This National Jurist coverage of Charleston Law School goes to the heart of why tenure is important for higher education institutions.
http://www.nationaljurist.com/content/why-tenure-important
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The AALS Section on Clinical Legal Education has drafted a Statement of Position in support of the California bar’s proposal, which would require 15 units of experiential education for bar takers. According to AALS Clinical Section Chair, Jayesh Rathod of American University, the statement was drafted “as a counterpoint to the statement penned by the AALS Deans’ Steering Committee” and is now posted on the AALS website.
Statement of Position: http://www.aals.org/SCLE-TFARR/ (also featured on the home page)
Press Release: http://www.aals.org/aals-newsroom/SCLE-TFARR/
It was appropriate for the AALS Executive Committee to provide, at the very least, equal footing to a statement of one of the largest sections in the AALS with the statement of a special committee of Deans. It is also wonderful to see the Clinical Section join CLEA in supporting this important step for reforming and improving legal education.
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Law professors want their students to succeed in navigating the challenging path of law school and legal practice. We embed our advice in our courses and other interactions with students. Usually, we don’t have the chance to impart our wisdom systematically and get to convey only bits and pieces here and there.
Recently, I compiled my advice into a single article that I hope many students read and benefit from. I suspect that most professors and administrators would agree with virtually all of my suggestions. So you might want to assign it in your courses if appropriate, either as required or recommended reading. It is also appropriate for orientation programs, so you might pass this along to the people who organize the program at your school.
Since 2004, I have been teaching a required 1L course at the University of Missouri: Lawyering: Problem-Solving and Dispute Resolution. Every year, for the first day of class, we would read Stephen D. Easton, My Last Lecture: Unsolicited Advice for Future and Current Lawyers, 56 S.C. L. Rev. 229 (2004). I LOVE that article, which expresses really honest, practical advice with a good spirit.
I was asked to write an article to celebrate my retirement in an article collecting my ideas. So I drafted My Last Lecture: More Unsolicited Advice for Future and Current Lawyers, which will appear next year in the Journal of Dispute Resolution.
If you think that your students would benefit from it, please let them know about it. If I express advice you would give, you get the benefit of repetition, essentially saying, “See – it’s not just me. Someone who sounds impressive says the same things.”
I still have a chance to revise the article, so if you have any suggestions (especially if you might assign this in the future and want me to include things to urge your students), please let me know by September 14.
John Lande
landej@missouri.edu
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I have had the chance to learn about legal and professional education from some of the best. I wanted to take this opportunity to share some related resources with readers of this blog. Each of the resources here is free, and each amply rewards readers who need less than five minutes to scan for interesting and thought-provoking content.
Law School Vibe. A fairly new, thought-provoking blog is one called “law school vibe” developed as a team effort by colleagues at the University of New South Wales School of Law in Sydney, Australia. During my research leave “down under” I learned a great deal from the smart and innovative educators there. Here’s the address: https://lawschoolvibe.wordpress.com/ It’s easy to subscribe and there are many excellent posts (by bloggers Alex Steel, Colin Picker, Justine Rogers, Pru Vines, and Carolyn Penfold among others. Topics have included student collaboration, how to teach statutory interpretation, the role of “content for all,” new approaches to international education, ethical issues (Does “Just Call Saul” translate abroad? How should academics deal with plagiarism?), and more. Rather than simply providing information, this blog asks engaging questions that are worthy of reflection and conversation with colleagues. Posts arrive to subscribers about every two weeks. Make it a habit to read these engaging thoughts.
