clinicians with not enough to do

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

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

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]

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]

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

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!

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

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

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]

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?

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

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

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.

 

New Teaching Resources from SALT

Hi all,

 

To support those interested in developing empirical scholarship about teaching and assessment issues, SALT's Committee on Issues in Legal Education has put together a list of potential social science collaborators.  The list contains the names of social science academics across the country who have expressed a willingness to collaborate with law professors who want to do empirical work on teaching and assessment but who do not have a social science background. 

 

Additionally, with the help of Washburn University Law School, SALT has developed an assessment listserv.  The listserv is a sounding board for those thinking about, or involved in, scholarship about teaching and assessment.  We read each others' work, answer questions about research design and implementation, and generally support each other in whatever way possible as we develop this area of scholarship. 

 

There is a link to both these resources on the SALT homepage: www.saltlaw.org.

 

Feel free to pass this notice along to other people listservs.  We are trying to spread the word about these resources.

 

Take care,

 

Andi Curcio

Professor of Law  [& Chair of SALT Cmte on Issues in Legal Education] Georgia State University College of Law

404 413 9157

[email protected]

NEWSLETTER DEADLINE

Two Weeks Until Newsletter Deadline

 

I'm sending another reminder to send information for the AALS Section on Clinical Legal Education fall 2009 newsletter.   The deadline for submissions is Monday, November 16.  Please send submissions by e-mail to [email protected]. 

Send:

1)information about the 2010 Annual Meeting and any events during that meeting

2)Section committee reports

3) information about your programs - cases, students, etc.

4)promotions, transfers, new hires, etc.

5)publications by clinicians

6)information from CLEA or other kindred organizations

7)information about conferences or meetings of interest to clinicians

8)announcements

9)jobs

10)Anything else of interest to clinicians

When possible, include a digital photo so we can attach faces to your names.

The newsletter is sent to everyone who is up-to-date in their dues in 2008 or 2009 so make sure your dues are paid (check the clinic database located at http://cgi2.www.law.umich.edu/_GCLE/Index.asp 

Please do NOT send items over three pages in length without checking with me; I reserve the right to cut anything that is too lengthy.  Please do not send long press releases - if you can, distill information so we can read about everyone's programs.

 

Seeking New Newsletter Editor

I am reproducing the announcement about seeking a new editor below; we have heard from a couple of people who might be interested, but if anyone else is interested this is a good time to let us know. 

 

I have been newsletter editor for over nine years and feel a need to step down.  The Section is developing an electronic communication platform and it would be great if someone with an interest in electronic communication might take over as newsletter editor.  If you are interested or willing to serve this need, please contact me (Kim O'Leary) or the Section chair, Carol Suzuki ([email protected]) to express your willingness to serve. 

 

Kimberly E. O'Leary
Thomas Cooley Law School
300 S. Capitol Ave.
Lansing, MI 48933
517-371-5140, x2626

GAO slides on the cost of law school and on diversity

from Poverty Law by Ezra Rosser

An interesting GAO “report,” really a collection of slides, some quite good, on law school cost and diversity: GAO, Higher Education: Issues Related to Law School Cost and Access, Oct. 2009.

It's Ranking Time Again -- Here's CLEA's Statement on the Issue

CLEA’S STATEMENT ON LAW SCHOOL CLINICAL PROGRAM RANKINGS

The Clinical Legal Education Association (CLEA) issues this statement because the US News & World Report ranking elections are upon us.  Many of those who receive ballots in their capacity as clinical directors or faculty members find this ranking process very uncomfortable. There are a number of problems with the ranking of clinical programs, not the least of which is that it pits us in competition with each other, when we as a group see ourselves on the same team in a shared struggle for social justice, equity, and improved legal education. Second, there are no articulated factors for ranking clinical programs, so to a degree the voting is a bit of a popularity contest.  Third, some schools unfairly suffer because they do not have the budget or the support of their administration to produce and mail clinic brochures, or to send their clinic faculty to annual conferences.

