clinicians with not enough to do

Law Student Loses Free Speech Case Against Regent

June 11, 2009

Judge Rejects Former Student's Lawsuit Against Regent U. and Pat Robertson

A federal judge in Virginia has dismissed a lawsuit filed by a former Regent University law student who was suspended after posting on the Internet an unflattering picture of Pat Robertson, the Christian institution’s founder and chancellor, the Associated Press reported.

The student, Adam Key, accused the university and Mr. Robertson of violating his free-speech and due-process rights. But Judge Jerome B. Friedman of the U.S. District Court in Norfolk rejected Mr. Key’s argument that because the private university accepted some federal funds, it was subject to the same free-speech and due-process standards that apply to the government. In an opinion issued last Friday, Judge Friedman wrote that a university’s receipt of public funds alone does not make its decisions acts of the state. —Charles Huckabee

Law Professor Letter: Support Judge Sotomayor

Law Professor Letter: Support Judge Sotomayor

Full Petition Text: We the undersigned professors of law write in support of the confirmation of Judge Sonia Sotomayor as an Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court. Judge Sotomayor will bring to the Supreme Court an extraordinary personal story, stellar academic qualifications, remarkable professional accomplishments and much needed ethnic and gender diversity. Her rise from modest circumstances speaks to the strength of her character, her tenacity and her work ethic. Her exceptional academic record at Princeton and Yale Law School is testament to her exceptional intellect and her ability to excel in highly competitive circumstances. On the bench, Judge Sotomayor has distinguished herself as a brilliant, careful, fair-minded jurist whose rulings exhibit unfailing adherence to the rule of law. Her opinions reflect careful attention to the facts of each case and a reading of the law that demonstrates fidelity to the text of statutes and the Constitution. She pays close attention to precedent and has proper respect for the role of courts and the other branches of government in our society. She has not been reluctant to protect core constitutional values and has shown a commitment to providing equal justice for all who come before her. Judge Sotomayor?s approach to the law reflects her rich and diverse professional career. She served as a prosecutor in the Manhattan District Attorneys office, and as a corporate litigator in private practice. During this period, she was deeply engaged in public activities, including service on the New York Mortgage Agency and the New York City Campaign Finance Board, as well as serving on the Board of Directors of the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund. Her career won bi-partisan respect, which led George H.W. Bush to nominate her to the federal district court and a majority Democratic Senate to confirm her in 1992. Her performance on the district court solidified that bipartisan respect and President Clinton nominated her to the Second Circuit. She was confirmed by a majority Republican Senate in 1998. We are confident that Judge Sotomayor?s brilliance, her character forged by her extraordinary background and experience, and her profound respect for the law and the craft of judging make her an exceptionally well-qualified nominee to the Supreme Court and we urge her speedy confirmation. Sincerely: [Your name] [Your address]

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The New Student Excuse -- Corrupted-Files.com

Most of us have had the experience of receiving e-mail with an attachment, trying to open the attachment, and finding a corrupted file that won't open. That concept is at the root of a new Web site advertising itself (perhaps serious only in part) as the new way for students to get extra time to finish their assignments.

Corrupted-Files.com offers a service -- recently noted by several academic bloggers who have expressed concern -- that sells students (for only $3.95, soon to go up to $5.95) intentionally corrupted files. Why buy a corrupted file? Here's what the site says: "Step 1: After purchasing a file, rename the file e.g. Mike_Final-Paper. Step 2: E-mail the file to your professor along with your 'here's my assignment' e-mail. Step 3: It will take your professor several hours if not days to notice your file is 'unfortunately' corrupted. Use the time this website just bought you wisely and finish that paper!!!"

read the rest of this story at Inside Higher Ed online:  http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2009/06/05/corrupted

Going Global: Antipoverty Lessons from Around the World

Poverty Law Prof Blog

New Issue of Pathways:

The Spring issue of Pathways, the poverty, inequality, and social policy magazine of The Stanford Center for the Study of Poverty and Inequality, has now been published.  The issue (full PDF available here) includes:

Editors' Note by David Grusky and Christopher Wimer

TRENDS
Getting to Equal: Progress, Pitfalls, and Policy Solutions on the Road to Gender Parity in the Workplace
Have we "stalled out" in the historic march toward gender equality in the workplace? Pamela Stone weighs the evidence and makes the case for a new way forward.