Tomorrow’s Professor. The Tomorrow’s Professor is a wonderful listserv that typically arrives twice a week from Stanford University’s Engineering Professor Rick Reis. Here’s the address for those who would like to subscribe: https://tomprof.stanford.edu/ Billed as “online faculty development,” it definitely delivers the goods for all of us who are interested in higher education, not just junior faculty or those in the sciences. Posts focus on teaching and learning, research, academic careers, the academy, and graduate students. Most posts are drawn (with permission) from other sources so readers often have the benefit of a quick summary or chapter excerpt from literature they would likely not otherwise encounter. Recent posts include coverage of “desirable difficulties,” “capstone courses,” academics as “public intellectuals,” and cross-cultural mentoring among other things. In some ways the Best Practices blog seeks to create a similar resource for legal educators, but why stop there? Enrich your reading and learn something from those with complementary expertise.
Inside Higher Education. Inside Higher Education (available at https://www.insidehighered.com/ ) is a terrific resource for those interested in following trends affecting higher education more generally. This on-line resource offers daily summaries of this on-line publication’s coverage of developments affecting higher education. The focus is a bit different from the resources above, but coverage should appeal particularly to those interested in or currently serving in leadership positions. Enticing recent posts include “how to kill committee meetings,” and that’s only the start. Sign up for free daily news summaries.
How About You? What are your favorite sources of insight about teaching and learning, or about changing patterns of higher education more generally? Share them with our readers. If you have time before the semester gets too frantic, offer brief summaries of your favorite resources such as those included here.
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I force my students to reflect. The clinical students must submit a written piece at Orientation entitled “What Am I Doing Here?” and in my lecture course, I give written assignments early in the semester forcing them to ponder the theories behind Supreme Court decisions and the relevance to those in their own lives. But what about me? What good is reflective learning without reflective teaching?
Like many of you, I suspect, reflection is an implicit and sometimes even explicit aspect of my pedagogy. I set learning outcomes. I review best practices scholarship and refine my plans accordingly. I explore new material. I google. It’s a large, messy, fun sandbox we play in.
But as summer draws to its inevitable close, I find myself more drawn to the pause that reflection can invite. As teachers, we are encouraged to pause, at least ostensibly. Semesters have endings, followed by “breaks”. Education is full of built-in pauses. What we do during those pauses, I think, matters much more than we realize. And I say that knowing that many of you, also like me, don’t have the “full stop” experience during the summer that some have. Clinical teaching means client work, and direct representation of individual clients in state trial court litigation means no full stops. Summer is just a season like the other three. Also it’s family law–enough said.
So when comes the pause? Whenever it can. In my world, it comes in the space between my deep inhales and exhales during tough moments in court. Some days this summer it came early in the day, with coffee and the newspaper on my front porch. And sometimes the pause was several days long, as vacations should be. But at some point, every day, I pause deliberately to practice mindful movement or stillness, or a little of both. Simply put, I practice yoga and meditation. New Age? Maybe. Relevant to my health? Absolutely. Related to law teaching? Well, that’s the thing.
I found myself this past week adding more and more references to mindfulness, to reflection, and to just slowing down and pausing to savor moments, to my syllabus and my PowerPoints for class. My students are getting a little neuroscience about brain chemistry’s link to mindful reflection with their Family Law this semester.
I’ve been passionate about this for several years, but my clarity about the links between science and law grows constantly. Aren’t we better students of anything when we harness our brain’s maximum power? And that’s what mindfulness does–the science clearly shows it changes your brain for the better. You’re a better learner, and a better teacher. And what about stewards of the law–aren’t we better legal advocates if we are calmer, more open to legal theory, and more effective at conflict resolution?
This week I’ll share some of the science with my students, and then I’ll explain my new classroom rules: no phones, no computers, and we start each class with a moment of silence. Then we’ll crack the new edition of the Bluebook and be off to the races. That’s what we’re doing here.
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EXCELLENT Post from Pepperdine’s’ Jeff Baker over on Clinical Law Prof Blog on their proactive approach to the California proposal! Congratulations Pepperdine!
