Legal Education Commons^™

Divided Selves: Professional Role Distancing Among Law Students And New Lawyers In A Period Of Market Crisis, John Bliss

Sturm College of Law: Faculty Scholarship

In the terms of Erving Goffman’s classic role distancing analysis, newly admitted law students often aspire to an “embraced” lawyer role that directly expresses their personal and political values. Empirical research has suggested that during law school these students are instructed in an amoral and apolitical vision of professionalism. The literature has paid less attention to how students internally experience these norms within their continual processes of self-construction. This article takes an exploratory microdynamic look at professional identity formation drawing on longitudinal interviews and identity mapping with three student cohorts. I find that over the course of their legal education …

"Your Mission, Should You Choose To Accept It . . .": Taking Law School Mission Statements Seriously, Vanessa Merton

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

Learning about the process and the results of mission definition in law schools has made palpable the tension between clarity and inflexibility, candor and marketing concerns, and the specificity that fosters accountability as opposed to the generality that embraces a vague multitude of approaches to the law school endeavor. Building on the strong endorsement of the use of mission statements in the original Best Practices for Legal Education, we present some “Best Practices” for both the development and the content of law school mission statements. We hope that this piece hastens further conversation and commentary that will foster a richer …

Experiential Learning And Assessment In The Era Of Donald Trump, Jamie Abrams

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

Law teaching is turning a critical corner with the implementation of new ABA accreditation standards requiring greater skills development, experiential learning, and student assessment. Years of debate and discourse preceded the adoption of these ABA Standards, followed by a surge in programming, conferencing, and list-serv activity to prepare to implement these standards effectively. Missing from the dialogue about effective implementation of standards has been thoughtful consideration of how implementing these requirements will intersect with the challenges, realities, opportunities, and complexities of political divisiveness and polarization so prevalent in society and university campuses today.

Law schools are notably implementing these pedagogical …

A Tale Of Two Clinics: Similarities And Differences In Evidence Of The Clinic Effect On The Development Of Law Students' Ethical And Altruistic Professional Identities, Jonel Newman, Donald Nicolson

Articles

No abstract provided.

State Bar Efforts To Deny Accreditation To Faith-Based Cle Ethics Programs Sponsored By Religiously Affiliated Law Schools, Bill Piatt

Faculty Articles

Religiously affiliated law schools focus on the integration of faith in the formation of future attorneys and leaders. Yet our students are only our students for three years. We can extend our influence and continue to provide a faith-based perspective to them and to other attorneys during the thirty, forty, or more years of their careers by offering continuing legal education (CLE) courses, which bring attorneys and judges together to provide a model for incorporating faith and morality into our professional roles. However, CLE programs must receive accreditation by state authorities if participants are to receive credit for them. Recently, …

Sexual Minorities In Legal Academia: A Retrospection On Community, Action, Remembrance, And Liberation, Francisco Valdes

Articles

No abstract provided.

Seeking Inclusion From The Inside Out: Towards A Paradigm Of Culturally Proficient Legal Education, Anastasia M. Boles

Law Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Fostering Student Authorship, Amy R. Mashburn, Sharon E. Rush

UF Law Faculty Publications

In this essay, we suggest that law schools may provide every student with the opportunity to become involved in the process of producing a publishable paper by establishing on-line repositories for student publications. We describe what such a program, which we call "student authorship," might look like and further explore several primary benefits that such a program would confer upon students.

Teaching Public Policy Drafting In Law School: One Professor's Approach, Lisa A. Rich

Faculty Scholarship

This article provides an overview of the Drafting for Public Policy course offered at the Texas A&M University School of Law. The article addresses the theoretical and pedagogical underpinnings of the course, including how such a course easily encompasses the teaching of cultural context and awareness, as well as professional identity, and encourages students to engage deeply in the policymaking process. It also explores the continued relevance of the work of Harold D. Lasswell, as well as that of Myres McDougal and Anthony Kronman. These works, from 1943 and 1993 respectively, resonate now because they called on law schools to …

Leadership In Online Non-Traditional Legal Education: Lessons Learned & Questions Raised, Lawrence E. Singer

Faculty Publications & Other Works

No abstract provided.

