clinicians with not enough to do

Clinical Law Review's Clinical Writers' Workshop -- Deadline June 2nd!!

Clinical Law Review's Clinical Writers' Workshop

October 2-3, 2010 at N.Y.U. School of Law

Registration Deadline: June 2, 2010

The Clinical Law Review will hold its third Clinical Writers' Workshop on the afternoon of Saturday, October 2, and the morning of Sunday, October 3, at NYU Law School. The Workshop will follow a celebration at New York Law School of the 25th Anniversary of the Clinical Theory Workshop on Friday, October 1, and the morning of Saturday, October 2.

The Clinical Law Review Writers' Workshop provides an opportunity for clinical teachers who are writing about any subject (clinical pedagogy, substantive law, interdisciplinary analysis, empirical work, etc.) to meet with other clinicians writing on similar topics to discuss their works-in-progress and brainstorm ideas for further development of their articles. Attendees will meet in small groups organized by the subject matter in which they are writing. Each group will "workshop" the draft of each member of the group.

Participation in the Clinical Law Review's Workshop requires the submission of a paper because the workshop takes the form of small group sessions in which all members of the group comment on each other's manuscripts. If you have already submitted a paper proposal to the New York Law School Clinical Theory Workshop Anniversary conference, you're welcome to submit it for the Clinical Law Review Writers' Workshop, but you are also welcome, of course, to submit a paper proposal to the Clinical Law Review Writers' Workshop other than the one that you submitted to the New York Law School Clinical Theory Workshop Anniversary Conference. (You can attend the New York Law School Clinical Theory Workshop conference, by the way, without submitting a paper.)

As in the previous two Clinical Law Review Workshops, participants will not have to pay an admission or registration fee but participants will have to arrange and pay for their own travel and lodgings. To assist those who wish to participate but who need assistance for travel and lodging, NYU Law School has committed to provide 25 scholarships of up to $1,000 per person to help pay for travel and lodgings. The scholarships are designed for those clinical faculty who receive little or no travel support from their law schools and who otherwise would not be able to attend this conference without scholarship support.

JUNE 2, 2010: DEADLINE FOR REGISTRATION AND SCHOLARSHIP APPLICATION

To register for the Workshop without seeking a scholarship, please submit a Registration Form. This form is available on-line on the CLR Workshop's website at:

http://www.law.nyu.edu/journals/clinicallawreview/clrworkshop/index.htm.

Along with the form, please submit a mini-draft or prospectus, of roughly 3-5 pages in length, of the article you intend to present at the Workshop.

To register and also seek a scholarship, please submit a "Registration Form with Request for Scholarship Assistance." This form is also available on-line on the CLR Workshop's website at:

http://www.law.nyu.edu/journals/clinicallawreview/clrworkshop/index.htm.

Along with the form, you have to submit a proposed budget for travel and lodging and also a mini-draft or prospectus, of roughly 3-5 pages in length, of the article you intend to present at the Workshop.

The mini-draft or prospectus of the article should contain the tentative title of the article and a short description of the main point or points contemplated by the article.

HOTEL INFORMATION

Blocks of rooms have been reserved at three local hotels at an NYU discounted rate, for Thursday, September 30, to Sunday, October 3. (The first of these nights will be needed if you decide to attend both the Clinical Theory Workshop Anniversary conference and the Clinical Law Review Writers' Workshop. The scholarships for the Clinical Law Review Workshop apply only to the two nights you'll need for the CLR Workshop (Friday, October 1, and Saturday, October 2.)) Hotel information is available on-line at

http://www.law.nyu.edu/ecm_dlv2/groups/public/@nyu_law_website__journals__clinical_law_review/documents/documents/ecm_pro_065425.pdf.

To reserve a room and qualify for the NYU discount, you must reserve the room by August 30.

SEPTEMBER 1, 2010: DEADLINE FOR SUBMITTING A DRAFT MANUSCRIPT

All participants must submit a draft article by this date. Submissions will be circulated to every member of the small group to which the participant has been assigned. The award of the scholarship will be conditioned upon the submission of a substantially completed draft by this date.

Blogista Kotkin among those blamed for oppression of white men

From Kate Kruse:  "I don't know whether it is more frightening to be on this list or more insulting to be left off."  In either case, check it out:


http://themanonthestreet.blogspot.com/2010/02/meet-your-oppressors.html        

Clinical Law Review Writers Workshop -- Save the Date

The Clinical Law Review will hold its third Clinical Writers’ Workshop on the afternoon of Saturday, October 2, and the morning of Sunday, October 3, at NYU Law School. The Workshop will follow a celebration at New York Law School of the 25th Anniversary of the Clinical Theory Workshop on Friday, October 1, and the morning of Saturday, October 2.

The Clinical Law Review’s Workshop will provide an opportunity for clinical teachers who are writing about any subject (clinical pedagogy, substantive law, interdisciplinary analysis, empirical work, etc.) to meet with other clinicians writing on similar topics to discuss their works-in-progress and brainstorm ideas for further development of their articles. Attendees will meet in small groups organized by the subject matter in which they are writing. Each group will "workshop" the draft of each member of the group.

Those who would like to attend both workshops are welcome to propose the same paper for both workshops. Participation in the Clinical Law Review’s Workshop requires the submission of a paper because the workshop takes the form of small group sessions in which all members of the group comment on each other’s manuscripts. (You can attend the Clinical Theory Workshop conference, however, without submitting a paper.)

As in the previous two Clinical Law Review Workshops, participants will not have to pay an admission or registration fee but participants will have to arrange and pay for their own travel and lodgings. To assist those who wish to participate but who need assistance for travel and lodging, NYU Law School has committed to provide 25 scholarships of up to $1,000 per person to help pay for travel and lodgings. The scholarships are designed for those clinical faculty who receive little or no travel support from their law schools and who otherwise would not be able to attend this conference without scholarship support. The scholarships will be conditioned upon recipients' submission of a draft of an article for discussion at the Workshop.

Applications to register for the conference and applications for scholarships are due on June 2, 2010. The Board will circulate application materials at the AALS clinical conference in early May and will also post these materials on-line on relevant listservs and websites. To seek a scholarship, applicants will need to submit a mini-draft or prospectus, roughly three to five pages in length, of the article they intend to present at the workshop, and also a proposed budget for travel and lodgings. The Board will review all scholarship applications and issue decisions about scholarships in early July. Recipients of a scholarship will be asked to submit a full draft of their article by September 1, 2010.

If you have any comments or suggestions you would like to send us, we would be very happy to hear from you. Comments and suggestions should be sent to Randy Hertz at [email protected].

-- The Board of Editors of the Clinical Law Review

Clinical Theory Workshop 25th Anniversary Celebration and Conference

 Dear members and friends of the Clinical Theory Workshops:

 

            I’m happy to tell you that this year, 2010, marks the 25^th anniversary of the Clinical Theory Workshop series. In honor of this birthday, I propose to throw a party – that is, to hold a conference – and I’m writing to invite you to participate.

 

            The theme of the conference follows from the nature of the occasion. We have been meeting to discuss works of clinical scholarship for a quarter-century, and along the way many of us have also written clinical scholarship ourselves. Our meetings have been fun; we are a community; but what have we discerned over the years? That’s the question for the conference. Put more formally, our theme will be: “Twenty-five years of clinical scholarship: What have we learned, and what should we work on next?”

 

            We will meet at New York Law School on Friday, October 1, 2010 (I expect there will also be an informal dinner on Thursday, September 30, for anyone who arrives in time for a meal), with plenaries and small group sessions all day Friday, and a dinner that night, and then we’ll convene again on Saturday, October 2, for meetings all morning. The 25^th anniversary conference will conclude at lunchtime on Saturday, but I hope that many of the participants in our celebration will then travel a little ways uptown to NYU School of Law, where the Clinical Law Review writing workshop will meet on Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning (October 2-3). The organizers of these two conferences think that they complement each other very well, the first conference reflecting on what we’ve learned and where we should aim to go, and the second providing a concrete opportunity for clinicians to work together on the scholarly articles they are writing. We hope that many of the 25^th anniversary participants will want to stay on for the writers’ workshop, either as small-group facilitators or as participating authors, and that many of the writers’ workshop participants will want to come to New York a day or two early to be part of the 25^th anniversary celebration.

 

            We’ll be distributing registration materials later in the spring. The purpose of this letter is partly to ask you to save the dates, and partly to invite you to submit papers. As you think about possible papers, please keep in mind the conference theme: we do seriously ask you to focus on both looking back to what we have already learned, and looking forward to where we should be going, in light of where we’re coming from. Within that broad guideline, you may want to look at any of the areas of “clinical scholarship,” which we understand not as simply scholarship by clinicians but rather as scholarship focusing on issues of lawyering skills, of pedagogy and supervision, or of legal practice and legal reality as illuminated by clinical perspectives. Among these issues are many that are perplexing, and some that are controversial and even political – from the nature of lawyers’ expertise to the principles for representation of communities to the dynamics of interviewing to the current ABA consideration of outcomes assessment and changes in Standard 405(c). Papers on all of these, papers that take into account past scholarship and aim to chart new paths for the future, are all appropriate for this conference. Whatever the topic, we will seek to bring to all our discussions the same sense of shared community and supportive critique that we have aimed for in our meetings over the years.

 

            Here’s one more thought about topics. As many of you know, Bob Dinerstein, Isabelle Gunning, Kate Kruse, Ann Shalleck and I recently published a textbook, Lawyers and Clients: Critical Issues in Interviewing and Counseling (West 2009). Our aim in that book was something like the aim of this conference – to take account of what we’d already learned, specifically about interviewing and counseling, and to try to push our explorations further. The issues we focused on, under the broad heading of “engaged client-centeredness,” included responding to difference and similarity between lawyer and client; supporting client decisionmaking while still bringing the lawyer’s insights and even moral views to the table; working with atypical clients; using narrative as a lens for understanding clients; integrating skills and ethics (for example, in the lawyer’s attention to truth and her explanations of the law); and understanding the nature of expert, as distinguished from novice, client-centered practice. If you too are “engaged” with these issues, papers on them – with or without reference to our book – would be very welcome.

 

            Here’s the schedule for submission of papers:

 

Topic statements and abstracts are due April 1, 2010.

 

First drafts are due June 15, 2010.

 

I’m very pleased to say that several workshop members (Claudia Angelos, Sameer Ashar, Sue Bryant, Stacy Caplow, Liz Cooper, Minna Kotkin, Vanessa Merton, David Reiss, Barbara Schatz, and Ian Weinstein) have generously agreed to read and comment on first drafts (I’ll be a reader too); we’ll send comments to authors by July 30, 2010.

 

Revised drafts are due September 15, 2010. These drafts will be posted on the conference website.

 

Finally, after the conference, all conference papers submitted by December 1, 2010 will be considered for publication by the New York Law School Law Review; the Review, of course, will make final decisions about which articles to publish.

 

            Many of you will recognize that in calling for topic statements and first drafts, and providing feedback on those drafts en route to the conference drafts, we are following the model of the UCLA-Arrowhead conferences. We’re happy to follow that distinguished model. Some of you may also be wondering whether the Clinical Theory Workshop conference will conflict with the 2010 UCLA-Arrowhead conference. Fortunately, the answer is no; our conference is 5 weeks before theirs. But you may want to attend both, and we will be happy if papers that fit the theme of the 25^th anniversary conference also fit the theme of the UCLA conference.

 

            If you have any questions about the Clinical Theory Workshop conference, please don’t hesitate to contact me, either by e-mail ([email protected]) or phone (212-431-2392). I very much look forward to hearing from you.

                                                                                   

All the best –

            

Steve

 

 

Stephen J. Ellmann/Associate Dean for Faculty Development and Collaborative Learning/New York Law School/185 West Broadway/New York, NY 10013/212-431-2392

Recession Leads More Students to Do Good?!

