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Best Practices For Legal Education

Source of information on current reforms in legal education arising from the publication of Roy Stuckey’s Best Practices for Legal Education and the Carnegie Foundation’s Educating Lawyers.
By Mary Lynch, Editor

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Last Entry: November 11, 2009 at 14:00:16

Apprenticeships ? a best practice?

Posted on November 11, 2009
I recently returned from Serbia and Macedonia on a Public Interest Law Institute trip to help assess which Balkan law schools should join PILI?s expanding legal education reform project. Some professors were surprised that US law schools are also wringing their collective hands about how to give ideally all law students more meaningful experiential [...

Another Interdisciplinary Collaboration?this time with a Professor of German!

Posted on November 08, 2009
The University of New Mexico International Studies Institute has a relationship with the German government in which the Institute runs a summer program at a castle near Dusseldorf known as Schloss-Dyck. In summer 2010, I am going to have the privilege of teaching in the program with a Jason Wilby, a UNM visiting Professor of [...

Cost of Legal Education

Posted on November 07, 2009
A recent GAO report, HIGHER EDUCATION: Issues Related to Law School Cost and Access is garnering attention in the blogosphere ( clinicians -with-not-enough-to-do, poverty law) and more conventional media. Responding to a GAO survey, law schools blamed a move toward ” a more hands-on, resource-intensive approach to legal education” and competition for US News rankings for [...

Standards Review Committee

Posted on November 07, 2009
Anything new with the ABA Section of Legal Education & Admissions to the Bar?s Standards Review Committee? Best Practices devotees know that in Sept. 08 the committee began a comprehensive review of standards that includes considering the contents of reports by two special subcommittees, on Outcome Measures and Security of Position and comments on the [...

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Collaborative Externships Update

Posted on October 22, 2009
Almost seven months ago I blogged about the the Laurel Rubin Rural Externship Advocacy Project sponsored by the Washington State Access to Justice and the Law School’s committee. Externship Collaborations In June the Project was formally launched at the WA Access to Justice Conference, the first cohort of students, one from each of the Washington law [...

Orientation Programs

Posted on October 22, 2009
A fun aspect of getting a few gray hairs: we might be around long enough to see our ideas come to fruition. Some years ago I wrote about the important role of experiential learning in providing context for law students. Passion, Context, and Lawyering Skills: Choosing Among Simulated and Real Clinical Experiences, 7 Clin...

International Perspective on Best Practices Blog

Posted on October 22, 2009
I bet some of you missed the fact that October 5th is World Teachers’ Day. Yeah for us! Rah for the team! The UK’s Centre for Legal Education’s Digital Directions notes that the Best Practices blog is the only blog “focused on legal education as their primary theme...

The Daniel Webster Scholar Honors Program

Posted on October 22, 2009
John Burwell Garvey, of Franklin Pierce Law Center and Hon. Anne F. Zinkin of the New Hampshire Supreme Court have published a paper entitled, “Making Law Students Client-Ready: A New Model in Legal Education.” The primary focus of the paper is to detail the Daniel Webster Scholar Honors Program, which among other advantages, allows successful graduates to bypass the traditional [...

Carrie Kaas and Mary Lynch?s Best Practices Presentation, or NECESSITY IS THE MOTHER OF INVENTION

Posted on October 16, 2009
Best Practices Presentation Oct. 15, 2009 at So. New England School of Law

Interdisciplinary Collaborative Education in Law Schools

Posted on October 14, 2009
A few weeks ago, we were fortunate to host a group of educators who are interested in interdisciplinary collaborative education in the form of partnerships between law schools and the health professions at a conference held at Georgia State University College of Law...

One BAR to rule them all?

Posted on October 14, 2009
As LOTR fans rejoice over the title of this post, law students everywhere should be encouraging the efforts of Erica Moeser whose goal is to enlist states to adopt a universal bar exam. I encourage everyone to take a look at the comments this post has received, here...

Collaborating with Other Departments in the University

Posted on October 13, 2009
Communication and Jounalism departments can help you with focus groups to get ideas from alumni and lawyers in your community about the skills and values students should learn in law school. Medical school models of assessment can be great sources for skills based assessment...

Collaborative work on H1N1

Posted on October 07, 2009
My colleague Mary Lynch asked me to share a project my bioethics students just completed. I asked the 14 students in my Bioethics seminar to research the legal and ethical implications for Albany Law School of an H1N1 outbreak, and to work together to draft a memo outlining any policy changes the class would recommend to [...

SALT & OTHERS COMMENT ON ABA OUTCOME MEASURES

Posted on October 07, 2009
In September of 2008, the ABA’s Council of the Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar Section (Council) began a comprehensive review of the ABA Standards and Rules of Procedure for the Approval of Law Schools relying on the work of the Standard’s Review Committee (SRC)...

Faculty Teaching Exchanges Can Create a Teaching Community

Posted on October 03, 2009
During the past two weeks, many members of the Albany Law faculty engaged in a series of informal discussions about our teaching mission. After surveying faculty interest , the Center for Excellence in Law Teaching www.teachinglawstudents.com hosted small meetings of 5-10 members focused on selected topics...

Assessment Experiment: Letting Students Teach, Part Deux

Posted on September 18, 2009
As a sequel to the June 16, 2009 blog “Collaboration Experiment,” I wanted to share a great experience one of my students had last semester. I teach a clinic at Albany Law School that handles unemployment insurance cases. We get referrals from a legal aid office under their Private Attorney Involvement initiative and early last [...

ABA Top 100 Blawgs

Posted on September 17, 2009
The ABA Journal is conducting its annual survey to find the Top 100 legal blogs (blawgs). Please take a minute to vote for Best Practices! Your support is very much appreciated. Thanks, The Best Practices Bloggers Posted in Uncategorized

Putting Best Practices Into Practice: Implementing Change One Step at a Time

Posted on September 16, 2009
In 2007, CLEA published Best Practices for Legal Education, which articulated ways to effectively educate law students to leave law school better prepared to practice law responsibly, effectively and ethically. Since, then, Best Practices has been part of the collective conversation about reform in legal education, a conversation evidenced by list serve discussion, [...