Reflections On Unrestrained: Law Professors, The Legal Academy, And The Rule Of Law In The Early Twenty-First Century, Stephen B. Presser

University of Colorado Law Review

No abstract provided.

Is Legal Scholarship Worth Its Cost?, Paul Campos

University of Colorado Law Review

No abstract provided.

Can Practicing Mindfulness Improve Lawyer Decision-Making, Ethics, And Leadership?, Peter H. Huang

Publications

Jon Kabat-Zinn, the founder of mindfulness-based stress reduction, defines mindfulness as paying attention in a curious, deliberate, kind, and non-judgmental way to life as it unfolds each moment. Psychologist Ellen Langer defines mindfulness as a flexible state of mind actively engaging in the present, noticing new things, and being sensitive to context. Langer differentiates mindfulness from mindlessness, which she defines as acting based upon past behavior instead of the present and being stuck in a fixed, solitary perspective, oblivious to alternative multiple viewpoints. Something called mindfulness is currently very fashionable and has been so for some time now in American …

Thinking On Your Feet: Reflections Of A First-Time Online Instructor, Ashley A. Ahlbrand

Articles by Maurer Faculty

Online education continues to rise in popularity for both undergraduate and graduate education. Among the reasons commonly stated for this preference is flexibility, both of time and location. It came as little surprise, therefore, when our Law Library’s long-term proposal to develop an online advanced legal research course found itself on the fast track. This article will discuss the process we went through to develop this course, the end result, and the lessons learned along the way.

Incorporating Social Justice Into The Law School Curriculum With A Hybrid Doctrinal/Writing Course, Rosa Castello

Faculty Publications

Educating future lawyers is about more than just teaching them substantive law. We are preparing professionals who will go out into our world and shape and affect it in deep and impacting ways. They will make law, enforce law, determine policy, defend people, advocate, and influence lives and businesses. Therefore, any thorough law school education should teach social justice and encourage students to become more engaged in activism.

One way to incorporate social justice into the law school curriculum is to offer specific courses focused on social justice. However, administrators may be concerned about demand for such classes or ability …

Bridging The Reading Gap In The Law School Classroom, Patricia G. Montana

Faculty Publications

Many students struggle in law school, particularly in the first year, because they are weak readers. They do not know how to read text closely and have limited practice in reading complex or lengthy pieces of writing. Nor are they accustomed to reading works that demand deep thinking and reflection.

Yet legal analysis and writing depends on a careful reading and thoughtful understanding of the authority on which a lawyer relies. Without strong reading and critical thinking skills, it is no surprise that incoming law students have difficulty following a structured analysis and mastering legal writing. As the gap between …

Analogical Reasoning, Susan A. Mcmahon, Sonya G. Bonneau

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

This chapter from our book Legal Writing in Context aims to demystify analogical reasoning for law students.

The Forest And The Trees: What Educational Purposes Can A Course On Christian Legal Thought Serve?, Randy Beck

Scholarly Works

In this short essay, I want to consider the educational purposes a course in Christian legal thought might serve. How could having such a course in the curriculum help accomplish the goals of legal education? One can understand why a law school with a Christian identity would want to offer this sort of course. Such law schools embrace a theology that helps adherents make sense of the world, including the world of human law. The less obvious question I want to consider is why a law school that does not subscribe to a particular theological understanding of the world (or …

Bridges Ii: The Law-Stem Alliance & Next Generation Innovation, Jacob S. Sherkow

Articles & Chapters

No abstract provided.

Is Legal Scholarship Worth Its Cost?, Paul Campos

Publications

No abstract provided.

