Legal Education Commons^™

Using Westlaw And Lexis: The Many Ways In, Joshua Levine

Library Staff Online Writings

Researching the law depends on finding connections between information. No case or statute exists in a vacuum. The primary advantage of using Westlaw and Lexis is that they point out, on a high level, the connections between individual resources. It is disappointing how often students use natural language search terms or basic AI queries to find all their answers. Within the limitations of class time, it is essential to teach our students as much as possible how pieces of information are connected on these platforms.

Vol. 70, No. 2 (January 19, 2026)

Indiana Law Annotated

No abstract provided.

Law Schools Should Teach How To Integrate Ai Tools Into Practice, Robert A. Mackenzie, David J. Reiss

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

Now that artificial intelligence tools for lawyers are widely available, we decided to integrate them for a semester in our Entrepreneurship Clinic. We have some important takeaways for legal education in general and the transactional practice of law in particular.

First, employers and educators need to account for law students who already are using AI tools in their legal work and guide new lawyers about how to use such tools appropriately.

Second, different AI products lead to wildly different results. Just demonstrating this to law students is very valuable, as it dispels the notion that AI responses can replace their …

From Contracts To The College Football Playoffs: Stephen Harper’S Unlikely Path To Iu Athletics, James Owsley Boyd

Keep Up With the Latest News from the Law School (blog)

On Monday night, as the Indiana University football team takes the field with a national championship on the line, Stephen Harper ’11 will be where tens of thousands of IU alumni wish they could—on the sidelines of Miami’s Hard Rock Stadium.

For Harper, Indiana’s chief operating officer for athletics, the moment is the culmination of a journey that began far from packed stadiums and playoff spotlights. Before contract negotiations, NIL policy, and Big Ten championship trophies, Harper was a high school English teacher and basketball coach at Bloomington North High School.

The National Jurist Names Kellye Testy ’91 Most Influential Person In Legal Education, James Owsley Boyd

Keep Up With the Latest News from the Law School (blog)

The National Jurist has named Indiana University Maurer School of Law alumna Kellye Y. Testy ’91 the most influential person in legal education, placing her at the top of its annual list of the 25 most influential leaders in the field.

The ranking is based on a survey of law school deans nationwide. In explaining the methodology, The National Jurist noted that respondents were asked to identify individuals who “sparked new ideas, introduced reforms, inspired their peers, or pushed them to see their work differently.” The resulting list, the publication said, highlights leaders who are “moving the field forward and …

Social Equity And Cannabis Explained: History, Regulatory Implementation And The Drug War Reform Efforts 01-13-2026, Roger Williams University School Of Law

School of Law Conferences, Lectures & Events

No abstract provided.

Vol. 70, No. 1 (January 12, 2026)

Indiana Law Annotated

No abstract provided.

Cardozo Law News Brief: January 9, 2026, Benjamin N. Cardozo School Of Law

Cardozo Law News Briefs

Highlights from the January 9, 2026, Cardozo Law News Brief include:

• Dean Melanie Leslie was named one of The National Jurist’s Most Influential People in Legal Education.

• Professor Rebecca Ingber was quoted in The New York Times on the legality of proposed U.S. military involvement in Venezuela.

• Professor Matthew Wansley commented in The New York Times on robotaxi safety concerns after a power outage stranded Waymo vehicles in San Francisco.

• Professor Jessica Roth spoke to Bloomberg about the release of redacted Epstein-related DOJ files.

Faculty news includes:

• Professor Michel Rosenfeld appeared on Canadian TV to discuss U.S. legal issues surrounding …

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Law School News: A Quiet Success Story: Rwu Law's Enduring Partnership With The Center For Justice 01-09-2026, Helga Melgar

Life of the Law School (1993- )

No abstract provided.

Dean Leslie Named One Of The National Jurist’S Most Influential People In Legal Education, Benjamin N. Cardozo School Of Law

Cardozo Law News Archive

Dean Melanie Leslie was named one of The National Jurist's 25 Most Influential People in Legal Education for 2026 in recognition of her leadership at Cardozo School of Law. The announcement highlights her role in advancing social justice, innovation, institutional growth, and leadership development in legal education.

Performing Democracy, Carliss N. Chatman

Faculty Journal Articles and Book Chapters

American universities are frequently portrayed as stewards of democracy—sites where dissent is protected, truth is pursued, and diversity is championed. Yet these institutions often betray these ideals, especially under the pressures of donor influence, reputational risk, and political retrenchment. This Essay interrogates the internal contradictions of the university by centering one of its most guarded rituals: faculty hiring. Building on my 2021 article The Soft Shoe and Shuffle of Law School Hiring Committee Practices, I argue that hiring serves as both a performance of inclusion and a mechanism for preserving institutional whiteness, elite networks, and gatekeeping norms. I extend …

The Pedagogy Of Legal Synthesis, Stephen Mortellaro

Scholarly Articles

The ability to synthesize implicit legal principles from many ambiguous cases is a mark of a skilled attorney. But legal synthesis is notoriously challenging to teach, and law students typically receive little explicit guidance on how to synthesize. The literature likewise offers law professors little direction on how to impart the skill successfully. This Article serves as a guide for professors to effectively train law students to synthesize implicit legal principles. Drawing upon cognitive science, the study of logic, and educational research, this Article explains the challenges of learning legal synthesis and equips professors with pedagogical methods and curricular resources …

Clinic Highlights 2025, University Of The District Of Columbia David A. Clarke School Of Law

Clinics

No abstract provided.

