clinicians with not enough to do

Politics in the Classroom -- Yes or No?

I taught my class on closing arguments last night.  Very timely, no?  How could I not reference the media focus over the past week on the candidates' self-described "closing arguments?" And more specifically, ask if anyone had seen Obama's infomercial the night before and what about it made it a "closing argument?"The classes went great (I teach two back to back, same topic, different students).  Lots of engagement, lots of discussion, lots of joke-making, lots of disclaimers by me that I wasn't endorsing anyone.  I explicitly directed the students to discuss the "how" of Obama's "closing," rather than the "what" -- e.g. the technical elements that made it a closing.  The whole thing took less than 10 minutes, and then I proceeded with my regular class on the topic.  Here's what I got from one of my students, almost immediately after the second class ended:

Prof. Gross [sic]:

We all know you’re in the tank for Obama.  He can certainly read from a teleprompter and over-produce an infomercial with funds questionably raised.

If you are going to hold out his television show as a good example of a closing argument, you should include in your analysis some criticism to go along with your gushing admiration.  Isn’t a closing argument still controlled by the rules of evidence against hearsay, foundation, truthfulness?  Can I, in giving a closing argument parade before the court people whose stories are unproven and haven’t been tested under cross?  I could go on.  Maybe you’d like to use Boston Legal as a great example of life in the typical law firm?

What BO gave last night was a sales presentation, a brochure made for TV.  To elevate it to the level of a quality example of a closing argument in a law school class calls to question the value of the education I’m receiving in that class.  I strongly resent your dragging into my class, a class I pay dearly for, your political adulations.  And then you insult my intelligence by using Q&A to recruit the class to join in and reinforce your views of that television program as some great example of a great closing argument.

 

The student sent this email not only to me, but also to the Dean of the law school, and the Vice Dean for Academic Affairs.  Luckily for me, I teach at a wonderful institution that values academic freedom and creative teaching.  Here's what the Vice Dean replied to the student:

Dear Mr. -----,

I understand that you are upset with what you perceive to be an inappropriate use of a political TV commercial in your class. Quite apart from the merits of your concern, I am writing to comment on your inappropriate, insulting and highly unprofessional tone.

Please understand that this is a professional school, in which we hope to train students to act like the lawyers they will one day become. Whatever the merits of your complaint, you obscure them entirely by communicating them in this way. To put it another way, your advocacy for your own position in this matter is very poor indeed.

While it is clear that you have strong personal feelings about this, it is likely that in the future you will be professionally involved in matters that also raise strong feelings. When that happens, it will be important for both you and your client that you react appropriately. Many of us, myself included, weren’t born with this skill. It is, however, our responsibility to learn it, lest our clients bear the burden of our shortcomings.

 

 

Happy Halloween all, and don't forget to vote (for whomever you want!!)

Harvard to Waive 3rd Year Tuition for Students Pursuing Public Interest Careers

Harvard to Waive 3rd Year Tuition for Students Pursuing Public Interest Careers                           

Posted Oct 28, 2008, 11:38 am CDT

By Martha Neil

A new program at Harvard Law School that will waive third-year tuition for students who commit to five-year public interest careers is attracting more interest than expected.

More than 100 first-year students have signed up for the program, although they can still change their minds about participating, reports the Harvard Crimson. They are the first to be offered the tuition waiver, although current students who opt for public interest careers receive less generous assistance.

“We expect it to be popular among alumni, and we expect them to show their support,” said says Dean Elena Kagan of the new program. “I’m hopeful it’ll work really well, and that we’ll find whatever extra money we’ll need for it.”

Historically, about 50 to 60 graduating law students each year have opted to pursue public interest careers.

The Stanford Law Review 2009 symposium issue on Media, Justice, and the Law: Call for Papers

The Stanford Law Review is pleased to announce that it is now accepting article submissions for its 2009 symposium issue on Media, Justice, and the Law. Articles will be accepted on a rolling basis through December 2008.

As an emerging field of scholarship and debate, the intersection of media and the law has wide-ranging significance. The media (in all forms) interpret, report, and dramatize the law; moreover, the ongoing dialogue among legal actors, policymakers, the media, and the American public informs the opinions and behavior of all participants. The 2009 symposium will focus primarily on issues pertaining to the media and criminal justice, rather than the First Amendment or media regulation, though these topics inevitably play a role in any robust conversation about media and the law.

The live symposium will be held on January 30 and 31 at Stanford Law School. All authors whose articles are chosen for publication will be invited to participate as panelists in the live symposium, which will be one of the law school's largest events during the year. The symposium will bring together prominent legal scholars, practitioners, public officials, journalists, other members of the media, and jurists. This subject matter is timely and richly deserving of exploration, and we look forward to the opportunity to foster dialogue between a variety of diverse participants.

Please send symposium article submissions to Jess Oats, Senior Symposium Editor, at oats@stanford.edu.

 

The Hottest Law Profs (blogwise, that it)

CWNETD is  puny at 31,000 (for six months!), but as far as we're concerned, size doesn't matter -- it's "who" not "how many."

Law.com Blog Network

No, this post is not about physical hotness or even about a calendar, but rather about blogosphere buzz. Paul L. Caron at TaxProf Blog has updated his rankings of the hottest law professors in terms of traffic to their blogs. Not surprisingly, the most sizzling among them remains InstaPundit, the more-political-than-legal blog of University of Tennessee law professor Glenn H. Reynolds. He burns the competition with a staggering 90 million unique visitors and 95 million page views from Oct. 1, 2007, to Sept. 30, 2008.

From InstaPundit's 90 million visitors, it's a big drop to the next two in line, Hugh Hewitt and The Volokh Conspiracy, which are relatively close with 13 million and 10 million visitors respectively. Hewitt is a professor at Chapman University Law School while Eugene Volokh teaches at UCLA School of Law and shares the blog he founded with a number  of co-contributors. From those second- and third-place profs, the remaining top 10 in numbers of visitors line up this way:

4. Althouse, 3.7 million

5. TaxProf Blog, 1.92 million

6. Leiter Reports: A Philosophy Blog, 1.87 million

7. Patently-O, 1.37 million

8. Concurring Opinions, 1.29 million

9. Balkinization, 1.13 million

10. Sentencing Law & Policy, 922,596

Caron ranks only blogs with publicly available site meters. That means, he notes, that other law professors with popular blogs could qualify for this list but are not included because of the lack of data. Notably, the blogs on this list showed an 8.8 percent growth in visitors since June 30, when Caron last compiled the numbers.

Looking for Simpler Life, Lawyer Burns Harvard Law Diploma

By Molly McDonough

Screen shot of YouTube video.

Ever want to ditch the rat race? Burn your diploma and take a vow of simplicity?

If you thought about it, but could never quite muster the courage to strike a match, you can live vicariously through "Jack," a Washington, D.C., a 30-something lawyer who announced on his blog in June that he is giving up his $300,000-plus annual salary and opting for a simpler life.

In Adventures in Voluntary Simplicity, Jack blogs about his excesses and exit strategies. Then on Oct. 27, he took a key symbolic step in that direction. He burned his Harvard law diploma and posted a video on YouTube for all the world to bear witness.

"I’ve been thinking about doing this, in one way or another, for a while now. But I was never really sure if I would be doing it for the right reasons. Not to mention how silly it sounded whenever I brought it up to people. But this weekend it all came together: the weather was beautiful, the trails were inviting and freedom seemed just around the corner. So I went for it," Jack writes.

"This is NOT a knock against Harvard. Or a calculated criticism of legal education. Or even a rejection of elitism, per se. Sometimes you just need to say goodbye to your past in order to move forward."

In the end, he concludes, "it was just a piece of paper."

Read the ABA Journal's Q&A with "Jack."

Hat tip Legal Blog Watch.

Writing about Race or Poverty?

The Hastings Race and Poverty Law Journal, a publication committed to promoting and inspiring discourse in the legal community regarding issues of race, poverty, social justice, and the law, is seeking submissions for its spring 2009 edition.

 

If you are currently working on an article related to the topical focus of the Journal, its student editors would enjoy hearing from you.  To submit an article for publication, please email the Submissions Editor, Raegan Joern, at hrplj.submissions@gmail.com.  She would be happy to respond to any questions you may have about the Hastings Race and Poverty Law Journal and its spring publication.