            While we might wish the rankings would disappear or hope for collective action, the USN&WR rankings are likely here to stay and this year's clinical program ballots will soon be sent out. So, what can we as faculty who teach clinics do?  CLEA, acting on the recommendation of its Rankings Committee (Michael Pinard, Bob Kuehn, Karen Lash, Carolyn Grose, Margaret Johnson, and Karen Tokarz), urges those ranking clinical programs to focus on key factors such as the range and quality of clinical curricular offerings available to students, the law school's security of position, academic freedom, and governance rights for faculty who teach clinics, and the extent to which the school has fulfilled the goal of diversity in hiring for clinical positions with long-term security.

            The five principles identified in the AALS Task Force on Clinicians in the Academy provide helpful guideposts for ranking.  That Taskforce Report sets forth five fundamental principles that are essential for every law school to recognize and apply: (1) to end the marginalization of clinical legal education within the academy; (2) to recognize that clinical legal education is vital to the academy's goal of ensuring that law students develop as effective thinkers and practitioners and are instilled with the ethical and social dimensions of the profession; (3) to provide for security in position and academic freedom for faculty who teach clinics; (4) to provide compensation and resources for faculty who teach clinics equal to those received by non-clinical faculty so that those who teach clinics may fulfill the multi-faceted requirements of their unique positions and so that schools may recruit and retain excellent educators and develop outstanding clinical programs; and (5) to provide equal governance rights for faculty who teach clinics to ensure that the legal academy meets its societal obligation to educate for the professional development of the whole student, develops curricula that is comprehensive, integrated, innovative and relevant, and secures clinical legal education's indispensable role within the academy. 

            Beyond the issue of how to handle this year's ballots, CLEA believes that the issue of clinical program rankings and of infusing clinical education more into the equation (and balloting) for overall school rankings are topics worthy of continued conversation and strategizing and welcomes further ideas and input on these issues.

"Grammar Girl"

Legal Writing Prof Blog

Here's another website you might be interested in - "Grammar Girl"

Grammar Girl is blog that "provides short, friendly tips to improve your writing. Covering the grammar rules and word choice guidelines that can confound even the best writers, Grammar Girl makes complex grammar questions simple with memory tricks to help you recall and apply those troublesome grammar rules. Whether English is your first language or second language, Grammar Girl’s punctuation, style, and business tips will make you a better and more successful writer."

You can sign up for her newsletter or just search through the archive of past topics like this one on the ever pesky "active versus passive voice."

Is the US News to Blame for the Increased Cost of a Legal Education?

from Law School Headlines by admin

For better or worse — and many law professors say for worse — the U.S. News and World Report rankings carry big weight with law school applicants.

But that emphasis ends up costing students more.

According to a report issued by the Government Accountability Office (embedded below), “the move to a more hand-on, resource-intensive approach to legal education and competition among schools for higher rankings appear to be the main factors driving the cost of law school,” the report says.

Specific actions schools take to increase rankings include (from pgs. 19-20):

* Strive for lower student/professor ratios
* Offer clinics and diverse elective courses
* Attract top faculty members, who require higher salaries

These are of course good things, but, since 1994, tuition has increased 7.2% for in-state public universities and 3.8% for private universities. In 2008, the report says, six public law schools reported resident tuition and fees of more than $30,000.

As the ABA Journal notes, the average debt for graduates of public law schools rose from $50,000 to $71,436. For private law schools, the average debt has risen from $75,000 in 2001-02 to $91,506 in 2007-08.

[Business Insider]

Uniform Bar Exam Drawing Closer to Reality

States' adoption of the test reflects the legal profession?s nationalization

Leigh Jones

The National Law Journal

It could mark one of the biggest changes for lawyers joining the profession since the first U.S. bar exam was given in Delaware in 1763 -- a single bar exam aimed at standardizing attorney credentials nationwide.

Next year, at least 10 states are expected to switch to the so-called Uniform Bar Exam, and 22 other jurisdictions are positioned to adopt the test in the next few years. The test, developed by the National Conference of Bar Examiners, will allow law school graduates to transport their bar scores across state lines without re-taking exams. And backers say a uniform exam will improve the quality of bar exams, particularly in states with small test-development budgets.

The test still has big hurdles to overcome. Several of the biggest legal markets have yet to sign on: New York, California, the District of Columbia, Florida, Illinois and Texas so far have taken a pass. Some worry the test will give short shrift to important state law concepts. Others have scheduling problems and scoring concerns. And the test puts a great deal of power in the hands of the NCBE, which gives some state-level bar officials pause.