Pepperdine adopted these standards as graduation requirements beginning with the Class of 2017, “in advance of the rules’ formal enactment, to ensure that our students and our school are prepared and to accomplish these objectives well and eagerly. We are actively building capacity in our program of clinical education, adding clinics, creating practicums, developing new experiential opportunities across every law school center, examining our curriculum, and building a flexible, compliant program to generate pro bono opportunities for students. The new rules have given us great incentive to innovate and adapt, with a renewed focus on professional formation, and to live into our own mission.”
Jeff also mentioned that he spoke at a panel last year at Pepperdine’s Judicial Clerkship Institute” where there was “much discussion about experiences students should seek and receive to prepare for elite practices and judicial clerkships,” The consensus from judges, bar leaders and academics at that conference?
students need more courses and experiences that will generate wisdom, creativity, humility, integrity, diligence and excellence, within a pervasive understanding of lawyers’ roles and obligations to society.
Justice Jon Streeter, formerly president of the California Bar and chair of TFARR “expressed confidence and optimism that the rules will be adopted.”
It sounds like California will do the right thing in changing times when human nature resists change…
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There can be little doubt that law schools are largely proficient in teaching “hard skills” such as knowledge of the law, legal analysis, research, writing, and drafting. But what about “soft skills”—the general set of skills which influence how people interact, such as communication, leadership, critical thinking, confidence, team building, time management, creativity, public speaking, and problem solving, just to name a few? Most can agree that these skills are needed to be a successful lawyer, but we can also probably agree that they are not being taught in law school.
Other professions have been teaching and using these skills for some time while law schools have been slow to embrace them. Business and medicine are just two examples. If we agree that proficiency in these skills would not only make for happier clients but also more productive working relationships, why not make the teaching of these skills part of our curriculum? Perhaps some lawyers, professors, and students believe that you are either born with these skills or not—and that no specific training is needed to improve them. However, that is simply not true. Research proves that it is possible to develop these skills just as one can develop other skills. As noted in the ABA’s LawPractice Today, “[i]t is astounding that [soft skills] are not taught in law school, and that fact only serves to increase the responsibilities of law firms to create and implement training initiatives that focus on developing an attorney’s service-oriented skills… [a]nd so law firms have begun to teaching these skills—so why shouldn’t law schools?”
The question, of course is how to teach them. I, along with two of my colleagues, am working on a book aimed at bridging this gap by providing information law school professors can use to teach important skills—such as problem solving, creativity, and mindfulness, to their students. While some resources certainly exist, more are needed, along with the recognition of the importance of the skills and a willingness to teach them.
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In law school, we learn about model answers, class ranking and, for lack of a better term, perfection. It usually seems to be about striving to perform better and comparing to others ahead of ourselves, no matter where we are placed – or place ourselves – in the ranking queue. Yet, along comes work by Nancy Levit and Doug Linder, two professors of law at the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law, who examined lawyer happiness. While many people think that money would have a huge impact on happiness, that apparently was just not accurate according to a reported study. But other factors mattered. What struck me about this exploration, in particular, was the finding that “comparing downward” was a good way to promote happiness.
The way I understand it, a downward comparison means to appreciate what we have and see the hundreds, thousands and more people who have less than we do, not those people/lawyers who have more. That would be comparing upward – to the friend at the more prestigious firm, the other friend who is ranked higher in six different categories at school, or to the person who just received the prestigious clerkship you applied for as well.
I know I compare upward quite a bit. I went to Harvard, but was not a top performer (no summa for me), did not get the top clerkship, job, etc. It actually is pragmatically useful, though, to recognize the advantages to comparing down. I really like and use a quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson that does indeed implicitly compare down:
“Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could. Some blunders and absurdities no doubt crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day. You shall begin it serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense.”
This quote is posted in my office and at home, for good reason.
