clinicians with not enough to do

JOBS: Buffalo Clinic Director

The University at Buffalo Law School is the State University’s only law school. UB Law School has a student body of about 750 students and a full-time faculty of 51, including tenured and tenure-track, clinical, and legal research and writing faculty members. UB Law’s long tradition of excellence, and its special emphasis on interdisciplinary studies, public service, international engagement, clinical education, and innovative scholarship and teaching, make it unique among the nation's premier public law schools. Our path-breaking clinical programs feature not only litigation but also transactional practice and policymaking. Our clinics include: Affordable Housing; Community Economic Development; Environment and Development; Environmental Policy; Law and Social Work; Mediation; Elder Law; and Women, Children and Social Justice. Among our accomplishments to date: our Affordable Housing Clinic has secured over $200 million in financing, creating over 2,000 units of affordable housing; our Elder Law Clinic recovered $11 million on behalf of nursing home residents who overpaid for their care; and our Women, Children and Social Justice Clinic trains attorneys throughout the region and around the world on topics related to family violence. 

Professor or Associate Professor of Law/Director of Clinical Legal Education:  The Director of Clinical Legal Education will be a tenured or tenure track member of the faculty responsible for the direction of our clinical programs, including both the day-to-day operations and the conceptualization and institution of clinics. The Director will coordinate the work of all clinic faculty and staff, including four tenured members of faculty, four clinical faculty, seven teaching faculty and adjunct instructors, and three members of staff. The Director is responsible for the oversight of clinical budgets, and will promote, facilitate and conduct grant writing.  The Director will develop a clear, strong profile for the Clinics, promote clinical offerings to students, and strengthen relationships with the national, state, and local legal communities. The Director can offer an individual clinic, and teach traditional courses as well. The Director will be responsible for the assessment of existing and proposed clinical programs. The Director will work closely with the Vice Dean for Academic Affairs to better integrate the clinical offerings with the overall curriculum.

 

Qualifications:  We are searching for a national leader in clinical education to direct our clinical programs. The successful applicant will be: (1) a published scholar with a research agenda in an appropriate field; (2) a strong teacher with broad experience in clinical legal education; and (3) a capable administrator with substantial experience in supervising lawyers and students.

 

To Apply:  Send letter of application and resume to: Professor Errol Meidinger, University at Buffalo Law School, 719 O’Brian Hall, Buffalo, NY  14260-1100. 

Call for Proposals for Hosting Next GAJE World Conference

As with the previous two world conferences (2006 Cordoba and 2008 Manila), the GAJE Steering Committee adopted a decision to initiate a search for proposals for hosting and co-organizing the next world GAJE conference, to be held in December 2010 or the Summer of 2011.   Given the previous practice of keeping a minimum 1.5 to 2.5 years period between the world conferences, we need to decide on a location sooner rather then later this year.              

The first step of the process is to solicit proposals for the conference site.  The purpose of this memo is to find out whether any member of GAJE might want to submit a proposal.  The Steering Committee is looking for a local partner institution that would have the initiative and capacity to organize and run an efficient, high-quality conference at a relatively reasonable cost – so that it will be accessible to the maximum number of GAJE members.   All proposals will be reviewed by the Site Selection Committee, which will propose one first choice location and an alternate one as reserve.  The final decision will be made by the Steering Committee.       

BC Law Prof. Fitzgibbon Speaks via Email; BC Law Students Spoof via YouTube

From Above the Law - By Elie Mystal

It’s too early to take nominations for this year’s law revue contest. But an early contender will surely be a video we received from students at Boston College Law School. It’s a spoof of BC law professor Scott Fitzgibbon’s anti-gay marriage commercial. Watch what the loyal opposition has to say: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qdy9JDWZGg4&feature=player_embedded

A tipster reports that the student playing Fitzgibbon was well trained for the role:

Said the student, a former Cheney aide, who played professor in the ad: “They needed someone to play a snarky, intolerant conservative d’bag. I can’t believe I pulled it off.”

Professor Fitzgibbon’s legal analysis of gay marriage in Maine has come under attack from legal scholars and politicians. The Eagleonline published a letter from attorney and Maine State Representative Jon Hinck (D-Portland) calling on Fitzgibbon to make himself available for public debate on the issues he discussed in his commercial. The letter was sent to BC law dean John Garvey. It reads, in part:

I do not see how the law as written will give rise to a flood or even a trickle of litigation. Moreover, it is hard for me to see how plaintiffs could prevail in the kinds of cases professor Fitzgibbon’s strings together in his list of horribles. There is also little reason to believe that “homosexual marriage will be taught in school” whatever that means. Of course, in a brief TV spot it is hard to provide much backing for legal conclusions and other bald assertions but it disturbs me that Professor Fitzgibbon did not respond to a request for an interview. Since he has chosen to enter the fray with what appears on its face to be highly dubious assertions of law attributed to unnamed “legal experts” I would think that your institution would prefer to see the professor support his opinion with analysis when asked and not avoid the reporter. The law school at Boston College should expect quality scholarship, which in my experience can always be backed up in a public discussion. I would be interested in your thoughts.

So far, Fitzgibbon has not responded to calls for public debate about the matter. He has also refused to answer questions from the Eagleonline, a publication for Boston College law students.

But Fitzgibbon appears to be willing to discuss his views on gay marriage with laypeople. The professor sent an email to BCHeights, an independent student newspaper for the Boston College community. BCHeights reports:

Fitzgibbon said in an e-mail that he has received a split response to his support for the Maine Marriage Initiative. “I have received about 40 responses by e-mail and phone message to my TV ad, about 18 positive and 22 negative,” he said. Fitzgibbon said that his interest in supporting the initiative comes from the serious legal concerns he perceives stem from the redefinition of the institution of marriage in Maine to allow for homosexual as well as heterosexual couples. “Legal consequences of the legal recognition of same-sex marriage are detailed in a letter to the governor of Maine from four law professors,” he said. “These legal concerns underlie, in part, my opposition to that legalization.” Fitzgibbons chose to communicate solely via e-mail due to the sensitive nature of the matter.

Ftizgibbon is wiling to offer his legal opinion on gay marriage to voters in Maine or college students in Boston. But when lawyers or law students ask him about his legal conclusions, they can’t get a response? That’s like going to The Kells to root for Derek Jeter, and then hiding in the bathroom when all the Red Sox fans show up.

CALL FOR PAPERS AND WORKSHOP PROPOSALS: Feminist Legal Theory Conference

The University of Baltimore School of Law's Center on Applied Feminism seeks submissions for its Third Annual Feminist Legal Theory Conference.  This year's theme is: Applied Feminism and Marginalized Communities.  For more information about the conference, please visit law.ubalt.edu/caf.

 

 

 This conference seeks to explore the following questions:  What do we mean by "marginalized communities" and what purposes does that designation serve?  How has feminist legal theory created or contributed to the understanding of who is or is not marginalized?  How has feminist legal  How has feminist legal theory contributed to the erasing, shifting and/or merging of boundaries and how does that affect how we think about marginalized communities?  How does feminist legal theory intersect with other critical theories regarding marginalization?  How can feminist legal theory work towards alleviating poverty and other barriers faced by marginalized communities?  How has feminist legal theory addressed marginalization relating to such issues as housing, welfare, domestic violence, family composition, human rights, immigration, and religious freedom?  And finally, how has feminist legal theory made (or not made) a difference for those who are portrayed as marginalized or see themselves as marginalized?

 

This conference will attempt to address these questions from the perspectives of activists, practitioners and academics.  The conference will provide an opportunity for participants and audience members to exchange ideas about the current state of feminist legal theories and how those theories are being actualized to help women in marginalized communities. From the conference, we hope that a new discourse about applied feminist legal theory and marginalized communities will begin and that this discourse will shape policy and practice.  In addition, the conference is designed to provide presenters with the opportunity to gain extensive feedback on their papers.

 

The conference will begin the evening of Thursday, March 4, 2010, with a workshop for conference participants.   Building from last year's workshop, which addressed making space for feminist writing, this workshop will continue the tradition of involving all attendees to be participants in the interactive discussion and reflection.  The workshop will be approximately one to two hours in length.