Thoughts on Moments of Change

CHECK OUT THE VIDEO LINK BELOW - IT'S GREAT

Poverty Law Prof Blog

Thoughts on Moments of Change

This is a non-partisan blog, but that having been said, I think that come Wednesday the poverty law community might be in a situation somewhat analogous to the change in administration period between Bush Sr. and Clinton.  A wonderful article from that period captures this very well.  The article: Fran Ansley, Standing Rusty and Rolling Empty: Law, Poverty, and America's Eroding Industrial Base, 81 Geo. L.J. 1757 (1993).  Below are some excerpts that resonate strongly today (or at least perhaps by Wednesday):

"This is an important moment for anti-poverty advocates.  There are economic changes at work that threaten to exacerbate and entrench disparities that are already a disturbingly salient feature of American society. . . . The advent of a new administration in Washington, while holding out the hope of a welcome end to much that was brutal and wrong-headed in our recent national economic policy, is hardly the end of the story. . . . A strategy that used the power of the executive to give traditionally unrepresented groups an effective voice would greatly increase the executive's available options.  The nation's new leadership currently faces a set of exceedingly difficult constraints imposed by global competition, the world-wide recession, and the crippling debt burden inherited from the Reagan-Bush years, all situated in an impoverished political landscape dominated overwhelmingly by corporate interests.  The new administration does not have the tools to change that landscape alone if it wanted to, but a number of concrete steps that are within its power could help to unleash a popular energy and motion that could move toward real democratic change.  The question is whether the Administration will have the courage and the vision to follow such a strategy." 

For a decidedly partisan election related video that is great to send to friends, click here (this version attacks me but it can be customized). 

-E.R. erosser@wcl.american.edu

STEVE WIZNER (YALE) AND RHONDA COPELON (CUNY) TO RECEIVE SALT AWARDS AT AALS ANNUAL MEETING!

TWO FANTASTIC CHOICES

SALT Cover Workshop

Wed, 01/07/2009 - 8:00pm - 9:30pm <

Thomas Jefferson School of Law

2120 San Diego Avenue, Room 200

San Diego, CA, 92110

Each year SALT convenes a Cover Workshop at the AALS Annual Meeting, bringing together faculty and practitioners to discuss important legal issues.  This year the SALT Cover Workshop is titled: The Way Forward: The Post Election 2008 Progressive Agenda.

SALT Annual Dinner

Fri, 01/09/2009 - 6:30pm the Prado in Balboa Park 1549 El Prado San Diego, CA, 92101

 

2009 SALT Great Teacher Award

Steve Wizner

2009 M. Shanara Gilbert Human Rights Award

Rhonda Copelon

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2009 AALS Conference on Clinical Legal Education Requests for Proposals

Association of American Law Schools

2009 AALS Conference on Clinical Legal Education
Requests for Proposals
• Concurrent Sessions
• Poster Sessions
• Affinity Group Meetings

The Planning Committee for the May 6-9,2009 AALS Conference on Clinical Legal Education in Cleveland, OH, is seeking proposals for three conference activities:
1. Proposals for presentations during the two concurrent sessions to be held on Friday, May 8 and Saturday, May 9, 2009;
2. Proposals for poster presentations to be exhibited throughout the conference and;
3. Proposals for affinity group meetings to be held on Saturday May 9.

We invite proposals by individuals or multiple presenters in all three categories, which are described more fully below. Proposals are due by November 24, 2008. Final decisions will be made by January 1, 2009.

Yale clinical positions

YALE LAW SCHOOL is seeking applicants for teaching positions in its clinics, beginning July 1, 2009. Professorial rank will be based on experience.

A minimum of five years in practice is required. Clinical teaching experience is preferred but not required. We will consider both entry level and experienced applicants. Applicants must be licensed to practice law in at least one state; they must plan to become licensed in Connecticut, if they are not already. Yale Law School currently offers more than fifteen clinical courses with a broad diversity of subject matters (for more information, please see http://www.law.yale.edu/academics/clinicalopportunities.asp). Applicants should submit a cover letter detailing research interests and teaching fields. The letter should explain how the applicant's agenda fits with Yale's clinical offerings. In addition, applicants must submit a CV and a list of references to kathryn.jannke@yale.edu. Applications must be received by December 15, 2008.

SSRN-The Use of Reflection Papers and Student Autobiographies in Teaching Race, Racism and the Law by Leonard Baynes

SSRN-The Use of Reflection Papers and Student Autobiographies in Teaching Race, Racism and the Law by Leonard Baynes

The Use of Reflection Papers and Student Autobiographies in Teaching Race, Racism and the Law
St. John's University - School of Law
Critical Studies Journal, No. 2, pp. 120-211
St. John's Legal Studies Research Paper No. 08-156
Abstract:
Professor Baynes discussed the use of reflection papers and autobiographical narratives in his Race, Racism and the Law class. These narratives are used to get the students to see that their view of the law is often shaped by their own personal history. Essentially, narratives can be used to provide a qualitative dimension to the students' knowledge of race that cannot be captured by other means. It gets the students to see that although race is purely just a social construct, it has powerful meaning. Narratives are a form of expression that can lead the students to a more meaningful engagement. Narratives help the students gain insight into their own point of view and then allows them to be able to move onto legal argumentation with a better understanding of their view and how it fits in with and relates to the views of others.

Seven students agreed to publish their autobiographies as part of this symposium. They have told authentic and compelling life stories. They have been brutally honest in their experiences. Tyler Simonds and Michael Hendrick discuss what it means to grow up white and ethnic and the associated privileges that being white has. Sharon Choi and Jeremy Wang discuss their unique experiences of being Chinese American and Korean American respectively. They highlight the stereotypes of being perceived as foreign and not being able to assimilate while at the same time being considered model minorities. Nazareth Markarian and Michelle Khalife discuss what it means to be Armenian American and Arab American. Although these two ethnic groups have been defined by law as white, these students highlight that these groups were not always deemed white. Moreover, given their appearance and their culture distinct from those who ancestry is Northern European, they still face assimilation issues. Lastly, Carlene Jadusingh discusses what it is to be a biracial Afro-Jamaican-Asian Indian immigrant to the United States and how issues of race and color played out in her life. This mini-symposium on the use of autobiography should prove instructive to those who might consider the use of reflection papers and autobiographies in their Race, Racism and the Law classes.

The Great Judge Jacobs Pro Bono Dust-Up

Legal Blog Watch

The Great Judge Jacobs Pro Bono Dust-Up

Rarely do we see a row that directly implicates a federal circuit chief judge, a law school dean, legal journalists and any number of legal bloggers. But such is the situation following the report by a small New York legal newspaper that 2nd U.S. Circuit Chief Judge Dennis Jacobs, speaking at a Federalist Society event in Rochester, N.Y., described pro bono work as "antisocial" and "self-serving." The report evoked criticism of the judge from some prominent lawyers, doubt from others and denial by Judge Jacobs himself, all leading to the question, What did he really say? Now, we have the answer.

We were among the first wave of blogs to pick up on the story, which was reported in the legal newspaper The Daily Record and then republished on the American Constitution Society Blog. As The Daily Record reported it, Judge Jacobs said in his speech that "pro bono work is an 'antisocial' and self-serving activity lawyers use to develop their skills, firms use to recruit and 'give solace' to associates, and nonprofits use to further a political agenda." Following the report, an outraged Erwin Chemerinsky, dean of the new UC Irvine School of Law, wrote in The National Law Journal that Judge Jacobs "should be ashamed of himself."

Chemerinsky's op-ed prompted Judge Jacobs, through a spokesman, to send a message to the Wall Street Journal's Law Blog in which he said that the newspaper's report of his speech "grossly misstates what I said and think" and that "I support, endorse and solicit pro bono work, and my talk said just that." Jacobs' denial prompted Walter Olson at PointofLaw.com to write that he "knew from the very first reports that there was something very 'off' about the story as it was being retailed," and Mark Obbie at LawBeat to believe that "partisan critics" had pounced on the judge "without thinking skeptically enough about what might actually have been said."