Report on Crossroads III ? the Denver Conference

Posted on September 14, 2009
Just back from a fantastic conference on assessment. Check out the great program, including materials and eventually video of the sessions (keep checking the site) http://www.law.du.edu/index.php/assessment-conference/program. Noting the patting self on the back aspect of the following, I must say, we had a fantastic Best Practices Players session...

Externships: The New Economic Indicator?

Posted on September 11, 2009
[From The National Law Journal] The recession makes externships a sweeter deal for students The lousy legal hiring market is encouraging unpaid student work, but deeper forces are also at play. Emily Heller September 7, 2009 Without summer associate programs to rely on, law students are turning to alternate ways of gaining practical experience and making connections that could lead [...

Incorporating Clinical Experiences in Classes

Posted on September 08, 2009
I’ve been thinking about ways of incorporating clinical experiences in doctrinal classes. The importance of this practice has not only been demonstrated by our Best Practices authors and the Carnegie Foundation, but especially by our own observations of our students as they enter clinical courses...

National Law Journal Reports on Carnegie and BP reforms at Duke, UCLA, Dayton and ?..

Posted on September 07, 2009
Duke Law School dean David Levi Image: Jason Doiy UCLA School of Law’s Michael Schill LAW SCHOOLS Reality’s knocking The recession is forcing schools to bow to reality. Karen Sloan September 7, 2009 Washington and Lee University School of Law has thrown out its traditional third-year curriculum and replaced it with a series of legal simulations meant to prepare students [...

First Day

Posted on September 03, 2009
Ah, the first day of law school. The 1Ls are ready to go. Orientation may have fed some of their apprehensions, but it?s also gotten them excited about beginning their law school journey. The returning 2Ls and 3Ls have done a variety of things over the summer...

Upon My Honor

Posted on August 31, 2009
On August 20th, Albany Law School 1L?s filtered into our largest moot courtroom, the nervous excitement of the first week still lingering. Standing before them was Northern District of New York Magistrate Judge, the Honorable Randolph Treece. With Dean Thomas Guernsey at his side, Judge Treece spoke about values like ?honesty? and ?integrity...

TERMINOLOGY AND MEANING: Experiential & Learning & Context-based & Lawyering Role & Structured Supervsion &?..

Posted on August 22, 2009
I think we are at a point in the legal education reform movement, where terminology to identify the complementary but distinguishable kinds of “Experiences” and kinds of “Learning” seems important.(Deborah Maranville, Russell Engler, Sue Kay and I are working on a piece which analyzes some of this…...

Utilizing Best Practices for Formative Assessment in a Trust & Estates Course

Posted on August 05, 2009
The summer months often supply the time, energy, distance (from the inexorable demands of the academic year), and desire to re-envision our courses. A colleague and BP blog author, Carolyn Grose, is engaged in redesigning a Trusts & Estates Course with a focus on using BEST PRACTICES for Assessment...

National Law Journal: Temple Dean JoAnne A. Epps Describes the Current ?Tipping Point? For Law Schools & Her School?s Re-Evaluation of Upper Level Curriculum

Posted on July 28, 2009
As I read Dean JoAnne Epps July 20th National Law Journal?s opinion piece on the call to legal education reform, I am reminded that each one of us understands the themes and threads of this movement differently. These differing threads and themes weave together in rich texture and ultimately strengthen the commitment to reform...

Educating Teachers: On Becoming a Student Again at the Summer Institute for Clinical Teaching

Posted on June 26, 2009
I have just returned from Washington, D.C., where I spent the last week fully immersed in clinical teaching methods at the second Summer Institute for Clinical Teaching at Georgetown University Law Center. There were approximately 25 attendees, many with years of teaching experience, who came from all over the country to engage in four days [...

Ideas from the Institute for Law Teaching and Learning Conference

Posted on June 23, 2009
“Implementing Best Practices & Educating Lawyers: Teaching Skills and Professionalism Across the Curriculum (POST 1) Two Favorite Teaching Techniques: The Letter Exercise & Hess?s 3R?s”. Here I am at Gonzaga U, in beautiful Spokane, Washington amidst a group of over 100 thoughtful and experienced law teachers and administrators who truly care about teaching, have studied what [...

Collaboration Experiment: Letting the Students Teach

Posted on June 16, 2009
In response to several inquiries of Albany Law School?s Family Violence Litigation Clinic students concerning tax issues related to separation and divorce, we decided to engage in an experiment that turned out to be a huge success. The Low Income Taxpayer Clinic (”LITC”) and Family Violence Litigation Clinic (”FVLC”) students were asked to prepare and [...

Best Practices and Supreme Court Nominee Judge Sonia Sotomayor: the Importance/Impact of Experience & Intercultural Knowledge

Posted on May 31, 2009
As the right and the left examine and attack President Obama?s nominee, Second Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Sonia Sotomayor, we should take a look at her from a ?Best Practices? perspective. Although the focus of Best Practices is the legal academy, its values transfer well to consideration of a Supreme Court nominee...

Roy Stuckey Weighs in on Clinicians? Job Security

Posted on May 26, 2009
The debate about job security and status has been with us continually for over 30 years, and it will be with us for many years to come. There is no most correct answer. I can agree with almost everything that has been written in this [clinic list serv] stream...

The Future of Family Law Education

Posted on May 25, 2009
A family law education conference with topics and demonstrations to enliven your teaching. Friday, June 26-7, 2009 / William Mitchell College of Law / St. Paul, Minnesota Register Today! The Family Law Education Reform Project began a national effort to more closely align family law teaching with family law practice...