On Friday, March 5, 2010, the conference will continue with a day of presentations by legal academics, practitioners and activists regarding current scholarship and/or legal work that explores the application of feminist legal theory and marginalized communities.  The conference will be open to the public and will feature a keynote speaker Friday evening.  Past keynote speakers have included Dr. Maya Angelou and Gloria Steinem. 

 

The requirements for paper and workshop proposals are detailed below. 

WHAT NEXT? Legal Tube

A Video Matching Site for Lawyers and Clients A new video site wants to play matchmaker for lawyers and clients. The idea behind LegalTube is to help potential clients find the right lawyer by letting them view videos of the lawyers discussing themselves and their areas of practice. "LegalTube is the only legal directory where finding a lawyer or the answers to your law-related questions is as easy as channel surfing," the site promises. "It's a way to connect attorneys and potential clients by offering 'face time' in the comfort of your living room." read the rest here

Judging Women Judges

from The Faculty Lounge by Alfred Brophy

Stephen J. Choi, G. Mitu Gulati,  Mirya R. Holman, and Eric A. Posner have a new article up on ssrn, "Judging Women."  Here's their abstract:

Judge Sonia Sotomayor’s assertion that female judges might be “better” than male judges has generated accusations of sexism and potential bias. An equally controversial claim is that male judges are better than female judges because the latter have benefited from affirmative action. These claims are susceptible to empirical analysis. Primarily using a dataset of all the state high court judges in 1998-2000, we estimate three measures of judicial output: opinion production, outside state citations, and co-partisan disagreements. We find that the male and female judges perform at about the same level. Roughly similar findings show up in data from the U.S. Court of Appeals and the federal district courts. 

I saw an earlier version of this this summer and it (no surprise) generated a ton of discussion.  One conclusion I took away from this is that the quality of judging (as measure by the measures here) is pretty even across courts.  I'm not sure what that says about judges' quality or the measures that Choi et alia employ to measure quality.

read the rest here

Law Students Save Judge's Life

HT TAXPROF BLOG

Compassionate law students overrule judge and save his life

By Lou Michel

NEWS STAFF REPORTER   THE BUFFALO NEWS

September 27, 2009, 6:32 AM /

Seven University at Buffalo Law School students get high grades from State Supreme Court Justice Richard C. Kloch Sr., their professor, not necessarily for legal knowledge but compassion.

Kloch was teaching the students in his trial technique class on an evening about two weeks ago at the Amherst Campus when his left knee started acting up from recent surgery to repair the damaged joint.

Unexpectedly, a wave of weakness overtook him and he sat at his desk, hoping to carry on with the class.

“I called the class to a halt because of the pain. It was overwhelming. I tried to get up and I couldn’t move. The knee swelled easily to three times its size and got concrete hard,” Kloch said.

Though he released the seven students in the class, they refused to leave his side. One of the students used a cell phone to call security, but security declined to send a patrol car over to drive the judge to his vehicle, Kloch said.

read the rest here

What did the Carnegie report say anyway?

from PrawfsBlawg by Jason Solomon

In the last few years, there's been a fair amount of talk in the legal academy about how legal education ought to change, in part in response to the 2007 Carnegie Foundation report. Many assume that the report is a repeat of the familiar "law school should be more practical," and to a certain extent that's true. But it's more nuanced than that.

One way to get the gist is to head to the website of the new law school at UC-Irvine, founded by noted constitutional law scholar Erwin Chemerinsky. The site summarizes its curriculum this way: "A cutting-edge, strongly interdisciplinary curriculum will prepare UC Irvine School of Law graduates not only to think like a lawyer but also to actually practice law."  UCI's website also includes a key quote from the Carnegie report: "Most law schools give only casual attention to teaching students how to use legal thinking in the complexity of actual law practice.  Unlike other professional education, most notably medical school, legal education typically pays relatively little attention to direct training in professional practice.  The result is to prolong and reinforce the habits of thinking like a student rather than an apprentice practitioner, conveying the impression that lawyers are more like competitive scholars than attorneys engaged with the problems of clients." 

You can also read the executive summary of the Carnegie report here, but the highlights are: 

read the rest here

Jeans and a baseball cap in court?

Legal Writing Prof Blog

May my clothes please the court . . .

by legalwritingprofessors

f you are appearing before U.S. District Judge Nicholas Garaufis (E.D.N.Y.) or Queens County housing court Judge Anne Katz (and probably a lot of other judges), you need to dress appropriately.

A lawyer who wore jeans and a baseball cap to Katz's courtroom filed a federal suit after he was told his attire was inappropriate, alleging violations of his 1st and 14th Amendment rights. The federal judge did not see it that way. A courtroom is a "staid environment," said Judge Garaufis, and a judge can enforce "commonly shared mores of courtroom civility."  But the judge acknowledged that when the attorney is not in court, he "is free to express the ideas he wishes to express, and to wear the attire he chooses to wear."

The case is Bank v. Katz, U.S. District Court, Eastern District of New York (Brooklyn), No. 08-1033.

Call for Articles -- Estate Planning and Community Property Law Journal

On the heels of a well-received collection of professional articles for its inaugural volume, the editors of the Estate Planning and Community Property Law Journal are currently seeking a law review style article (at least 30 double-spaced pages, including footnotes) to comprise Book 2, Volume II of what will prove to be a successful and compelling publication. The Journal just completed a Continuing Legal Education seminar held in Lubbock, Texas that has attracted many subscribers and generated great interest in its articles and student comments. It is permissible that the prospective author has previously published the article on SSRN or pursuant to a state bar seminar. Although the journal operates out of Texas Tech University School of Law, the article need not be confined to Texas law if it has a broad national appeal.

The article can be either academic or practical in nature, the subject matter of which can include: intestate succession, wills, trusts, testamentary substitutes, powers of attorney, inter vivos gifts, powers of appointment, joint tenancies, multi-party accounts, retirement accounts, annuities, life insurance, probate courts, probate proceedings and alternatives to formal proceedings, personal representatives, administrators, executors, trustees, trust and estate creditors, trust and estate beneficiaries, heirship proceedings, fiduciary litigation, income taxation of trusts and estates, federal and state transfer taxes (gift tax, estate tax, and generation-skipping transfer tax), alternative reproductive technologies, guardianships, medical powers of attorney, directives to physicians, anatomical gifts, long-term care insurance, disability income insurance, Medicare, Medicaid, elder abuse, marital property in community property jurisdictions, homestead and similar statutory asset protections, and historical, social, economic, international, ethical, professional responsibility and professional malpractice analyses related issues.

Do not miss the opportunity to be published with the only student-led estate planning journal in the nation. The deadline for Book 2, Volume II is November 30, 2009. Please send all submissions or questions to [email protected].

Request for Training Proposals 2010 ABA-NLADA Equal Justice Conference

 

May 13 – 15, 2010

Pre-conference events on May 12

Pointe Hilton Tapatio Cliffs Resort

---

 

We are seeking program recommendations for the 2010 Equal Justice Conference.  Proposal guidelines can be found here.  The online training proposal form can be found here.  If you have problems filling out the online form, please contact Meaghan Cotter at [email protected].  Training proposals are due no later than Friday, October 9, 2009.

 

To unsubscribe from this discussion list, send an email to [email protected] or go to http://mail.abanet.org/archives/PB-ABC_PROBONO.html.

If you have any problems, please contact the list owner at [email protected].

Save the Date Motherhood: Reclaiming Our Past, Transforming Our Future March 12 & 13, 2010

University of Denver Sturm College of Law, Denver, Colorado

In the 1970’s a host of feminist scholars raised issues about motherhood-the cultural, political and legal
ramifications of mothering in the 20th Century. Now, in the 21st Century we are revisiting this issue by
reclaiming the past to focus on the future. Join us March 12 & 13, 2010, at the University of Denver Sturm College of Law as we examine the issues that frame the economic, legal, political and cultural position of motherhood in the 21st Century, here and abroad. Join us as we inaugurate the first conference cosponsored by the Sturm College of Law, the University College of Dublin Law School and the School of Social Justice, Republic of Ireland. We will be joined by scholar/activists from the Republic of Ireland and from Northern Ireland as we reconceptualize mothering and motherhood in the 21st Century.