The economy appears to shape the most recent survey of law students.  More law students say that their legal education has bolstesed their commitment to public service -- and more students anticipate seeking public interest law jobs. Those two findings from the latest iterationof the Law School Survey of Student Engagement suggest that the economic downturn is influencing the perceptions of law students. The survey, produced by the Indiana University Center for Postsecondary Research, examines the views from 26,000 law students at 82 schools on a wide range of aspects of their legal educations.

Conference on Alternatives to the Bar Exam

Dear Colleagues,

In late April 2010,  Franklin Pierce Law Center and the Society of American Law Teachers (SALT) are co-hosting a small national conference of law faculty, law deans, state Supreme Court justices, and state Bar Examiners interested in learning more about Franklin Pierce Law School's Daniel Webster Scholar Honors Program (DWS) with an eye toward potentially developing a similar program in their states. 

DWS is designed to help make students “client ready.”  Students enrolled in DWS take a variety of doctrinal courses, simulation courses, clinics, and externships.  Professionalism experiences are infused through this course of study.  DWS students develop a portfolio containing both written and videotaped material.  Their portfolio and skills performances are assessed by law faculty, practitioners, Justices of the NH Supreme Court , NH Bar Examiners, and “standardized clients.” Students successfully completing the DWS program are licensed in NH without having to take the traditional bar exam.  The program integrates doctrine, skills, and ethics, and successful completion of the program serves as an alternative to the traditional two-day NH bar exam.

DWS came into being through the collaborative efforts of law faculty, deans, members of the bar, state bar examiners, and state supreme court justices.  If you believe that these stakeholders in your state may be interested in exploring an alternative licensing program based upon the DWS model, please contact Tim Floyd, Chair of the SALT Subcommittee on Alternatives to the Bar Exam, at [email protected] to get more
information about the upcoming April conference.  (Also, I will be at AALS this week, and I will be glad to meet with anyone in person to discuss this.)

More detailed information about DWS can be found in an article co-authored by John Garvey, the DWS Program Director: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1477391. 

Thanks,

Tim Floyd

Timothy W. Floyd
Professor of Law
Director, Law and Public Service Program
Mercer University Walter F. George School of Law
1021 Georgia Avenue
Macon, Georgia 31207-0001
Telephone: 478-301-2631
Fax: 478-301-2259
[email protected]

News from Poverty Law Listserv

Hello!

 

(A)   First two quick reminders: (1) if you haven’t sent an update to on what  you have been up to for the Poverty Law Newsletter (see instructions at the end of this email), please do so by Jan. 5^th!  Right now there are a few submissions but it would be great to have more; (2) if you have nominations (or self-nominations) for the Section on Poverty Law’s Executive Committee, please email those to [email protected] by Jan. 3^rd. 

 

(B)   The Section on Poverty Law’s AALS program is on Friday, Jan. 8, 2010 from 4-5:45pm.  (info below) 

 

(C)   Attached is the Section on Socio-Economics Newsletter, courtesy of Professor Robert Ashford.  The focus of the many panels listed in the newsletter is “Economic Recovery and the Obama Presidency” and there is also a description of socio-economics.  Download Socio-Economcs Newsletter 091218

 

Thanks,

Ezra

 

INFO BELOW

 

(A)

It’s time for the 2009 edition of the Poverty Law Newsletter.  Please let me have your news items by Friday, December 11 Jan. 5, 2010.  If you would like to be included, tell me which category(ies), listed below, the entries go in.  Format your entries by starting with your name in bold and your school in parentheses.  If you refer to someone else (eg, a co-author), please do the same for their names.

 

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!  Instead, email me directly at [email protected]. 

 

 

(B)

 

Association of American Law Schools
Section on Poverty Law
Annual Meeting Program
Friday, January 8, 2010
4:00 to 5:45 p.m. Prince of Wales, Third Floor, Hilton New Orleans Riverside

The New Anti-Poverty Advocacy: Constructs, Strategies and Tactics

Representing Families in Distress
Bernadette D’Souza, Managing Attorney, Southeast Louisiana Legal Services

Litigating to Break the School-to-Prison Pipeline
Ron Lospennato, Director of the School to Prison Reform Project, Southern Poverty Law Center

Building Power for Workers Across Boundaries of Race and Immigration Status: the Role of the Law and Community Lawyering
Jennifer J. Rosenbaum, Legal Director, New Orleans Worker Center for Racial Justice
Saket Soni, Executive Director, New Orleans Worker Center for Racial Justice

Professor William P. Quigley, Moderator and Discussant, Loyola University New Orleans and Legal Director, Center for Constitutional Rights

The recent pronounced shifts in American politics and economics intensify the need for sustained reflection, as we consider how to shape legal activism, scholarship, and policy-making against poverty. The re-emergence of the Democratic Party in national politics and the renewed support for government action simultaneously create openings for activists and advocates and invite caution. Similarly, the failures of the American banking system, massive government deficits, and the continued restructuring and globalization of the U.S. economy cause great misery for those at the bottom and present opportunities to press for fundamental and progressive reform. It remains unclear whether this period is one in which power will be redistributed downward and outward to poor and working people or whether the defining values and hierarchies of the political economy in the last thirty years – variously labeled neo-liberalism, neo-conservatism, or free market fundamentalism – will be reinforced.

This program will feature the work of five innovative advocates working in the crucible of post-Katrina New Orleans.  Their legal strategies both stem from and transcend the particular conditions facing poor people in a former disaster zone.  Professor Quigley will situate their approaches in the larger contexts of poverty law scholarship and the current complex political moment.

*   *   *   *   *

Service Day in New Orleans

Where: New Orleans

Starts: January 7th, 2010 9:00 AM.  Ends: January 7th, 2010 1:00 PM

On Thursday, January 7, SALT and the Poverty Law Teachers are co-sponsoring a Day of Service in New Orleans to coincide with the AALS Annual Meeting. The day begins at 9:00 A.M. with volunteer service coordinated by the Lower Ninth Ward Center for Sustainable Engagement and Development, the New Orleans Group of the Sierra Club, and other local organizations. Immediately following will be a lunchtime session during which local providers and advocates will educate law school participants about needs in the Gulf Coast region and work with us to devise creative responses to the continuing calls for law-related assistance. Buses will be provided to transport participants to and from the Annual Meeting Hotel site.

Participation in the event is limited. Advance registration is required.  The cost for the event is $60.00, which covers bus transportation to and from the hotel, lunch, and a contribution to the host service providers.  Registration begins October 1.

Please note that the AALS has scheduled Saturday afternoon bus trips through affected areas of New Orleans, with host faculty from Louisiana law schools serving as guides.  These bus tours are not directly connected with this service event. In addition, a separate field trip co-sponsored by AALS and the Environmental Law Section is scheduled for January 7. Registration for any AALS sponsored field trip must be done separately.

For more information about the service day program, contact Nancy Cook at [email protected] or Lisa Martin at [email protected].

 

Exam Stress Makes University of Maryland Law Students Catty

In the midst of law school finals, stress is manifesting itself in a variety of ways at campuses across the land. Northwestern students are debating politically correct language and staging coups. NYU law students are staging silent — and awkward — 11 p.m. dance parties at their library. At Vanderbilt, students are trying to land study (and f***) buddies via Craigslist ads.

At the University of Maryland School of Law, students are getting pissy over pussies on the list-serv. From a tipster:

The University of Maryland Law School’s law-all listserv (that mails to every student, professor, dean and employee of the law school) has been recently inundated with emails for cat-sitting over winter break — sent from professors and students. After the third email, the entire listserv erupted. One student, clearly short on patience during exams, replied that the listserv was not meant for personal ads. Following that email was an onslaught of fake pet sitting ads… The entire school is literally buzzing about the cat emails. Clearly finals delirium has set in.

We’ll not waste space by reprinting the initial list-serv requests for cat-sitters. They were innocuous enough, beyond a professor calling his feline friends “pussycats” and signing his e-mail “Peace.”

We’ll summarize: On Nov. 20, a visiting professor sent an email to the list-serv with the subject line, “Pussycat and Apartment Sitting,” seeking a law student in need of some extra cash over the holidays. The next day, a female law school student sent out a request for a sitter for her “momma cat and her little kitten” during her month-long study abroad. A third person emailing the list for a nanny for his cat, “Rocky or Rockstar,” over winter break was the straw that broke the terrapin’s back. Says our tipster:

At this point, the entire law school lost it. Several Gchat statuses reflected the absurdity of this mass email, including: “Is anyone at this law school capable of taking care of their pussy over winter break?”, “Look! Rocky’s a Star! (with a link to a public Facebook album of the cat).”

For the string of emails, click here:  http://abovethelaw.com/2009/12/catty_list_serv_at_university_of_maryland.php

What’s Marriage Worth To You? Heterosexual Woman Puts Her Right To Marry Up For Auction On E-Bay

From our friends at the Gender and Sexuality Law Blog (http://blogs.law.columbia.edu/genderandsexualitylawblog/)

 

by KATHERINE FRANKE

 

In my last post I urged heterosexual people to do more than express their condolences to the gay community for the defeat of the marriage equality bill in the New York State Senate last week.  Well, Jamie Frevele, an avowed heterosexual woman, has gone even farther than I had imagined.  She has put her right to marry up for auction on E-bay.  As of now, she has received 20 bids and the current bid is $138.00 – but the auction will run until December 12th – so you have plenty of time to bid:

Frevele explains the auctioning of her right to marry thus:

I’m an unmarried heterosexual woman, and since I probably won’t be using my right to get married, I would like to give it away. I would like to sell it to the highest bidder and donate the proceeds to an organization that supports LGBT rights since the government designed to protect all of us is picking and choosing based on what they think is icky, weird, orunkown to them.

Bid now, and you can have my super wonderful privilege and legal ability to get married as many times as you want in a classy place like the one pictured. You don’t have to know the person, you don’t have to like them, you don’t have to think through your decision to get married or anything – you can just do it! Because you can! Come on, it’s cool to get married, and think of the pictures you’ll have to show people of this person that they will definitely think is so wrong for you and probably is! But heavens to BETSY, do NOT marry someone of the same gender because that would be a mockery of the institution of marriage.

And if it doesn’t work out, just get divorced. Half the cool people who get married do that anyway.

For the rest of the post, click here:  http://blogs.law.columbia.edu/genderandsexualitylawblog/2009/12/08/whats-marriage-worth-to-you-heterosexual-woman-has-put-her-right-to-marry-up-for-auction-on-e-bay/

50 Years After the Sit-ins - Protests, Social Movements, Law Reform - Charlottesville, VA

Virginia Law hosts 50 Years After the Sit-ins: Reflecting on the Role of Protests in Social Movements and Law Reform Jan. 28-30, 2010 (reception Thursday evening, Jan. 28, presentations all day Friday and Saturday, Jan. 29-30). The conference is sponsored by the Mid-Atlantic People of Color Legal Scholarship Conference (MAPOC), the Center for the Study of Race and Law, and the Virginia Journal of Social Policy & the Law.

http://www.law.virginia.edu/html/academics/race/conference2010.html

DOING GOOD AND NETWORKING FOR JUSTICE IN NEW ORLEANS

LAST CHANCE TO GET ON BOARD!

   DEADLINE FOR REGISTRATION IS MONDAY, DECEMBER 21

Make a Difference in The Mississippi Gulf Coast Region… Join SALT and the Poverty          Law Teachers for a half day of sharing in the Lower 9th Ward…. On Thursday, January 7, 2010,     we are joining with activists and service providers in the area to engage in a few hours of gentle     labor, communal eating, and some lively discussion about how law schools can help meet the     continuing needs for assistance in the Gulf Coast region.       The day begins at 8:45 A.M. when a bus will pick up participants outside the Annual Meeting Hotel     site, the New Orleans Hilton.  The bus will take us to the Lower Ninth Ward Center for Sustainable     Engagement and Development, where our volunteer service will take place.  Although the exact     work to be performed can’t be pinpointed yet, our hosts are likely to seek our assistance with light          labor such as painting, weeding, cleaning, or light carpentry.  (All ability levels are welcome and can     be accommodated.)   At 11:30, we will convene for lunch, to be supplied by our hosts, and to hear     a panel presentation about disaster-related legal services being provided in the Greater New Orleans     area.  The lunchtime session will include a brainstorming session focusing on how law schools outside     of New Orleans can be part of these efforts.  Participants will be returned by bus to the Hilton at     1:00.       Space is limited, and advance registration is required. DEADLINE FOR  REGISTRATION  IS     9:00 PM Eastern Time on MONDAY, DECEMBER 21, 2009.  To register, go to the SALT     website at saltlaw.org; click on the Event Calendar (left hand column).  There you will see     an announcement of the event.  At the bottom of the description, you will see a notation: “read     more.”   If you click on that, you will find in the body of the text a link to the registration.  The cost     for the event is $60.00, which covers bus transportation to and from the hotel, lunch, and     a   tax deductable contribution to the host service providers.  For more information, contact          Nancy Cook at [email protected].