RESEARCH IN BRIEF
New research developments
A surprising trend in wealth inequality, the biological determinants of poor children's academic performance, the long-term effects of job displacement, and other cutting-edge research.

GOING GLOBAL: ANTIPOVERTY LESSONS FROM AROUND THE WORLD
Flexicurity
Joshua Cohen and Charles Sabel argue that the time has come to build a 21st century labor market modeled on key principles of Denmark's "flexicurity" system.
Pro-Poor Stimulus: Lessons from the Developing World
Martin Ravallion looks to antipoverty programs in developing countries to understand how developed nations like the United States can provide stimulus while reducing long-term poverty.
Combating Poverty by Building Assets: Lessons from Around the World
Ray Boshara describes the key features of asset-building programs throughout the world and examines how the United States can apply them to achieve economic security for the poor.
Northern Exposure: Learning from Canada�s Response to Winner-Take-All Inequality
Jacob S. Hacker describes how the United States and Canada have taken two different roads and why the Canadian road provides lessons that the United States might take to heart.

INTERVENTIONS
Spotlight On...Growing Power and the Urban Farming Movement
In our new "Spotlight On" feature, we talk with Growing Power's Will and Erika Allen about the potential and future of urban agriculture in combating poverty

Martha Minow named dean of Harvard Law School

press release here

Martha Minow, the Jeremiah Smith, Jr., Professor of Law at Harvard Law School, will become the dean of the Faculty of Law on July 1, President Drew Faust announced today (June 11).

A member of the Law School faculty since 1981, Minow is a distinguished legal scholar with interests that range from international human rights to equality and inequality, from religion and pluralism to managing mass tort litigation, from family law and education law to the privatization of military, schooling, and other governmental activities. She is also a widely admired teacher who chaired the Law School’s curricular reform efforts of recent years and was recognized with the School’s Sacks-Freund Award for Teaching Excellence in 2005.

JOBS: Wash U. fellow in criminal justice

THE WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF LAW invites applicants for its new Clinic Faculty Fellows program. The fellowship is designed to train talented lawyers to obtain an academic teaching post, ideally including clinical teaching, and to help provide teaching coverage in the law school’s Clinical Affairs program. The fellowship will provide feedback, mentoring and assistance in developing clinical pedagogical skills and academic legal scholarship. The fellow’s teaching assignment will be in the direct-supervision criminal justice clinic and may include a course outside the clinic. Candidates should be eligible to practice law in Missouri (i.e., a member of the Missouri bar or eligible for admission without examination pursuant to Missouri Supreme Court Rule13.06),[1  have experience in criminal law, demonstrate promise as a legal scholar and teacher, and have a commitment to pursuing a career in legal academia. The Washington University School of Law is committed to diversity in the legal profession and in legal academia and is interested in applications from persons of color, women, disabled persons and other under-represented groups, and regardless of sexual orientation. The presumption is that the fellow will be appointed for two consecutive academic years, to begin summer, 2009. The expectation is that the fellow will participate in the entry-level teaching market beginning in the fall of the second fellowship year. The fellow will be offered mentoring, intensive feedback, and other institutional support to develop his or her legal scholarship and teaching skills. The fellow will have the opportunity to participate fully in the intellectual life of the law school, including faculty workshops, colloquia and conferences and will have no teaching or case coverage responsibilities over the summer. It is expected that the fellow will complete one scholarly article by the end of summer 2010. The fellow will be expected to present his or her writing to the faculty at a faculty workshop or seminar in order to refine the work and prepare for the scholarly give-and-take that occurs in the entry-level job talk. The fellow will receive a competitive annual salary along with employee benefits and support for research and teaching. Interested applicants should submit a résumé, official law school transcript, a list of references, copies of any prior scholarly publications, and a brief description of the candidate’s scholarly agenda or interest in entering academia. Please submit an application and materials no later than July 1, 2009 to: Professor Annette Appell, Associate Dean for Clinical Affairs,

FEEDBACK TIME!