Denver to Host Conference on Assessment Next Fall

Posted on May 21, 2009
I am pleased to announce that the University of Denver will be hosting a conference in September focused on Assessment in Legal Education. Here is the opening paragraph for the request for proposals. Check out the RFP and Conference program at: http://law...

An Experiment in Outcomes-Based Education at one Law School

Posted on May 18, 2009
What follows are excerpts from a report presented to the William Mitchell faculty and administration, prepared by the “Future of Legal Education Task Force,” of which I am a member. It’s exciting stuff. We’ll see where it goes ...

THE ROLE OF CRITICAL THEORY SCHOLARSHIP IN BEST PRACTICES

Posted on May 07, 2009
As law schools and law faculty engage in legal education reform, the question arises: What is the role of critical theory or theory-critique? Some of our friends and colleagues in the critical race, feminist, post-feminist and other theory-critique schools may feel left out of the dialogue/teaching initiatives when, in fact, such “theory-critique” skills are an important [...

AALS Steps Forward on Best Practices, Carnegie and LEARN Recommendations

Posted on May 04, 2009
The AALS?s Standing Committee on Curriculum Issues sent an e-mail to law school deans and others last Friday requesting information about ?ways in which law teachers are enriching their classroom teaching by bringing in background materials that go beyond the judicial opinion...

Externship Collaborations

Posted on April 15, 2009
Cost is often cited as an obstacle to providing real experiential learning opportunities. Overcoming those cost barriers will require creativity. That’s one reason I’m so excited about an experiment coming out of the Washington state Access to Justice Board’s ATJ & the Law Schools Committee...

Play, Creativity, Improvisation

Posted on April 10, 2009
Why are play, improvisation, and creativity showing up in so many different conferences and publications these days? And what do they have to do with best practices in legal education? The 2008 AALS Conference in New York included an Open Source presentation on play, and a Clinical Section presentation on improvisation...

If You Build It, They Will Come

Posted on April 09, 2009
I have long believed that alumni will financially support law school programs that are designed to prepare students for practice. I also believe that such programs will give schools an advantage over peer institutions in recruiting students. The experience at Washington & Lee supports my theses...

The Law Teacher

Posted on April 07, 2009
The latest issue of The Law Teacher is out– http://www.washburnlaw.edu/faculty/schwartz-michael-institute/15-2lawteacher(2009).pdf. Several of the articles address topics near and dear to those of us interested in legal eduaction reform. In particular, Harriet Katz’s “Personal Assessment” paper offers an exciting tool for building reflection skills that can be adapted to even the most doctrine-and-theory course you teach...

On Change, Hierarchies, and Gravitas

Posted on April 02, 2009
I’ve been musing on the subject of “gravitas” lately. Why? The LEARN report that Mary blogged about last month contains the sentence “LEARN has gathered law schools and educators with the experience, imagination and gravitas to effect real improvements in how the future lawyers of the country (and the world) are trained...

Collaborative Learning and Teams

Posted on March 24, 2009
The value of active, collaborative learning is a key “best practices” theme. And it overlaps with a major theme we heard from employer representatives in a series of listening sessions my law school held a few years ago. Public interest, government, firms — they all wanted our graduates to know how to work in teams [...

It?s All Coming Together

Posted on March 11, 2009
Long-time Best Practices/Carnegie groupies or aficionados will note that one of other ongoing projects regarding legal education has been the research that Marjorie Shultz and Sheldon Zedeck of Berkeley have been conducting on what skills/qualities lawyers need...

So many conferences,so little time

Posted on March 11, 2009
The postings from last weekend’s University of Maryland School of Law conference are great for those of us who were unable to attend. Some of us were at another conference last Thursday and Friday–Yale Law School’s celebration of 40 years of clinical education at Yale, specifically honoring clinicians Denny Curtis, Steve Wizner, Frank Dineen, and [...

CPS Clickers in the Law School Classroom: A CRIM LAW EXPERIMENT

Posted on March 10, 2009
Darlene Cardillo, instructional technologist at Albany Law School, sent me the link to her article entitled, The Use of Clickers in the Law School Classroom, which was recently published in THE LAW TEACHER (pp.13-14). http://blog.engaging-technologies...

U of M third panel: Best Practices and Professional Purpose and Identity

Posted on March 10, 2009
(Continuing Report on U of Maryland?s 3/6 Conference) The third panel presentation organically and beautifully modeled how to teach and communicate in accord with Best Practices. (I will post the webcast to the Events tab above as soon as I receive it so you can view the discussion and interaction)...

BREAKING NEWS: LEARN Report Sent to all Deans

Posted on March 06, 2009
March 5, 2009 To: Law School Deans & Associate Deans From: Steering Committee of LEARN (Legal Education Analysis & Reform Network) Re: Outline of the Work that LEARN is Doing in Cooperation with the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching ______________________________________________________________________________ Two years ago, the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching published its report on legal education, entitled Educating Lawyers...

DEANS DISCUSSION of BEST PRACTICES

Posted on March 06, 2009
I type this post while listening to the Deans’ Panel presentation at the University of Maryland’s Conference - Curriculum Reform: Linking Theory and Practice. Three Law School Deans, reflecting on the evolving reform movement in Legal Education, describe Best Practices as a win-win for Deans and a force to be embraced and enjoyed...

CURRICULAR IDEAS FROM HARVARD, NEW MEXICO AND STANFORD

Posted on March 06, 2009
CURRICULAR IDEAS FROM HARVARD, NEW MEXICO AND STANFORD The second panel of today’s UM conference focused on ?Redevelopment of the Law School Curriculum.? Professors Antoinette Sedillo-Lopez, Todd Rakoff, and Larry Marshall described longstanding or new curricular ideas which meet at least some of the goals of Best Practices enthusiasts...

Contribution of Board of Trustees Members to Best Practices Movement

Posted on March 04, 2009

Sharing Best Practices in A Tough Economy

Posted on February 20, 2009
The economic downturn puts legal education at a crossroads indeed. Travel freezes, pay cuts, tuition increases, even furloughs: law schools have clearly not escaped current economic woes. How will the economy affect the drive to improve legal education? As the budget crunch hits law schools, one can expect steps to trim faculty, rely [...