For questions about the event, please visit us online at
www.law.du.edu/motherhood

What Law School Didn’t Teach You: Self-Advocacy for Survival and Sustainability

Building a more diverse legal profession is not a quick-fix, short-term goal. It is an ongoing campaign. As President of the American Bar Association, Carolyn Lamm has formed a Presidential Diversity Commission, which is presenting a series of CLE distance learning programs to help diverse lawyers advance their careers. The programs will address diversity from the perspectives of race, ethnicity, disability, gender, sexual orientation and gender identity.

Registration is now open for the first program in the series. Registration for the second and third programs will be available later this year.

• Removing Bias from Attorney Evaluations (Webcast) Friday, October 16, 2009 from 11:30 – 1:00 p.m. eastern time. Click here to register.
• Smart Soloing: Success Strategies for Diverse Lawyers (Webcast – Winter 2010)
• What Law School Didn’t Teach You: Self-Advocacy for Survival and Sustainability (Webcast or teleconference, Spring 2010).

The first program in the series will address key ways to reduce the impact of bias concerning associate advancement in law firms. The panel discussion will focus on how fair evaluations help ensure opportunities for associates to work on complex matters for important clients and improve their skills, increase their referral base and achieve a high level of satisfaction with law practice. This program is available to ABA members at a reduced rate of only $25. Non-members can register for only $45 and non-members who register for one or more of the programs are eligible for 50% off ABA membership dues.

For full descriptions of all the programs in the series, please visit  www.abacle.org/diversityseries. Stay tuned for more information.

Law Profs and Social Scientists: A Collaboration Whose Time Has Come

Hi all,

Great to meet so many of you and see what you are doing at the recent Assessment Conference at DU.   As we move forward with our work, one of the next steps is developing a body of scholarship about our current assessment practices as well as assessment and teaching methodology innovations.  One type of scholarship involves empirical studies.

Many law faculty members might like to engage in  empirical scholarship about assessment and teaching methodology but lack the necessary social science/statistical background.  To help these law faculty members, the Society of American Law Teachers' Committee on Issues in Legal Education is developing a list of potential social science collaborators for the SALT website.  If any conference participants have a social science background  and are willing to be on a list of potential collaborators, please contact Andi Curcio at [email protected].

SALT is  trying to spread the collaborator list net as widely as possible, so if any conference participants know of colleagues at their law schools or elsewhere who might be interested in being on this list, please forward this email to them.  Note that  being on the list does not obligate you, it simply increases your options for potential future scholarship endeavors.

Thanks for your help in building the social science collaborator list.

Andi Curcio
Professor of Law &
Chair of the SALT Committee on Issues in Legal Education
Georgia State University College of Law
404 429-6956
[email protected]

Call for syllabi on sexuality and law

If you have taught or are teaching a law-school course or seminar on sexuality and the law, sexual orientation and the law, or something similar and would be willing to share your syllabus, please email it to me.  (I'll be teaching such a course at Michigan starting in January.)  I'll make any syllabi I receive available on the web for others to review and download.  Thanks!

-Steve Sanders (from the Sexual Orientation and the Law Blog)

ELLMANN on "End-of-life" discussions and lawyer-client communications

"End-of-life" discussions and lawyer-client communications

A remarkable article in the NY Times not long ago, by Anemona Hartocollis, "At the End, Offering Not a Cure but Comfort" (August 20, 2009, starting at page A1).

First, it reports that "Dr. Nicholas Christakis, an internist and social scientist at Harvard who has studied end-of-life care, has found that doctors are generally bad at making prognoses. The better they know a patient, the worse they are at prognosticating, possibly, Dr. Christakis has theorized, because they view death as a personal failure. Most predictions are overly optimistic, he has found, and the sicker the patient, the more likely the doctor is to overestimate the length of survival." (Page A16) Without having seen Dr. Christakis' study, it seems to me that another factor here may simply be empathy -- the better the doctors know the patients, the more they feel for them and the more they hope they'll survive and the more their predictions are shaped by their hopes. If accurate predictions are what we want here -- far from a self-evident proposition, as the article reflects -- then this would be a reason for doctors not to know their patients so well. It would, similarly, be a reason for lawyers not to know their clients so well.


READ THE REST HERE

70 Sizzling Apps for Lawyers

read the whole article here

Pump up your PC, PDA and smartphone with these lawyer-friendly favorites

October 2009 Issue
By G. M. Filisko

Apps: It’s a little word for those mini-programs that can pay off big in productivity, knowledge or just plain fun. And they come at all price points, from expensive-but-worth-it to absolutely free.

Whether you’re a born techie or a reluctant one, you, too, can harness the power of technology with these 70 apps lawyers are sure to love.

1-5: WORD UP

You’re on the train to work and get a Micro­soft Word, Excel or PowerPoint document on your iPhone, BlackBerry or Symbian device (such as a Nokia or Samsung phone). Quickoffice allows you to open, view, edit and share that document.

“Quickoffice displays documents much better than the iPhone does by itself,” says Jeff Richardson, a partner at Adams & Reese in New Orleans who blogs about iPhone tools at iPhone JD. “I use it to keep briefs on my iPhone. If I’m in another attorney’s office and want to pull up something we put in a brief, I can do that.

New Publications from the ABA Commission on Homelessness & Poverty

from Poverty Law by Ezra Rosser

“Educating Children Without Housing: A Primer on Legal Requirements and Implementation Strategies for Educators, Advocates and Policymakers” (Third Edition)

“Educating Children Without Housing,” Third Edition, addresses the federal educational mandates related to homeless students under the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act. The manual provides innovative strategies for educators and school administrators, state coordinators and policymakers, and advocates and attorneys to play a role in ensuring the education rights of children and youth experiencing homelessness. The revised edition includes new sections on creating access to early childhood education opportunities, the Head Start Act, IDEA, the Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act, financial aid and college access and support programs. This third edition contains strategies designed to assist communities to exceed compliance and move toward greater commitment — to embody not only the letter but also the spirit of the law — including a new section on collaborating with community agencies. The book also includes a directory of resources for educators, advocates, and policymakers. Many states have purchased the publication in bulk and distributed it to liaisons, as well as to each school district and school administrator. Discounts for bulk orders are available.

“Runaway and Homeless Youth and the Law: Model State Statutes”

This is a unique publication that provides guidance for policymakers, advocates, attorneys and service providers on how state laws can assist homeless and runaway youth. The laws were developed by experts in the field with input provided during two national conferences. The comprehensive resource provides not only model statutes, but background information and research to provide context for each issue. Additionally, the authors have provided commentary to assist in the implementation of the law. “Runaway and Homeless Youth and the Law: Model State Statutes” is a necessity for any person or agency interested in improving state laws so that these vulnerable youth can find safety, services and stability.

The book addresses the following legal issues faced by runaway and homeless youth (and their providers): Education; Status Offenses; Family Law Issues; Health (access to health care); LGBTQ youth; Immigration;  Access to custodial systems; Discharge from custodial systems; Housing; Identification (birth certificates, SS cards); Public Benefits; Access to legal services; Employment; Legal issues for runaway and homeless youth service providers.  This book was cosponsored by the National Network for Youth and drafted in conjunction with our joint conferences held in June 2008 and January 2009.

-Thanks to Amy Horton-Newell for the heads up!

Ode to spell-check - the spell-checker's poem

from Legal Writing Prof Blog by legalwritingprofessors

Some of you may enjoy this (of course, others may not):

Spell Checker Poem

I have a spelling checker,
It came with my pea see;
It plainly marks four my revue
Mistakes I cannot sea.
I've run this poem threw it,
I'm sure your please too no,
It's letter perfect in its weight,
My checker tolled me sew.

-Author Unknown-

Hat tip to Rob Hudson.

I have a spelling checker,
It came with my pea see;
It plainly marks four my revue
Mistakes I cannot sea.
I've run this poem threw it,
I'm sure your please too no,
It's letter perfect in its weight,
My checker tolled me sew.