With the summer break upon us, this is a great time to get supportive, non-evaluative feedback on a scholarly work-in-progress from a clinical colleague with shared expertise in a substantive area.  The Scholarship Committee of the AALS Section on Clinical Legal Education offers this peer network.  If you have a work-in-progress and would like to be paired with a clinical colleague at another school, send a request to this address:  clinicalpeernetwork@gmail.com.  If you are willing to offer constructive feedback, join our extensive database of subject-matter experts at this link: http://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?key=pZsCVzJPWhtPxGN_ikLSZMQ&email=true.   This is not a commitment to serve as a peer reviewer.  You will simply be in our database, and when an author in your area of expertise asks for peer review, we will contact you to see if you are interested.  If you have questions, email Michele Gilman at clinicalpeernetwork@gmail.com.  Happy writing!

 

JOBS: Georgetown fellow in climate policy

Fellowship opening at Georgetown Law Center –

Law clinic fellow in climate policy

Deadline for applications:  July 10, 2009

 

The Harrison Institute for Public Law seeks applicants for a two-year fellowship in its policy clinic that would begin in July or August of 2009.  Georgetown fellows supervise upper-class law students in the clinical program, participate in curriculum development and teaching, and undertake research and writing projects.

 

This fellow will primarily work with the Georgetown Climate Center, which explores the roles of states and the federal government in two aspects of climate policy.  One is to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions through improvements to fuel standards, transportation systems, and land use planning.  The other dimension is to help states and localities adapt to climate changes that affect public health, for example, heat island effects in northern cities and coastal flooding in the southeast. 

 

The fellow will help lead teams that monitor, map, analyze, and implement state and local policies.  There may also be opportunities for the fellow to participate in aspects of the Institute’s health or trade law practice, both of which overlap with climate policy.

 

Upon completion, Georgetown awards clinical fellows the degree of Masters of Law (Advocacy).  Fellows receive an annual stipend of $51,150 (taxable), health and dental benefits, and full tuition benefits in the LL.M. program.

 

We seek applicants with an academic background in environmental law and/or public policy, knowledge of climate policy alternatives, and relevant work experience.  You must be a member of the D.C. Bar or eligible to waive into the D.C. Bar as a member of a state bar.  To apply, please send your letter of interest and resume to Prof. Robert Stumberg, preferably by email, to stumberg@law.georgetown.edu; the mailing address is:  Harrison Institute, 111 F St., NW – Suite 120, Washington, DC 20001-2095.

 

---

Deborah Epstein

Associate Dean of Clinical Programs,

Public Interest & Community Service

Georgetown University Law Center

600 New Jersey Avenue, N.W.

Washington, DC 20001

202-662-9642

Institute for Law Teaching and Learning has New Website

We are writing to send you a link to the new website of the Institute for Law Teaching and Learning: http://lawteaching.org <http://lawteaching.org/> .  The website includes a wide variety of materials on teaching, learning and curriculum design and reform, including: Best Practices for Legal Education (2007); a featured monthly teaching idea and a featured monthly law review article; other selected law review articles; information about upcoming conferences addressing teaching, learning, and/or curricular reform; all past issues of The Law Teacher; bibliographies of articles and books on law teaching and learning; and some web links you might find useful.

Coming soon will be two additional books, Techniques for Teaching Law (1999) and Outcomes Assessment for Law Schools (2001), three videos addressing teaching and learning topics, and additional law review resources.

We welcome your feedback.  Please share this message with your colleagues.

Sincerely,

Professor Michael Hunter Schwartz, Washburn University School of Law Professor Gerald F. Hess, Gonzaga University School of Law Co-Directors, Institute for Law Teaching and Learning

Gerald Hess

Professor of Law

Co-Director, Institute for Law Teaching and Learning Gonzaga University School of Law PO Box 3528, Spokane, WA 99220-3528

(509) 313-3779

JOBS: Saint Louis Clinic

Dear Friends,

 Saint Louis University School of Law has several job openings for the coming academic year, including two newly-created spots in our Legal Clinic.  There are also positions in the Legal Research and Writing Program and administrative positions.  The link below will allow you access to all of the openings and the process for applying.

 https://jobs.slu.edu/applicants/jsp/shared/frameset/Frameset.jsp?time=1244556143987

 Thanks.