No longer need we speculate about what the judge said or did not say, because The Federalist Society has posted the full transcript of his speech. Unfortunately, even the transcript has failed to settle this dust-up.

Snarl and the World Snarls With You: Malcontents in Academia

Snarl and the World Snarls With You - Chronicle.com

Every department has its malcontents. Must you enlist?

Question (from "Kelly"): I'm a new tenure-track hire. A tenured next-door-office neighbor, Seymour the Snarler, is constantly barging in to complain about the antiquated curriculum and other overblown concerns. He has some good ideas, but, until I have tenure, I don't care to offend senior professors who are deeply invested in the current state of affairs. I've figured out how to mollify Seymour (coffee, an appearance of listening, sudden appointments elsewhere), and I haven't yet had to hide in my office with the lights out. But do I have to grow up to be a snarler?

Question (from "Lou"): My colleagues often bemoan the ways they think they're mistreated. They're never elected to meaningful committees; they're assigned the worst tasks, classes, and hours; they're socially isolated after-hours. One claims that academic communities are like high school, where only good-looking and popular folks get the goods. Should I just tell members of my cohort to dress better, smile occasionally, listen attentively, and eat lunch outside the confines of their cramped offices?

Question (from "Mike"): Is it inevitable that after being at any institution for a few years and getting to know all the idiosyncratic personalities, one becomes bitter and disillusioned?

Question (from "Nadine"): Why is it that the longer we are in the system, the more work we have — whereas for the old boys, the little work they did grows into even littler work.

Answer: Ms. Mentor recognizes that academics — highly verbal people — have the linguistic resources to become snarlers, fuming with righteous anger and invective. Some may also be snarky, bursting with impulsive mixtures of malice and wit. Snark means you may have to apologize or pretend to feel guilty, but snarly is an existential condition, plaguelike and demoralizing.

October is a prime month for snarliness.

The relaxed glow of summer has faded. Everyone has missed deadlines, and midterms loom. The world turns dry and cranky.

For some dyspeptic souls in academe, it always feels like late October. That's not usually the case for the oldest faculty members. The really senior are often the happiest, grateful to be working, to be alive, to have health insurance. Often they're relaxed, generous, and candid to younger faculty members, since the old folks no longer have anything to prove. They're the ones who'll marvel at the hissy fits of Seymour the Snarler: "How you do run on, young man. Might you want to get a hobby?"

In October the saddest are the adjuncts, shivering and frantic to get on the tenure track before it disappears over the horizon. For them, October starts yet another job-hunting season, and they're more despairing than snarly. But they're not apt to be ambushed in their offices by Seymour the Snarler, since many of them don't have offices.

Then there are the particular disillusionments of those of you who are first-year assistant professors. You've spent up to 25 years in school prepping to be new faculty members. You've endured grad school — the boot camp where you learned that you're a hopeless worm who will never know enough about your subject matter. Finally you pass the last hurdle, the dissertation defense ("I got by again"), and you find a job — whereupon you discover you don't know enough about teaching, either. Your students don't respect you, and many couldn't care less about the subject to which you've devoted your intellectual energies and your youth. ("Are you really gonna make us know this stuff for the test?")

You're lonely and sad and bone-tired by November, as the daylight hours dwindle. Many tenure-track newbies get sick — flu, bronchitis, even pneumonia — in their first winters.

Ms. Mentor urges them to take care of themselves, bundle up, take naps, brew hot soup. Don't volunteer for everything; simplify your grading; cultivate nonacademic friends; and live in a messy house. (Seymour the Snarler can't find you there.)

The bitterest members of academe are the midcareerists, the snarlers who've gotten tenure but now discover that they don't have lifetime goals or passionate pursuits to buoy them through the next decades. They've gotten what they always thought they wanted — but what will they do for their next trick?

They should develop long-term research projects, or concentrate on deepening their teaching techniques, or create new programs in service learning. They could make their work lives startling, unpredictable, and full of genuine excitement.

But some will insist on boring, bedeviling, or frightening newbies with tales of old feuds and future disgraces. They're obsessed with former colleagues who flamed out, suffered student mutinies, or escaped to warmer climes or better-paying jobs in the Real World. Snarling remains the refuge for those who lack the energy or courage to do something really original or dastardly. And so they grumble. They are misunderstood geniuses.

Ms. Mentor prescribes self-starting, and not dwelling on what's repetitive, irritating, or impossible to change. If you're in the humanities at a non-elite university, for instance, your classrooms and offices are probably dilapidated, moldy, and underpainted. You can snarl, mostly to no avail, or you can make your own office into a haven, with bright colors, plants, soft music, or sounds of gurgling waterfalls. Your office can be an oasis.

Besides Lou's good suggestions, Ms. Mentor also recommends for snarlers: noncompetitive walking or swimming, more attention to tasty eating, and cultivating good posture. A dog will give you loyalty and make you go for walks; a cat, softly stroked, will lower your blood pressure and snuggle while you read a good book. Mindless television isn't altogether bad, especially if you can wallow in the miseries of others and have satisfying fits of schadenfreude.

If you have family stresses ... well, you have family stresses, and Ms. Mentor can only prescribe avoiding domestic snarlers, meddlers, and critics. ("All that school and you're still in debt? What kind of a ...?") Don't let that ne'er-do-well nephew live with you indefinitely until he finds a job — unless he's a good nanny, cook, and vacuumer.

The majority of academic snarlers, it seems to Ms. Mentor, are men (as are most of the famous literary misanthropes). Mike, it seems, is working on his snarl. Women, like Nadine and countless literary figures, are more apt to be martyrs, sighing or fuming while they become responsibility magnets, note takers, list makers, schedulers, and prodders/pushers for all.

Ms. Mentor would like everyone to choose roles more carefully — for once October is over, Thanksgiving looms. Will you be the dressing or the turkey?

***

Question: So the top CEO's may earn 500 times the annual salary of the lowest-paid corporate worker. Our football coach makes something like $3-million a year, while I, a lowly adjunct, teach freshman writing for just under $3,000 a course. May I snarl?

Answer: Yes.

the obamobile in bubbe land

A FEW PICS FROM FLORIDA

THE OBAMOBILE

ONLY IN BOCA

THE RALLY (!)

SENIOR CLINICAL POSITION AT MICHIGAN STATE

from Joan W. Howarth, HONORARY CLINICIAN AND THE NEW DEAN (FROM UNLV) AT Michigan State University College of Law

As one of our appointments goals this year, Michigan State University College of Law is interested in hiring an established scholar who would join our faculty with tenure, and whose teaching would include clinical teaching. We have a lively and engaged community of scholars, and strong clinical programs in tax, small business, rental housing, and child welfare. This model of a clinician/scholar is a new one for us. We are open to considering candidates who would join our existing clinics, or start something new. To be considered as an applicant, please send a letter of interest and CV to Professor Al Storrs, Chair, Appointments Committee, 358 Law College Building, East Lansing Michigan 48824-1300 or storrs@law.msu.edu . Feel free to contact Professor Michele Halloran, MSU Law Director of Clinical Programs, hallor11@law.msu.edu or 517 336-8084, with questions about Michigan State’s clinical programs.

Law School in Two Years...

FROM PRAWFSBLOG

Over the past year, there has been a significant amount of news coverage over two-year JD programs. TIME Magazine ran an article on Northwestern Law School’s newly launched, two-year J.D. program over the summer ("Fast-Tracking Law School"), while the topic has been touched on throughout the legal blogosphere (Leiter, Paul Caron's Tax Blog,, the Volokh Conspiracy, Legal Theory Blog, the WSJ.com blog, etc.). Rick Garnett had a thoughtful post and discussion on the topic here on PrawfsBlawg. Although most of the flurry of news occurred in June and July, I thought I would write a quick post.

What I find interesting about the discussion is some consternation over whether a two-year JD program can work. As legal educators around the country reevaluate and redesign law school curricula -- spurred by the 2007 Carnegie Report and other recent publications -- some have asked, “Is it possible to obtain all the knowledge and skills necessary to be a successful lawyer in just two years?”