How to Reward Good Teaching?

Posted on February 11, 2009
Texas A&M announced that it will pay bonuses of $10,000 for good student evaluations. Fred Moss of SMU called this a bad idea in an email to the AALS Teaching Methods Section. He fears a “‘race to the bottom,’ with professors vying with each other to be the easiest, least demanding, spoon-feeders amongst their peers...

Best Practices and a Dean Search

Posted on February 06, 2009
I just finished the interview process for the deanship at my law school, the University of New Mexico, and I am pleased to say that Best Practices for Legal Education was all over it. In presenting my vision for the law school, I presented the concept of ?Legal Education for Leadership?...

2009 Legal Education at the Crossroads Conference

Posted on January 26, 2009
Save the date: September 11-13, 2009 at University of Denver. The topic: Assessment. Should be another good one. More information to follow as it becomes available. Thanks to Denver Dean Beto Juarez and chair of the Conference organizing committee Roberto Corrado! Posted in Catalysts For Change, Upcoming Events, Who is Using the Best Practices Book? [...

AALS Annual Meeting- Focus on Evaluation

Posted on January 18, 2009
The Association of American Law Schools (AALS) Section on Clinical Legal Education joined with the Section on Professional Responsibility to sponsor a program at the 2009 AALS Annual Meeting. The first panel focused on the development of legal ethics in law schools and the effects of clinical legal education on graduates...

Is Your School in the Equal Justice Works Guide to Law Schools?

Posted on January 15, 2009
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...

AALS and Modeling Best Practices in Teaching

Posted on January 14, 2009
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...

Educating Lawyers and Best Practices for Legal Education: A Mandate to Humanize the Law School Experience

Posted on January 13, 2009
A sampling of the Balance in Legal Education session at the AALS Annual Meeting: William Mitchell?s Keystone and Pathways Programs: n Apply humanizing principles while also furthering Carnegie and Best Practices goals. n Are designed to meet learning goals while appealing to diverse students and diverse faculty, helping unite passion and purpose in work and identities...

Interested in Doing Some Empirical Research on Exam Writing?

Posted on January 05, 2009
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...

BEST PRACTICE BLOG AUTHORS/EDITOR NEED YOUR INPUT

Posted on December 27, 2008
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...

Great Looking Program for those going to San Diego

Posted on December 26, 2008
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 Program Moderators and Presenters ? Three Parts: Part I ? Moderator: Robin A...

2009 Mid-Atlantic People of Color Legal Scholarship Conference

Posted on December 24, 2008
The Future of Education Educational Equity in Communities of Color January 23-24, 2009 Temple University James E. Beasley School of Law The 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...

Welcome to New Members of the CLEA Board!

Posted on December 22, 2008
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...

Save the Date: Third Annual Indian Law Clinic and Externship Symposium and Workshop

Posted on December 18, 2008
SAVE THE DATE June 7-9, 2009 Third Annual Indian Law Clinics and Externship Programs: Symposium and Workshop Sponsors Southwest Indian Law Clinic UNM School of Law University of Denver Sturm College of Law Contributors The Tribal Law Practice Clinic Washburn University School of Law Arizona State University Sandra Day O?Connor College of Law Where: Isleta Casino & Resort, Pueblo of [...

The Importance of Training Cross-Cultural Practice Skills

Posted on December 15, 2008
Best Practices suggests that a law school curriculum should focus on knowlege, skills and values that are relevant to the practice of law. I believe that cross-cultural knowledge, intercultural communication and self-awareness are very important to the effective practice of law and will become even more important as our world continues to shrink...

Cultural Knowledge, Intercultural Communication and Self Awareness

Posted on December 14, 2008
I have posted several blogs about ideas involving intercultural communication, cultural knowlege and self awareness. At the risk of engaging in shameless self-promotion, I would like to announce that my article on these issues just came out as part of the Wash U...

Best Practices Blog Authors To Present at University of Maryland School of Law

Posted on December 03, 2008
Dean Antoinette Sedillo Lopez and Professor Peter Joy are scheduled to present at the University of Maryland School of Law conference entitled “Curriculum Reform: Linking Policy and Practice.” This conference is scheduled for March 6 & 7, 2008...

BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU WISH FOR

Posted on December 01, 2008
So I?m probably the only one who missed this interesting development in the ongoing saga of reform of the ABA Standards for the Approval of Law Schools. There has been much hoo-ha and concern about the Special Committee Reports on Security of Position and Outcome Measures, but did you know: in August 2008, the Standards [...

Use the Best Practices Book to Educate Dean Search Committees

Posted on November 21, 2008
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 [...

Practicing Lawyers in the Classroom Special Bonus Edition: Free Passion!

Posted on November 21, 2008
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)...

Collaboration and the Development of Best Practices for Legal Education

Posted on November 19, 2008
The Midwest Clinical Conference was held in Bloomington, Indiana at the University of Indiana School of Law last week. (Terrific conference, by the way…well organized and very vibrant presentations). Kudos to Amy Applegate, Carwena Wang, and the rest of the Indiana clinical faculty for hosting! The theme of the conference was “Building Bridges: Creating Clinical [...

THE ELECTION AND BEST PRACTICES

Posted on November 05, 2008
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...

First Year Practicum Course

Posted on November 02, 2008
My colleague Jenny Moore permitted me to post this course description for Practicum. She, Alfred Mathewson and Sergio Pareja are each teaching one section of First Year Contracts. The Practicum is a one credit course connected to Contracts. Here is her description: University of New Mexico School of Law Practicum course (Fall 2008) OVERVIEW: The goal of the first year [...

Best Practices and Math for Lawyers

Posted on November 01, 2008
I have been getting some feedback from members of the bar that recent graduates are not as savvy about math and accounting as they have been in the past. I was assured it was not just UNM graduates, but it made me think about the recommendation in Best Practices to prepare students for the practice [...