 John Ammann

Legal Clinic, Saint Louis University School of Law

SSRN: Assessment Down Under

"Student Assessment in the Clinical Environment - What Can We Learn from the US Experience?" 

Monash University Faculty of Law Legal Studies Research Paper No. 2007/18
International Journal of Clinical Legal Education, 2007

ROSS L HYAMS, Monash University - Faculty of Law
Email: ross.hyams@law.monah.edu.au

Clinical legal education has a relatively short history in Australia of some thirty years. By contrast, the US has a much longer and diverse history of clinical pedagogy and has been successfully teaching and assession students in University legal clinics for over half a century. Traditional law school teaching methodology relies heavily on the Langdellian style of lectures, tutorials and then a form of summative evaluation. Clinical pedagogy is a radical departure from this style and as such assessment of clinical students necessitates a different approach. Clinicians have a duty to offer assessment regimes which ciomplement the clinical technique of law teaching.

ABA Journal: Sweeping Accreditation Review May Prompt ‘Sea Change’ in Law School Evals

 

Posted Jun 3, 2009, 09:57 am CDT
By James Podgers

For months, the ABA's law school accrediting body has quietly been working on a comprehensive review of its often-controversial standards governing legal education.

But as word spreads about the scope of the review by the Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar, some new proposals are sure to cause a stir.

So what's most likely to spark debate?

The most significant change in the Standards for Approval of Law Schools is likely to be a move away from evaluating law schools on the basis of criteria that measure “input”—such things as faculty size, budget and physical plant. Instead, the Legal Education Section would evaluate law schools more heavily on the basis of “outcome” measures.

To read the rest of this article, click here

SSRN: Undertraining of Women and Minorities

"The Undertraining of Lawyers and its Effect on the Advancement of Women and Minorities in the Legal Profession" 

Duke Forum for Law & Social Change, Forthcoming
NYU School of Law, Public Law Research Paper No. 09-31

IRENE SEGAL AYERS, New York University - School of Law
Email: ayersi@juris.law.nyu.edu

The undertraining of law students documented in a century?s worth of critiques of legal education, most recently by the Carnegie Foundation, has different and much more detrimental consequences for the post-J.D. careers of women and minority attorneys. However, studies of their early careers focus primarily on problems with law-firm mentoring and pay little, if any, attention to how the earlier training that these lawyers received (or failed to be given) in law school might have contributed to the later career obstacles they face. Conversely, studies of the ways that law schools undertrain law students pay little or no attention to how the deficiencies in the current model of law school education may disproportionately disadvantage women and minority law students later in their careers. This article examines an emerging literature, narratives of professionalization by women attorneys of color, and puts those narratives into the dual context of critiques of legal education (exemplified by the Carnegie Report) and critiques of law-firm practice (exemplified by the recent A.B.A. study ?Visible Invisibility: Women of Color in Law Firms?) in order to demonstrate how law schools contribute to the career difficulties faced by women and minority attorneys. Two types of undertraining occur: 1) formal curricular undertraining; 2) self-undertraining, caused by the disengagement produced by law school culture. Only by reforming the curriculum and culture of legal education can law schools live up to the democratic civic mission they espouse as proponents of equal opportunity.

SSRN: Law Student Well-Being

"Personal Integration and Outsider Status as Factors in Law Student Well-Being" 

Washburn Law Journal, Vol. 47, No. 101, 2008
William & Mary Law School Research Paper No. 09-06

SUSAN GROVER, William & Mary Law School
Email: ssgrov@wm.edu

There is a movement right now (2008) toward humanizing legal education and the profession as a whole. Stories abound of the toll taken by the stress and overwork that characterize the typical lawyer's life. Studies show that these problems begin as early as the first year of law school. Studies also show the toll taken is exacerbated when the law student or lawyer is an outsider -- a racial minority member, a first-generation college graduate, or someone who for some other reason feels marginalized. This article discusses the experiences of such individuals -- where the stresses of legal education intersect with the stresses inherent in being an outsider. The article offers some recommendations for faculty and administrators seeking to advance the well-being of such students.