A preliminary point: although Northwestern has begun some exciting changes at its school, a two year program is not new. Dayton has had a successful two-year program since 2005. Southwestern has had a successful two-year program since 1974. Southwestern's program was the first ABA-approved accelerated program in the nation established with the aid of the largest federal grant awarded at that time to any law school by the Fund for the Improvement of Post-Secondary Education. I understand at various times that other schools too have had two-years programs and its not unheard of for students to graduate at an accelerated pace (I believe Michigan State may have had a two-year program at one time, Iowa had a two year + summer program and, if I remember correctly, Justice Lewis Powell graduated from Washington & Lee in two years, as one prominent example).

But on to the issue. On the one hand, the preliminary point answers the question -- we know two-year programs work and provide students with the skills they need because schools like Dayton and Southwestern have been doing it for years. But I agree that it's not entirely clear pedagogically the benefits of simply squeezing three years of the traditional curriculum into two. As schools (presumably there may be others) that consider following Southwestern's, Dayton's, and now Northwestern's lead by exploring establishing two-year programs they need to be careful that they are not simply creating an "accelerated" experience.

A two-year program, if done well, almost certainly requires significant curricular changes. Southwestern's success with its two-year program has been to emphasize conceptual learning and simulation training. The program relies heavily on simulated client files and hypothetical problems as teaching tools. The program integrates theory and practice and benefits from small classes. Northwestern too is not just simply creating an accelerated program. It intends to provide its students with integrated business and management training in an attempt to give its graduates a step up when they begin their careers (see this interesting discussion at the Empirical Legal Studies blog). A detailed description of how two-year programs can work and other alternatives to traditional legal education appears in some older law review articles (e.g., 35 Journal of Legal Education 97 (1985) and 68 A.B.A. J. 558 (1982)).

On balance, two-year programs seem to fit a unique niche for certain kinds of students (similar to evening programs for students who are employed full-time, and part-time day programs designed for students with child or elder care responsibilities). So I would be interested. Are there other schools that are looking into creating two-year programs? Or part-time programs designed for parents with child-care responsibilities? Or other programs that serve unique niches?

Posted by Austen Parrish on October 28, 2008 at 01:23 AM | Permalink

more on writer's block

FROM LEGAL WRITING BLOG writers block David Spratt has launched a new, regular column in the Virginia Bar Association News Journal, called the Writer's Block. Most appropriately, his first column explores the problem of writer's block and offers several helpful suggestions for overcoming this maladie. He describes one creative approach that I've never heard before: assign each step of the writing process to a character in your mind, such as the architect who drafts a blueprint or the carpenter who builds the rough framing, and allow each character time to do the discrete task at hand. FIRST COLUMN IN JUMP OR HERE

Download vnj1008.pdf

AALS ANNUAL MEETING NEWS

FROM BEST PRACTICES

Interactive Assessment Program at the AALS Annual Meeting
Posted on October 22, 2008 by Antoinette Sedillo Lopez

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. At the International Clinical Conference this summer, I had the distinct pleasure of meeting Professor Kevin Kerrigan and Dean Philip Plowden of Northumbia who were the organizers of the conference in Cork, Ireland. (I discussed this conference in an earlier post.) The plan for the AALS session will involve how they assess learning across the law school curriculum in the UK, and they plan to involve the group in an interactive assessment exercise. They will ask the group to use a criteria-referenced protocol used at Northumbria. I have blogged about how important it is to measure students learning by their performance with regard to a specific desired outcome rather than simply ranking them against each other, so I am very interested in seeing how a group of clinicians will use the protocol. And, Lawrence Grosberg of New York Law School will discuss multiple assessment methods in clinical and skills courses as a result of his work using of “standardized clients”. He will involve the group in an interactive assessment exercise. Since I have been working with the UNM Medical School using standardized clients in joint training about domestic violence, I have very interested in seeing how Professor Grosberg’s assessment techniques have developed. I get to play “Oprah” and get the audience involved and hopefully in my best “Oprah like” way ask provocative and interesting questions! And, if you have been following my posts, you know that I am very interested in the impact of outcome based assessment on law students of color. My theory is that clearly articulating learning outcomes and evaluating the extent to which students acheive those objectives will benefit all students. And, I hope that measuring performance on criteria referenced objectives will prove to be a much better way of evaluating students rather than ranking them against each other on their performance of the same skills that they demonstrated on the Law School Admissions Test. And, true to a foundational principle of clinical teaching…this session will not involve “talking heads”…we will all learn by doing!

FROM HUNTER OF JUSTICE

Full day AALS program on integrating sexuality issues into law school curriculum
from hunter of justice by Nan Hunter

Most law professors are probably just now getting around to reading the program for the upcoming AALS conference and making their travel plans. Please note that there is a full day program on Wednesday January 7 on integrating sexuality-related issues into standard law school courses such as torts, contracts, evidence, international law, and a range of others. Speakers will include Pat Cain, David Cruz, Martha Ertman, Bill Eskridge, Liz Glazer, Suzanne Goldberg, Julie Greenberg, Art Leonard, Larry Levine, Jean Love, Kellye Testy, Jenny Wriggins and yours truly. Mark Wojcik, head of the Sexual Orientation/Gender Identity section, led the effort to organize the session. Please mark it on your calendars and come to San Diego in time to attend.

cool design

Clinical Fellow (Housing) HARVARD LAW SCHOOL

The Harvard Legal Aid Bureau (Bureau) seeks a Clinical Fellow for an 18-month appointment commencing January 2009, with expectation of renewal based on performance and program needs. The Fellow will play an active role in supervising practicing law students within the Bureau's housing (landlord/tenant law) concentration group. Under the supervision of the Bureau's Faculty Director, the Fellow will learn clinical teaching methodology, while developing and refining teaching and practice approaches and improving data collection and outcome measures in the Bureau's practice areas. Candidates should be recent (two to five years) law school graduates who are interested in transitioning from a full-time law practice to a career in legal education.

Please apply on-line at http://atwork.harvard.edu
using requisition #35388.
The Bureau is a curriculum-based poverty law clinic with a long-standing tradition of student leadership and governance. Clinical Instructors and Fellows supervise, assess, and structure the practice work of second- and third-year law students on all aspects of advocacy, including interviewing and counseling, factual investigation and discovery, case analysis and strategy development, motion practice, negotiation, and trial and hearing work. They utilize the students' casework to teach the fundamentals of lawyering while acting as attorneys of record with ultimate authority for all cases conducted under their supervision.

Requirements:
In-depth knowledge of landlord-tenant law and experience in poverty law required.

Experience in clinical legal education and or supervision of students highly desirable.

Bi-cultural and/or bi-lingual candidates encouraged to apply.

Apply on-line at:

http://atwork.harvard.edu

UC HASTINGS: Senior Staff Attorney/Associate Director of the Center for Gender and Refugee Studies

Senior Staff Attorney/Associate Director of the Center for Gender and Refugee Studies The Center for Gender and Refugee Studies (CGRS) seeks applicants for a full-time Senior Staff Attorney/Associate Director. CGRS, the nation’s leading organization on gender asylum, works to positively impact the development of the law through a combination of appellate litigation and policy advocacy, public education and organizing strategies. CGRS provides extensive technical assistance and training, and publishes a broad range of materials providing guidance and analysis on cutting edge asylum issues. CGRS also operates as a national clearinghouse for gender asylum, tracking decisions in individual cases and maintaining an extensive database with case information.

Job Description: The Senior Staff Attorney/Associate Director will assist the Director in the administration and management of CGRS, including supervision of development and legal staff. He or she will be involved in all aspects of CGRS’s substantive legal work – from development of legal strategies to implementation of these strategies. He or she will be engaged in writing for a broad range of constituencies, and writing responsibilities may include drafting of briefs and analytical memos on legal developments; practice advisories for attorneys, and talking points for coalition partners. In addition, he or she will be expected to carry a significant management and supervision role.

Qualifications: Applicants must be admitted to practice law (any state) and have at least ten years of legal experience in asylum and related areas (i.e. withholding and Convention against Torture). The ideal applicant will have had experience in mentoring and supervising more junior attorneys, as well as in management and development. Applicants must be self-motivated, be able to work with a minimum of supervision, and be capable of complex analytical work. Applicants must have a proven track record demonstrating that they possess exemplary research and writing skills. They must also possess outstanding communication skills which allows them to communicate effectively to a variety of constituencies. Preference will be given to applicants with prior experience in, and demonstrated commitment to social justice and public interest law.