Legal Education In The Blockchain Revolution, Mark Fenwick, Wulf A. Kaal, Erik P.M. Vermeulen

Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment & Technology Law

The legal profession is one of the most disrupted sectors of the consulting industry today. The rise of Legal Technology, artificial intelligence, big data, machine learning, and, most importantly, blockchain technology is changing the practice of law. The sharing economy and platform companies challenge many of the traditional assumptions, doctrines, and concepts of law and governance--requiring litigators, judges, and regulators to adapt. Lawyers need to be equipped with the necessary skill sets to operate effectively in the new world of disruptive innovation in law. A more creative and innovative approach to educating lawyers for the twenty-first century is needed.

Tribute To Sam Davis: A Georgia Perspective, Ronald L. Carlson

Scholarly Works

Sam Davis had a twenty-seven year history at Georgia, commencing in 1970. After a distinguished record as a student at the University of Mississippi School of Law, he joined the Georgia law faculty. Sam moved through the academic ranks, ultimately becoming Allen Post Professor of Law. Along the way he served, at various times, as Assistant Dean, as Associate Dean, and he was for a time the University's Associate Vice President for Academic Affairs. In 1997 he took over as Dean at the University of Mississippi School of Law. This article comments on his life and professional career, with some …

Why Legal Writers Should Think Like Teachers, Laura A. Webb

Law Faculty Publications

This article proposes that new legal writers can improve their work by “thinking like teachers.” I assert that legal writing is fundamentally educative. Good writing thus requires good teaching. The article discusses the “curse of knowledge,” which makes it difficult for a writer who fully understands her topic to remember how a reader who is less knowledgeable about the topic will approach the material. It then explores three concepts from the science of learning — context, chunking, and connections — and discusses how a writer can use these concepts to effectively teach her readers.

When Torts Met Civil Procedure: A Curricular Coupling, Laura G. Dooley, Brigham A. Fordham, Ann E. Woodley

Scholarly Works

Law students must become adept at understanding how various bodies of law interact-supporting, balancing, and even conflicting with each other. This article describes an attempt to achieve these goals by merging two canonical first-year courses, civil procedure and torts, into an integrated class titled ‘Introduction to Civil Litigation’. Our most pressing motivation was concern that students who study civil procedure and torts in isolation develop a skewed, unrealistic view of how law works in the real world. By combining these courses, we hoped to teach students early in their careers to approach problems more like practicing lawyers, who must deal …

End Of The Racial Age: Reflections On The Changing Racial And Ethnic Ancestry Of Blacks On Affirmative Action, Kevin D. Brown

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

Gallogly Family Foundation Public Interest Fellowships: Helping Ou Law Grads Impact Society, Mackenzie A. Dilbeck, Jonella Frank

Sooner Lawyer Archive

No abstract provided.

The Future Of Empirical Legal Scholarship: Where Might We Go From Here?, Kathryn Zeiler

Faculty Scholarship

The number of empirical legal studies published by academic journals is on the rise. Given theory’s dominance over the last few decades, this is a welcome development. This movement, however, has been plagued by a lack of rigor and a failure of editors to require disclosure of data and procedures that allow for easy replication of published results. Law journals, the editorial boards of which are manned solely by law students, might face the toughest hurdles in ensuring publication of only high quality empirical studies and in implementing and enforcing disclosure policies. While scholars in other fields including economics, psychology, …

The State Of Legal Research Education: A Survey Of First-Year Legal Research Programs, Or “Why Johnny And Jane Cannot Research”, Caroline L. Osborne

Scholarly Articles

None available.

Learning Intentionally And The Metacognitive Task, Patti Alleva, Jennifer A. Gundlach

Hofstra Law Faculty Scholarship

This article serves both to frame The Pedagogy of Procedure symposium it introduces and to itself explore the importance of metacognition and learning about learning to legal education and lawyering. The authors begin by suggesting why Civil Procedure doctrine is so challenging to teach and learn, noting how the symposium pieces help to tackle those challenges. They then join the growing number of law professors who advocate that learning how to learn deserves greater attention in the law school curriculum, suggesting that law schools should do more to demonstrate respect for the process of learning as an end in itself. …

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

Law Faculty Publications

Review of Carel Stolker's book, Rethinking the Law School.