SSRN: Martha Fineman on Images of Gender & Equality

Martha Albertson Fineman (Emory University - School of Law) has posted Evolving Images of Gender and Equality: A Feminist Journey (New England Law Review, Vol. 43, Emory Public Law Research) on SSRN. Here is the abstract:

This chapter, which will be included in Transcending the Boundaries of Law, M.A. Fineman, Ed (Routledge 2010) brings a historical and analytic gaze on the concept of equality in the US legal system. Beginning with the establishment of Portia Law School for women and court decisions like Muller v. Oregon, I discuss the tension between seeking equality as sameness of treatment and seeking positive improvements in the lives of women. While women have officially attained legal equality with men, in terms of being able to vote, practice a profession, and own property among other things, the benefits of citizenship are still distributed in highly unequal ways. In part this is because as a nation Americans value autonomy over equality and thus sacrifice substantive equality in the name of greater independence, ignoring the realities of our shared states of episodic dependency and constant vulnerability.

Martha Albertson Fineman (Emory University - School of Law) has posted Evolving Images of Gender and Equality: A Feminist Journey (New England Law Review, Vol. 43, Emory Public Law Research) on SSRN. Here is the abstract:

This chapter, which will be included in Transcending the Boundaries of Law, M.A. Fineman, Ed (Routledge 2010) brings a historical and analytic gaze on the concept of equality in the US legal system. Beginning with the establishment of Portia Law School for women and court decisions like Muller v. Oregon, I discuss the tension between seeking equality as sameness of treatment and seeking positive improvements in the lives of women. While women have officially attained legal equality with men, in terms of being able to vote, practice a profession, and own property among other things, the benefits of citizenship are still distributed in highly unequal ways. In part this is because as a nation Americans value autonomy over equality and thus sacrifice substantive equality in the name of greater independence, ignoring the realities of our shared states of episodic dependency and constant vulnerability.

NJ ACLU Job Announcement

American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey

Job Announcement

Racial Justice Policy & Litigation Strategist

The American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey seeks applicants for a full-time position of Racial Justice Policy & Litigation Strategist. The Racial Justice Policy & Litigation Strategist leads the ACLU-NJ advocacy work on civil liberties and rights problems that disproportionately affect people of color.

The Racial Justice Program covers the areas of police practices, criminal justice policy, prison and jail conditions, voting rights, education, and immigration. This newly created position offers a tremendous opportunity for an individual with strong initiative and drive to help shape the ACLU-NJ’s advocacy and eliminate discriminatory policies and practices.

The American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey is a nonprofit membership organization devoted to defending and promoting civil rights and liberties. The ACLU-NJ has a staff of 14 who are assisted by numerous volunteers in our fast-paced and friendly downtown Newark office.

The duties of the Racial Justice Policy & Litigation Strategist include:

1.      Develop and implement proactive strategies for the ACLU-NJ’s Racial Justice Program to advance civil liberties and rights in areas in which people of color are disproportionately affected including the criminal justice system, police practices, prison and jail conditions, immigration, voting rights and education.

2.      Serve as lead attorney on Racial Justice advocacy and litigation. Plan and implement a proactive litigation strategy for Racial Justice.  

3.      Provide in-depth legislative and policy analysis on racial justice issues in New Jersey.  Draft legislation and policy papers to improve New Jersey law in the Racial Justice arena. Monitor national trends in racial justice advocacy and assess potential for implementation in New Jersey. 

4.      Research data, conduct fact-finding and prepare reports regarding how certain policies disproportionately affect people of color.

5.      Write and edit Racial Justice Program public education communications including press releases, web content, pamphlets, correspondence and any other written materials. Keep Racial Justice publications are accurate and up-to-date. 

6.      Supervise other Racial Justice program staff and interns and work collaboratively with all ACLU-NJ staff to optimize the impact of our work.

Desired Qualifications:

*       Minimum 5 years combined litigation and policy experience, including at least one year supervisory experience

*       Familiarity with New Jersey courts, state agencies, governmental structure

*       Strong understanding of and commitment to civil liberties and racial justice

*       Excellent organizational skills

*       Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including ability to motivate and interact effectively with people from different racial, social and economic backgrounds

*       Experience with volunteer-based programs and managing volunteers

*       Self-motivated, reliable, and skilled at working as part of a team

*       Public speaking skills and experience

Compensation and Terms

The ACLU-NJ offers a generous and comprehensive compensation and benefits package, commensurate with experience and within parameters of the ACLU-NJ compensation scale.

To Apply

E-mail a letter of interest and resume to [email protected] with a subject line of "Job ID 9731M." Application materials sent via postal mail or fax will not be accepted. Resumes reviewed upon receipt. Position will remain open until the right person is found.

The ACLU-NJ is an equal opportunity employer, and is committed to a policy of equal treatment and opportunity without regard to age, color, disability, gender, gender identity, marital or parental status, national origin, race, religion, or sexual orientation.

American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey, P.O. Box 32159, Newark, NJ 07102

[email protected] - www.aclu-nj.org

Natural Resources Defense Council Job Announcement

EPA Climate Attorney, Washington DC Office

 

        The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) is a non-profit national environmental advocacy organization with more than 1.2 million members and online activists. We have offices in New York, Washington, D.C., San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago and Beijing. Our staff of nearly 300 includes attorneys, scientists, policy analysts and educators working to protect the environment and public health through advocacy and education.

        NRDC is hiring an attorney to advocate for effective control of global warming pollution under the Clean Air Act.  The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has proposed a number of regulatory actions under the Clean Air Act, pursuant to the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark 2007 ruling in Massachusetts v. EPA.  Other regulations are under development.  We further anticipate that EPA will have numerous regulatory responsibilities under new climate and energy legislation now under consideration in Congress.  Working under the direction of senior staff from NRDC’s Climate Center and Clean Air Program, the new hire will:

·         Review and prepare public hearing statements and written comments on new federal carbon pollution regulations;

·         Maintain and strengthen relationships with EPA legal and technical staff;

·         Coordinate relevant technical analysis by NRDC staff experts and consultants;

·         Represent NRDC in litigation brought by industry to help EPA defend its regulations;

·         Represent NRDC in our own litigation as needed to challenge regulatory delays or action that does not comply with law; and

·         Maintain and strengthen relationships with Congressional oversight staff.

Candidates should have 3-5 years of relevant experience in Clean Air Act regulatory implementation, advocacy, or litigation, or equivalent experience. Specific knowledge and experience related to climate change science and policy will be an advantage.

We offer competitive salaries, excellent benefits, and a pleasant working environment and are committed to workplace diversity.  Salary is based on a nonprofit scale and commensurate with experience. Applicants should submit a cover letter and resume to www.nrdc.org/jobs. Please do not contact us about this position by phone. Please reference where you saw this posting. NRDC is an Equal Opportunity Employer.  For further information about NRDC, please visit nrdc.org.

David D. Doniger

Policy Director, Climate Center

Natural Resources Defense Council

1200 New York Ave., NW

Washington, DC  20005

Phone:  (202) 289-2403

NRDC Cell:  (202) 321-3435

Personal Cell:  (202) 445-9023

Fax:  (202) 789-0859

[email protected]

on the web at www.nrdc.org  

read my blog: http://switchboard.nrdc.org/blogs/ddoniger/

Join, Renew and Get Involved in SALT

We are recruiting SALT members to get involved in the work of the organization. SALT’s vitality requires your talent, expertise, and geography. When you read about the work of the Equal Opportunity, Issues in Legal Education, Human Rights, Academic Freedom, or LBGT committees, have you got some ideas that you would like to share? Is your law school doing something particularly effective that begs to be broadcasted and replicated? Are you ready to engage in work that will further social justice, equity and equality, and academic excellence on a national scale?

Take a moment to browse the saltlaw.org website to learn more about SALT at Work. First, review “SALT at Work” on the left-hand menu to see what SALT committees have been up to this year.  Then by clicking on “About Us,” you’ll find the composition of the current SALT committees.  Of course, in January 2010, when Raquel Aldana and Steve Bender take the reins as co-presidents, and new board members join while others retire, these committees will change. 

That’s why it’s a perfect time to consider where you want to commit your efforts. 

And by the way, have you renewed your membership?  Renew on line.  

Institute for Law Teaching Info

Colleagues,

 

We are writing to send you a link--http://lawteaching.org/lawteacher/2009fall/lawteacher2009fall.pdf -- to The Law Teacher, a publication of the Institute for Law Teaching and Learning. The Law Teacher publishes short articles and other materials focusing on law school teaching, learning, and curriculum.

 

In particular, we call your attention to two upcoming teaching conferences.  On page 14, we describe the April “Teaching for Engaged Learning” conference, co-sponsored by the Institute and the Center for Engaged Learning in the Law.  The conference will be held at Elon University School of Law.  On page 20, we present a Call for Proposals for the Annual Summer Conference of the Institute.  The theme of this year’s conference is “Teaching Law Practice Across the Curriculum.”  The conference will be held June 16-18, 2010 at Washburn University School of Law. 

 

We’d appreciate your help in distributing The Law Teacher.  Please send this link to full-time and adjunct faculty members at your schools. If you already have received The Law Teacher from a colleague, please accept our apologies.

 

We welcome your feedback and hope you find this issue useful and interesting.

 

~Gerry and Mike                                                                                                                                

Professors Gerald Hess and Michael Hunter Schwartz                                                                                 

Co-Directors, Institute for Law Teaching and Learning                                                        

Washburn University School of Law

Gonzaga University School of Law

JOBS: Stanford Criminal Defense

Stanford Law School’s Mills Legal Clinic

Director of Criminal Defense Clinic

 

Stanford Law School’s Mills Legal Clinic invites applications for the position of Director of the Criminal Defense Clinic (CDC).  The appointment will begin for the 2009-2010 academic year.

 

The CDC is one of ten clinical programs making up the Mills Legal Clinic.  The CDC provides students opportunities to work as lawyers on behalf of criminal defendants under the close supervision of the CDC director and an additional supervising attorney.

 

At this time the CDC focuses on representing inmates serving life sentences for minor third offenses under California’s “Three Strikes” sentencing regime.  This work includes direct appeals in state courts, state habeas corpus proceedings, and federal habeas litigation.  The CDC also represents some clients during the sentencing proceedings themselves, usually when the CDC has previously succeeded in securing a new sentencing hearing for the client.

 

As we approach hiring a new director we are committed to maintaining this Three Strikes project, but we are also open to considering new additional directions for the CDC’s work.

 

Duties of the CDC Director include: direct supervision of Stanford law students, management of projects and clients; supervision and collaboration with the clinical fellow (or attorney-supervisor) and staff; teaching the clinical seminar; collaborating with clinical and other faculty at the Law School; assisting in the development of additional resources; participating in faculty governance at the Law School; and acting as liaison with the public and the Law School community.  The CDC Director will also be expected to produce published work in a relevant subject area or areas.

 

We expect that the appointment as Director of the CDC will be accompanied, depending on experience, by either an appointment as a Professor of Law within the Law School’s clinical-tenure structure or by an appointment as an Associate Professor of Law on track to clinical tenure. 