-Author Unknown-

"What Inspired Me to Go to Law School" -- The Movie

From the TaxProf Blog (Paul Caron):

The Access Group, a nonprofit graduate loan company, sponsored a law student video contest on What Inspired Me to Go to Law School.  A panel of celebrity judges watched the 113 entries and selected ten finalists, which were posted on YouTube, with the winner of the $10,000 law school scholarship determined by votes on YouTube:  Branigan Robertson(Chapman):

 

The winners of $1,500 law school scholarships were

• Ted Cardos (NYU) -- Humor
• Joseph Duerst (Arizona State) -- Appeal
• Ana DeFrates (South Texas) -- Creativity
• Anna Grace (Northeastern) -- Realism
• John Grimm (Georgetown) -- Quality

(Hat Tip:  Legal Blog Watch, WSJ Law Blog.)

JOBS: GEORGE WASHINGTON

The George Washington University School of Law expects to make one or more clinical faculty appointments, possibly on a clinical tenure track.  We are interested in clinical applicants in all substantive fields of expertise, although we have a particular interest in family law.  While we are searching primarily at the entry level, a lateral appointment may be possible as well.  

 

Job Qualifications:

 

Applicants must possess a J.D. degree and have relevant experience in clinical teaching and/or legal practice. Applicants must also show scholarly promise, evidenced by publications in scholarly journals or scholarly works in progress. In the case of lateral applicants, a strong record of teaching and scholarship is required.

 

Application Procedure:

 

To be considered, please send by October 31, 2009, a cover letter indicating areas of interest and a current c.v., including a list of references, to:

 

      Professor Karen B. Brown

      Chair, Appointments Committee

      The George Washington University Law School

      2000 H Street, NW

      Washington, D.C. 20052

NYLS Clinical Theory Workshop

FROM STEVE ELLMANN:

We’re still a little ways from our first workshop of the 2009-10 year, but I wanted to let you know what the schedule for the year will be. I’m pleased to say that we’ll have seven workshops this year, as we did last year; here they are (all meeting from 4:10 – 6:00 pm on Friday afternoons, and this year in NYLS’ brand new Boardroom):

 

October 23, 2009: Ann Juergens, William Mitchell College of Law, “Desegregating Doctrine, Practice, and Ethics in Legal Education:  Notes from the Field”

 

November 13, 2009: Ian Weinstein, Fordham University School of Law, “Teaching the Whole Person, Reaching the Whole Class: Multiple Intelligences, Deliberate Practice  and the Education of the Reflective Professional”

 

December 4, 2009: Richard A. Matasar, New York Law School, “Clinicians, Law Schools, and the Market for Lawyers”

 

February 5, 2010: Eduardo Capulong, University of Montana School of Law, “Client Activism in Progressive Lawyering Theory”

 

February 26, 2010: Scott Cummings, UCLA School of Law, “Managing Pro Bono: Doing Well by Doing Better”

 

March 19, 2010: William Wesley Patton, Whittier Law School, "The Advantages of a Clientless Policy Clinic in Teaching Interdisciplinary Advocacy"

 

April 16, 2010: Laura Cohen, Rutgers School of Law – Newark, “Clinical Collaborations with Public Interest Organizations”

 

I look forward to seeing you at these. And as always if you know of other colleagues who’d like to be on the mailing list, please just let me know. All the best –

 

Stephen J. Ellmann/Associate Dean for Faculty Development and Collaborative Learning/New York Law School/57 Worth Street/New York, NY 10013/212-431-2392

Class Bias in Law Professor Hiring

from Poverty Lawby Ezra Rosser

The following series on Jeffrey Harrison’s Class Bias in Higher Education Blog may be of interest to those on law faculty hiring committees or preparing for the hiring fair:

• Class Bias Part I; Class Bias Part II; Class Bias Part III

The following series on Jeffrey Harrison’s Class Bias in Higher Education Blog may be of interest to those on law faculty hiring committees or preparing for the hiring fair:

• Class Bias Part I; Class Bias Part II; Class Bias Part III

RFP: 2010 AALS Conference on Clinical Legal Education

 Answering the Call for Reform:

Using Outcomes Assessment, Critical Theory and Strategic Thinking to Implement Change

  Request for Proposals

 Concurrent Sessions

Working Concurrent Sessions

Poster Sessions

  The 2010 AALS Conference on Clinical Legal Education will be held May 4-8, 2010, at the Renaissance Harborplace Baltimore Hotel in Baltimore, Maryland. The Conference Planning Committee is seeking proposals for three elements of the conference:

1.      Proposals for concurrent sessions related to Plenaries I and II;

2.      Proposals for working concurrent sessions related to Plenary III; and

3.      Proposals for posters to be exhibited throughout the conference.

We invite proposals by individuals or multiple presenters in all three categories, which are described more fully below. Proposals are due by October 23, 2009. Selections will be made and participants notified by November 9, 2009. All proposals should be emailed to [email protected] by the October 23 deadline. The planning committee welcomes questions; they can be addressed to any of the committee members listed at the end of this RFP.

An Unusual (and Uncomfortable) Appointments Question

From Steve Vladeck on http://prawfsblawg.blogs.com

One of the many joys of serving on a hiring committee (which I've been privileged enough to do three of my five years in the academy, including this year) is the chance to see familiar names (and, eventually, faces) among the massive stacks of resumes. It's always a treat to see the interesting work that old comrades have been doing -- only the more so when that work also catches the eye of other members of your committee.

Knowing lots of people in the pool, though, raises a potential problem that I hadn't encountered (or even anticipated) until recently: What should you do when you come across representations in a candidate's FAR form (or resume) that you know for a fact are either incorrect or at the very least seriously misleading? Some are easy enough to check (e.g., whether an article was co-authored; whether it was a student note; etc.). For others, though (e.g., employment information), what's obvious to me (e.g., that the candidate misrepresented the nature of their position, or the reason for termination, etc.) might be very difficult for those unfamiliar with the candidate to check, especially if that employer isn't one of their references.

So what's my responsibility in that instance? If other members of my committee want to consider that candidate, do I have a responsibility to tell them that I think the candidate is misrepresenting something? If the candidate doesn't grab our attention, do I just snicker to myself and move on? Has anyone encountered a similar problem before? 

Some Advice about Ignoring Advice about Collaborations

Michael Perlin from CRIMPROF BLOG

Many years ago, when I began teaching (I had litigated for 13 years prior to changing careers, and had written a good number of law review articles during those years), I received all sorts of well-meaning advice from colleagues (both at my own school and elsewhere) about what to do and what not to do as part of my pre-tenure years (being me, I proceeded to ignore almost all that advice, and I have never regretted it for a moment, but that’s another story). Much of the advice was predictable, and made sort of sense, given how tenure decisions are mostly made. But one piece of it flabbergasted me, and has remained stuck in my mind for years as an example of one of the many things wrong with the legal scholarship enterprise.

“Never write anything with a colleague,” I was warned, “because the tenure committee won’t be able to figure out what was yours and what was your colleague’s and, therefore, it won’t count.” The whole notion of what “counts” also struck me as bizarre (I was at the time engaged in writing a three-volume treatise in mental disability law, an area of the law in which there had never been a treatise, and was told blithely that it wouldn’t “count” because it was a book (well, three books), and “books don’t count.” I was also told that it was time for me to abandon writing in behavioral journals and cross-over “law and ...” journals, since they weren’t really law reviews and this they told me, you guessed it, “wouldn’t count.”

Continue reading "Guest Blogger Michael Perlin: Some Advice about Ignoring Advice about Collaborations "

Hold up with Obama appointments

The Waiting Is the Hardest Part Dawn Johnsen, nominated to head the Office of Legal Counsel, and Tom Perez, whom the president picked to lead the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, have been waiting for many months to be confirmed. Seven and five months, respectively. The last action on Johnsen's nomination occurred on March 19 and the last action for Perez on June 4. Both were placed on the executive calendar, but Republicans are obstructing the much-needed restoration of the DOJ’s role as a guardian of civil rights and liberties. Call your senators now and urge them to do all they can to help confirm Dawn Johnsen and Tom Perez. Call the U.S. Capitol Switchboard at (202)224-3121, ask to be connected with your senators’ offices, and tell them it is time to put an end to the partisan games. Read more on our Justice Watch blog.

