students need to learn not just to “think like a lawyer” but also the professional skills needed to “do like a lawyer,” legal education lags far behind other professions in the clinical training it provides its graduates. The justification usually given for such lack of training is the claim that it is not financially feasible for law schools to ensure that every student graduate with a clinical experience. This Essay challenges this mistaken justification. It first summarizes the numerous reports and studies showing the need for clinical training for law …

Australian Best Practices - A Comparison With The United Kingdom And The United States, Peter A. Joy, Adrian Evans, Anna Cody, Jeff Giddings, Mary Anne Noone, Simon Rice

Scholarship@WashULaw

This chapter, from the book "Australian Clinical Legal Education" compares efforts in Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States to establish best practices or standards in clinical legal education and the resulting best practices that were developed. The material in this chapter may aid faculty teaching clinical courses in other countries as they consider whether to develop their own best practices in light of their cultures, legal institutions, and systems of legal education.

Paying It Forward To Build The Perfect Lawyer, David Spratt

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

No abstract provided.

Get Real: Why And How Clinicians Should Record, Transcribe And Study Actual Client Consultations, Linda F. Smith

Utah Law Faculty Scholarship

This article will argue that the legal academy has much to learn by recording, transcribing and systematically studying student-client and attorney-client consultations. Clinical faculty can utilize conversation analysis and other social science techniques to do this. Social scientists and medical providers have studied doctor-patient conversations in this way over many years. Through this systematic study researchers have reached conclusions about effective doctor-patient consultations that form the basis for teaching these skills in medical school. This article will highlight some of these studies and their findings. Some have contended that attorney-client conversations simply cannot be recorded and studied in the same …

Dean's Desk: A Troubling Focus By The Aba On The Bar Exam, Austen Parrish

Austen Parrish (2014-2022)

No abstract provided.

Virginia Bar Exam, July 2016, Section 2

Virginia Bar Exam Archive

No abstract provided.

Virginia Bar Exam, July 2016, Section 1

Virginia Bar Exam Archive

No abstract provided.

Virginia Bar Exam, February 2016, Section 1

Virginia Bar Exam Archive

No abstract provided.

Virginia Bar Exam, February 2016, Section 2

Virginia Bar Exam Archive

No abstract provided.

Think M, University Of Michigan Law School

Miscellaneous Law School History & Publications

Informational pamphlet for prospective students.