Best Practices for Legal Education

The Equal Justice Works Guide to Law Schools is the new iteration of the E-Guide to Public Service at America’s Law Schools.  The Guide highlights law school practices that encourage students to engage in public service, and equip students with the skills necessary to meet the legal needs of the underserved.  It documents curricular and co-curricular innovations.  It provides a resource for law school applicants to find schools that meet both their practical needs and educational goals without the distraction of lists and rankings.  Because each law school is unique in its mission, culture and student engagement, the Guide is structured so that every school can show off its strengths, from clinics to career services.

The 2009 online survey is available now.  Completed surveys are due February 16, 2009.  Find out who at your school is in charge of filling the survey out and make sure they have the information they need to best represent your school’s public interest strengths.

It is worth noting that this is the only resource external to the law schools’ own websites or admissions materials that highlights clinical and other public service programs, and is marketed to prospective students.  Don’t we all want prospective students asking admissions people about clinical opportunities and making decisions about which school to attend in part because of clinical, extern and pro bono offerings? Of course! So it behooves us all tohelp make sure our schools’ descriptions are accurate and complete!

For more information about the Guide, visit www.equaljusticeworks.org/communities/lawschools/guide/faq, or contact Charlene E. Gomes at (202)466-3686 ext. 108, or cgomes@equaljusticeworks.org.

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Reflecting on the recent AALS conference, a colleague and I were speaking about how engaging we always found programs presented by the Academic Support and Teaching Methods section because the presenters always try to model good teaching along with conveying interesting ideas and insights. This year’s program, co-sponsored by these sections, was a particularly good example. The program was “Teaching to the Entire Class: Innovative and Effective Instruction to Engage Every Student” and it delivered what it advertised: after three hours, the roomful of professors remained energized and educated. Continue reading →

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A sampling of the Balance in Legal Education session at the AALS Annual Meeting: Continue reading →

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From Andi Curcio, chair of SALT’s Issues in Legal Education Committee, formerly Bar Exam Committee:

Many of you said you noticed (subjectively) a difference in the quality of answers if students had “time to think”.  It might be interesting to do an empirical study on that issue to see, if in fact, it made a difference.  Perhaps someone interested in exploring this issue could keep the current set of bluebooks in which you didn’t give “think time” and give the same exam questions next year adding a “think time” variable and compare answers. 

If anyone is interested in doing this, let me know and I’ll be happy to help set up the study’s design.  I am currently heading a Society of American Law Teacher’s committee on assessment issues and we are working with faculty across the country to begin empirically evaluating some of our assessment observations/assumptions. 

Email Andi Curcio for more information (acurcio@gsu.edu)

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THE BEST PRACTICES IMPLEMENTATION COMMITTEE plans to meet in San Diego during the AALS Conference to discuss next steps in advancing reform in and rejuvenation of legal education. One item on the agenda will be ways to update and improve this BEST PRACTICES BLOG.

To prepare for that meeting, I would appreciate posts describing what you like about this site and how we can make it better and more relevant to YOU! Avoid grading, the scale and/or annoying relatives and take the time to tell us what you think!

Wishing you a world at Peace & real Joy in 2009,

Mary A. Lynch
BLOG EDITOR

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AALS Sections on Teaching Methods and Academic Support Present a Joint Workshop:

Teaching to the Entire Class: 

Innovative and Effective Instruction to Engage Every Student

Wednesday, January 7, 2009 in San Diego

9 AM – noon

Marina Salon G, South Tower/Level 3, San Diego Marriott Hotel & Marina

  Continue reading →

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The Future of Education
Educational Equity in Communities of Color
January 23-24, 2009
Temple University James E. Beasley School of LawThe Mid-Atlantic People of Color Legal Scholarship Conference is designed to give law faculty of color the opportunity to share ideas for scholarly projects, workshop works-in-progress, mentor junior faculty members, and discuss critical and timely topics. This year’s conference will include presentations on topics including funding and finance, segregation – re-segregation, and school discipline and attrition. Continue reading →

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The CLEA Board is happy to announce that Bob Kuehn (Alabama) has been elected CLEA Vice-President, and that Esther Canty-Barnes (Rutgers), Leigh Goodmark (Baltimore), Kate Kruse (UNLV), Binny Miller (American), Jeff Pokarak (Suffolk), and Yoli Redero (Vanderbilt) have been elected to serve as board members.  The CLEA Board appreciates deeply all of the individuals who ran for board positions, as well as our membership who voted to fill these important positions.  We look forward to working with you and for you in the New Year.

Happy Holidays,

The CLEA Board

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Last week, I received a request for 12 copies of the Best Practices book.  When I asked why the person needed the books, he replied that he wanted to give a copy to each member of his school’s dean search committee.

I think this is a very good idea.  Armed with the book, search committee members can determine whether dean applicants are informed about current issues in legal education.  They can also evaluate whether candidates have a vision for improving the educational quality of a school or would, instead, prefer to maintain the status quo. 

If you would like copies for your dean search committee, send me an email at stuckeyroy@gmail.com.  There is no charge for the books, but we will ask you to pay postage/shipping costs.

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Like many others, I have incorporated practicing lawyers and judges into the classroom over the years in a variety of contexts.  This semester I had an especially rewarding experience with a guest speaker in my Public Interest Law and Social Welfare course (fka Poverty Law).  Of course, I try to only invite folks into my classroom when I think they have something valuable to deliver.  I have rarely been disappointed, although some speakers naturally are more entertaining than others while delivering their information.  This semester was different.  I have never had such an overwhelmingly positive response to a speaker before.  It was thrilling.  Who inspired this kind of reaction?    More importantly, can it be duplicated??? 