 

We seek candidates with distinguished practice experience and strong commitment to clinical education. Applicants must have at least five years experience in criminal-defense work and should have an academic record that demonstrates the capacity to be an active participant in the Law School’s academic community and the national criminal-defense and clinical-education communities.  Applicants must also have either demonstrated excellence in clinical teaching  (or the supervision of law students) or must demonstrate the potential for such excellence in teaching or supervision.

 

The applicant must either be a member of the California State Bar, or be willing to take the examination necessary for admission within one year of the commencement of employment.  Stanford University is an equal opportunity employer and is committed to diversity.

 

Interested applicants should send a cover letter and resume (with at least three references) by mail or e-mail to: Professor Lawrence Marshall, Associate Dean for Clinical Education, Stanford Law School, 559 Nathan Abbott Way, Stanford, CA 94305.  Email: [email protected]

 

Applications will be accepted until the position is filled but applicants are strongly encouraged to submit their materials by December 31, 2009.

Externship Website

If you are new to externships or returning to them after being away, I would like to invite you to check out the website created for faculty and administrators of externship programs, LexternWeb.  Visit http://www.law.cua.edu/lexternWeb/index.htm for links to all law school externship webpages, materials, and more.  Also, you can subscribe to the Lextern listserv from the site and join 282 other teachers and administrators of legal externship programs in sustained dialogue about externships.  For more information, please contact me:

J.P. "Sandy" Ogilvy,

Director, CUA Innocence Project Clinic

Director, Law & Social Justice Initiatives ,

Director, National Archive of Clinical Legal Education, and

Ordinary Professor of Law

Columbus School of Law

The Catholic University of America

Cardinal Station

Washington, DC  20064

tel: 202.319.6195

fax: 202.319.4459

email: [email protected]

Poverty Law Newsletter

For the law professor audience: 2009 Poverty Law Prof Newsletter

from Poverty Law by Ezra Rosser

It’s time for the 2009 edition of the Poverty Law Newsletter.  Please let me have your news items by Friday, December 11.  If you would like to be included, tell me which category(ies), listed below, the entries go in.  Format your entries by starting with your name in bold and your school in parentheses.  If you refer to someone else (eg, a co-author), please do the same for their names.

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 email me directly at [email protected].

It’s time for the 2009 edition of the Poverty Law Newsletter.  Please let me have your news items by Friday, December 11.  If you would like to be included, tell me which category(ies), listed below, the entries go in.  Format your entries by starting with your name in bold and your school in parentheses.  If you refer to someone else (eg, a co-author), please do the same for their names.

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 email me directly at [email protected].

The Bluebook publishes online "cheat-sheet"

Legal Writing Prof Blog

The consortium of law reviews that publish the Bluebook has just launched a website called "Blue Tips" that serves as a "cheat-sheet," or FAQ if you prefer, for many commonly asked Bluebook questions.  The following topics are covered:

Cases

Citation Structure

Cross-References

Miscellany

Periodicals

Punctuation

Quotations

Signals

Statutes

Subdivisions

Further, the Bluebook editors invite questions from readers that may become additional tips if the answers are of general interest: 

The editors provide authoritative guidance to reasonable questions on subjects covered by The Bluebook. The most useful answers are gathered here as Blue Tips, classified by subject. These tips are searchable and linked to the Bluebook content they address. Send your questions to [email protected]. If our answer is useful to Bluebookers generally, it may be formulated into a new tip, below.

A big hat tip to our good buddies at the Law Librarian Blog.  If you're not already subscribing to this one, you need to as it provides the best coverage on issues related to legal research, information management and social media in law school.

New Study Examines How Law Schools "Adapt" to U.S News Rankings

Law Librarian Blog

The Law School Admissions Council sent out its most recent monthly LSAC report series to the Libraries of LSAC member schools.  The most interesting one of the bunch is Fear of Failing:  the Effects of U.S. News & World Report Rankings on U.S. Law Schools, by Michael Sauder, and Wendy Espeland.  Love 'em or hate 'em, the rankings are a fact of life for law schools.  This report looks at the effect of the USN rankings on legal education, and it's not peripheral.

From the Executive Summary:

One general effect of the USN rankings on law schools is that it has created pressure on law school administrators to redistribute resources in ways that maximize their scores on the criteria used by USN to create the rankings, even if they are skeptical that this is a productive use of these resources. This redistribution is illustrated by two examples mentioned consistently by the administrators interviewed: (a) increases in marketing expenditures aimed toward raising reputation scores in the USN survey and (b) increases in merit scholarships intended to improve the statistical profile of incoming classes. A more subtle form of resource redistribution is also described in this section: the adoption of strategies by some schools to “game” the rankings.

Some forms of this redistribution comes in the forms of brochures and other publications designed to enhance a school's reputation, which is a full 40% of the ranking.  Many administrators acknowledge that many these enhancing publications are probably not read before being recycled (go green!), but peer pressure makes them spend upwards of $100,000 to produce and distribute these publications anyway.  Library volume count, by the way, represents 0.75% of the weight of an over all score.  That explains much more as to why academic law libraries are hardly ever enhanced with an eye to the rankings.

Schools game the system by giving out financial aid to students with high LSAT scores as a way of bringing in a higher quality metric to the entering class and student body as a whole.  Some schools create part-time or probationary programs to keep the academically weaker students off the books.  Student quality (LSAT, GPA) is 12.5% of the full ranking.  Things such as need-based scholarships, enhancements to programs, improved quality to areas of the school not affecting the rankings all tend to take a back seat at the most rankings-obsessed schools.  The pressure on admissions and career services offices is tremendous.  Schools put up with it because potential students do take rankings seriously.  Rankings even affects faculty recruitment and the ability of faculty to publish in quality journals.  While none of this is a surprise, the report is a nice compilation of how schools have adapted their budgets and practices to account for their survey information.  There is also a nice table that breaks down the ranking standards and weights.

The report is available on the LSAC site.  Because of the way the site is constructed, there is no direct URL.  However, anyone interested in finding it should start at the main LSAC page, click on Research Data from the menu bar running across the top of the screen, roll over the graphic for Research and select Grant Reports.  The report should be available from the page that comes up.  It's numbered GR-07-02.  [MG]

Vote for CWNETD!

Dear Blawgger,

As proprietor of one of the more than 2,500 blawgs in the ABA Journal's online directory, we thought you'd want to know that our annual Blawg 100 list was published today.

Now the real fun begins. We've invited our readers to vote for their favorite blogs from among the top 100 in each of 10 categories. Voting ends December 31. Winners will be featured in the February issue of the Journal.

Every year, the list has occasioned great debate about the state of the blawgosphere, terrific legal blogs that didn't make the list, and how lawyers can benefit from the news and analysis being produced online every day by their colleagues nationwide. Indeed, the debate that occurs on blawgs like yours has done as much to promote the legal profession's engagement with new media as the Blawg 100 list itself.

So we invite you to point your readers to the Blawg 100 and continue contributing to that conversation.

Thank you for the news and analysis you provide the legal community on your blog.

Externship Conference

The website for Externships 5 “Responding to Changing Times” is up and running, with information on registration, all presentations and programs, recreation plans, hotel in Coral Gables, Florida, and contact information for the planning committee.

 

The conference will be Thursday evening, March 4  through Sunday morning March 7, 2010.

 

Check it out at http://www.miamiexternshipconference.com

 

If you are on the lextern list, you received another notice, with photos and graphics that this list couldn’t handle.  If you are not on that list, be sure to click on the link above to get our beautiful conference e-brochure.

 

For the Planning Committee,

 

Clin. Prof. Harriet N. Katz

Director of Lawyering Programs

Rutgers-Camden Law School

Room 217 East Building

5th and Penn Sts.

Camden, NJ 08102

(856) 225-6407

Sexuality and Gender Law Clinic Supports “No-Condoms-as-Evidence-of–Prostitution” Bill

From KATHERINE FRANKE of the Gender and Sexual Orientation Law Blog:

New York’s police and prosecutors should not be permitted to introduce condoms as evidence of prostitution and prostitution-related offenses, according to the students who work in Columbia’s Sexuality and Gender Law Clinic.  The Clinic held a tabling day yesterday at Columbia Law School in support of a New York State bill that would enact this prohibition into law.  Over 50 Columbia Law students signed postcards to legislators to support the bill, sending a strong message to legislators that sound public health policy militates against the use of condoms as evidence of prostitution.

Under current law, police and prosecutors can and do use condoms to prove prostitution and related offenses, such as patronizing a prostitute, promoting prostitution, and maintaining a premises for prostitution.  The bill is critical to protecting public health in New York and deterring police officers from using condoms as pretextual justification for arbitrary search and seizure.  Criminalization of condom possession directly conflicts with New York’s longstanding public policy of encouraging condom use, a policy it has effected in part by distributing free condoms since 1971.  The proposed bill, which is in committee in the Senate and on the floor of the Assembly, would prohibit the use of those and other condoms in seven enumerated prostitution-related crimes.  Law enforcement officials would still be able to use condoms as evidence in rape and sexual assault cases, as they would in any other type of case not named in the bill.

The Clinic became aware of law enforcement’s use of condoms as evidence of prostitution during the course of its collaboration with community-based advocacy organizations in New York City, including the Sex Workers Project (SWP) at the Urban Justice Center.  The SWP is spearheading the effort to pass the bill.  The Urban Justice Center and the Center for Constitutional Rights have written legislative memos supporting the bill; the SWP has also organized an online petition to gather signatures to legislators.

Sarah Morris, SJ Lee, and Rena Stern, Sexuality & Gender Law Clinic students, are  in charge of the project.

New York Law Student Fails In His Challenge To Reverse His Legal Writing Grade

From our friends at Adjunct Prof Blog (http://lawprofessors.typepad.com/adjunctprofs/2009/11/new-york-law-student-fails-in-his-challenge-to-reverse-his-legal-writing-grade.html):

Keefe v. New York Law School, ___Misc. 3d___(N.Y. Co. Nov. 17, 2009), is an interesting case. A transfer student to New York Law School from Hofstra Law School was unhappy with being placed in Legal Writing II. As I understand it,his argument was that New York Law School breached an implied contract because it did not provide him with "the right program for every student" as indicated on the law school's web site. Out of the blue he argued that legal writing should be graded pass/fail because that is the way it is done at Yale Law School. The court did not have any trouble dismissing the case and finding that no implied contract existed. As the court stated:

Generally, New York State courts have permitted a student to bring a breach of implied contract action against an institution of higher education. See Radin v. Albert Einstein College of Med. Of Yeshiva Univ., 2005 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 9772 at *30 (S.D.N.Y May 20, 2005). However, a student must identify specific language in the school's bulletins, circulars, catalogues and handbooks which establishes the particular "contractual" right or obligation alleged by the student in order to make out an implied contract claim. See Sweeney v. Columbia Univ., 270, AD2d 335, 336 (2d Dep't 2000); Vought v. Teacher's Coll., Columbia Univ., 127 AD2d 654, 655 (2d Dep't 1987). General statements of policy are not sufficient to create a contractual obligation. Only specific promises that are material to the student's relationship with the school can establish the existence of an implied contract. See Lloyd v. Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, 1999 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 906, at *27-*28 (N.D.NY Jan, 26, 1999). "To state a valid claim for a breach of contract, a plaintiff must state when and how the defendant breached those specific promises. Radin, 2005 U.S. Dist LEXIS 9772, at *32.

In the case at bar, Plaintiff fails to cite any specific provision or communication from NYLS that would establish an implied contract. One cannot breach a contractual promise that was never made. Radin, 2005 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 9772, at *37. Plaintiff fails to point to any document or communication that gives rise to a promise which NYLS has breached. See Chira v. Columbia Univ., 289 F. Supp.2d 47, 485, 486 (S.D.N.Y 2003); Ward v. New York Univ., 2000 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 14067, at *10-*12 (S.D.NY Sept 25, 2000). Therefore the motion to dismiss the complaint is granted in its entirety.