Salary and benefits: Salary is based on experience and qualifications. There is an excellent package of full benefits. Application procedure: Applications will be accepted until the position is filled. To apply, send a substantive cover letter, resume and list of references to the address below. Please no phone calls or emails. Applications must be in paper form, and addressed as follows: CGRS Senior Staff Attorney Search Committee Center for Gender & Refugee Studies U.C. Hastings College of the Law< 200 McAllister Street San Francisco, California 94102<

Reflections on Doing an LRW Fellowship

PrawfsBlawg: Reflections on Doing an LRW Fellowship

Reflections on Doing an LRW Fellowship

This blog has many readers who are on the meat market. One path to law teaching careers is through an LRW teaching fellowship—Stanford’s program, the Climenko, the Bigelow, etc. This is the path I took, and if you are on the cusp of a law teaching career, but not quite ready, you might consider it.

It has been done before, but I thought I would offer some pros and cons of such programs.

Cons

• It can be very difficult to produce scholarship while teaching lrw. It is likely your first time teaching, and teaching LRW in particular is time-intensive as it requires you to constantly read your students’ work and give meaningful oral and written feedback;
• Depending on the school, LRW instructors may not get much love from the doctrinal faculty, and your status may be low;
• You may not have the opportunity to develop mentorship relationships with the faculty at the school;
• Students may resent you for the amount of work you give them and any negative feedback that you might have to give them;
• The pay isn’t great;
• Teaching LRW is probably not what you really want to do.

Pros

• If you work really hard, you may well be able to produce scholarship (I and all of my colleagues in Stanford’s program were able to do so);
• Attending faculty workshops, symposia, and job talks will help you understand what makes for a good job talk;
• You learn a lot about teaching;
• If you are persistent and your timing is good, you may find some generous faculty members who will advise you, discuss your scholarship, and mentor you (as I did);
• If you are lucky (as I was), you will have amazing and generous colleagues;
• Teaching LRW can be incredibly rewarding, as it allows you to forge relationships with students, help them, and learn from them;
• It can plug you into the law teaching network in a variety of ways (conferences, symposia, old-fashioned networking, etc);
• It helps you on the tenure-track market because it demonstrates your seriousness about your aspirations, allows you to talk seriously about teaching, gives you time to find your voice and agenda as a scholar, and helps you adopt the persona of a law professor.

For me, despite the occasional complaining, the fellowship at Stanford was more than worth it. On a purely functional account, it set me up very well for the teaching market. On every metric, I did far better my second time on the market than I did the first (before the fellowship).

Wholly apart from that, though, it was just a wonderful experience. I learned a lot about myself, mostly enjoyed the work, enjoyed working with students, and had great colleagues. Not bad, as far as jobs go.

As I have indicated, I’m not convinced that the fellowship model is the best for LRW teaching, but that’s got very little to do with whether applying for such a position is the best idea for you.

Posted by Hillel Levin on October 23, 2008 at 04:39 PM in Getting a Job on the Law Teaching Market, Hillel Levin, Life of Law Schools, Teaching Law | Permalink

three years free tuition at UC Irvine

Brian Leiter's Law School Reports: UC Irvine Law School to Offer Three Years of Full Tuition to the Entering Class

UC Irvine Law School to Offer Three Years of Full Tuition to the Entering Class

That's a clever move, one that increases the odds of recruiting a strong student body at the start..

Calling All Pre-law Students of Color

We need your help getting the word out about a new resource for persons-of-color interested in law school.

 

It is "The Pre-law Student of Color Network".  This network provides advice, resources and support for students-of color about going to law school. Through discussion forums, chats with experts and linked resources, it provides advice and information.  A short video describing the network is available at http://thejdproject.org/GettingIn/tplscn.htm

 

Enrollment and participation is free.

 

You can help us by: 

• encouraging your school to become a  "Law  School Partner" for the Network,
• encouraging your admission director to send the email to students of color who apply to law school and
• circulating a copy of this announcement widely to discussion lists that you belong.

 

If you have any question, please contact us admin@thejdproject.org

 

Vernellia R. Randall

The JD Project.org

 

Professor of Law

The University of Dayton

(For identification purposes only)

bubbes in boca

no posts today - I'm in Boca with the bubbe's brigade!

please don't sue us

Bloggers Get Libel Protection; Sonnenschein Staffs Hotline | ABA Journal - Law News Now

Bloggers Get Libel Protection; Sonnenschein Staffs Hotline

Posted Oct 20, 2008, 03:31 pm CDT
By Molly McDonough

Libel suits against individual bloggers are on the rise, prompting one group to offer up insurance for those who post inflammatory remarks and Monday-morning-quarterback opinions.

The not-for-profit Media Bloggers Association is offering an insurance policy meant to protect bloggers who are threatened with litigation, copyright claims and invasion of privacy complaints.

The Animal Blawg is Here

Announcing the Animal Blawg

from Feminist Law Professors by Bridget Crawford

Feminist Law Professor David Cassuto (Pace), together with Professor Luis Chiesa (Pace) and JD candidate Suzanne McMillan have started the Animal Blawg (tagline “Transcending Speciesism Since October 2008″).  Here’s the description of the blog:

This blog’s scope is intended to be broad, encompassing both legal issues affecting animals and legal issues reflecting animals’ situations. It purports to examine current case law and statutes, as well as the ethical and jurisprudential issues arising from how animals are treated in one of any number of situations. Thus, it presents not only substantive information, but also food for thought. 

Animal law in the United States has grown over the last couple of decades from a virtual unknown to being one of the fastest-growing areas of legal scholarship and practice. It is now offered on the menu of every Ivy League law school in the nation. Judges increasingly find themselves presiding over cases involving issues of animal treatment, and demand is rising for lawyers who handle such cases. Increasingly, animal law is taken seriously in the professional world, making it ever more important for law students and practitioners to familiarize themselves with its basics and stay abreast of its developments.

The term “animal” in this context refers to all non-human animals, thereby encompassing animals kept by humans as companions, as well as wild animals, animals used in the entertainment sector, animals living in zoos, animals used in medical research, animals used for cosmetic procedures, and animals raised and killed for meat, milk, wool, feathers, silk, eggs, fur, hair, skin and other body parts. 

Various members of the animal law community will be invited to blog on this site, and we look forward to including you in these very important and exciting conversations!

Welcome to the blogosphere, Animal Blawg!

-Bridget Crawford

Feminist Law Professor David Cassuto (Pace), together with Professor Luis Chiesa (Pace) and JD candidate Suzanne McMillan have started the Animal Blawg (tagline “Transcending Speciesism Since October 2008″).  Here’s the description of the blog:

This blog’s scope is intended to be broad, encompassing both legal issues affecting animals and legal issues reflecting animals’ situations. It purports to examine current case law and statutes, as well as the ethical and jurisprudential issues arising from how animals are treated in one of any number of situations. Thus, it presents not only substantive information, but also food for thought. 

Animal law in the United States has grown over the last couple of decades from a virtual unknown to being one of the fastest-growing areas of legal scholarship and practice. It is now offered on the menu of every Ivy League law school in the nation. Judges increasingly find themselves presiding over cases involving issues of animal treatment, and demand is rising for lawyers who handle such cases. Increasingly, animal law is taken seriously in the professional world, making it ever more important for law students and practitioners to familiarize themselves with its basics and stay abreast of its developments.

The term “animal” in this context refers to all non-human animals, thereby encompassing animals kept by humans as companions, as well as wild animals, animals used in the entertainment sector, animals living in zoos, animals used in medical research, animals used for cosmetic procedures, and animals raised and killed for meat, milk, wool, feathers, silk, eggs, fur, hair, skin and other body parts. 

Various members of the animal law community will be invited to blog on this site, and we look forward to including you in these very important and exciting conversations!

Welcome to the blogosphere, Animal Blawg!

-Bridget Crawford

A grim verdict awaits law grads

from the National Law Journal

A grim verdict awaits law grads

Lots of debt, very few law firm jobs.

Leigh Jones / Associate editor
October 20, 2008

UC Davis School of Law student Eric Toscano

Between classes last week, Will Hall was headed to a résumé-writing workshop at Florida State University College of Law.