L'shana Tova - a video for the Jewish New Year

A Soldier’s Voice Rediscovered Sign in to Recommend PAUL VITELLO Published: September 17, 2009 Like many veterans, Max Fuchs did not talk much about what he did in the war. His children knew he landed at Omaha Beach. Sometimes, they were allowed to feel the shrapnel still lodged in his chest. G. Paul Burnett/The New York Times Max Fuchs, 87, in his apartment on the Upper West Side. And once, he had told them, he sang as the cantor in a Jewish prayer service on the battlefield. On Oct. 29, 1944, at the edge of a fierce fight for control of the city of Aachen, Germany, a correspondent for NBC radio introduced the modest Sabbath service like this: “We bring you now a special broadcast of historic significance: The first Jewish religious service broadcast from Germany since the advent of Hitler.” Mr. Fuchs, now 87 and living on the Upper West Side, was 22 that day at Aachen. “I was just as much scared as anyone else,” he said in an interview in his Manhattan apartment. “But since I was the only one who could do it, I tried my best.” Well-known in its time, the battlefield service became lost in obscurity, where it might have remained except for an archivist’s chance find and then, fast forward, unlikely fame on YouTube — where the 1944 service has

read the rest here

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/18/nyregion/18cantor.html?_r=1&hp

drawn

Americans Like the U.S. Supreme Court, They Really Do

Vivia Chen

Considering the partisanship and mudslinging involved in approving a nominee to the U.S. Supreme Court, many readers might find it surprising that most Americans think the high court is doing a fine job, and that the Court is neither too liberal nor too conservative.

According to a just released Gallup poll, 61 percent of Americans approve of the way the Court handles its job -- "among the most positive ratings the court has received in the past decade," according to Gallup (the disapproval rate is 28 percent). As for political ideology, 50 percent of Americans describe the Court as "about right" (last year, 43 percent thought it was "about right").

What's the reason for all the love? Gallup says Americans feel "more positive about government in general." The polling organization adds that approval ratings for all three branches of government are "substantially higher today than they were a year ago, when President George W. Bush was still in office."

This article first appeared on The Am Law Daily blog on AmericanLawyer.com.

READ THE CLEA NEWSLETTER

The September, 2009 issue of the CLEA Newsletter has been published and is available on the CLEA Website, http://www.cleaweb.org, under Newsletters.

As previously announced, the CLEA Newsletter is now only published in electronic format and posted on the CLEA website.  No hard copies are mailed.

 

The next issue of the CLEA Newsletter will be published in February, 2010.  Please feel free to submit items for the newsletter to me throughout the year.  Thanks.

-Larry
Professor Larry R. Spain
Texas Tech University School of Law
1802 Hartford Avenue
Lubbock, Texas  79409-0004
(806) 742-3787 x227
(806) 742-4199 FAX
[email protected]

Sotomayor Rocks

HT Hunter of Justice

Justice Sotomayor + (actor) Esai Morales = Salsa!

From  benefit for the National Hispanic Foundation for the Arts:

New Book - Skills & Values: Legal Negotiating

LexisNexis is pleased to announce the availability of one of the first titles in our Skills & Values Series, Skills & Values: Legal Negotiating, by Charles B. Craver (George Washington University). As noted in the Preface:

This book is designed to demonstrate how individuals actually negotiate. It covers the different stages of the negotiation process, the various negotiation techniques people are likely to encounter, the impact of negotiator styles on bargaining interactions, the importance of nonverbal communication, the way in which gender-based stereotypes may affect bargaining encounters, the unique aspects of telephone and e-mail interactions, international business and human rights negotiations, multi-party interactions, ethical issues negotiators are likely to encounter, and mediation. It thus makes it easy for negotiation students to comprehend how bargaining interactions develop and to appreciate the different factors that affect those encounters.

Many of the chapters include references to materials that have been posted to a Web Course (powered by Blackboard) that was created for this book. We recently sent you a review copy of Skills & Values: Legal Negotiating. To access the online content, including the Teacher’s Manual and other support material:

• Go to the LexisNexis Law Schools Portal (www.lexisnexis.com/lawschool)
• Enter your LexisNexis Custom ID and Password (please contact 1-800-455-3947 if you misplaced your Password)
• Once on the home page, select “Web Courses” tab (towards the middle of the page)
• Click the “Access Web Courses” button
• Web Courses will open in a separate page
• Click on “Skills & Values” link
• Scroll down the list to find “Skills & Values Legal Negotiating”
• Click the “Enroll” button
• Enter the access code SVlegnegTM to access the Legal Negotiating course

 

A copy of the Instructor’s QuickGuide to LexisNexis Web Courses was included with the book shipment. Click here for the PDF version of the Instructor’s QuickGuide. If you plan to adopt this innovative approach to integrating skills-based training in your Legal Negotiating class, please contact Sean Caldwell ([email protected] / 513-721-2506) and he will customize the Skills & Values: Legal Negotiating Web Course for use in your class. Do not hesitate to let me know if there is anything I can do to facilitate your adoption of our materials.

JOBS: Suffolk

We at Suffolk will again be hiring at least one new Clinical Professor this season.  We are interested in any and all great candidates who would like to work at an exciting and yes, even fun, program.  Suffolk positions are quite attractive – we enjoy a clinical tenure track (voting exception on hiring and promotion of non-clinical tenure folks), relative pay equity with other tenure track hires, time equity (no summer case responsibilities and research grant availability), full scholarship support, and teaching opportunities outside the clinic context.  Even more than that, my colleagues are really a great group to learn from/with (I know – preposition violation!).

 

Although we will be looking broadly, the Clinical Programs Committee has indicated a specific interest in starting an Intellectual Property Clinic (to compliment our IP academic concentration) or a transactional clinical program.  We will be attending the AALS recruitment conference in November.

 

If you have any questions, please write or call me (617-305-1645 -- dir).  All formal applications should be sent to:

Prof. Charles Kindregan, Chair

Clinical Programs Committee

Suffolk University Law School

120 Tremont Street

Boston, MA  02108-4977

 

Jeffrey J. Pokorak

Professor and Director,

FROM THE CLEA NEWSLETTER ETHICS COLUMN: Paul Cain on Morality and Justice

Thinking About Ethics

The CLEA Legal Ethics Committee is pleased to present the third newsletter column of "Doing the Right Thing: An Analytical Model Examining the Interplay between Ethical Professional Conduct, Morality, and Justice," by Paul Cain, Managing Attorney, Northern Illinois University College of Law. We hope future columns will address some of the ethical issues we all confront in clinical legal education such as conflicts of interest, confidentiality, and competence. If you would like to suggest a topic or write a short column, please contact Professor Faith Mullen, Co-Chair CLEA Ethics Committee, at [email protected].

DOING THE RIGHT THING: AN ANALYTICAL MODEL EXAMINING THE INTERPLAY BETWEEN ETHICAL PROFESSIONAL CONDUCT, MORALITY, AND JUSTICE

Paul J. Cain*

"We cannot seek or attain health, wealth, learning, justice[,] or kindness in general. Action is always specific, concrete, individualized, [and] unique."1

John Dewey

This article summarizes an article that I had published at 10 T.M. COOLEY J. PRAC. & CLINICAL L. 149 (August 2008).2  The article explores the interplay between competing obligations and the difficulty in deciding the right thing to do.3 I propose an analytical model to help resolve these often difficult questions. The model uses a series of questions and related issues to determine the right decision in a methodical, well reasoned manner. In my article I apply the model to three scenarios in which difficult ethical and moral decisions had to be made in representing clients. The scenarios and the application of the model to them will not be discussed in this short article.

The first scenario discusses whether testifying before a grand jury and disclosing my deceased client's confidences was the right thing to do. The second scenario involves law students, whom I supervised, representing an elderly Middle-Eastern woman in political-asylum removal proceedings whose story did not seem credible but who was likely to be arrested and put to death if she was forced to return to her country. Students had to decide about evidence to present to the immigration court. The third scenario discusses a prosecutor's decision to deceive a murder suspect to get him to surrender to police. My article describes the analytical model, its components, and then discusses how the model's application would affect each decision when applied to each scenario.

The article starts with the premise that most attorneys and law students want to do the right thing. Contrary to our public image,4 and perhaps even our self-image within the legal community, most attorneys are not primarily interested in earning big bucks and trampling over adversaries.