Moreover, New York courts have repeatedly refused to interfere in the academic procedures of educational institutions and cannot and will not intervene in disputes involving an educational institution's grading system.

As the New York Court of Appeals has stated quite clearly in Susan M. v. New York Law School, 76 NY2d 241, 246-247 (1990).

As a general rule, judicial review of grading disputes would inappropriately involve the courts in the very core of academic and educational decision making. Moreover, to so involve the courts in assessing the propriety of particular grades would promote litigation by countless unsuccessful students and thus undermine the credibility of the academic determinations of educational institutions. We conclude, therefore, that, in the absence of demonstrated bad faith, arbitrariness, capriciousness, irrationality or a constitutional or statutory violation, a student's challenge to a particular grade or other academic determination relating to a genuine substantive evaluation of the student's academic capabilities is beyond the scope of judicial review.

Plaintiff is requesting this Court to intrude upon an area to which New York Courts have [*3]strongly refused to intervene. Here, Plaintiff has shown no evidence of "bad faith, arbitrariness, capriciousness, irrationality or a constitutional or statutory violation." id. NYLS clearly communicated through the student handbook that NYLS utilizes a letter grading system under which all of its students are evaluated. This Court declines to interfere with this quintessential function of an educational institution. 

And no, in case you are wondering, the plaintiff was not one of my students. However, he did get to handle a case pro se in court. How many law students can say that.

Mitchell H. Rubinstein

Ann Shalleck Nominated to AALS Executive Committee

From Claudio Grossman - Dean,  Washington College of Law, AU

Dear Colleagues:

I am pleased to share with you that our esteemed colleague, Professor Ann Shalleck, has been nominated to the AALS Executive Committee. This is an important and well-deserved recognition of Ann's impressive contributions to the legal academy.  The AALS will greatly benefit from Ann’s extensive knowledge, particularly at a time when our professional organization is facing challenges concerning, inter alia, the content and scope of accreditation. The legal academy is fortunate that Ann will be there when such matters are raised. At WCL, we are proud that this role will be performed by a member of our community.  Please join me in congratulating Ann.

JOBS: CUNY Elder Law

The Law School Instructor hired in this cycle will be primarily responsible for case supervision, case management, and co-teaching in the Elder Law Clinic, a one semester, 12 credit clinic offered in the Fall Semester that also is offered as an Advanced Elder Law Clinic for 2-4 credits in the Spring.  The Law School Instructor may also be assigned to teach other courses, including first or second year lawyering seminars and elective courses.

The Elder Law Clinic handles a variety of transactional and litigated cases, including Adult Guardianships under Article 81 of the N.Y. Mental Hygiene Law, supplemental needs trusts, estate and disability planning, and related government benefit issues.  Students also participate in projects such as community education, examining language access issues for guardians, and exploring how race, culture and ethnicity impacts health care decision making.

 

The CUNY School of Law Clinical Program has been nationally recognized as one of the best in legal education and affords each student the opportunity to engage in the practice of law while in law school by learning through service to underserved communities. The Law School currently offers seven live-client clinical programs and two externship programs.  CUNY School of Law faculty members have been recognized as innovative leaders in clinical legal education, through service, publications, and participation at conferences.

Society of American Law Teachers—SALT What’s New?

      ·         New Orleans—A Full SALT Agenda

·         SALT Thanks These Generous Law Schools for Supporting the SALT Annual Dinner

·         Deadline for purchasing an ad in the SALT dinner journal is December 11^th

·         AAUP Launches Action Campaign to Protect Academic Freedom

·         Call for Panels and Papers

·         Jobs

·         And How About Renewing Your SALT Membership?

New Orleans—A Full SALT Agenda

Thursday, January 7^th: 9:00 am-1:00 pm: Day of Service—co-hosted with the Poverty Law Teachers.  Register on line for this event; $60 fee includes transportation, lunch, and a contribution to local activist organizations.  A pdf flyer is attached for printing and distribution to faculty and administrators at your school who might enjoy the opportunity. 

Friday, January 8^th: 8:00 pm-10:00 pm : Robert Cover Workshop—(immediately following the AALS Gala): In the Public Interest: Exploring the Legacy of Robert Cover as Professor, Activist, and Scholar.  This is a free event!  No registration required.  Note that the day and time have been changed from the AALS Program.  A pdf flyer is attached for printing and distribution to faculty and administrators at your school who might enjoy this event. 

Saturday, January 9: 5:00 pm-7:00 pm: Sneak Preview—Cruz Reynoso: Sowing the Seeds of Justice—at the Hotel Monteleone, SALT, along with UC Davis School of Law, will be showing a sneak preview of "Cruz Reynoso: Sowing the Seeds of Justice,” a new documentary by Abby Ginzberg about Cruz Reynoso: a founding SALT board member, a former justice of the California Supreme Court, the 1993 recipient of the SALT Great Teacher Award, and currently a professor at UC Davis School of Law.  This is a free event!  Seating is limited.  Dean Kevin R. Johnson is hosting a beverage service and will be moderating a discussion including the filmmaker and Justice Reynoso.  Reserve a place by emailing [email protected]. 

Saturday, January 9^th: 7:00 cocktails, 8:00 PM-10:00PM: SALT Annual Dinner—at the Hotel Monteleone.  Tickets are available on line for the early bird price of $95.  Celebrate the contributions to law teaching by Francisco Valdés, University of Miami, SALT’s Great Teacher. 

Enjoy the New Orleans cuisine and the dinner jazz concert by the Victor Atkins Trio. 

Check out the list of law schools below that have purchased tables.  If your dean hasn’t, there is still time to become a supporting law school or to purchase a table.  Click here to find out more.  Deadline for signing up as a supporting law school or purchasing a table at the discounted rate is December 15^th.  Deadline for early bird tickets is December 15^th.

SALT Thanks These Generous Law Schools for Supporting the SALT Annual Dinner

SALT thanks the University of Miami School of Law for its generous support as our dinner sponsor! 

...and these Gold supporting law schools. (As a gold dinner sponsor, law schools get a table for ten at the dinner.  If your dean has purchased a table, find out if there is room for you!) 

·         American University, Washington College of Law

·         California Western School of Law

·         Fordham University School of Law

·         Michigan State University College of Law

·         Santa Clara University Law Center

·         Seattle University School of Law

·         University of Maryland School of Law

·         University of Oregon School of Law

·         University of the Pacific McGeorge School of Law

·         University of Washington School of Law

·         Valparaiso University School of Law

...and our Silver supporting law school.  (As a silver dinner sponsor, law schools get a half table for five at the dinner.  If your dean has purchased a table, find out if there is room for you!) 

·         The Pennsylvania State University, Dickinson School of Law (5 seats at a table)

In addition, these law schools have purchased tables accommodating ten guests at the SALT Annual Dinner:

·         Golden Gate University School of Law

·         Tulane University School of Law

·         Vermont Law School

Deadline for purchasing an ad in the SALT dinner journal is December 11^th

Consider these reasons to take out an ad:

·         Celebrate Frank Valdés, SALT’s 2010 Great Teacher: tell a “Frank” story; include a photograph from your archives; inspire a new generation to take risks, engage, and believe.

·         Congratulate outgoing and incoming SALT co-presidents: SALT has become more visible, more active, and more influential.  Celebrate Margaret Martin Barry and Deborah Waire Post’s fruitful terms of office as SALT’s outgoing co-presidents.  Send greetings to incoming co-presidents Raquel Aldana and Steve Bender.

·         Thank retiring SALT board members and welcome new ones: Nancy Cook, Peggy Maisel, Joan Mahoney, and Reginald Oh are retiring from the SALT board, and we are gaining Elvia Arriola, Michael Avery, Barbara Bernier, Karla McKanders, and Hari Osofsky as new members. 

·         Broadcast an upcoming event or program at your school that promotes equality and equity, social justice, and academic excellence.

·         Publishing a book?  Why not let the community of progressive law faculty know!

AAUP Launches Action Campaign to Protect Academic Freedom

In the face of unprecedented threats to academic freedom at public colleges and universities, the American Association of University Professors has launched an awareness and action campaign called “Speak Up, Speak Out: Protect the Faculty Voice .”

The foundation of the project is a comprehensive report from a subcommittee of the AAUP’s Committee A on Academic Freedom and Tenure that examines the 2006 U.S. Supreme Court decision in Garcetti v. Ceballos and its aftermath. The Court found that government can restrict the speech of public employees when they comment on issues related to their “official duties.”

To help you stay informed, SALT has placed a link to this awareness campaign on its SALT at Work, Academic Freedom page.  

Call for Panels and Papers—Browse through all

·         SALT Teaching Conference: Teaching in a Transformative Era: The Law School of the Future will examine the most pressing challenges law schools face in the 21st century—Deadline January 15, 2010 for December 10-11, 2010 conference at University of Hawai’i School of Law

·         Third National People of Color Conference: Our Country, Our World in a “Post-Racial Era” Deadline February 12, 2010 for September 9-12, 2010 conference at Seton Hall University School of Law

Jobs

Hiring season is in full bloom.  Two new postings for dean’s positions are on the SALT website:

·         Dalhousie University, Schulich School of Law, Toronto, Canada

·         University of Windsor, School of Law, Windsor, Canada

Check out the new posting for two tenure track positions at Touro Law Center.  

And How About Renewing Your SALT Membership?
Your membership counts!  It adds to the legitimacy of SALT’s participation within the legal academy—especially at the ABA Council—within Congress and the Obama administration, and the media. 

Renew your membership now!  Click here to renew on-line.  

Logging into the new SALT website to renew your membership is easy:

If you had previously registered at the old SALT website, go to “login” on the top menu, then use your email address as your user name and your old password.  If you have forgotten your password, click to get a new one emailed to you.  Then go to “membership” and renew for this year. 

For those of you who never logged in previously, go to “sign up” on the top menu to register.  Remember, your email address is your username and create at least a six character login password.  You will need to fill in all of the information requested in order to complete registration. 

Then renew your membership for 2009-2010.

Hazel Weiser, Executive Director

Society of American Law Teachers -- SALT

Public Advocacy Center, Room 223

Touro Law Center

225 Eastview Drive

Central Islip, NY 11722

[email protected]

631.650.2310

Explore our new website: www.saltlaw.org

SALT Annual Dinner, Saturday, January 9th, 7:00 pm, Hotel Monteleone, New Orleans--Tickets are on sale now!

Two Jobs at Northern California ACLU

The ACLU of Northern California would like to post two announcements for positions it is currently hiring for, one for a staff attorney position and one for our Police Practices Policy Director position.   

 

Attached are PDF copies of both postings.  Please contact me if you have any questions.

 

Download 2009_job announcement_Police Practices Director_FINAL 

Download Staff Attorney Job Announcement - FINAL

 

Sincerely,

Nigar Shaikh

Litigation Assistant

ACLU-NC

Call for Papers: Law and Society 2010

from Poverty Law by Ezra Rosser

From the Law and Society Association Website:

Call for Participation Due Date: December 8, 2009

CLICK HERE TO SUBMIT PAPERS

The 2010 Annual Meeting of Law and Society Association Thursday, May 27 through Sunday, May 30, at the Renaissance Chicago Hotel.

Theme: AFTER CRITIQUE: What is Left of the Law and Society Paradigm?

Born out of disillusionment with the failures of liberal legalism to deliver social justice or equality, law and society scholarship at the time aimed to expose those failures and challenge liberal legalism’s legitimating premises. Twenty years after the founding of LSA, during the decade of the 1980s, the critical impulse of law and society scholarship was itself put under the microscope by some who turned critique inward, calling out law and society scholars for embracing empty empiricism or for their complicity with legal and political elites. In this period, meta-debates raged over theoretical, methodological, and political questions.

More recently events in the academy and the world seem to have squelched our appetite for critique either of the legal order itself or of the premises and purposes of our own scholarship. In an era when the rule of law has come under sustained attach, can we go beyond celebrating it and allying ourselves with its projects? At a time when there are no dominant theoretical or methodological perspectives in the academy should we turn away from epistemological questions and just get on with our work?