"It's definitely not the best economy to try to find a job in," said the third-year student.

Hall, president of the law school's Student Bar Association, is not sure where he'll end up after graduation in May.

"You have to be innovative and creative," he said.

Nearly 44,000 law students nationwide will graduate next year with an average of about $73,000 in loan debt, according to numbers from the American Bar Association.

And while most would-be lawyers already have accepted that only a small fraction will start their careers with a big-firm salary of $160,000, the past few weeks of economic chaos have caused many to wonder if any kind of attorney work is in their near future.

Aware of the dismay, law school career services professionals say they are working simultaneously to bolster morale among students and to keep the job outlook realistic, a feat that requires a sympathetic ear and a bit of a nudge.

"I've got students coming in asking if they should go for an LL.M.," said Carole Montgomery, director of career development at George Washington University Law School in Washington.

Workshop on Community Lawyering Clinics

The Harvard Law School Office of Clinical & Pro Bono Programs invites you to join us for a Workshop on Community Lawyering Clinics, the first in a series of Clinical Workshops, at Harvard Law School, on Friday, November 14, 2008, from 9 am to 5 pm (with a reception to follow).

The format is an all-day workshop. From 9 to noon, three speakers (Juliet Brodie, Sameer Ashar, and Scott Cummings) will present sequentially their recent scholarship on community lawyering, with two to three commentators responding to each. Next will be lunch, with Michael Gregory as the luncheon speaker. After lunch, we will have two workshops: from 1:45 to 3:15 pm, and then from 3:30 to 5 pm. One workshop will focus on programmatic design of community lawyering clinics (facilitated by Jeff Selbin and Peggy Maisel), the other on curriculum in community lawyering clinics (facilitated by Nancy Cook and Shil Imai). From 5 to 7 pm, we will host a reception. 

We would be delighted if you would join us for this workshop. If you are able to do so, please RSVP by Monday, Nov. 10, to:  clinical@law.harvard.edu

Thank you, and we hope to see you next month.

Sincerely,

Lisa Dealy

Director, Clinical and Pro Bono Programs

Harvard Law School

617-495-5202

The Reflective Counselor: Daily Meditations for Lawyers

	ABA Book Publishing
	The source you trust for practical legal information
Product Details: Regular Price: $29.95 ABA Member Price: $24.95 ©2008 - paper, 6.5 x 6.5 376 pages Product Code: 1620072	Nourishment for Busy Lawyers Looking to Maintain Their Humanity!
	The Reflective Counselor: Daily Meditations for Lawyers
	By F. Gregory Coffey and Maureen C. Kessler
	"One of the most uplifting and heartfelt books of its kind that I have seen. The uniquely qualified authors achieve a real empathic understanding and have put forth a valuable and very welcome guide for soul-searching lawyers, eager to find meaning and purpose beyond the daily grind... highly recommended." --James B. Snyder, M.D., Director and Founder, Long Island Psychiatric, Roslyn, N.Y. This 376-page, meditation-a-day book is designed to help lawyers recover from spiritual bankruptcy. Each daily entry includes an introductory quotation, followed by a refection inspired by that quotation. Themes found in the book include overcoming fear, personal beliefs and values, maintaining integrity, personally defining success, dealing with difficult people, and common workplace challenges. This is the only book of it's kind written just for lawyers. Reverse the burnout trend, and discover how easy it is to put energy and enthusiasm back into your career with this once-a-day meditation strategy, you won't be disappointed.  Makes a great gift!   Learn More »

Ranking Clinics: Size Matters But So Does What You Do With It

    We all know that regular honest assessments and useful feedback promote good learning.  One of the great strengths of clinical pedagogy is that it presents many opportunities for a variety of kinds of formative assessment.  One of the great weaknesses of some other methods of legal education is that too often we offer no feedback beyond a single instance of summative assessment.  Even experts who are skilled at self monitoring benefit from feedback.

    Most clinicians also treasure our identity as educational insurgents and are very critical of the extraordinary devotion to hierarchy in legal education.  As my torts professor, the inestimable Sylvia Law told us in her wonderful final class talk - there is only one Editor in Chief of the Harvard Law Review in any given year and the system is designed to make every other law student feel bad about him or herself  in proportion to how far s/he is in law school status from that person (who, she observed, likely had his or her own emotional struggles).   But I fear that our very real and powerful critique of the idea of unitary hierarchy, coupled with our commitment to solidarity makes us too hesitant to make the qualitative assessments of our work that would best help us improve and are at the heart of our mission as educators. 

Welcome a New Member to the Blogosphere

Hello!  We are proud to announce a new blog.  The Constitutional Law Prof Blog is the newest member of the Law Professor Blogs Network, sponsored by Thompson West.  The co-editors of the blog are: Ruthann Robson, CUNY School of Law, Steven D. Schwinn, John Marshall Law School (Chicago), and Nareissa L. Smith, Florida Coastal School of Law.   

Our blog began on October 5, 2008.  In that short time, we have already logged 907 visitors.  We hope you will join our readership as well. 

While there are a number of blogs that discuss Supreme Court news and related issues, this blog is unique in its focus on making teaching and scholarship easier for the constitutional law professor. 

Moreover, we do not limit our reach to the Supreme Court.   We address issues of constitutional law arising in Congress, the executive branch, lower federal courts, state and local courts, and anywhere else they may occur.   

Readers of the blog will be treated to book reviews, analysis, research, and much more.   Regular features include:

The Sunday Reader - a look at legal scholarship you may want to incorporate into your teaching or scholarship

The Saturday Evening Review - an analysis of law review articles that are useful in teaching con law concepts 

The Teaching Assistant - a compilation of stories from around the web that raise constitutional law issues

Please visit the blog and spread the word!

Sincerely,

Your Con Law Blog Team

Steven, Ruthann, and Nareissa

Harvard's Success Secret: Free Coffee

Harvard's Success Secret: Free Coffee

Harvard Law School is in the process of reinventing itself as a more vital, nimble educational institution. And its turnaround is due, at least in part, to free coffee. "As it turns out," explains Dean Elena Kagan, "you can buy more student happiness per dollar by giving people free coffee than anything else I've discovered."

Economic Squeeze to Hit Faculty Hiring?

TaxProf Blog: Economic Squeeze to Hit Faculty Hiring?

A hiring freeze at William & Mary has sparked a blogosphere
discussion on the impact of the economic downturn on law faculty
hiring.  The consensus:  fewer retirements and fewer slots to fill.

• Adjunct Law Prof
• Faculty Lounge
• Simple Justice
• Volokh Conspiracy

Anger Management

from the Chronicle:  Anger Management

Besides learning how to deal with students' hostility in class, you have to learn how to handle your own
By JAMES M. LANG

Last month I gave a talk to new faculty members at a nearby college and afterward, a professor raised her hand and asked me how to deal with feelings of hostility in the classroom. I expounded at length upon the best ways to push through the skepticism and anger of students.

Raising her hand again, she said, "No, no. I mean how do we deal with the feelings of hostility that we have toward the students?"

Her question caught me off-guard, so my response was less than eloquent. But I was reminded of her question this week when a colleague came into my office to vent about the most recent batch of papers she had graded.

"Forty percent!" she fumed. "Of the ones I have graded thus far, 40 percent have some form of plagiarism in them."

She was angry, and I was angry for her. We spent a cathartic few minutes lamenting the sorry state of the world, and enmity toward our students lingered in the air.

We're Soooooo Proud of our Wonderful Colleague

A changing of the guard at the ACLU

Challenge of government secrecy a priority.

Karen Sloan / Staff reporter October 21, 2008

After nearly two decades under the leadership of Nadine Strossen, the American Civil Liberties Union has a new president. The organization's board of directors last week selected Brooklyn Law School professor and constitutional law scholar Susan Herman as the new president.

Herman has been active in the ACLU for more than 25 years and has served on its board for two decades. In addition to authoring some of the ACLU's friend-of-the-court briefs for the U.S. Supreme Court, Herman has written two books on civil liberties issues. She will presiding over the 83-member board and will work closely with ACLU Executive Director Anthony D. Romero.

Strossen — the first woman to head the ACLU — will remain active with the organization and continue to teach at New York Law School. The National Law Journal asked Herman about her new job.