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The second issue of Touro Law Center’s Journal of Experiential Learning will be uploaded online prior to the start of the Fall 2015 semester. This issue is devoted to incubator and residency programs and their contribution to legal education, particularly to the post-JD part of the educational continuum. The creator of the law school incubator movement, Fred Rooney of Touro Law, is the guest editor for this edition. Be sure to check the website, www.tourolaw.edu/jel for the latest uploads. Articles for the Incubator & Residency issue include
Incubator Development at Home and Abroad: Anecdotal Stories from the Trenches
Fred Rooney
Law School Based Incubators and Access to Justice – Perspectives from Deans
Patricia Salkin, Ellen Suni, Neils Schaumann and Mary Lu Bilek
Incubating Community Law Practices: A Model for Lawyer Training & Access to Law
Luz Herrera
Innovate, Collaborate, & Serve: Louisiana’s “LIFT” – A Legal Incubator and Accelerator Program Startup Guide
Amy Duncan
The Pro Bono Requirement in Incubator Programs: A Reflection on Structuring Pro Bono Work for Program Attorneys
Davida Finger
Creating a Post-Graduate Incubator Program through a Law School-Bar Association Partnership
Robyn L. Meadows, J. Palmer Lockard and Elizabeth G. Simcox
A Custom Tailored Form of Post-Graduate Legal Training: The Rhode Island Center for Justice
Robert McCreanor
Implementing Psychological Resilience Training in Law Incubators
Mark Heekin
An Examination of the Special Role Career Service Professionals Can Play in the Development and Success of Law School Incubator Programs
Sumana Wolk and Erica Edwards-Oneal
The third issue focuses on pre-JD experiential learning programs, many of which are pipeline programs offered by undergraduate institutions. The guest editor of that issue is Diana D. Juettner, J.D. Chair of the Department of Social Sciences at Mercy College in Dobbs Ferry, New York. If you or a colleague would like to contribute, please contact Coordinating Editor, Associate Dean Myra Berman at mberman@tourolaw.edu.
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Leadership courses can prepare law students for the leadership roles they will assume as they serve their clients, law offices, and communities.
The University of Tennessee College of Law’s Institute for Professional Leadership offers courses and programming aimed at developing students’ leadership skills and professional values. Doug Blaze directs Tennessee’s program and has co-taught the course “Lawyers as Leaders” for several years. The course integrates readings on leadership, class discussions, and guest appearances by lawyers from various practices. Blaze says that students have described the course as “one of the most meaningful and valuable” courses that they took in law school.
Stanford Law School’s Deborah Rhode wrote the book Lawyers as Leaders and teaches a course titled “Law, Leadership, and Social Change.” Stanford’s course addresses the responsibilities and challenges of leaders and considers topics including: leadership styles, organizational dynamics, conflict management, innovation, diversity, and ethical responsibilities.
At Ohio State University’s Moritz College of Law, the Program on Law and Leadership consists of seven initiatives that “make leadership an integral part of the law school experience.” These initiatives include workshops, a speaker series, a dean’s roundtable, collaboration and partnerships, scholarships, a conversation series, and various courses. Ohio State’s “Lawyers as Leaders” class “is designed to help students understand the hallmarks of skillful leadership and management.” The course combines theory, case studies, and simulations.
Other schools with notable leadership programs and courses include Columbia Law School, Elon University School of Law, and University of Minnesota Law School.
These programs recognize that all lawyers need to be prepared for the leadership roles they will inevitably play in their personal and professional lives. Tennessee’s Doug Blaze says, “We want to prepare lawyers who will make a positive difference in the profession and in their communities.”
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The Wall Street Journal recently featured a story on the growing movement among law schools to provide “mindfulness” training for students. The article describes mindfulness as “[a] Zen-inspired blend of meditation, breathing exercises and focus techniques.”
As noted in the WSJ article, University of Miami School of Law is one of approximately two dozen schools offering mindfulness classes. According to its course catalog, Miami’s course is titled Mindfulness in Law: Cultivating Tools for Effective Practice. The course description notes that two local bar associations have formed the “Mindfulness in Law Joint Task Force” to explore mindfulness in practice. In the course, students are introduced to mindfulness “as a collection of tools of awareness that can enrich one’s skill set in relationship to the stimulating and challenging aspects of legal practice.” The full course description can be accessed here.