Even so, the fact that several states have accepted one test may mean a major shift for the profession. Individual states have doggedly clung to their autonomy in testing lawyers, and this would mean giving up that power. "Roughly 10" states have indicated that they will give the uniform test by 2011, said Erica Moeser, president of the NCBE, though she wouldn't provide specifics on which states will actually sign on. However, officials in Colorado, Minnesota and Missouri have said they are considering the test. Next month, representatives from the states that will be among the first adopting the test will gather in Phoenix to discuss late-stage details of implementing the exam.

"It's got to start somewhere, and it's happening," said John J. McAlary, executive director of the New York State Board of Law Examiners. New York, which administers some 15,000 bar examinations each year, is considering the uniform exam. That said, McAlary doesn't expect the state to make a move anytime soon. "There are significant challenges with it," he said. New York will not send representatives to next month's meeting.

To read the rest of this piece, go to http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1202434472731&rss=newswire

Unfortunate Marketing

Undignified Marketing Alert

from Feminist Law Professors by Bridget Crawford

The image at left is taken from the Northeastern University School of Law publicity that landed today in my faculty mailbox.  The text in the tan box in the upper left corner reads, “Faculty and students advocate together for those too-often underrepresented in the justice system.” 

That’s a nice message.

A woman sitting on the floor gazing upwards adoringly at a professor is not a nice message. 

It is as if the school is saying, “At Northeastern, our professors tower over all others.  Here, women sit on the floor and beam at their older male professors.  We like that image so much we wanted to share it with the world.  It represents a typical interaction at our school.”

Who suggested this shot?  Why did the faculty member agree to it?  Why didn’t the students object?  Why didn’t the Marketing/Communications staff reject it?  Hey, Northeastern, you can do better.

-Bridget Crawford

Is Tenure Conservative?

October 20, 2009

The ultimate in job security discourages the challenging, innovative scholarship it was designed to protect, writes Mark Kingwell.

Is the institution of tenure supportable? No, but not for the reasons you may think. Routine complaints about iron-clad job security and lack of accountability miss the point. But so do pleas for academic freedom from outside (and largely notional) political forces. The real danger of tenure is that it threatens academic freedom instead of protecting it.

The issue is now more acute than ever because financial stresses have created a situation in which normal academic job competition and jockeying for position have been raised to a fever pitch, a desperate scramble among scores of talented people for a slice of the shrinking academic pie. At the same time, public awareness of the costs of maintaining university professors has underlined a significant social change: Taxpayers no longer believe anyone, however brilliant or productive, should get a lifetime guarantee of job security. And they suspect, rightly, that many of those enjoying that privilege may not be so brilliant or productive.

But, while some professors now privately admit an opposition to tenure, many more continue to view it as their rightful inheritance, equal parts compensation for the uncertainties of graduate school and mark of professional advancement in a system where incremental rises in status are as important as pips on the collar of a subaltern. No tenured professor has any reason to criticize his gravy train. Nor does any tenure-track junior professor, sweating out the first few years of professional review.

» View full article

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

From our friends at the Best Practices Blog:

When in North Dartmouth (Massachusetts), go with the flow, and be creative.  That’s what Carrie and Mary did today, Oct. 15,  at their Best Practices presentation at Southern New England School of Law (SNESL).  They adjusted to a colossal late-night technological glitch (Mary’s laptop crashing prior to sending Carrie the slides!) without a hitch (or at least without their audience noticing the hitch).  None of us could tell that they had finished their preparation in the car on the way from Connecticut to North Dartmouth! 

While there was a bit of “preaching to the converted” with Justine Dunlap’s and my presence, several participants had never heard of the BP movement in advance of the meeting, and others had only engaged with it once, a couple of summers ago at an informal gathering at my house.  The level of participation was impressive, and included full-time faculty along with writing faculty, adjuncts, and graduate clinical fellows.  In addition, the participants’ willingness to engage the presenters’ requests — by breaking-off into small groups to address questions Carrie and Mary assigned us – indicated, may I suggest, a willingness to work both individually and cooperatively to improve how we do what we do at SNESL.  The questions Carrie and Mary asked us to address in our small groups included the following: (1) where people thought SNESL was, within the context of the BP movement, (2) what SNESL does well, and (3) where we can improve.  What was encouraging, given that the group has on the whole been working together for many years, was the level of enthusiasm in the small groups; it was difficult for our leaders to get us to break out of the small groups and return to the larger group to share our findings.  But when we did, there were some clear themes.