NLJ: Why did you want to be the next president of the ACLU?

S.H.: I've been working with the ACLU in a number of different capacities for decades. I started when I was in law school. [The ACLU] represents to me the best opportunity our country has to protect our civil liberties and give them more than just lip service. This is an especially important time for civil liberties, now that we're going to have a new president.

NLJ: Do you have any new priorities or initiatives for the organization?

S.H.: One goal is to increase the understanding of the ACLU's work in communities where it is not well understood. There is the perception that the ACLU is against religion, and that isn't true. We have defended the rights of people to exercise their own religion, even if it's not the same religion as that of their neighbors. We're also looking to expand our international collaborative work. We think there are issues that we have in common with the rest of the world - such as capital punishment - where other countries are far more developed than we are. We're just now beginning to explore the use of human rights law and alternative venues to pursue the civil rights and liberties of Americans.

NLJ: What civil liberties issue is your top priority?

S.H.: That's like choosing one child over another. The number one issue that we have in our country is the so-called "War on Terror." The questions being asked are 'How much torture is enough? How long can you hold someone without charging them?' The government abuse has been shocking. The amount of government secrecy is pernicious. You don't have much of an opportunity to change what the government is doing if you can't find out what they're doing.

NLJ: The goal of the ACLU's Leading Freedom Forward initiative is to strengthen chapters in states where the organization traditionally hasn't had a strong presence. How will you do that?

S.H.: It involves both providing training and backup from the ACLU in states where they don't have a lot of support. The national organization has been trying to channel more resources into states like Mississippi, Michigan and Ohio, where civil rights violations have been the most egregious. We're trying to fill up the middle of the country. Twenty-five states now have full-time staff [since 2001]. Cooperating attorneys are great, but they aren't the same as having a full-time attorney.

Clinical Scholarship: Getting it Done and Getting it Published

FOR THOSE OF YOU WHO MISSED IT - WATCH THE PRESENTATION IN YOUR PAJAMAS

KATE KRUSE'S (UNLV) POWERPOINT FROM CLR WRITING WORKSHOP

Clinical Scholarship: Getting it Done and Getting it Published
                               Clinical Law Review
                                Writers’ Workshop
                                 October 17, 2008

Download clinical_scholarship_001.pptx

Download clinical_scholarship_2.pdf

School Rank and GPA Don't Predict Law Firm Success

From Legal Blog Watch

A recent study by Kerma Partners, in conjunction with Redwood Analytics, a property of LexisNexis, shows that grades and school rank aren't the best predictors of lawyer success at their firms.  (H/T Jeff Yates, Voir Dire).  The Kerma study was designed to help identify and attract recruits who have both the credentials to enter the firm, but also have the right "stuff" to thrive at the firm.  To determine which factors matter most, Kerma first identified the outperformers and underperformers, apparently based on billable hours.  Kerma then developed a list of 200 different attributes, and identified those that predominated in the group of overperformers.  Though the study summary available online doesn't specify which attributes are the best predictors of performance, it's clear that GPA and law school rankings are not among them.

While the results of the study might come as a news to law firm hiring committees, which have defined the "best and the brightest" by GPA/law school rank for years, they don't surprise me. Nor should it surprise a majority of the public who realize that characteristics like drive, willingness to take risks, marketing skills and passion for one's work matter far more on the job than paper credentials.  And though you'd think that the lawyers with high GPAs from top-ranked law schools would possess these characteristics, that's not necessarily so.  Many lawyers are naturally bright and obtained good grades effortlessly in law school.  So when the time comes to hunker down and put in long hours, they can't hack it.  Other lawyers may have toiled so mercilessly to attain top grades in a subject that they enjoy -- but that doesn't thrill them -- so they burn out by the end of the first or second year at Biglaw. 

Still, don't expect the hierarchical law firm hiring system of focusing on grades and scores to come crashing down overnight in the wake of this study.  If anything, the system may become even more rigid.  The study authors are quick to caveat that:

The study was not meant to debunk the importance of school/grade criteria. To the contrary, we expect that, after a firm incorporates success factors into its recruiting program, its new incoming classes will have better school/grade profiles than those of their predecessors. That is, having a keen understanding of what makes associates successful at the firm will elevate the firm's competitive position in the talent markets, as the firm can deliver a convincing message to top prospects that they have the right profile for success at the firm. In a similar vein, some of our collateral findings tell us that intelligence around success factors can contribute to the sustainability of the results of a firm's diversity efforts.

Posted by Carolyn Elefant on October 15, 2008 at 04:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) 

teaching professionalism through legal writing assignments

HT: LEGAL WRITING BLOG

teaching professionalism through legal writing assignments

Take a look at the new article by Prof. Ben Bratman (Pittsburgh), Toward a Deeper Understanding of Professionalism: Learning to Write and Writing to Learn during the First Two Weeks of Law School, 32 J. Legal Prof. 115 (2008).

From the abstract:

Law schools are under pressure to instill in their students a sense of professionalism, but what exactly does “professionalism” mean? And what can professors of legal writing do to lay an educational foundation of professionalism? They are, after all, the teachers who at most schools have the greatest interaction with the impressionable first-year students.

Professionalism is frequently used to mean a variety of behaviors that are important for lawyers to exhibit, but that are also important for those in business—outside the traditional professions—to exhibit. In the context of legal education, professionalism is better understood to mean those characteristics of a profession that distinguish it from a business. The most important distinguishing characteristic of a profession is that its essence and primary imperative are public service.  The notion that lawyers, as professionals, must prioritize public service over profits is a romantic one, but an essential one for law students to understand.

As a professor of legal writing, my first of what I hope will become many steps in conveying this sense of professionalism to my first-year students is a writing assignment to be completed during the first two weeks of law school. The assignment asks students to analyze whether a fictional personal injury attorney is running a permitted “professional office” or a prohibited “business office” under a zoning ordinance. The students write a short inter-office memo applying a real precedent case in which a court ruled an insurance agent ran a “business office.” In crafting and using this memo assignment, I have dual goals—ensuring my students learn to write and also write to learn (about professionalism).

hat tip: University of Pittsburgh School of Law Faculty Blog

CALL FOR PAPERS: Sexual Orientation Law Around the World

Sexual Orientation Law Around the World - L.A. and West Hollywood, CA

The Williams Institute on Sexual Orientation Law and Public Policy, at UCLA School of Law, and the International Lesbian and Gay Law Association (ILGLaw) Conference will host “The Global Arc of Justice: Sexual Orientation Law Around the World” in Los Angeles and West Hollywood, CA, March 11-14, 2009. The deadline for presentation and panel proposals is 17h00 Pacific Standard Time (i.e., 1700 GMT - Nov. 15, 2008.

Submit Something to the Poverty Law Section Newsletter!

Greetings!

In the interest of sharing what we are doing individually and in the hopes that doing so will inspire connections that might not otherwise happen, I am putting together a Poverty Law Newsletter in advance of the AALS conference.  If you could email me with what you have been up to in the following categories (feel free to suggest other categories as well), I will put together such a newsletter. 

Categories:

Upcoming Conferences

Books and Book Updates

Articles and Other Publications

Speeches and Presentations

Legislative and Regulatory Activities

Personal Notes

For inclusion in the newsletter, please do not hit reply!  Email me by Oct. 31^st at erosser@wcl.american.edu. 

Thanks,

Ezra Rosser

More on the New York Clinical Scholarship Weekend

I (CG) second these sentiments as well:

I share Nina’s enthusiasm for the Clinical Law Review’s workshop, and wanted to add that it was fun, something that scholarship should be, but isn’t always. This weekend I had fun and learned a lot both at the workshop and at New York Law School’s clinical theory workshop.

The fun part must have been obvious to my 3-year old daughter Moxi.  When I returned from New York City last night, she asked me why I went.  I told her that I went to work to read some papers and talk about them.  She said, “No mama, you went to New York to hang out with your friends.”  Her comment and the weekend made me think about Studs Terkel’s book Working, where he writes about the importance of being involved in meaningful work, with people that you care about, in jobs in which you can exercise creativity and autonomy.  I feel very lucky to be a clinical law teacher.