Turning Risks Of Cheating With Ai Into Opportunities For Better Teaching, John M. Lande

Faculty Publications

Many law school faculty are concerned that students may misuse artificial intelligence (AI) tools to undermine their learning and violate academic integrity policies.  Although some students will inevitably cheat, faculty can reduce the risk – and improve student learning – by rethinking assignment design and classroom communication.

This article frames the risk of AI-related cheating as an opportunity for pedagogical improvement.  It offers practical strategies to help faculty design assignments that enhance student learning, promote good decision-making, discourage inappropriate AI use, and foster responsible AI literacy.  It outlines approaches consistent with the ABA’s new requirement for formative assessment throughout the …

Teaching Contracts: My Journey With Spellbook And Ai Pedagogy, Gregory M. Duhl

Faculty Scholarship

I am integrating Spellbook, an AI tool for contract drafting and review, into my first-year law school Contracts course in Spring 2026. Although Spellbook is highly effective, its educational value hinges on the pedagogical framework structured around it, a framework typically not licensed along with AI tools. In-house instructional design expertise can provide this framework, and the professor-instructional designer partnership offers one model for successful AI integration. Strong tools paired with robust instructional design yield learning experiences in which AI augments, rather than supplants, the cultivation of legal judgment and critical thinking. This collaborative approach, among educators, instructional designers, and …

Law Library Blog (January 2026): Legal Beagle's Blog Archive, Roger Williams University School Of Law

Law Library Newsletters/Blog

No abstract provided.

Critical Lawyering Pedagogy: Transformational Legal Education, Carolyn Grose

Faculty Scholarship

In an era marked by democratic backsliding, systemic inequality, and widespread disillusionment with legal institutions, traditional legal education has proven not merely inadequate, but actively complicit in reproducing the institutional norms, professional identities, and hierarchies that have enabled democratic erosion and the misuse of law as a tool of exclusion and domination.

This Article describes a comprehensive, justice-oriented framework that reimagines the structure, content, and outcomes of legal education to better meet those needs. Critical Lawyering Pedagogy (CLP) draws from Critical Pedagogy, Narrative Theory, and Critical Lawyering and challenges the entrenched hierarchies and exclusionary norms that dominate most law schools …

De-Skilling Or Re-Skilling? The Case For Smarter Writing Assignments, John Lande

Faculty Publications

This article challenges the assumption that AI inevitably leads to the de-skilling of law students.  Some faculty understandably fear that students will use AI to bypass critical thinking and avoid meaningful effort.  This article reframes AI as a potential catalyst for improving legal education rather than inherently a threat.

Concerns about de-skilling generally are based on the assumption that faculty will not change traditional writing assignments.  This article analyzes why these assignments often fail to help students develop strong analytical and writing skills. These include limited instruction in basic writing skills, poor design, lack of feedback, and faculty inertia in …

Legal Professional Identity Development: An Exploration Of The Social And Emotional Processes By Which Law Students Transition From Novices To Professionals, David Hall Abney Ii

Theses and Dissertations--Communication

This dissertation seeks to heed the call for expansion of instructional communication research (ICR) beyond the undergraduate classroom and undergraduate learning objectives by exploring older learners and higher-order affective learning objectives. Legal professional identity development (LPID) is a discipline-specific type of higher-order affective learning that is conceptualized as a continuous nonlinear process that begins in law school and extends throughout a lawyer’s career, involving the internalization of the legal profession’s core values and norms and their integration with an evolving identity. Using a pragmatic ICR approach and a mixed-methods design, Phase 1 employed individual interviews and focus groups to investigate …

Relentless: The Pressures Shortening Law School Deanships And What Must Change, Katie Kempner, Patricia E. Roberts

Faculty Articles

It is no small thing when a law school loses its dean. The departure triggers a national search, stalls institutional momentum, disrupts fundraising, and requires rebuilding years of relationships with faculty, alumni, and university leadership, all while the institution navigates one of the most turbulent periods in legal education's history. Approximately 25 percent of the nation's law schools transition to a new dean in any given year. That reality prompted this study.

This study combined a survey of 624 current and former law school deans, which yielded 256 responses and data on 294 deanships, with 70 qualitative interviews conducted between …