The theme of the 2010 LSA Meeting–After Critique–invites us to consider the law and society enterprise today and to think about its future direction. We want to reflect on the various ways that law and society scholarship has been and should be engaged with the threat of terrorism and governmental responses to it, national and global attacks on the rule of law, questions of sovereignty and sovereign prerogative, the contemporary situation of identity politics, and the collapse of the global economy and the crisis of neo-liberalism.

We also want to think about whether there is anything meaningful and coherent in the phrase “law and society scholarship” as well as how we should position ourselves in relationship to other interdisciplinary enterprises, e.g. critical race theory, empirical legal studies, law, culture, and the humanities, etc. Is it time to revive our critical heritage as well as our traditions of theoretical and methodological self-scrutiny? What would this entail?

Google Introduces Case Law Search

from Law School Headlines by admin

As you know, Google’s ultimate goal is to organize the world’s information. With this in mind, it should be no surprise that Google is organizing full-text legal opinions from United States federal and state district, appellate and supreme courts. The company is using its Google Scholar service to do so.

“As many of us recall from our civics lessons in school, the United States is a common law country,” says Google Distinguished Engineer Anurag Acharya. “That means when judges issue opinions in legal cases, they often establish precedents that will guide the rulings of other judges in similar cases and jurisdictions. Over time, these legal opinions build, refine and clarify the laws that govern our land. For average citizens, however, it can be difficult to find or even read these landmark opinions. We think that’s a problem: Laws that you don’t know about, you can’t follow — or make effective arguments to change.”

You can now search Google Scholar to find opinions by searching specific cases (like Plessy v. Ferguson) or topics (like desegregation). You can type a phrase like “separate but equal” and get results for cases in which such a phrase is in included.

[WebPro Search]

JOBS: Hastings Human Rights Fellowship

Center for Gender & Refugee Studies

University of California, Hastings College of the Law

 

Teaching Fellowship in the Refugee and Human Rights Law Clinic at U.C. Hastings, with Joint Placement at the Center for Gender & Refugee Studies

 

The Center for Gender and Refugee Studies (CGRS) is seeking applications for the Teaching Fellowship in Refugee and Human Rights Law, a two-year position beginning on June 1, 2010. The Fellowship is designed for lawyers with at least three years of practice experience who are interested in preparing for a career in law school clinical teaching, as well as being engaged in the cutting edge legal work of CGRS.

 

The 2010-2012 Fellow will co-teach the Refugee and Human Rights Clinic at the University of California, Hastings College of the Law. The Clinic exposes students to the related fields of refugee and international human rights, and to the varied strategies undertaken in these substantive areas. In the refugee area, students represent clients in individual proceedings, and may also engage in litigation or policy work. In the international human rights area, students engage in fact-finding, draft human rights reports, or participate in advocacy at regional human rights bodies, such as the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, or at inter-governmental bodies, such as the United Nations. The Fellow will work closely with clinic faculty, sharing responsibility for designing and teaching clinic classes, selecting and supervising law students, and other related matters.

Faculty as Smoking Police?

Karen Sloan from the National Law Journal reports:

Faculty members at Widener University School of Law will have a new role to play next academic year: smoking police.

They won't have matching uniforms or extensive training. They will be armed with small cards that detail the school's impending ban on smoking or using tobacco products anywhere on campus, indoors and outdoors. If that's not enough to keep people from lighting up on campus, repeat offenders might be fined, said Linda L. Ammons, the law school's dean.

Widener is one of a growing number of law schools that are getting tough on smoking by students, faculty, staff and visitors. Most law schools already prohibit smoking inside and near buildings, but at least three are preparing to become completely smoke-free campuses next summer. At least five already are. According to the American Lung Association, 176 colleges and universities in the United States are now fully smoke-free.

In addition to Widener, which has campuses in Wilmington, Del., and Harrisburg, Pa., Washington University School of Law in St. Louis and the University of Florida Levin College of Law in Gainesville, Fla., are preparing to ban all smoking effective in July. The University of Iowa College of Law, the University of Arkansas School of Law, the Oklahoma City University School of Law, the Indiana University Maurer School of Law-Bloomington and Indiana University School of Law-Indianapolis each went totally smoke-free last year. Some of these bans are the result of new university-wide policies, while others were spurred by state law.

For more, go to:  http://www.law.com/jsp/nlj/PubArticleNLJ.jsp?id=1202434975473&src=EMC-Email&et=editorial&bu=National%20Law%20Journal&pt=NLJ.com-%20Daily%20Headlines&cn=20091028NLJ&kw=Law%20faculties%20recruited%20to%20anti-smoking%20squads&slreturn=1&hbxlogin=1

Teachers Manual for Lawyers and Clients

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Teacher's Manual to Lawyers and Clients: Critical Issues in Interviewing and Counseling Stephen Ellmann, New York Law School Robert D. Dinerstein, American Isabelle R. Gunning, Southwestern Katherine R. Kruse, UNLV Ann C. Shalleck, American ISBN 978-0-31423-532-9 West Academic Publishing is pleased to announce that the Teacher's Manual to Lawyers and Clients: Critical Issues in Interviewing and Counseling is now available for download on Law School Exchange. Join Law School Exchange today to download a complimentary digital copy of this teacher's manual and to take advantage of the site's many other features. Law School Exchange allows law school faculty to share, digitally publish, and find scholarship and teaching materials in collaboration with an online community of peers.

Review Copy: Professors who would like to review a print copy of this teacher's manual can request a complimentary copy by emailing their account manager at [email protected]. Please refer to ISBN 978-0-31423-532-9.

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Death of "Big Law School'?

From the Conglomerate

Death of "Big Law School'? Posted by Erik Gerding

Larry Ribstein has been writing and blogging up a storm about the "Death of Big Law." Larry makes a convincing case that the current economic crisis is not just a blip for law firms with everything returning to normal soon. Assuming that large law frims cannot deal with the structural problems Larry outlines and that the decline of big law is long term, what would that mean for legal education?

It would likely mean the end of the law school boom - with its expanding law faculties and the bumper crop of new law schools. Like it or not, the business model (I hate applying that term to legal education, but can't think of another one) of many law schools is heavily dependent on students getting high paying law firm jobs to pay off high law school tuition. Law firms are also prime benefactors of law school endowments. Without corporate law consuming law school graduates by the dozens, law school will face massive economic pressure.

On the one hand, these pressures will push law schools to improve the training of law graduates so that they are ready on "day one." Helping students in a tougher economic market supports the Carnegie/ABA best practices reforms that have been discussed so much.

But the changing economics of legal education will also cut the other way. The Best Practices model is expensive, and with tighter budgets law schools will also face pressures to move in the direction of the traditional "stack-em and pack-em" model of large classes. (Creative law professors may find ways to balance these pressures - for example many trial advocacy classes involve both a law professor and a roster of practitioner adjucts. Therese Maynard and Dana Warren have adapted this model to teaching transactional law to classes of 60+ at Loyola-LA.)

read the rest here

How to Promote Yourself

PrawfsBlawg

Self-Promotion #5: Hodge Podge of Ideas

In this last post on self-promotion, I just want to throw out some more ideas about how you can obtain a better platform for you and your scholarly work.  If others have ideas that have worked in their own careers, it would be great if you would add them to the comments of this post.

So, in no particular order, some further ideas on how to promote yourself within the larger legal academy:

1. Involvement in Law & Society or other organization with a subject matter focus (other organizations revolve around empirical studies and law & economics.  The best thing about these conferences is that many of them are inter-disciplinary which means that you also will find outlets to collaborate with social scientists outside of the law.  Law & Society for one has a great collaborative research network which permits one to navigate this rather larger conference by subject area.

2. Similarly, you can get to know more people in your field by becoming involved in your relevant AALS section. Different AALS Sections work differently, but some are certainly open to younger scholars playing a leading role in setting up programs and publishing newsletters.

3. Starting a listserv or discussion list in your area of expertise might also give you the ability to get to know people you otherwise don't know. Although there are many listservs out there on broad topics like constitutional law, law and religion, and legal writing, consider setting up a list (with the help of your IT department) in a sub-area within your main field. I did this a number of years ago in the employment discrimination context with the empdiscr listserv, even though there was already in existent a more general labor and employment law listserv (worklaw).

4. Consider talking to your law review about hosting a symposium on a topic that you and four of your most fun and famous friends from your field would like to talk about and submit papers on.   The advantage of proposing a law review symposium is that you can really get to know those in the academy who have overlaps with your interests in meal setting or more informal get-togethers during the symposium.

5. Communities outside of the law might also bring you into contact with different law professors. Involvement in a political campaign or with a national civic organization might provide an idea venue for you to get to know scholars in fields outside of your normal reach.

6.  Think of putting together a law debate for the Federalist Society, ACS, or ACLU.  Students are very open to the idea of you participating in debates either with colleagues within the school or with colleagues at other schools. I know that the Federalists and the ACS provide a list of national speakers to consider and even provide funding in some circumstances to fly speakers in.

7.  Take advantage of posting your work on SSRN, bepress or similar legal paper database. It is still surprising to me how many come to know the work of other scholars through downloads on these services.  Law professors who have similar interests will get in touch with you once they see the scope of your own scholarship or you can get in touch with others to talk about their scholarship.

In any event, I hope this post and the previous four have given individuals some ideas about how to become better known in the large law professor world. As I told people over the years, especially when one starts out their law career at mid-level school in an out-of-the-way part of the country, it is sometimes necessary to "shout" to tell people you exist.  Assuming that once you get people's attention that you can also keep their focus on you with your research and scholarship, slowly but surely more invitations to symposiums, conference, and yes, even guest blogging stints, will come your way.

Paul Secunda

Posted by laborprof lpb on November 16, 2009 at 07:05 PM in Life of Law Schools | Permalink

New Public Law School in Mass.

Plan for Public Law School Advances in Mass.

from Legal Blog Watch by Robert J. Ambrogi

An effort to create the first public law school in Massachusetts got a boost Friday when University of Massachusetts President Jack M. Wilson gave it his endorsement. Wilson said he is convinced that the law school proposal is fiscally sound and would create a program with high academic standards. As noted here last month, the plan calls for the UMass-Dartmouth campus to take over the private, unaccredited Southern New England School of Law in North Dartmouth. The law school's board of trustees voted last month o donate to UMass its campus and assets, valued at $22.6 million. Massachusetts is one of just six states without a public law school. The plan quickly drew opposition from critics who say the state already has a surplus of law schools and of lawyers and that it would cost the state tens of millions of dollars to bring the school to a level that would allow it to earn ABA accreditation. But Wilson said the school would not consume state or university dollars and instead would create revenue. He cited figures from UMass Dartmouth Chancellor Jean F. MacCormack projecting that the law school's cumulative cash balance would grow from $1.8 million in 2011 to...

click on the title for the rest

An effort to create the first public law school in Massachusetts got a boost Friday when University of Massachusetts President Jack M. Wilson gave it his endorsement. Wilson said he is convinced that the law school proposal is fiscally sound and would create a program with high academic standards. As noted here last month, the plan calls for the UMass-Dartmouth campus to take over the private, unaccredited Southern New England School of Law in North Dartmouth. The law school's board of trustees voted last month o donate to UMass its campus and assets, valued at $22.6 million. Massachusetts is one of just six states without a public law school. The plan quickly drew opposition from critics who say the state already has a surplus of law schools and of lawyers and that it would cost the state tens of millions of dollars to bring the school to a level that would allow it to earn ABA accreditation. But Wilson said the school would not consume state or university dollars and instead would create revenue. He cited figures from UMass Dartmouth Chancellor Jean F. MacCormack projecting that the law school's cumulative cash balance would grow from $1.8 million in 2011 to...

click on the title for the rest

If BigLaw is Changed, What About Law School?

from Law School Headlines by admin

To the degree we’ve talked about the effect of the recession’s impact on law schools, the discussion has focused mostly on the fact that applications at many schools are up. To many, even if the legal industry is suffering alongside many others, the let’s-go-back-to-school strategy represents a risk worth taking: Three years down the line — who knows? — maybe everything will look the way it did in 2007.