All the best,

Binny Miller

CLR Writing Workshop - A Huge Success

I second this - it was a great program

-----------------------
I just returned from the Clinical Law Review workshop and want to thank Randy Hertz, the CLR Board, and NYU for making the event possible.

The Workshop is highly successful at meeting its goal of providing individuals an opportunity to get feedback and ideas about works in progress.  Papers or outlines are exchanged beforehand,and then participants arrive prepared to make comments on substance, resources, organization, style and voice in a challenging but respectful manner.  Everyone in my group left with copies of his or her  paper that were  marked up with really useful comments from the other participants and several pages of notes from the conversation.

The Workshop does much more than meet individual needs. To name a few, it encourages the pursuit of knowledge, improves the general quality of our research and scholarship, teaches us all new information,  promotes new relationships amongst people who might otherwise never get to meet, and helps us explore our values as a community and movement.

Kate Kruse closed the Workshop with a fabulous session that provided very specific strategies for success.  Her passion for scholarship was contagious so we all left empowered to go forth and do our work.

So, thanks again to all of you.

Nina W. Tarr
Professor of Law

THE LONGEST MILE

Fraternity members at Centre College walked a mile in five-inch heels to raise awareness of sexual violence. (Photograph by Kirk Schlea)

Do Babies Matter? gender equity in academe

Do Babies Matter in Science? - Chronicle.com

A true measure of gender equity in academe would look at both the career and family outcomes of female Ph.D.'s
By MARY ANN MASON

Federal investigators of Title IX, the law that forbids sexual discrimination in education, have only recently discovered that there may be a problem for women in science.

Investigators for the National Science Foundation, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, and the Department of Energy have been inspecting several campuses for potential Title IX violations in mathematics, science, and engineering departments (The Chronicle, January 20, 2006). The New York Times revisited the issue this summer and found that, "So far, these Title IX compliance reviews haven't had much visible impact on campuses beyond inspiring a few complaints from faculty members."

Evidence of the problems women face pursuing careers in academic science shouldn't be hard to find. . . . . [in the jump]

Discrimination against job candidates who are pregnant or have children is a very real part of gender discrimination. Some scientists may believe that women who have families cannot be serious scientists because academic science demands exclusive attention to research. But they do not hold the same beliefs about male scientists with kids. In fact, research shows that male scientists are far more likely to have children than female scientists; two years after their Ph.D.'s, nearly 50 percent of men, but only 30 percent of women, had children.

Women in science and math learn that truth early on. When I was dean of the graduate division at Berkeley, my staff members and I studied thousands of graduate students and faculty members to learn more about the effects of family formation on the careers of Ph.D.'s. Our project — "Do Babies Matter?" — traced the career tracks of academic men and women through their doctoral years to retirement. We found firm evidence that the lack of family-friendly policies turns away both men and women, but far more often the women, from careers in academic research.

That is true across all disciplines, but more notably in the physical sciences, technology, engineering, and mathematics, where the number of women is small to begin with.

Women who do pursue careers in academic science pay a high price for playing the game. Nationally, "married with children" is the academic-success formula for men, but the opposite is true for women, for whom there is a serious "baby gap." Among scientists who achieved tenure, 72 percent of the men are married with children as opposed to only 50 percent of women. Is that gender equity?

Federal investigators, when counting heads, shouldn't just consider the number of women who have succeeded in academic research. A true measure of gender equity in academe would look at both the career and family outcomes of female Ph.D.'s. We call that two-pronged measure the "baby-gap test," because it takes into account both the gap in professional outcomes for women with children compared with men and the gap in family formation for academically successful women.

Investigators need to ask not only how many women are professors and deans relative to their male counterparts, but also how many women with children are in high places compared with men with children. Viewing the situation in that way reveals that women have much further to go to achieve gender equity than we think.

Subtle maternal discrimination is difficult to deal with, but concrete measures, such as parental leave, child care, and other support at both the student and faculty levels, would go far to reduce this unnecessary loss.

Mary Ann Mason is a professor and co-director of the Berkeley Center on Health, Economic and Family Security and author of Mothers on the Fast Track (Oxford University Press).

Baylor Abandons SAT Payments

Baylor Abandons SAT Payments :: Inside Higher Ed :: Higher Education's Source for News, Views and Jobs

After several days in which educators and admissions experts nationally lambasted its plan to pay accepted applicants to raise their SAT scores (and presumably the institution’s ranking in U.S. News & World Report), Baylor is admitting a mistake.

Lori Fogleman, a spokeswoman, said in an interview Thursday night that the university “goofed” by offering the cash incentives. “We have heard the criticism,” she said. “It just had the appearance of impropriety. It raised unnecessary questions.”

High school students will still be permitted to take the SAT as many times as they want, she said, in efforts to improve their credentials. But she said Baylor would no longer offer any financial incentives to do so.

Professors Found to Keep Political Views Quiet

The Chronicle of Higher Education

Faculty members tend to keep political discussions out of the classroom and have limited influence on their students' leanings, two studies indicate.

here

KUDOS FOR SUSAN HERMAN (BROOKLYN) Elected As New ACLU President

OUR DEAR FRIEND AND COLLEAGUE,  DEVOTED DEFENDER OF THE BILL OF RIGHTS. THE ACLU IS LUCKY TO HAVE HER.

American Civil Liberties Union : Constitutional Law Scholar Susan Herman Elected As New ACLU President  [ACLU PRESS RELEASE - CLICK TO READ ALL]

NEW YORK – The American Civil Liberties Union Board of Directors today elected constitutional law professor Susan Herman as its new president. Herman is a Centennial Professor of Law at Brooklyn Law School and has served on the ACLU's National Board for 20 years, on the Executive Committee for the last 16 and acted as the Board's General Counsel for the last ten.

 Times Topics: American Civil Liberties Union

The selection of Susan Herman, a Brooklyn Law School professor, gives the organization a new public face for the first time in nearly two decades. Nadine Strossen, the A.C.L.U.’s longest-serving president and the first woman to hold the job, had led the group since 1991, overseeing a substantial rise in formal membership and national staffing.

The A.C.L.U. became especially active after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, challenging government practices regarding espionage, prisoner interrogations and the detention of terrorism suspects.

Ms. Herman said the group would build on Ms. Strossen’s legacy and pledged to continue work in those areas, especially if the federal government continues with its policies.

Ms. Herman said the group might expand its presence internationally, becoming more involved in civil liberties violations overseas.

The organization has long sought to increase its reach at home, working during Ms. Strossen’s tenure to expand in the center of the country, where its activities and support had traditionally been weak.

The vote on Saturday before the board followed Ms. Strossen’s resignation, announced in May. Ms. Herman, who has been the organization’s general counsel, beat out Robert Remar, a business litigation lawyer based in Atlanta who has served as the A.C.L.U.’s vice president since 2005.

 

Eight Years of Error Has Not Taught Them Much: Relitigating the Hamdan Sentence

Back in August, before the election and the economy ate my brain, I wrote about the verdict and sentence in the case of Salim Hamdan, the Guantanamo detainee who was a driver for Bin-Laden.  As you may recall, the government brought very serious charges in this case and the military jury rejected the top counts and imposed a much shorter sentence than the government sought.  I suggested it was an important expression of the power of the jury to check government excess.  Mr. Hamdan’s sentence should soon end, although many believe he will continue to be held by this Administration on the well known legal theory that the unitary executive can do whatever it wants, whenever it wants, where ever it wants, whatever the law might say.

But now it seems even that will not satisfy our government.  The Wall Street Journal reports that they  want to revisit the sentence and now argue that the judge lacked authority to give Mr. Hamdan credit for the time he served in custody prior to sentencing.  Effectively, they are seeking a sentence five years longer than that imposed by the military jury, even though that jury exercised its sentencing power after it had been instructed he would receive credit for time served.  Although government lawyers say they don’t care what sentence he gets and they are only trying to get the law right, principles of waiver and basic fairness suggest to me that they should fight that battle in a subsequent case, not this one. 

Perhaps I paint with too broad a brush, but even in the waning days of this Administration, my mind still boggles at the damage government lawyers have done to the law over the past eight years.  Guantanamo and political hiring at justice are the signal examples of the harm that flows when lawyers with real power act on the view that the righteous need not be constrained by law.