READ THE REST HERE AT p. 7

Updated Legal Educator Blog Census

From our friends at the Tax Prof Blog:

Colin Miller (John Marshall) of our sister EvidenceProf Blog has updated his 2009 Legal Educator Blog Census:

• Blog/Blogger Statistics
• New Blogs/Bloggers
• Alphabetical Blog Listing
• Blogs by Law School:  A-M
• Blogs by Law School:  N-Z

There are 585 bloggers at U.S. law schools -- 62.4% men and 37.6% women. Here is the breakdown by U.S. News Tier:

• Tier #1:  39.0%
• Tier #2:  26.3%
• Tier #3:  13.3%
• Tier #4:  18.1%
• Unranked:  3.2% 

To read the rest of the piece (including the Top 25 blogging law schools), go to http://taxprof.typepad.com/taxprof_blog/2009/09/updated-.html

Law School Offers Little Immediate Benefit if You Don't Pass Bar, Study Finds

A new analysis of data on law-school graduates finds that those unable to pass a bar examination have tougher sledding early in their lives than does the average college graduate, despite tending to come out of college with better-than-average grades. Five to 10 years out of law school, they lag behind college graduates who never went to law school in terms of earnings, and trail well behind law-school graduates who did pass the bar in terms of earnings, employment stability, and even marriage and divorce rates. The good news for them is that they appear to bounce back financially in the latter half of their careers.

Report on Legal Education at the Crossroads III Conference

(cross posted on the Best Practices blog http://bestpracticeslegaled.albanylawblogs.org/)

Just back from a fantastic conference on assessment.  Check out the great program, including materials and eventually video of the sessions (keep checking the site) http://www.law.du.edu/index.php/assessment-conference/program.

Noting the patting self on the back aspect of the following, I must say, we had a fantastic Best Practices Players session.  Officially, it was called Incorporating Effective Formative Assessment Into Course Planning: A Demonstration and Toolbox.  [Materials]

But really, it was a Play in Three Acts, by Barbara Glesner Fines,  Carolyn Grose, Peter Joy, and Mary Lynch.

As the program described, the “workshop will provide attendees with the methodology and tools necessary to incorporate effective formative assessment into any course. The workshop will take the form of an interactive role play in which a faculty member who wants to incorporate formative assessment into a doctrinal course consults with faculty members who are familiar with both Educating Lawyers and Best Practices for Legal Education. Through the consultation, workshop attendees will be exposed to and involved in developing a toolkit that they can then use to incorporate formative assessment into their own courses. By focusing on the goals of the course (what is to be learned) and the goals of each assessment (how each assessment will evaluate whether students are learning what is being taught), the consultation will demonstrate how the teacher should structure the assessments to be criteria-referenced (focused on the learning outcomes) and not norm-referenced (based on how students perform relative to each other). The discussion will also highlight how the teacher can use the assessments to inform students of their level of professional development, how this process relates to their proficiency in the subject matter, and how formative assessments assist students in maximizing their learning. We will emphasize the points that formative assessments are feasible, there are multiple methods for assessing student learning throughout the semester, and faculty can ensure that summative assessments are also formative assessments.”

And that’s what we did, using a combination of highly dramatic and poignant skits that took place in various settings within the legal academy (faculty lounge, associate dean’s office, clinic workspace), and one-minute audience free writes centered around pointed questions from the Narrator (Barb Glesner-Fines).  Here, for this one Best Practices Player, anyway, were the primary take-aways: 

• One small step at a time — you don’t have to rework your entire course from start to finish THIS SEMESTER.  Just pick one thing and see how it goes.
• Find the joy — Mary Lynch discovered community theatre recently, and boy did it show in her dramatic portrayal of both Frustrated Teacher and Clinical Teacher.  We do what we do, or at least we started doing what we do, because we love it.  Let’s remember that, and reconnect with the fun parts of teaching.  Assessment should be fun!
• Collaboration among clinical faculty, doctrinal faculty, and administration is essential as we undertake these kinds of internal reforms — the right hand needs to know what the left hand is doing, and both hands need to support each other in what each is doing.
• There are lots of different ways to think about how to shift your thinking from that of an “activities designer” to that of an assessor, so you can pick the ways that work for you.
• You don’t have to reinvent the wheel constantly.  There are lots of resources and people doing this.  Check out the conference website, this blog, and the Center for Excellence in Law Teaching (at Albany) website http://www.albanylaw.edu/sub.php?navigation_id=1753. 

And now for some homework.  For those of you who weren’t at the session, here is what we had our “audience” do: 

Think of a course you are teaching or preparing to teach. 

Now, spend one minute writing your thoughts about your one goal for this course.  If your students leave your course having learned only one thing, what would it be; if you had only one day to teach this course, what would you teach?

Okay.  Stop writing.  Now, get another piece of paper.  Spend one minute writing about one thing you can do in that course to determine whether you have achieved that goal.  What exercise or activity or project can you use to assess whether your students have learned or are learning the one thing you want them to?

Have fun, and keep us posted

More on Recession Externships

Law Students Exiled to Externships

It used to be that unpaid externships were the ugly stepsister to highly paid summer associate programs.  But in this new economy, no more. According to a story in The National Law Journal (Hat tip to The Am Law Daily), externships -- unpaid, for-credit work opportunities -- are providing a path to hands on experience now that many law firms have canceled their internships. Now, law schools are encouraging students participate in externship programs to gain experience. For example, at UCLA school of law, 74 students completed externships in 2009, in contrast to just 41 in 2007.

With externships in demand, I hope that law schools are willing to be flexible in certifying externship programs. Several years back, I hoped to use a law student to work as an extern on a complex and somewhat high-profile (within the local community, anyway) civil rights case. The student would have had opportunities to observe depositions, summarize transcripts and assist with investigation and legal research.

Because the case was a long-shot... [MORE]

Chai Feldblum (Georgetown) to be nominated as EEOC Commissioner

FROM THE PRESS RELEASE:

President Obama announced his intent to nominate the following individuals today:

Chai R. Feldblum, Nominee for Commissioner, Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
Chai Feldblum is a Professor of Law at the Georgetown University Law Center where she has taught since 1991. She also founded the Law Center’s Federal Legislation and Administrative Clinic, a program designed to train students to become legislative lawyers.   Feldblum previously served as Legislative Counsel to the AIDS Project of the American Civil Liberties Union.  In this role, she developed legislation, analyzed policy on various AIDS-related issues, and played a leading role in the drafting of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 and, later as a law professor, in the passage of the ADA Amendments Act of 2008. She has also worked on advancing lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights and has been a leading expert on the Employment Nondiscrimination Act.  As Co-Director of Workplace Flexibility 2010, Feldblum has worked to advance flexible workplaces in a manner that works for employees and employers.  Feldblum clerked for Judge Frank Coffin and for Supreme Court Justice Harry A. Blackmun.  She received her J.D. from Harvard Law School and B.A. from Barnard College.
 

International Pro Bono Legal Specialist Positions

ABA ROLI is currently seeking experienced judges, attorneys, and law professors with a minimum of five years of relevant experience, a high level of energy and initiative, strong interpersonal skills, and expertise in the substantive areas required by the relevant position. International experience and foreign language skills are preferred, but not required.

All participants receive a generous support package. Click here to learn more about the program.

1. Access to justice and human rights
   • Jordan - Anti-Trafficking Specialist, 6-9 months NEW
2. Anti-corruption and public integrity
   • Liberia - Anti-Corruption Expert, 12 months
3. Criminal law reform and anti- human trafficking
   • Europe and Eurasia (TBD) - Criminal Law Legal Specialist, 12+ months
   • Liberia - Criminal Defense Expert, 6-12 months
   • Tajikistan - Criminal Law Legal Specialist, 6-12 months
   • Moldova - Criminal Law Legal Specialist, 12 months NEW
4. Women's rights
   • DRC - Gender Based Violence Specialist, 2 weeks
5. Judicial reform
   • Liberia - Judicial Reform Legal Specialist
   • Philippines - Judicial Reform/Anti-Corruption Specialist NEW
6. Legal education reform and civic education
   • Egypt - Continuing Legal Education Specialist
   • Jordan - Legal Education Specialist, 6-12 months
   • Kosovo - Legal Education Reform Specialist, 6-12 months
7. Legal profession reform
   • Armenia - Legal Profession Specialist, 12 months
8. Other
   • Burundi - Juvenile Justice Specialist, 3 months
   • Latin America/Caribbean, General Legal Specialists
   • Liberia - Juvenile Justice Experts, 1-3 months (4 positions)
   • Lebanon – Legal Aid Center Specialist, 1-3 months NEW

10 Must-See Movies for Law Students

from Legal Writing Prof Blog by legalwritingprofessors

If you made a list of ten movies that law students "must see," which movies would be on that list?  Make a few notes now and then see how your list compares to this one.