But until now, we haven’t read a piece that takes a harder look at what might become of the legal academy if BigLaw undergoes dramatic and permanent changes, as many suspect it might. Earlier this week, however, over at the Conglomerate blog, University of New Mexico law professor Erik Gerding offered up a little “what if?” piece, in which he hypothesized about potential changes to the law-school world if and when law-firm hiring practices prove inexorably changed.

[Wall Street Journal]

How's this for cheap legal labor?

Recent CUNY Law Grads to Represent City Residents in Housing Courts

from Law School Headlines by admin

New York state court officials have announced a new program that will have recent graduates of the City University of New York Law School representing city residents in housing courts.

New York City’s Deputy Chief Administrative Judge Fern Fisher says 11 lawyers trained in housing law will represent low to moderate income residents on selected housing court cases starting next week.

Fisher says the six-month LaunchPad for Justice pilot program is the first time the state court system has partnered with a law school.

State Assemblymen Adriano Espaillat, of Manhattan, and Hakeem Jeffries, of Brooklyn, obtained legislative funds to pay the lawyers a $200 weekly stipend for a 20-hour week.

It’s estimated each lawyer will handle about 44 cases a week.

Apprenticeships - a best practice?

Apprenticeships – a best practice?

from Best Practices for Legal Education by karenalash

I recently returned from Serbia and Macedonia on a Public Interest Law Institute trip to help assess which Balkan law schools should join PILI’s expanding legal education reform project. Some professors were surprised that US law schools are also wringing their collective hands about how to give ideally all law students more meaningful experiential learning opportunities. But what really surprised our counterparts is that US law graduates can sit for the bar and get a license whether or not they’ve had any practice experience. Indeed, according to The Equal Justice Works Guide to Law Schools, most schools don’t collect information about whether their students had any hands-on experience before getting a diploma.

Like in some central and eastern European countries, Serbian and Macedonian law graduates cannot become licensed until completing a 2-year apprenticeship in the office of the Prosecutor or Parliament, a judge, or a private firm or an NGO, and a licensed attorney certifies the fact.

As we in the US also wring our hands about the miserable job market, I wonder if we might be witnessing a move towards the Balkan model, with a focus on training and hands-on (usually public interest related) experience to launch new lawyers’ careers.

* We’re seeing legions of “deferred” associates spend a year at reduced (law firm) pay with government, advocacy or legal aid offices. According to an ABA Journal story, initial anecdotal feedback on the deferred associate strategy is very positive, from associates and host nonprofit organizations alike.

* Some law schools and bar associations – for example, Ohio State Bar Public Service Program, Houston Law Center, Cardozo, Pennsylvania, Georgetown, Michigan, Harvard, Stanford and Columbia — have recently created short-term paid post-graduate public interest employment opportunities. Recent graduates work “off campus” in nonprofits, and sometimes “on campus” in law school clinics and faculty research centers. According to recent news stories, Denver is fundraising to create a post-graduate state clerkship program and Miami is providing $10,000 foreclosure defense fellowships for eight graduates to help legal aid groups tackle backlogs of cases.

* More than 40 law schools (with some overlap of the above) have long supported at least one post-graduate fellowship either with small stipends or fully-funded public interest fellowship positions. And a growing number of schools have a pro bono or some other clinical, hands-on graduation requirement, including Washington & Lee’s recent transformation of its third year into a practice year. (For lists of school-supported fellowships, and graduation and clinic requirements, check out the Equal Justice Works Guide.)

* National Fellowship programs, providing 2-years of funding (largely from law firms), including the largest of its kind at Equal Justice Works and Skadden’s program, enable new lawyers to get the hard-to-get entry level opportunities needed to launch public interest careers.

* Law firms are also getting in the first-year training game. For example, Howrey & Simon launched its “”lawyer training and initiation program specifically designed to accelerate the development of associate competencies.” First year lawyers spend only one-third of their year doing billable work, devoting the rest to pro bono representation, and participation in trainings including work with Howrey’s in-house writing instructor and assignment to trial teams. Drinker Biddle opted to start associates with a six month training program at a reduced salary rather than defer them. A recent ABA Journal article describes Nixon Peabody’s serious consideration of an apprenticeship program via a “Center of Excellence” where first-year associates “would train until they can graduate to a larger market.”

* At forums like the one held on October 30th at Columbia Law School, the profession and academy discussed the future of pro bono in a changing profession, including recent phenomenon of Big Firms sending new lawyers to public sector hosts for a year, and wondering if although launched in response to a market “crisis”, the model might continue in a more formal way.

This all makes me think we should consider a study tour to the Balkans, to learn more about their post-graduate apprenticeship program. Indeed, we would do well to remember that such luminaries as Oliver Wendell Holmes started his career as an apprentice. Though he did attend classes at Harvard Law School for a year, he balanced this with an apprenticeship at a Boston law firm before taking the bar.

Best Practices in Legal Education? Maybe.

New Online Journal re: Teaching and Curricular Innovations

A Renaissance is occurring within legal education.  Building on the findings and recommendations of the Carnegie Report (2007), MacCrate Report (1992), Cramton Report (1979), Reed Report (1921), and other extensive research, law schools and faculty are developing creative innovative curriculum and teaching methods to better prepare students for the practice of law. 

 

The Renaissance Report™ http://renaissancereport.wordpress.com/ is an online journal hosted by William Mitchell College of Law. The journal provides a broad based, up-to-date resource of curriculum and teaching innovations for legal educators.

 

It is with great hope for the future of the legal profession and the legal education system that we invite you to join the discussion. Together we can create a legal education renaissance.

 

Join us! http://renaissancereport.wordpress.com/

 

Professor John Sonsteng, Editor

Renaissance Report Editorial Team

William Mitchell College of Law

Law school on the "Block Plan" ?

A query from Howard Wasserman at PrawfsBlawg: Legal education bubble?

For no particular reason, I was thinking today about the "Block Plan" (or "One-Course-at-a-Time") approach used at liberal arts colleges such as Colorado College and Cornell (IA) College. As the name suggests, students take (and professors teach) one class in an intensive 3 1/2- or 4-week block, take one week off, then move on to another single class. And at least Cornell plays up internship and other outside-the-classroom opportunities.

So: Any thoughts on whether law school could work on this model?

For no particular reason, I was thinking today about the "Block Plan" (or "One-Course-at-a-Time") approach used at liberal arts colleges such as Colorado College and Cornell (IA) College. As the name suggests, students take (and professors teach) one class in an intensive 3 1/2- or 4-week block, take one week off, then move on to another single class. And at least Cornell plays up internship and other outside-the-classroom opportunities.

So: Any thoughts on whether law school could work on this model?

New Book on Feminist and Queer Legal Theory

NOW AVAILABLE!

Feminist and Queer Legal Theory

Intimate Encounters, Uncomfortable Conversations

Edited by Martha Fineman, Jack Jackson and Adam Romero

Hardback edition $124.95

Paperback edition $49.95

Use discount code FLTP20 to receive a 20% discount at Ashgate Publishing.  The publisher’s website is:

http://www.ashgate.com/fltp

Outcome Measures and Regulatory Failure in Legal Education

Legal Profession Blog

[Posted by Bill Henderson]

Over the last few years, the topic of outcome (or output) measures has been a recurring theme at various association meetings and conferences surrounding legal education.  Some of this discussion is motivated by Department of Education initiatives that want to establish a clear linkage between educational cost and economic returns.  Some schools, however, believe that their fortunes will rise when they can be judged on three years of education (e.g., bar passage rates, employment, student satisfaction) rather than the input measures that drive the U.S. News Rankings.

It is hard to imagine a more impossible task than faculty from 190+ law schools reaching a "consensus" on outcomes measures.  Yet, consensus is not required.  The ABA Section on Legal Education and Admission to the Bar, through its authority to accredit law schools, can require law schools to measure, collect, and report information that the Section determines is in the public interest.   In 2007, the Section created a "Special Committee on Output Measures" and asked it to "define appropriate output measures and make specific recommendations as to whether the Section should adopt those measures a part of the [Accreditation] Standards."

So what happened?  The Special Committee's 76-page single-spaced Final Report, issued in July 2008, made little headway in defining output measures or making specific recommendation regarding accreditation. In a nutshell, the Committee recommended that the Standards be amended so that each law school would be free to define and measure its own outcomes.  In theory, these new Standards could be given teeth by the rigor of the outcome measures (or lack thereof) embodied in a school's self-study report and strategic plan (two processes already required under the accreditation process).  This excerpt from the Final Report puts the best possible spin on the Committee's recommendation:

[A]n approach that accords significant independence to law schools would make it possible for the schools to serve as laboratories for innovation and systemic improvement. ... As law schools experiment with various models of their own choosing, the data these schools generate will inform other schools' experiments and will provide a basis for fine-tuning models for instruction and evaluation. At some point in the future, it may be the case that our understanding of outcome measures has progressed so far, and that certain views have become so widely held, that the ABA Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar will be in a position to demand greater specificity in the criteria in the [Accreditation] Standards and/or Interpretations. But, at least at the present time, the Committee believes that in drafting Standards and Interpretations, it is best to give law schools the latitude to experiment with a wide range of models.

When we step back, it is hard to believe that this thousand-flowers-bloom approach is the tack taken by the regulator charged with overseeing legal education.  To paraphrase the above passage, it says "do what you want to do, but try a little harder.  When something works well, and most schools adopt it, the Section can implement it as the new rule.  That way we can avoid difficult decisions that will upset our friends."

In truth, the Committee's approach turns the purpose of outcome measures on its head.  In the broader discussion in higher education, outcome measures are sought because they enable an apples-to-apples assessment of the effectiveness of an educational institution.  Indeed, the entire process is meant to facilitate comparisons.  Why? Because meaningful comparative information levels the playing field between those providing education (the schools) and those financing it (the students/citiizens). When outcome information is readily available, it changes behavior and alters powerful norms, including over-reliance on US News.  In the absence of apples-to-apples outcome information, the market adapts as it does now--by focusing on the basis of inputs (revenues, books, number of faculty, LSAT scores, UGPA, etc.).  It is the opaqueness of legal education that creates a vacuum needed for the US News rankings, which are nearly perfectly correlated with student entering credentials.

The Committee shrinks from the task of defining specific, comparable outcomes because it knows (at least implicitly or subconsciously) that the very process of creating meaningful outputs creates a large number of winners and losers among law schools.   Yet, by refusing to act as regulator that serves the public interest, the ABA Section on Legal Education and Admission to the Bar makes law schools the winner and law students the losers. 

If we evaluate outcome measures from the perspective of law students rather than law schools, there are at least three pieces of information that the Section should collect and publish annually in a format that facilitates school-to-school comparisons:

read the rest here

Conference: Teaching Law for Engaged Learning

 

Institute for Law School Teaching

and

Center for Engaged Learning in the Law

 

"Teaching Law for Engaged Learning," is a one-day conference for new and experienced legal educators interested in developing as teachers. The conference will take place on April 10, 2010, at the Elon University School of Law in Greensboro, North Carolina. The conference co-sponsors are the Institute for Law Teaching and Learning (Gonzaga and Washburn) and the Center for Engaged Learning in the Law (Elon).

 

Structure of the Conference

 

The conference will consist of four sessions: (1) course and class planning; (2) teaching methods; (3) assessment and exams; and (4) developing as a teacher.

 

Course and class planning. What are the most important things you want your students to learn and how will you get your students there?  In this session, participants will construct learning objectives, plan how they will know whether their students have attained those objectives, discuss what to include in a syllabus and what makes for an effective syllabus, reconsider how they start and end their courses and class sessions, and plan a single class session from start to finish.