Bar Passage and Best Practices for Legal Education

Posted on October 27, 2008
My colleague Alfred Mathewson always makes me think. He came back from the American Bar Association Bar Exam Passage conference last week. He had attended the Crossroads conference at the University of Washington too. He had some interesting observations...

More Assessment at the AALS Annual Meeting

Posted on October 22, 2008
I am really excited about moderating and serving as commentator of the second session of the Joint Program sponsored by the Clinical and Professional Responsibility Sections to be held in San Diego on Wednesday, January 7. It is on assessment and is going to be very interactive...

11th Annual Northwest Clinical Conference: On Assessment

Posted on October 21, 2008
Wish you all could have been there for the 11th Annual Northwest Clinical Conference at the beautiful Sleeping Lady Conference Center outside Leavenworth in Washington’s Cascade Mountains. Our topic? A central Best Practices issue: Assessment...

What do clinics have to do with US News & World Report? The unfortunate answer is ?not much?

Posted on October 16, 2008
If it’s fall, then the US News & World Report law school rankings ballots are arriving in law professor mailboxes everywhere. More specifically, clinic directors are receiving the separate clinical specialty ballots (as are teachers of the other separate specialty rankings), and four members of every law school faculty will get the annual “peer [...

Best Practices Makes The Chronicle

Posted on October 06, 2008
Thanks to our friends at the Clinicians With Not Enough To Do blog for finding this: Print: Due Processors: Educators Seek a Digital Upgrade for Teaching Law - Chronicle.com By PETER MONAGHAN Seattle In 1871, Christopher Columbus Langdell, a prominent jurist who had joined the law faculty at Harvard University, hit on the idea of compiling thick, imposing ?casebooks? [...

Mark Your Calendars for the 2009 AALS Workshop on Clinical Legal Education

Posted on October 02, 2008
From Jane Spinak: Dear Colleagues, On behalf of the workshop committee, I am sending a brief description of the May workshop so that you can start planning your trip soon. We will be issuing RFPs in October for the two concurrent sessions that are being planned and for organizing the affinity group meetings described below...

Passion, Context Redux (Part 2)

Posted on September 30, 2008
As I noted in my last post, one of the fun aspects of getting a few gray hairs is that we sometimes are around long enough to see a few of our ideas come to fruition. In my article Infusing Passion and Context into the Traditional Curriculum Through Experiential Learning, 51 J...

Almost No Correlation between Scholarship Production and Teaching Effectiveness

Posted on September 29, 2008
I hesitated to post this now because I really want to see some creative feedback on the previous post from Carolyn Grose! Please DO RESPOND to Carolyn’s excellent post. However, this was simply TOO good to wait to share - here’s some news from the TAXLAW BLOG that confirms what Best Practices has been “preaching”! Barton: No Correlation [...

Queries from the Best Practices Implementation Committee

Posted on September 29, 2008
We had a fantastic time in Seattle a few weeks ago, and I for one felt reinvigorated and excited about this great project we’re all involved in — you know, the one about totally reforming legal education? What we didn’t get either from the Best Practices Meets Reality workshop (see my earlier post on September [...

Passion, Context, Redux (Part 1)

Posted on September 26, 2008
A fun aspect of getting a few gray hairs: we’re around long enough to see our ideas come to fruition. Some years ago I wrote about the important role of experiential learning in providing context for law students. Passion, Context, and Lawyering Skills: Choosing Among Simulated and Real Clinical Experiences, 7 Clin...

Best Practices in Law Schools Survey is great; but what is ?clinical??

Posted on September 23, 2008
So, Deborah Rhode’s Best Practices in Law Schools Survey just hit my school, probably yours too. Brilliant concept, superb execution. Very excited about the potential impact of delivering real, solid, accurate information to USNWR respondents...

Process: Conversations and PR

Posted on September 23, 2008
Back on June 12, I posted about our “baby step” curriculum reform efforts at the University of Washington Law School last year: information gathering, conversations, and making what we currently do more visible to ourselves. Visit the website for the Crossroads Conference that I’ve been talking about in my recent posts...

Crossroads and Curriculum Reform Processes

Posted on September 19, 2008
Back on June I2, I noted that lots of folks are thinking about what processes are most likely to produce successful curricular reform. At the Crossroads Conference, we had a very interesting plenary on “Institutional Processes for Curriculum Reform”...

More Conversations on Professional Identity

Posted on September 17, 2008
For a number of years I’ve taught a course on Access to Justice that satisfied the externship classroom component requirement. Because we are restructuring our externship program, when I taught the class spring quarter the students who were taking the class only to satisfy the requirement were moved to our new externship course...

Counting Clinical Opportunities

Posted on September 16, 2008
I just finished writing a letter to the editor of National Jurist about the magazine?s ranking of the ?Best Law Schools for Practical Training? in the September issue. They don?t have a letter to the editor section, so I don?t expect it to get it published, but I did want to educate the magazine about Best [...

Materials and Podcasts From UW?s Crossroads Conference

Posted on September 16, 2008
As you’ve heard from already heard from Carolyn Grose, the conference held at the University of Washington School of Law in early September on Legal Education at the Crossroads: Ideas to Accomplishments: Sharing New Ideas for an Integrated Curriculum was a great success...

Thinking About Learning Goals

Posted on September 16, 2008
One of the more surprising aspects of law teaching is how hard it is to articulate with specificity the outcomes we are trying to achieve. Our goals seem too obvious to even discuss ? until we try to pin them down. The challenge of identifying learning goals is present at all levels of academic decision-making, [...

Working with State Bar Associations on Best Practices

Posted on September 12, 2008
The New York Bar Association’s Committee on Legal Education and Admission to the Bar invited me to present to them on Best Practices — the book, the BLOG and the movement! I did so this past Wednesday September 10th. Committee members were very interested and asked many questions...