While I can’t judge the level of enthusiasm with which the participants approached the event, it was clear that, while it lasted nearly 2 hours, several participants would have stayed longer had the room not been overtaken by students coming in to take a midterm (which, our presenters noted, was a positive sign, given that assessments were being done at mid-semester!).

 I’m writing at the end of this energizing day, before receiving the presenters’ feedback: a summary of both the responses to the small-group questions and anonymous responses we were encouraged to offer.  It may, then, be too soon to judge whether we at SNESL will use today as our starting point for a serious commitment to the Best Practices Movement.  But I do feel confident that, whether or not the group as a whole moves together into the Movement, some of us within the group will surely address our self-identified “could be improved” aspects (assessment being frequently mentioned) and, through that work, join with the Movement towards the future of legal education.

The Student Centererd Law School

Student Centered

from PrawfsBlawg by laborprof lpb

My University prides itself on being “student centered”.  For years, I taught here without giving much thought to the phrase.  I thought it was pretty meaningless – I mean, aren’t all schools student centered?

Well, no.  I learned, when I was participating in the University 10-year plan, that student centered meant, to our University anyway, (1) a commitment to small class sizes, and (2) in response to any issue, always asking first: “what solution would most benefit students?”.

Many law schools seem very faculty centered.  We teach three or (gasp!) four courses a year, meaning either that student tuition must be raised to hire more of us or that schools must outsource much of the teaching load to adjuncts.  We zealously guard a tenure system that, for too many of us, translates not into a freedom to engage in academic discourse, but into a freedom from engaging in academic discourse.  We jealously guard this tenure system from encroachment by skills teachers and clinicians and writing teachers, notwithstanding the fact that these teachers are teaching students the material often most directly relevant to the students’ future law practice.  (As an aside, I’ve noticed that many of the tenured folks who argue most vociferously against tenure for non-doctrinal teachers are also the weakest links in teaching, scholarship, and service – they need tenure to be exclusive to maintain their own stature, because their stature isn’t so impressive on merit alone.)

read the rest here

Rick Bales

My University prides itself on being “student centered”.  For years, I taught here without giving much thought to the phrase.  I thought it was pretty meaningless – I mean, aren’t all schools student centered?

Well, no.  I learned, when I was participating in the University 10-year plan, that student centered meant, to our University anyway, (1) a commitment to small class sizes, and (2) in response to any issue, always asking first: “what solution would most benefit students?”.

Many law schools seem very faculty centered.  We teach three or (gasp!) four courses a year, meaning either that student tuition must be raised to hire more of us or that schools must outsource much of the teaching load to adjuncts.  We zealously guard a tenure system that, for too many of us, translates not into a freedom to engage in academic discourse, but into a freedom from engaging in academic discourse.  We jealously guard this tenure system from encroachment by skills teachers and clinicians and writing teachers, notwithstanding the fact that these teachers are teaching students the material often most directly relevant to the students’ future law practice.  (As an aside, I’ve noticed that many of the tenured folks who argue most vociferously against tenure for non-doctrinal teachers are also the weakest links in teaching, scholarship, and service – they need tenure to be exclusive to maintain their own stature, because their stature isn’t so impressive on merit alone.)

read the rest here

Rick Bales

teaching legal drafting and transactional skills

a gold mine for teaching legal drafting and transactional skills:  FROM LEGAL WRITING PROF BLOG

Have you started thinking about next spring's courses? Is your school looking for ideas for incorporating more skills education into the legal education curriculum? Whether you teach (or want to teach) an entire course on drafting, or teach drafting in connection with a clinical or doctrinal course, or whether your basic legal writing curriculum includes some drafting components, you need to get your hands on a special issue of Transactions, the Tennessee Journal of Business, Teaching Drafting and Transactional Skills: The Basics and Beyond, 2009 Transactions 1 (click preceding link to download the entire issue). The issue represents proceedings of the May 2008 conference hosted by Emory
University School of Law's Center for Transactional Law and Practice, “Teaching Drafting and Transactional Skills—The Basics and Beyond.”