 

Teaching methods. Participants will consider a wide variety of techniques and perspectives, from the more traditional techniques, such as lecture and questioning, to other commonly-used techniques, such as free writing, collaborative learning, PowerPoint slides, simulations, clickers, and course Web pages, to a few cutting-edge techniques, such as discovery sequence instruction, cognitive think-alouds, and in-class instant messaging. Participants will both experience and discuss how best practices can be applied to these techniques.  Participants will also consider keys to effective teaching beyond techniques, including attitudes, habits of mind, conceptualizations of students, and personal qualities and characteristics.

 

Assessment and exams.  As a result of taking a course, what should students be able to do? Design effective ways to solve clients' problems using a range of authorities and complicated facts? Would they show their learning by writing opinion letters, drafting agreements, or interviewing witness? During this workshop, participants will work from their own assessments, samples, and guidelines to design and evaluate a variety of assessments. Participants also will practice using and developing effective and sustainable ways to provide feedback, including rubrics, classroom assessment techniques, and peer review, and they will consider how to use assessment results as feedback for improving their course and class design and teaching.

 

Developing as a teacher.  Following an introduction to the research on faculty development, participants in this session will engage in a variety of teaching development instruments. For example, participants will complete a teaching inventory, engage in reflective writing, view a teaching video, practice giving feedback, and brainstorm ways to develop a sustainable teaching development practice.

SSRN: Clinical Research Institute

LSN LAW RESEARCH CENTERS PAPERS CLINICAL RESEARCH INSTITUTE (sponsored by New York Law School) Vol. 6, No. 4: Nov 12, 2009 RICHARD D. MARSICO, EDITOR Professor of Law, New York Law School [email protected] STEPHEN ELLMANN, EDITOR Associate Dean for Faculty Development and Professor of Law, New York Law School [email protected] Browse ALL abstracts for this journal

Links: Subscribe ~ Unsubscribe | Distribution | Network Directors | Submit ~ Revise Your Papers

Table of Contents Stories Absent from the Courtroom: Responding to Domestic Violence in the Context of HIV and AIDS Jane K. Stoever, Seattle University School of Law See One, Do One, Teach One: Dissecting the Use of Medical Education’s Signature Pedagogy in the Law School Curriculum Christine Nero Coughlin, Wake Forest University - School of Law Lisa McElroy, Drexel University - Earle Mack School of Law Sandy Patrick, Lewis & Clark Law School Storytelling Across the Curriculum: From Margin to Center, from Clinic to the Classroom Carolyn Grose, William Mitchell College of Law Decriminalizing Students with Disabilities Dean Hill Rivkin, University of Tennessee College of Law Strip-Mining and Grassroots Resistance in Appalachia: Community Lawyering for Environmental Justice Dean Hill Rivkin, University of Tennessee College of Law Chris Irwin, United Mountain Defense Anne Passino, affiliation not provided to SSRN The Cartography of Legal Inquiry Tonya Kowalski, Washburn University School of Law

itunes oral arguments?

Appellate Oral Arguments Available for Free on 'iTunes U'

from Legal Blog Watch by Bruce Carton

You've already ordered your U.S. Supreme Court baseball cards. Now it's time for all of you appellate law geeks aficionados to take the next step and get yourself some good oral arguments on iTunes to listen to while you work out. The Tex Parte Blog reports here that St. Mary's University School of Law will now be making recordings of Texas Supreme Court oral arguments available, for free, on iTunes U, Apple's online repository of free educational content and lectures, presentations, videos and podcasts from all over the world. For three years now, St. Mary's and the Texas Supreme Court have partnered to provide the court's oral arguments through live webcasts, but these arguments will now also be featured on iTunes U. A quick look at iTunes U shows that the Texas oral arguments are not the only ones available on the site. In fact, dozens -- if not hundreds -- of U.S. Supreme Court argument are also available, for free, through the Oyez Project. Here, for instance, is the iTunes U link to oral argument in the landmark case of Bush v. Gore. Listen to that one a few times on the treadmill and see if the justices' controversial...

You've already ordered your U.S. Supreme Court baseball cards. Now it's time for all of you appellate law geeks aficionados to take the next step and get yourself some good oral arguments on iTunes to listen to while you work out. The Tex Parte Blog reports here that St. Mary's University School of Law will now be making recordings of Texas Supreme Court oral arguments available, for free, on iTunes U, Apple's online repository of free educational content and lectures, presentations, videos and podcasts from all over the world. For three years now, St. Mary's and the Texas Supreme Court have partnered to provide the court's oral arguments through live webcasts, but these arguments will now also be featured on iTunes U. A quick look at iTunes U shows that the Texas oral arguments are not the only ones available on the site. In fact, dozens -- if not hundreds -- of U.S. Supreme Court argument are also available, for free, through the Oyez Project. Here, for instance, is the iTunes U link to oral argument in the landmark case of Bush v. Gore. Listen to that one a few times on the treadmill and see if the justices' controversial...

ABA and loan relief

National Law Journal: ABA proposes law student loan relief

Karen Sloan

November 10, 2009

The American Bar Association is lobbying the Obama administration and Congress to extend relief to recent law school graduates who went into debt to finance their legal educations but haven't been able to find a job because of the recession.

The ABA wants the government to let unemployed graduates convert private loans into federal ones. The change could allow them to defer repaying those loans for as long as three years.

The effort is in its early stages — executives of the largest provider of private law school loans, Access Group Inc., weren't even aware of it, according to spokeswoman Linda Smith.

"This is really intended to give them some breathing room," said ABA President Carolyn Lamm.

read the rest here

Steve Ellmann reviews Arc of Justice

Now Without Hesitation: Ossian Sweet and the power of client narrative

Ossian Sweet and the power of client narrative
We often worry that clients' voice is lost in the process of representation. The story that gets told, though not false, is a story keyed to the elements of the case, or to some other persuasive need, rather than to the client's understanding of the narrative of his or her life. But my co-author Ann Shalleck, in her chapter on "Narrative Theory and Narrative Practices" in our new book (Lawyers and Clients: Critical Issues in Interviewing and Counseling (2009) -- see my previous post for the book announcement) emphasizes that clients' own narratives change over time, and in part as a result of the influence of the lawyer. Sometimes those changes are benign. Sometimes they may not be.

In his fascinating book Arc of Justice: A Saga of Race, Civil Rights, and Murder in the Jazz Age (2004), Kevin Boyle tells the story of Dr. Ossian Sweet and his trial. Dr. Sweet was an African American physician, living in Detroit, who in 1925 made the decision to move with his family into a house in an all-white neighborhood. The results were disastrous. A white crowd swelled around his house on each of his first two nights in it; the second night, members of the crowd began hurling stones at the house, and as the stones fell someone (or someones) in the house fired into the crowd, wounding one person and killing another. Dr. Sweet and the 10 other people in the house were all arrested and charged with murder.

As Boyle tells the story, Dr. Sweet emerges as a conflicted man, who was almost overcome by anxiety as the mob surrounded his house. He seems not so much to have decided to risk everything for the sake of his right to purchase this house as to have been unable to back down from the purchase as the extent of the peril he and his family faced became clear. None of this is to his discredit; the fact is that he did exercise his right to purchase a house anywhere he could afford, and he determined to defend the house against attack, and he did so. (He did not, however, fire any shots himself.)

Boyle tells us that after their arrests, Dr. Sweet and most of the others initially told the authorities, falsely, that they weren't in the house that night to defend it but rather were just waiting for dinner when the trouble began. (Boyle, at 173-74.) Apparently it was Clarence Darrow, perhaps accompanied by Walter White of the NAACP (which had made this case a cause), who persuaded the defendants to tell the story more fully. In Boyle's words:

"For the longest time, Darrow sat with Ossian and the others, listening to them recount the evening on Garland Avenue, gently pressing them to admit to the shooting rather than cling to the unlikely stories they had concocted the night of the police interrogation, quietly reassuring them that the case could be won even if they had fired into the crowd, bridging the chasm between the famous white lawyer and ten desperately afraid colored men with his remarkable gift for empathy." (244)

Along the way, however, Dr. Sweet's understanding of his own story changed. "[H]e began to see the road he had followed to Garland Avenue as much straighter, his steps more purposeful, than they had actually been." (247) Perhaps Dr. Sweet was influenced by his sense of what a jury might respond to, and perhaps he was moved by the praise that his supporters offered for him. I don't mean that he falsified any concrete fact of his story, just that he came to see it as a story of his own manifest heroism.

That may have been fine for the two trials, at the first of which Dr. Sweet responded to cross-examination "with a dignity so fierce it was inspiring" (290), and at the second of which "he seemed to straighten in his seat as the questions were asked.... Now the fear was gone, replaced by unbending pride, the terrified little boy of Bartow given way to a New Negro willing to risk everything in defense of his family, his home, and his principles." (327-28) And the trials ultimately ended in complete legal victory for the defendants.

Unfortunately, it was not fine for Dr. Sweet as a person. Between the two trials, Dr. Sweet and his wife, Gladys (also a defendant), went on a tour planned by the NAACP. A pastor accompanying them said that "Each day he [Dr. Sweet] got more egotistic." (306). The same man said that "I averted no fewer than four scenes ... [and] abated five quarrels between the Sweets." (306-07)

Perhaps all would have been well in time. But as it turned out, Gladys Sweet and the Sweets' one-year-old daughter Iva contracted tuberculosis, very possibly from the jail in which they were confined after the arrests, and both died of it. (344) Dr. Sweet lived in the house he had bought for many years, but his life went awry in multiple ways, and at the age of 64 he shot and killed himself. (344-46) Would he have handled better the challenges he faced if he had not come to see himself, at one point in his life, as a more unambiguously heroic man than he (or almost anyone else) could be? We don't know. But the book leaves the strong impression that the case, the cause, became so great that it changed even the individuals whose cause it was, and not entirely for the better.

*******************

For me, reading Arc of Justice raised another, more personal question. In 1925, my grandfather, James Ellmann, was a young attorney practicing in Detroit and raising a family along with his wife Jean. He would go on to be active in civil rights issues, but the first trace of that activity that I've found so far on the web is in the mid-late 1930s. There's no sign that he was involved in any way in the Sweet case. I can't help but think, though, that he must have been inspired by this celebrated, dramatic case, involving local people and the most prominent lawyer of the age. So I hope that one of the effects of this case -- which brought Dr. Sweet freedom but not happiness, and helped launch the NAACP's legal challenges to racism even while Northern cities' residential segregation intensified (342-43) -- was to play some part in my grandfather's political development, and so my father's, and so mine.

Bob Dinerstein to get PIncus Award!

The AALS, the Section on Clinical Legal Education's Executive Committee, and the Section's Awards Committee would like to announce that Professor Robert Dinerstein, Professor of Law at American University Washington College of Law, will be awarded the William Pincus Award at the AALS Annual Conference in New Orleans, in January, 2010, at the Clinical Section luncheon on Saturday, January 9, 2010.  The Pincus Award honors one or more individuals or institutions of clinical legal education who have demonstrated excellence in service, scholarship, program design and implementation, and other activity beneficial to clinical education or to the advancement of justice.

 

 

Professor Dinerstein exhibits these qualities in abundance, and he continues to be a leader of the clinical movement in legal education.

Professor Dinerstein has been a tireless advocate for clinical legal education and a mentor to countless members of the clinical teaching community.  In his scholarship, in his own clinical work as a mentor to his students, as an advocate for clinic clients, in furthering clinical legal education in the United States and in other countries, and in his years of service in furthering the development of clinical legal education both through the AALS and the ABA, he has contributed and continues to contribute to the development of clinical legal education.

He is an author of important articles about clinical legal education pedagogy and the theory of practice, and he has made significant contributions to the field.  His service to the clinical community includes serving as a Chair of the Clinical Section, the AALS Standing Committee on Clinical Education, CLEA's Best Practices Project and the Best Practices Implementation Committee, and important committees of the ABA Section on Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar, including the Standards Review Committee and the Council of the Section.  He has amply demonstrated his continued commitment to improving legal education and the role of clinical legal education.

 

Professor Dinerstein's work toward advancing the cause of clinical education, his scholarship, and his commitment to his students and clients make him a worthy recipient of the 2010 William Pincus Award.