Dispatch from the Crossroads (of innovation and reform)

Posted on September 09, 2008
Setting: Seattle. It?s sunny and warm. Mt. Rainier beams down on us like a wise and indulgent grandfather. We?re all set for 42 hours of thought, discussion and plotting revolution in and of the legal academy. And that?s what we do. Random observations: lots of men here...

ABA Council on Legal Education, Outcome Measures Committee Report

Posted on September 06, 2008
I just saw that the Outcome Measures Report is posted on the ABA web site. The Outcome Measure Committee was chaired by Randy Hertz and is a tour de force. The Report cites Best Practices and the Carnegie Report extensively, it then goes on to look at legal education in other countries, accreditation in other disciplines and regional accreditation [...

The Policies Not the People: Intercultural Relations

Posted on August 31, 2008
In Ireland recently, my family and I went on a tour with Denis Ryan, a Celtic folk musician, historian and tour guide. He took us on an anthropological tour of the Dingle Peninsula. We showed us the Ogham stones, Dun Beag, a fort built in 500 B.C., beehive huts in Faran, the Reasc Stone, the [...

Law Professors and Context-Based Education: The Clinic and the Classroom

Posted on August 15, 2008
New Mexico?s clinical model is quite unusual as far as clinic models go. All of us who teach in the clinic also teach in the classroom and many faculty members rotate through the clinic. While the model has its challenges, we think the benefits far outweigh those challenges...

Curriculum Reform: Best Processes?

Posted on June 12, 2008
In reviewing proposals submitted for the University of Washington’s conference Legal Education at the Crossroads: Ideas to Implementation Conference to be held in Seattle on Sept. 5-7, one theme that has surfaced is “process”: How do we get it to happen? What processes will be most helpful? We expect to have both showcase and workshop sessions relating [...

More on Cultural Knowledge, Self-awareness and Intercultural Communication

Posted on June 05, 2008
Over the last 18 years I have, fairly regularly, come to the beautiful, Spanish colonial town of Guanajuato, Mexico to teach in the Guanajuato Summer Law Institute. For the last three years, I have directed the program. Each time I come, I make more Mexican friends and I learn more about the Mexican culture...

Using Clickers in the Criminal Law classroom

Posted on June 04, 2008
At the conclusion of our second year of using “clickers” (the CPS system from eInstruction) in several classes at Albany Law School, I asked students in the Criminal Law class what they thought. Question 1: How did the use of CPS enhance your learning of the course material? Here are some of their responses: Preparing my answers for [...

Legal Education at the Crossroads

Posted on June 04, 2008
I agreed to join the Best Practices Blog author list at the AALS clinical conference in Tucson , but of course it took me awhile to figure out how to actually do it. Anyway, I’m delighted to be joining this exciting effort. If I had any doubts that legal education is at a crossroads, those doubts [...

Assessments Requiring Reading Statutes Not Covered In Class:Lessons I Learned

Posted on June 03, 2008
I teach the second half of a year-long first-year civil procedure class. We spend the semester reading and interpreting the Fed. R. of Civ. P. Throughout the semester, I give the students hypothetical questions that require them to read and interpret the applicable Federal Rules...

Best Practices and the Formation of Professional Identity

Posted on June 02, 2008
The ABA Center for Professional Responsibility held the 34th Annual Conference on Professional Responsibility this past week in Boston Massachusetts. The program included a presentation entitled “Teaching Ethics and Professional Development: Legal Education at a Crossroads...

Want to Contribute to a Book on Law Teaching and Learning?

Posted on May 30, 2008
The Center for Engaged Learning in the Law (CELL) of Elon Law School plans to publish a short book on law teaching and learning this fall with the Carolina Academic Press. The goal of the book is to provide a handy and concise reference guide from the perspectives of practitioners, students and teachers...

Creating a Cohort

Posted on May 30, 2008
On May 16, the day before they crossed the podium in cap and gown, 13 law students were sworn in as members of the New Hampshire Bar. None of them had taken the traditional bar exam. All of them had participated in an intensive two-year bar preparation course as part of their enrollment in the [...

Family Law Education Reform Project

Posted on May 29, 2008
More synchronicity in the slow but steady march to transform legal education. This email floated across the family law list serve. This is an exciting project! Dear Colleagues:We are pleased to announce a new initiative to help us address the integration of family law and family practice in the classroom...

Team Based Learning

Posted on May 23, 2008
Ever hit snags when having students work in small groups? Student evaluations often tell the story: Best thing about this class: Small group work!!!! Worst thing about this class: Small groups!! I’ve always felt bad for the students who hate small groups...

Using a text book with Best Practices in mind

Posted on May 22, 2008
When was the last time you had to read a case book in a subject you knew nothing about? If it’s been a while, I recommend you try it. Multiply that experience by four. Add to that experience the practice of daily carrying 20 pounds of dead weight...

University-wide Re-accreditation as a Catalyst for Best Practices

Posted on May 20, 2008
Law schools that are units within a larger university structure will be a part of the university-wide re-accreditation process. It is not unlike the ABA re-accreditation process. It involves a self-study, standards, a site visit and a report. The academic enterprise of a university is so complex that the process may involve multiple years [...

Faculty Hiring and Best Practices

Posted on May 20, 2008
As one academic year winds down, plans are already being made for next year’s faculty hiring. What does that have to do with Best Practices? One could argue that to implement the vision of the Carnegie Report and Best Practices law schools should only hire applicants who have practiced law for at least a decade and have become “masters” [...

Meet minimum competencies to pass a course?

Posted on May 20, 2008
Identifying rules. Analyzing and synthesizing authorities. Applying them to facts. Organizing coherently. Using accurate punctuation and grammar. Citing to authority. We tell students that all of these are important in legal writing classes, but in all honesty, we show a different message...