The WSJ story is available here.
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In today’s New York Times, THERESA AMATO makes recommendations for addressing the justice-lawyer gap — that frustrating current reality in which United States citizens have tremendous legal needs but no lawyer to help while, at the same time, American law schools graduate a supply of lawyers who need jobs and need to pay their school debt.
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Professor Brian Sites, Coordinator of Experiential Learning at Barry University School of Law in Orlando, Florida, composed a fluid list of experiential learning resources that may be added to and shared among the legal community.
The resources are grouped by, among other methods, course area (i.e. Contracts, Torts, IP, Family Law, etc.). In the list, you will find books that are simulation-based, experiential supplements, law review articles on exercises in that area, websites that have exercises in that area, and exercise ideas.
Professor Sites plans to expand the list as he finds more resources and welcomes emails suggesting additional materials and newly-created exercise ideas.
The link to the resource list and Professor Sites’ contact information may be found below:
Professor Brian Sites
Assistant Professor of Law, Coordinator of Experiential Learning
Barry University Dwayne O. Andreas School of Law
Phone: (321) 206-5685
Email: BSites@barry.edu
SSRN Author page: http://ssrn.com/author=1490216
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I am reblogging this great news from Albany Law ‘s Multicultural Initiatives Legal Round up.
DREAMer Application to NYS Bar Granted
The New York State Supreme Court Second Department Appellate Division last Wednesday issued a monumental decision approving the New York State Bar application of Cesar Vargas, the dynamic Co-Director of Dream Act Coalition. Cesar who was brought to the United States from Mexico by his mother when he was 5 years old and graduated from City University of New York School of Law in 2011, is a DREAMer who is authorized to be lawfully present in the United States under Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (“DACA”) program. Vargas was initially approved for deferred action in 2013 after DACA was first implemented in 2012.This is the first New York State court decision explicitly holding that a DREAMer law graduate can fulfill the “good character and general fitness” requirements for NY bar admission. Moreover, in a matter of national first impression, the court further found that a DREAMer such as Cesar is not barred from being granted his New York State law license under a federal law prohibiting states from issuing state benefits such as a professional license to undocumented immigrants unless the state first enacted enabling legislation authorizing the issuance of such benefits or licenses. The court held Congress cannot unconstitutionally infringe upon a state’s sovereign authority to divide power among its three co-equal branches of government such as in in New York which has granted the Judiciary branch the authority to review and approve bar applications to practice law, and that the Judiciary may exercise their authority as state sovereign to opt out of such federal restriction as the court did here!
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In response to my previous post, sgeorge326 “wonder[s] how schools can achieve this lofty goal?” of learning “how to identify prospective students or develop admitted ones who understand their life goals and values, and their intellectual and personal gifts well enough to make intelligent decisions around specialization”.
Here are five steps toward that goal AND ideas for achieving them:
1. Encourage students to gain experience in the workplace before attending law school, especially in jobs that expose them to lawyers,.and to reflect on what they learned about lawyers and themselves.
2. Help students understand what lawyers do.
3. Incorporate the work of lawyers into first year courses.
4. Infuse experiential education throughout the curriculum.
5. And, perhaps most important, but still the biggest stretch for most law schools, help students both understand the importance of learning about their life goals and values and intellectual and personal gifts and provide opportunities for them to do so.
As the links in the above paragraphs demonstrate, many schools already one or more of these individual ideas in place. The now ABA-required process of identifying outcomes (Standard 302), including in assessment of student learning both formative feedback and summative grading (Standard 314), and assessing program outcomes (Standard 315) could be implemented in ways that encourage additional student progress in these important areas.
The new volume “Building on Best Practices: Transforming Legal Education in a Changing World” should be available in ebook format from LexisNexis by the end of the month. It includes more ideas and details. Readers, you undoubtedly have additional ideas — share them!
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Best Practices for Legal Education 