Hat tip to Amber Johnson

Externships: The New Economic Indicator? « Best Practices for Legal Education

Externships: The New Economic Indicator?
Posted on September 11, 2009 by Justin Myers

[From The National Law Journal]
The recession makes externships a sweeter deal for students
The lousy legal hiring market is encouraging unpaid student work, but deeper forces are also at play.

Emily Heller

September 7, 2009

Without summer associate programs to rely on, law students are turning to alternate ways of gaining practical experience and making connections that could lead to full-time employment.

Many students are doing externships to fill that need. They work, unpaid, for credit under the supervision of faculty and an on-site attorney at a government agency, nonprofit organization or sometimes a corporation. (By contrast, internships can be for credit or for pay.) American Bar Association rules prohibit law firm externships.

Once thought valuable but not essential, externships are gaining a new stature as students do everything they can to land a job. Demand for, and participation in, externships have increased significantly, according to law school administrators.

As the economy batters law students’ hopes for employment and law firms cut back or eliminate summer-associate programs, law schools are answering the criticism that they have done a poor job preparing law students for real legal work. Schools are revamping their programs, enlarging their focus to include many more opportunities for practical training. Externships are part of that picture.

Although significant changes are afoot, the way forward remains uncertain at law firms, where during the past 35 years more than half of all law graduates held their first jobs, according to the National Association for Law Placement.

JOBS: American tenure-track

American University Washington College of Law seeks applications for a tenure-track clinical faculty position.  Washington College of Law's in-house, "live-client" Clinical Program is nationally recognized for its leadership in scholarship, development of clinical methodology, contributions to increasing access to justice for under-served clients and breadth of offerings.  The Washington College of Law currently has nine live-client clinical offerings in the areas of community and economic development, criminal justice, disability, domestic violence, general practice, intellectual property, international human rights, taxation, and women and the law.  

 

(1) Minimum qualifications include a J.D. degree, three years’ experience as a lawyer, a commitment to clinical teaching, and a demonstration of scholarly interest in one or more fields of law.

 

American University Washington College of Law is committed to a diverse faculty, staff and student body and encourages the applications of women and minorities. American University is an EEO/AA employer.  Review of applications will begin shortly. Appointments will be for the 2010-2011 academic year.

 

All inquiries should be by mail; please do not contact committee members by phone. Although there is no formal deadline, we will begin interviewing candidates for tenure-track positions early in the fall, so interested persons are encouraged to apply as soon as possible. All applicants should submit a cover letter and resume to:                                   

 

Professor Angela Davis

Chair, Faculty Appointments Committee

American University

Washington College of Law

4801 Massachusetts Avenue, N.W.

Washington, D.C. 20016

 

or send e-mail with cover letter, resume, and other supporting material as attachments to [email protected]

JOBS: North Carolina Civil Clinic

Position Announcement

UNC Law School Faculty Clinical Position

 

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, School of Law invites applications for a fulltime faculty position beginning Fall 2010 in the UNC Law School Clinical Programs. This position is available on a tenure-track or tenured appointment, or fixed-term contract basis depending on the candidate's experience. The primary clinic position we hope to fill is for our Civil Clinic. The position will require supervising students in our in-house civil clinic, working on further development of the civil clinical programs, teaching the Civil Lawyering Process class to clinic students, and may also teach additional courses in the Law School. Notwithstanding the primary subject areas listed, we invite outstanding applicants with expertise in other clinical subject areas to apply for consideration. Applicants must have at least 2 years of practice experience and must be a member of the NC State Bar or must attain membership by examination or comity by the start of the school year.

Applicants should have distinguished academic records, relevant experience in the legal profession, and a record or the promise of achievement as a teacher. Applications will be accepted until the positions are filled. The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is an Equal Opportunity Employer. Applications may be sent to Ms. Alice Girod by email at [email protected] or by mail to Ms. Alice Girod, UNC-CH School of Law, 160 Ridge Road, Campus Box #3380, Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3380. Applications should include: a cover letter identifying the subject area or areas of interest, a current curriculum vitae, and contact information for 4 references. Confidential inquiries are welcome. Such inquiries may be made to Professor Charles E. Daye, Faculty Appointments Committee Chair –by mail: UNC School of Law, 160 Ridge Road, Campus Box #3380, Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3380; –by phone: 9199627004 or –by email: [email protected]. For more information about the UNC-CH School of Law, please visit our website: www.law.unc.edu

Only 13% of Wikipedia contributors are women!

Posted by Ann Bartow · on http://madisonian.net

This won’t surprise anybody who actually pays attention to the climate of the editing discussions on many wikipedia pages. This blog post notes:

According to the The Wall Street Journal, the survey took place in November of last year, with results being presented last week at a conference in Buenos Aires. A total of 53,888 respondents indicated that they were Wikipedia contributors, but only 6,814 of them were women.

The research also showed that women are less likely to read articles as well, with 31% of women and 69% of men reading entries, but not writing or editing them.

The linked WSJ article reports: “Among the reasons for not contributing, many respondents cited time constraints, satisfaction with just reading entries or simply not knowing how to edit the pages. One quarter, however, said they’re afraid of making a mistake “and getting ‘in trouble’ for it.” As I have noted before, many entries on feminism have been written or edited by people who are actively hostile toward feminists, but they prevail because they seem to have a lot of free time and the few feminists who challenge their actions experience a lot of targeted hostility. Thanks to Wikipedia, the Google search generated public face of feminism is contrived by misogynists.

And even seeming innocuous information can be controversial in wikiworld. I thought about editing the entry for Siva Vaidhyanathan, because he is important and special to me as a friend as well as a scholar, but take a look at the editing discussion associated with his entry - it’s an argument about whether his sports fandom is relevant to his biography. I think it is, but don’t have any interest in arguing about it. Siva gets no say in the matter, which seems ridiculous to me because he is in the best position to decide how important sports are to his public persona.

3rd Circuit Revives Gay Man's Title VII Suit

Shannon P. Duffy,  http://www.law.com

Although federal workplace discrimination laws don't cover sexual orientation discrimination, a federal appeals court has ruled that an effeminate gay man must be allowed to pursue a Title VII claim alleging that he was targeted for harassment because he failed to conform to "gender stereotypes."

In Prowel v. Wise Business Forms Inc., the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals found that in such cases, it is sometimes difficult to discern whether the harassment a worker suffered "was because of his homosexuality, his effeminacy, or both."

But a lower court erred, the appellate panel found, when it declared that plaintiff Brian Prowel's claim clearly fell on one side of the line, and that his sex discrimination claim was nothing more than "an artfully pleaded claim of sexual orientation discrimination."

Instead, the unanimous three-judge panel said, a jury should have decided the case because the evidence was "ambiguous on this dispositive question."

"The line between sexual orientation discrimination and discrimination 'because of sex' can be difficult to draw," U.S. Circuit Judge Thomas M. Hardiman wrote in an opinion joined by Judges D. Michael Fisher and Michael A. Chagares.

The ruling is a victory for attorney Katie R. Eyer of Salmanson Goldshaw, who argued the appeal for Equality Advocates, a Pennsylvania gay and lesbian civil rights organization.

"The court recognized that gay plaintiffs can prevail, if they prove their harassers were motivated in part by gender non-conformity -- even if those harassers were also motivated by sexual orientation," Eyer said. "Gay plaintiffs can no longer be held to a higher standard than everyone else."

Defense attorney Kurt A. Miller of Thorp Reed & Armstrong in Pittsburgh had urged the court to uphold U.S. District Judge Terrence McVerry's summary judgment dismissal of the case, arguing that a reversal would mean that every case of sexual orientation discrimination translates into a triable case of gender stereotyping discrimination.

Such a ruling, Miller argued, would contradict Congress' decision not to make sexual orientation discrimination cognizable under Title VII.