Intercultural Communication, Cultural Knowledge and Self-Awareness

Posted on May 09, 2008
Several of the sessions at the recent AALS clinical conference in Tucson raised issues that involve what many call cultural competence. (EXCELLENT CONFERENCE, by the way). All agreed that these issues are very difficult to address. I have an article coming out in the Wash...

Using Standardized Clients in a Classroom Course

Posted on April 30, 2008
As part of the joint project with the UNM medical school that I described in earlier blogs, we used standardized clients in my Family Law course the same way standardized patients were used at the Medical School, as a potential tool of assessment. I am now thinking about using them again next year in [...

Worst Practices in Legal Education

Posted on April 25, 2008
I got the idea for this blog post from Chuck Weisselberg. We all feel unworthy sometimes to tout what we do as BEST Practices. It?s probably easier to name the poor practices of legal education. So here?s the beginning of my pet peeves : 1) Acceptance of law professors who disparage and show immense disdain [...

Insights From Legal Writing Prof

Posted on April 23, 2008
As I was frantically trying to clear out my emails to stay under my disk quota, I ran across an email sent to the faculty by Barbara Blumenfeld, our Legal Research and Writing Director. I had saved it because I liked it. I thought it could use a broader audience so I asked [...

What Does Competency Look Like?

Posted on April 21, 2008
Lately, I find myself asking myself a question right before teaching some material, “What does competency look like in this subject area?” I ask this in part because of student statements about the opaqueness of legal ed — that they do not know what we want them to be learning, exactly...

A Colleague?s Thoughts on Curricular Planning

Posted on April 20, 2008
As we have been working on curricular planning, one of my colleagues, Laura Gomez could not attend an early meeting (I think she was at a book signing or her son’s field trip or something). With her permission, I am posting her thoughts: Initially I’d like to thank Suellyn for turning our attention to the Carnegie [...

Curricular Planning and Educational Outcomes

Posted on April 12, 2008
As I said in my last post, the Best Practices book suggests that a law school?s curriculum should ?achieve congruence in its program of instruction?. Congruence requires that law schools harmonize educational programs with mission; curriculum with educational outcomes, and instructional objectives with curriculum (p...

What Makes a Good Law Professor: A Student Perspective

Posted on March 31, 2008
As a recent graduate (< 1 year) of Albany Law School, and a current Graduate Fellow in the Albany Law School Clinic, I?ve had the unique opportunity to be on both sides of the legal education fence. Recent conversations with both doctrinal and clinical professors regarding the student experience in law school has made it [...

What Do the Best Law Teachers Do?

Posted on March 26, 2008
Recently, Professor Michael Hunter Schwartz from Washburn University School of Law, and a contributor to this blog, sent me the following email: Dear Colleagues, I am in search of the best law teachers in this country, and I could use your help...

Curricular Planning and Mission

Posted on March 21, 2008
Warren Binford, Annette Appel and I are leading a concurrent session at the AALS Clinical Conference in Tucson this May. Our session is entitled ?Strategic Planning: Learning From Our Mistakes and Growing From Our Experiments.? We are planning to engage the audience in some strategic planning techniques...

Building on Strengths: University of Denver Sturm College of Law and Best Practices

Posted on March 14, 2008
The University of Denver, Sturm College of Law is using some of its faculty lunch series to think about and talk about the Carnegie Report and Best Practices. I spoke at a faculty lunch on March 12 about Best Practices. I asked the organizer, Laura Rovner, in advance of the presentation about whether I should [...

Washington and Lee Embarks on a New Third Year Curriculum: Embraces the Carnegie Report and Best Practices

Posted on March 07, 2008
Washington and Lee University School of Law is dramatically changing its curriculum by creating a new third year curriculum devoted to professional development through simulated and real-client practice experiential learning. Influenced by the Carnegie Report, Educating Lawyers, and Best Practices for Legal Education, the new third year curriculum integrates legal theory, doctrine and the [...

Requiring Midterm Assessments in First-Year Courses

Posted on March 06, 2008
Maybe this is already well-known, but (without conceding that paper-and-pencil exams of any sort necessarily constitute useful assessment of integrated legal skills and knowledge), I thought it was a slightly encouraging example of movement on the assessment front...

Adaptive Learning Environments: Interactive Outlining?

Posted on February 28, 2008
After recently having numerous discussions with teachers and students about the value of students outlining a course, one thing is clear – the age-old practice of outling is thriving. One thing that is not as clear is the value of a practice that does not involve any teacher-student interaction...

International Conference on the Future of Legal Education: Update and Report

Posted on February 27, 2008
The International Conference on the Future of Legal Education was held recently, Feb. 20-23, and it was the most comprehensive look to date concerning new initiatives in legal education around the world. The materials from the conference are available at http://law...

Future of Legal Education Conference

Posted on February 22, 2008
If you were uable to attend this conference, you can view the PowerPoint slides from a Presentation by Paul Maharq and Liz Li: | View | Upload your own Here’s more about the conference: Paul’s Blog: http://zeugma.typepad.com/zeugma/2008/02/the-future-of-l...

March 4th: Formative Feedback Day in America

Posted on February 20, 2008
I was asked in a comment to my last post on formative feedback, How are we going to motivate teachers to do the extra work required to give such feedback? The answer is to show how learning increases if formative feedback is a regular part of the educational process...

Adaptive Learning Environments

Posted on February 20, 2008
The theme of the CALI conference this year is transforming legal education, picking up on the Best Practices theme and the Carnegie Foundation Report, Educating Lawyers. One area where the horse already has left the barn involves learning environments...

Externships ? A Bridge to Practice

Posted on February 20, 2008
I just returned from an excellent conference: Externships 4 ? A Bridge to Practice. This was the fourth in a series of national conferences by and for law school externship program faculty. The theme of this conference was ?challenging faculty and administrators to consider the role of externships in the curriculum in light of the [...