Devoted in its entirety to the teaching of drafting and transactional skills, the issue features the following presentations by experts in the field. There is something here for everybody.

• George W. Kuney, Introduction to the Special Report, 2009 Transactions 1.
• Tina L. Stark, Conference Introduction: My Fantasy Curriculum & Other Almost Random Thoughts, 2009 Transactions 3. 
• Robert C. Illig, Therese H. Maynard, Cherie O. Taylor & Irene Kosturakis, Teaching Transactional Skills through Simulations in Upper-Level Courses: Three Exemplars, 2009 Transactions 15.
• Wayne Schiess, Craig Smith, Pamela Wilkins, Danton Berube & Irene Segal Ayers, Teaching Transactional Skills in First-Year Writing Courses, 2009 Transactions 53.
• Anthony J. Luppino, George W. Kuney & Jamison Wilcox, Pedagogic Techniques: Multi-Disciplinary Courses, Annotated Document Review, Collaborative Work & Large Groups, 2009 Transactions 73.
• Praveen Kosuri, Daniel Jaffe, Jeff Leslie & James F. Hogg, You Too Can Create a Simulation Exercise (or Even a Course), 2009 Transactions 101.
• Travis Dale Jones, Rosemary Dillon, Lisa Penland & Sue Payne, How to Create Contract Drafting Exercises, 2009 Transactions 127.
• Tina L. Stark & George W. Kuney, Transactional Skills Training: Contract Drafting--the Basics, 2009 Transactions 139.
• Phillip Knott, Thinking Like a Lawyer: An English Interpretation, 2009 Transactions 179. 
• Tracy L. McGaugh, Pedagogic Techniques: Using Collaborative Writing Technology to Teach Contract Drafting, 2009 Transactions 189. 
• Serge Martinez & Robert Statchen, Teaching Transactional Skills in a Clinic, 2009 Transactions 203.
• Susan M. Chesler, Karen Sneddon, Elizabeth August & Mark Need, Teaching Multiple Skills in Drafting & Simulation Courses, 2009 Transactions 221.
• Scott J. Burnham, Larry A. DiMatteo, Kenneth A. Adams & J. Lyn Entrikin Goering, Transactional Skills Training: Contract Drafting--Beyond the Basics, 2009 Transactions 253.
• Robin A. Boyle, David Epstein & Sue Payne, How to Critique & Grade Contract Drafting Assignments, 2009 Transactions 297.
• Christina L. Kunz, Debra Pogrund Stark, Richard K. Neumann, Jr. & Cynthia M. Adams, Incorporating Transactional Skills Training into First-Year Doctrinal Courses, 2009 Transactions 331.
• Douglas Godfrey, Charles Fox & Edward C. Harris, Transactional Skills Training: All about Due Diligence, 2009 Transactions 357.
• Rachel Arnow-Richman, Lisa Bliss, Sylvia B. Caley & Michael A. Woronoff, Teaching Transactional Skills in Upper-Level Doctrinal Courses: Three Exemplars, 2009 Transactions 367.
• Leslie Larkin Cooney, Judith Karp, Maggie Finnerty & Howard E. Katz, More Pedagogic Techniques: Online Exercises & Integrating Skills into Different Kinds of Courses, 2009 Transactions 389.
• Charles R. Beaudrot, Jr., Transactional Skills Training: Opinion Letters, 2009 Transactions 405.

Mass. Explores the Public Option for a Law School

While Congress debates "the public option" as a component of health care reform, Massachusetts is about to have a public option debate of its own. Only in this case, the debate is over whether the state should open a public law school as part of the University of Massachusetts.

Massachusetts is one of just six states without a public law school. That would change under the plan UMass officials announced yesterday. It 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 earlier this week to donate to UMass its campus and assets, valued at $22.6 million.

The law school's dean, Robert V. Ward Jr., told the Boston Business Journal that the resulting school would take on the UMass name and the current school would cease to exist. Although details would have to be worked out, Ward assumed the law school's existing employees, including himself, would move over to UMass.

Still, in a state that already has nine law schools... [MORE]

Horn Tooting from and by the Brooklyn Law School Blogistas

Attached is the first edition of the Brooklyn Law School clinic newsletter.  Usually, I resist tooting our horn but  I totally missed the CLEA newsletter deadline. 