For the rest of the story, go to:  http://www.law.com/jsp/LawArticlePC.jsp?id=1202433449001

New NELP report: Violations of Employment and Labor Laws in America's Cities

Broken Laws, Unprotected Workers: Violations of Employment and Labor Laws in America's Cities by Annette Bernhardt, Ruth Milkman, Nik Theodore, Douglas Heckathorn, Mirabai Auer, James DeFilippis, Ana Luz Gonzalez, Victor Narro, Jason Perelshteyn, Diana Polson and Michael Spiller Last week, NELP joined with our partners the Center for Urban Economic Development at UIC and the UCLA Institute for Research on Labor and Employment to release Broken Laws, Unprotected Workers - a landmark study exposing systematic and routine violations of employment and labor laws in core sectors of the economy. We found that at the start of the 21st century, America's workplace laws are failing to protect our country's workers.  In industries ranging from construction and food manufacturing to restaurants, janitorial services and home health care, workers are enduring minimum wage and overtime violations, hazardous working conditions, discrimination, and retaliation for speaking up or trying to organize.  They have little recourse because of their need for work, especially during the recession. Until now, however, advocates and policy makers lacked representative and reliable data on the magnitude of the problem, the workers who are most affected, and the industries that are the biggest culprits. Click here to download the report and learn more about our findings. See also our op-ed in The Nation this weekend, editorials by the New York Times and the Washington Post on the study, and Steve Greenhouse's article in the Times.

SALT: Call for Panels and Papers

Teaching in a Transformative Era:

The Law School of the Future

Call for Panels and Papers

Society of American Law Teachers (SALT) Teaching Conference, in partnership with the Conference of Asian Pacific American Law Faculty (CAPALF)

www.saltlaw.org

Friday and Saturday, December 10-11, 2010 at the

William S. Richardson School of Law, Honolulu, Hawai'i

(CAPALF is planning additional events that will begin on Thursday, December 9, 2010. 

CAPALF will be sending out a separate call for papers.)Teaching in a Transformative Era: The Law School of the Future will examine the most pressing challenges law schools face in the 21^st century.

 In the midst of the nation's worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, law schools must stay relevant and incorporate a curriculum that keeps pace with recent macroeconomic and social changes. Law professors must address a new phase of corporate and collective responsibility as well as the increasing need for social and economic justice in struggling communities nationwide and globally.

 Law schools must improve the admission and graduation of lawyers from a broad range of racial and ethnic backgrounds who will be prepared to serve their communities in the wake of the current global economic crisis. They must also address rising student indebtedness without sacrificing quality.

 Because the conference coincides with the American Bar Association's review of law school accreditation standards, it provides an opportunity to examine structural issues such as erosion of tenure, evolution in status relationships among law faculty, and the broader tensions between accreditation standards and economic and social trends in America.

 This conference provides an opportunity to engage in broad, supportive discussions about teaching. We are seeking ideas for a range of sessions including panels and workshops that fit within the conference themes, and we encourage proposals from small groups of three or four as well as from individuals. If you are proposing a panel discussion, please note whether you would be open to an additional speaker. We welcome a variety of session formats from formal papers to more informal discussion topics.

Please send your proposals to Ngai Pindell ([email protected]) by January 15, 2010. We are currently seeking journal commitments for publication of conference papers.

Other members of the SALT Teaching Conference Committee include Raquel Aldana ([email protected]), Fabio Arcila ([email protected]), Elvia Arriola ([email protected]), Margaret Martin Barry ([email protected]), Patti Falk ([email protected]), Angela Onwuachi-Willig ([email protected]), and Aviam Soifer ([email protected]).

Please share information about the Teaching Conference with your colleagues, particularly new and junior faculty, who are not yet members of SALT. Visit www.saltlaw.org for additional details.

JOBS: DIRECTOR, SMALL BUSINESS CLINIC University of Cincinnati College of Law

The College of Law plans to launch a Small Business Clinic in August 2010 that will provide transactional legal services to small and emerging businesses in the Cincinnati metropolitan area. Law students working under the supervision of an experienced business transactions attorney will provide clients with transactional legal services such as forming the appropriate entity, reviewing leases, drafting and reviewing contracts, and conducting legal research on specific problems. The Small Business Clinic will provide valuable hands-on training to law students while offering legal services to the community. The Small Business Clinic will perform only transactional legal work and will not do any type of litigation.

Duties
The principal duties include (1) developing and directing the Small Business Clinic and (2) teaching the Entrepreneurship Law and Practice course that is a prerequisite for the clinic, but may also be taken by students who do not plan to enroll in the clinic itself. The clinical professor will also be expected to engage in outreach to other organizations interested in small business development.

Qualifications

Applicants must have a distinguished academic background, including a J.D. from an accredited law school, and must be licensed to practice law in Ohio or have the ability to become licensed in the state promptly. Applicants should have a minimum of five years of general transactional business law experience in a law firm, corporate legal department, or law school small business clinic and experience working with small and emerging businesses. In addition, a successful applicant should have excellent lawyering, communication (oral and written), and interpersonal skills. Experience in clinical teaching or training less experienced lawyers and working with low- income and diverse clients are plusses.

Another Reason to Use Formative Assessment: Smaller Chance of Being Sued!

Law student wins four-year case to have exam marks upgraded

Simon de Bruxelles, From The Times

A law student who refused to accept the results of her final examinations has won a four-year legal battle to have her marks upgraded.

Alice Clarke was given low marks in two assessments for her Bar Vocational Course that all lawyers have to pass to practise as a barrister.

She claimed that the low marks for her oral examinations in advanced criminal law and legal negotiation were because of disagreements with her tutors and asked Cardiff University to reassess them. When it refused, she pursued her claim through the High Court.

An independent assessor who listened to her performance in criminal law examination gave her 71 per cent instead of the 40 per cent that she originally received. The university was ordered to allow her to retake the negotiation test, which she passed with 62 per cent instead of 46 per cent.

In a written judgment Mr Justice Wyn Williams ordered that the revised results should be accepted as though she had passed when she sat the papers the first time.

Mrs Clarke, 43, a mother of two, studied law as a mature student after a career as a nurse. She said that the legal battle to have her results reassessed had been worth it even though it has cost her tens of thousands of pounds. She said: “I am very glad to have won but I am sad that I have lost four years of my career fighting this battle.

“The university only finally accepted I had passed in March, four years after I took the exams. It’s been a living nightmare but I am just so pleased the court has vindicated me.”

Mrs Clarke was determined to have the original results cancelled out after claiming that disagreements with tutors had led to her being marked down.

She said: “I was worried that barristers’ chambers wouldn’t take me on if they thought I’d failed the two papers at the first attempt.

“I decided to challenge it through the courts even though I knew it would cost me thousands of pounds. On a professional level it’s simply astonishing, on a human level it’s extraordinary the way I have been treated by the university. They banned me from taking a resit, they banned me from campus and they even began disciplinary proceedings against me.”

After graduating in law in 1998 Mrs Clarke carried on working as a nurse and bringing up her two children Sarah, now 12, and Aaron, 9, before taking the advanced law degree.

She was finally registered as a barrister in March and is hoping to find work representing people whose homes have been repossessed.

Mrs Clarke is waiting for a High Court hearing to decide who is responsible for the majority of costs in a case that she believes has legal fees of up to £400,000.

She said: “I don’t know the exact amount of my costs but they could be as much as £100,000. There have been eight hearings in the High Court but however much it cost me I was determined to fight to its conclusion.”

In his written judgment, Mr Justice Williams said: “I have reached the conclusion that the decision of the extenuating circumstance committee of June 30, 2005, to refuse the claimant’s application for extenuating circumstances relating to her negotiation assessment should be quashed.

“Unless any representation is made to the contrary, I propose also to quash the decision of the reconvened examination board of September 27, 2005, insofar as it relates to the claimant’s application for extenuating circumstances.”

Cardiff University said that it was considering the implications of the judgement:“The university is aware of the judgment handed down at the Royal Courts of Justice in London. At this stage, the university is considering the implications of this judgment in consultation with our legal advisers.

“It is of relevance that the university offered independent marking at a hearing as long ago as October 2006.

“Mrs Clarke only agreed to this after 18 months and three orders of court. This delay caused the court to order Mrs Clarke to pay towards the university’s costs.”