RFP: Best Practices Conference at the University of Washington

Posted on February 20, 2008
REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS ? DEADLINE MAY 15, 2008 Legal Education at the Crossroads Ideas to Accomplishments: Sharing New Ideas for an Integrated Curriculum Friday, September 5, 5-9 p.m. Saturday, September 6, 9 a.m. ? 4 p.m. Sunday, September 7, 9 a.m...

In-role learning environments

Posted on February 20, 2008
This posting is a belated answer to a question Mary Lynch posed in her comment on a posting here at http://tinyurl.com/2r7fgo. Mary was asking about examples of ?successful ?in role? learning environments/exercises which work in non-clinical, larger classroom settings?...

Whatever Happened to Formative Feedback?

Posted on February 19, 2008
Imagine taking a piano lesson with a teacher who asks questions, but gives little on-the-spot feedback. Imagine the teacher returning week after week, stating after each lesson, “I will give you feedback after our big, end of the session recital...

2008 Conference for Law School Computing

Posted on February 19, 2008
Theme: Transforming Legal Education “This year’s conference is all about change - transformational change. It is time to put the divisiveness of laptops in the classroom behind us. It is time to face our fears. Fear of USNews ranks, fear of the student debt implosion, fear of technology and change itself...

Learning from Medical School?Resident and Law Student Interaction

Posted on February 18, 2008
Rob Schwartz, my colleague and renowned health law professor at the University of Mexico has been getting medical school students and law students together for years. He has regularly organizes a Medical Legal Ethics day where students get together to discuss medical and legal problems...

Down to Basics - Writing Student Learning Outcomes

Posted on February 15, 2008
As others have noted, identifying student learning outcomes is hard work. First, you have to identify student learning outcomes. Then you have to figure out how to measure them. Then you have to go back and revise … few of us get it “right” the first time...

Learning from Medical School?Formative Feedback, Assessment and Resources

Posted on February 15, 2008
Formative feedback is giving students information about their performance to help them improve. Summative assessment is an evaluation of the student?s performance. It is useful in determining whether the student as achieved the skill or level of knowledge...

Learning from Medical School?Pre-tests for Legal Skills?

Posted on February 11, 2008
As part of the collaborative project on joint training for medical residents and law schools about domestic violence, the group had decided to use standardized patients to ?pre-test? skills. The idea is that the pre-test would help us determine the effectiveness of the training...

Learning from Medical School?Outcome Based Assessment: An ?aha? moment

Posted on February 08, 2008
Ever since I got involved a few years ago with the Best Practices project, I started putting educational objectives on my syllabi. These are the objectives I had on my Fall 2007 Family Law syllabus which incorporated a joint Medical Legal training project on Domestic Violence using standardized clients...

Getting from here to there: how are we going to implement Best Practices?

Posted on February 08, 2008
As someone who has been involved in the Best Practices project and its predecessors more or less from the beginning (though my longevity is more impressive than my substantive contributions), I am extraordinarily pleased by the publication of the book and the buzz that is creating...

Learning From Medical School About Assessment

Posted on February 05, 2008
In summer, 2007 Dr. Cameron Crandall approached the Law School about collaborating on a joint training program for domestic violence. Since I teach Family Law, I was very interested in new approaches to addressing the issue of Domestic Violence. Professors and staff from the medical school and a legal aid attorney who specializes in domestic violence [...

The Chronicle of Higher Education Takes Note of Best Practices

Posted on January 28, 2008
Two recent articles by Katherine Mangan promote Best Practices and some of the law schools that are working to implement reform. Her January 11th story, ?All Rise. Welcome Law School,? describes Touro Law Center as creating change in legal education by ?emphasizing practical skills from Day 1...

The January 2008 United Kingdom Conference on Legal Education

Posted on January 21, 2008
Here are a few observations after participating in the second annual UK Conference on Legal Education on January 3rd and 4th of 2008: 1. In Sync. The legal education instructors in the UK share our issues and concerns regarding the future of legal education...

ABA Sets Groundwork for Change

Posted on January 18, 2008
Possible changes are afoot with the ABA, and anyone interested in legal education will want to take note. These changes are important because of the ABA’s influence on U.S. law schools.

Save the Date: Best Practices Conference at U of Washington

Posted on January 18, 2008
The University of Washington School of Law has agreed to host a Conference addressing efforts to implement the insights from Best Practices and Educating Lawyers: Legal Education at the Crossroads: Ideas to Accomplishments to be held September 5-7, 2008...

Washburn?s First Week Best Practices Curriculum

Posted on January 14, 2008
Integrated into one of each entering students’ regular courses, Washburn’s First Week Curriculum consists of one full week of instruction (twelve hours of classroom instruction plus another ten hours working in small, carefully-constructed, and closely-supervised small groups) aimed at several of the goals addressed in Best Practices...

Protected: Draft for Seattle Law Review

Posted on January 13, 2008
There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.

AALS Sessions

Posted on January 08, 2008
John Mayer on his CALIopolis Blog has posted the audio of the AALS Session: Rethinking Legal Education For The 21st Century. The speakers included… Moderator: Edward L. Rubin, Vanderbilt University Law School Speakers: Vicki C. Jackson, Georgetown University Law Center Robert Mac Crate, Esq...

?The Falling Down Professions?

Posted on January 07, 2008
Many of you probably saw and read the cover of the Sunday Styles section of January 6th’s New York Times entitled: ”The Falling Down Professions.” The article outlines the decrease in “happiness” of lawyers and doctors...

A Call for a Response: ?Why are Law Professors So Unhappy??

Posted on January 07, 2008
Yet another connection that might be made to another blog, to TaxProfBlog in fact : http://taxprof.typepad.com/taxprof_blog/2007/12/why-are-law-pro.html#comments “Why Are Law Professors So Unhappy?” asks renowned tax law professor and scholar of pedagogy Paul Caron...

Feminist Law Profs Blog

Posted on January 06, 2008
Some thoughtful reflection from a colleague on the Feminist Law Professors blog: http://feministlawprofs.law.sc.edu/?p=2646