            I invited a practicing legal aid lawyer to speak to my class.  This lawyer has worked for legal aid for 40 years, and has been on the cutting edge of litigation and advocacy to save the homes of low income people.  He is a national expert on the subject of predatory mortgage lending practices and has testified before congress.  He is doing amazing work on behalf of poor people.  He arrived with a luggage cart full of handouts, and talked for an hour and a half about predatory lending, sometimes skipping around from topic to topic.  He ran over time.  Was the information he had presented in a linear fashion?  No.  Was it easy to follow?  Not always.  What was so great about it?  His passion.  Everyone in the room felt it.  After his presentation, a number of students stayed to introduce themselves and to thank him for coming.  Several students came to see me to tell me how much they enjoyed his visit.  Many sent emails saying things like, “the best class I have ever had in law school,” “best guest speaker ever,” or “I am considering going into this area of law now.”

            This experience demonstrates a couple of ideas related to Best Practices:  helping law graduates nurture their quality of life and integrating practicing lawyers into the program of instruction.  These are not easy tasks, and the goals can be achieved in a multitude of ways.  However, I learned this fall that showing students living, breathing examples of lawyers who have found meaningful, satisfying work in the law helps them identify possibilities for their own careers.  I would love to hear examples of ways that others have incorporated practicing lawyers and the concept of quality of life into their classrooms.

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The Midwest Clinical Conference was held in Bloomington, Indiana  at Indiana University School of Law last week.  (Terrific conference, by the way…well organized and very vibrant presentations).   Kudos to Julia Lamber, Amy Applegate, Carwina Weng, and the rest of the Indiana clinical faculty for hosting! The theme of the conference was “Building Bridges: Creating Clinical Opportunities through Collaboration”…and I got to give a keynote speech!  I mentioned the best practices project in the speech because I thought it was a wonderful example of a collaborative project.  Here is an excerpt:

The Best Practices book, you will notice, is authored by Roy Stuckey “and others”.  Roy did this because he said had lost track of the many individuals who attended meetings, wrote sections and gave comments and suggestions in the development of that important book.    He had the idea, Carrie Kaas and Peter Joy were president and vice president of the Clinical Legal Education association when they named him chair of the project.  Roy  recruited many others–law professors and individuals from other disciplines– to read  and comment on drafts and to write sections.  Vanessa Merton hosted a two day conference on the manuscript at Pace law school.  At every AALS and clinic meeting, he hosted a meeting to talk about a section or a chapter.  People came and went, but they left their ideas along the way.   When he learned about the Carnegie Report in development, he did not view them as competition, he viewed them as potential allies and worked with the authors.  They cross cited each other.   The result is the publication of two important books on transforming legal education and many ambassadors for transforming legal education.   And, the collaboration he encouraged inspired Mary Lynch and Carrie Kaas to head the Best Practices Implementation Committee  which collaborates to give presentations about Best Practices, blog about Best Practices and thus document and influence the  best practices movement.  And this movement will transform legal education!

For more information about the conference check out the conference materials  on the Indiana University Conference Website:  http://www.mclc.indiana.edu/

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For many of us in the United States, these past 24 hours have been filled with emotion.  We experienced the  most inclusive voting in our country’s history, the election of the first African American president, the power of a people’s movement and the promise of change in the midst of very difficult times.  We recalled the struggles of people who fought for and waited long for change to “come to America”.  

As the cameras focused on Grant Park last night, they showed us an ideal:  a beautiful, joyful tapestry of our sister and fellow citizens of all ages, races, colors, national origin, sexual orientation,  with or without disability celebrating peacefully a non-violent transfer of power.   Those in Grant Park listened to John McCain’s most gracious concession speech which called upon all Americans not only to support President-elect Obama  but to honor the need to celebrate this historic moment. 

I have to admit the first thing on my mind has not been Best Practices.  And yet, as law professors and law students, we know that moments of cultural and political and global change demand new ways to think about and teach and learn law.   What does this moment mean for us?

I offer two thoughts.  First, more than ever, we need to acknowledge that laws, legal systems and law practice will change and adapt to the multi-racial America that we aspire to be.  This multi-racial identity is not only about demographic statistics, it is a way of being in the world and relating to that world.  In other words, it may be time to flesh out more broadly Best Practices call to teach cultural competence and to acknowledge the remaining cultural challenges to de facto equality under the law. 

Second, I suggest that the election informed us about the nature of the young people we are teaching and who we will be teaching over the coming years.   This is an engaged generation, reminiscent of those who changed legal education in the 1960’s but with a uniquely 21st century identity.  Like in the 1960’s, droves of college students and twenty-somethings fueled voter registration campaigns and made a major difference in the outcome of the Democratic primary.  However, this generation also uses technology in ways that are disciplined and playful.  The web technology used by the Obama campaign and “MoveON” organized volunteers nationally, replacing local phonebanking sites with savvy computerized programs which enabled volunteers to conduct and organize campaign work from their homes.  On the Republican side, young conservatives were responsbile for websites such as  “Draft Sarah Palin” long before the rest of us ever heard of Wasilla or “field dressing a moose. ” Finally, this generation follows through, disproving the pundits who warned that  “young people” would not actually vote in great numbers. 

As educators, the lesson of the election may well be that our teaching, likewise, needs to be engaged, technologically savvy, disciplined, playful and have follow through – just as Best Practices advises.  And so, what I take away from this election is joy not only in the historic moment for my country but joy in anticipating and welcoming into the classroom and into the law clinics this new and exciting generation.

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