 

Our clinical students and faculty are doing wonderfully interesting, diverse and useful work so I’m taking the opportunity to brag about them.  Also, in recent years, as a complement to our terrific in-house clinics, we have been developing high quality partnerships with public agencies, non-profits, and other pro bono projects in which our students are getting “in-house” experiences due to the dedication of the lawyers in these offices.  These partnerships allow us to extend the range of our offerings into many new areas.

 

I hope you enjoy reading this.  Check out our smiling faces in the nice pictures (thank goodness for photo shop).

 

Download FINAL Clinics Newsletter

 

See you all soon,  cheers to everyone.  Stacy

 

Scores over Internships in Law School Admissions

Survey Says: “Law schools may favor scores over internships”

from Law School Headlines by admin

For law school applicants, internship experience may not be as advantageous as they believe, according to a recent survey conducted by a national test prep company.

Kaplan Test Prep and Admissions recently released a survey showing that 60 percent of law school admission officials say that applicants who have law-related internship experience have no advantage over those who do not.

Bill Griner, a law school advisement counselor with Kaplan Test Prep and Admissions, said the Law School Admission Test has taken on greater importance than any other admission criteria.

“The LSAT score is more [important] than GPA and grades combined,” Griner said. “The four years that you spend in undergraduate school is less important than the four-hour test you have to take to get into law school. I’m not sure why that is, but it’s the truth.”

The survey was taken by 152 admission officers at different law schools. A fifth of admission officers surveyed said the LSAT should be changed to help better evaluate applicants.

[Daily Texan]

Uniform bar examination drawing closer to reality

National Law Journal:

The change reflects the nationalization of the legal profession.

Leigh Jones

October 12, 2009

It could mark one of the biggest changes for lawyers joining the profession since the first U.S. bar exam was given in Delaware in 1763 — a single bar exam aimed at standardizing attorney credentials nationwide.

Next year, at least 10 states are expected to switch to the so-called Uniform Bar Exam, and 22 other jurisdictions are positioned to adopt the test in the next few years. The test, developed by the National Conference of Bar Examiners (NCBE), will allow law school graduates to transport their bar scores across state lines without re-taking exams. And backers say a uniform exam will improve the quality of bar exams, particularly in states with small test-development budgets.

The test still has big hurdles to overcome. Several of the biggest legal markets have yet to sign on: New York, California, the District of Columbia, Florida, Illinois and Texas so far have taken a pass. Some worry the test will give short shrift to important state law concepts. Others have scheduling problems and scoring concerns. And the test puts a great deal of power in the hands of the NCBE, which gives some state-level bar officials pause.

Even so, the fact that several states have accepted one test may mean a major shift for the profession. Individual states have doggedly clung to their autonomy in testing lawyers, and this would mean giving up that power. "Roughly 10" states have indicated that they will give the uniform test by 2011, said Erica Moeser, president of the NCBE, though she wouldn't provide specifics on which states will actually sign on. However, officials in Colorado, Minnesota and Missouri have said they are considering the test. Next month, representatives from the states that will be among the first adopting the test will gather in Phoenix to discuss late-stage details of implementing the exam.

read the rest here

The Millennial Muddle

From the Chronicle:

October 11, 2009

The Millennial Muddle

How stereotyping students became a thriving industry and a bundle of contradictions

By Eric Hoover

Kids these days. Just look at them. They've got those headphones in their ears and a gadget in every hand. They speak in tongues and text in code. They wear flip-flops everywhere. Does anyone really understand them?

Only some people do, or so it seems. They are experts who have earned advanced degrees, dissected data, and published books. If the minds of college students are a maze, these specialists sell maps.

Ask them to explain today's teenagers and twentysomethings. Invite them to your campus to describe this generation's traits. Just make sure that they don't all show up at the same time. They would argue, contradict one another, and leave you more baffled than ever.

Figuring out young people has always been a chore, but today it's also an industry. Colleges and corporations pay experts big bucks to help them understand the fresh-faced hordes that pack the nation's dorms and office buildings. As in any business, there's variety as well as competition. One speaker will describe youngsters as the brightest bunch of do-gooders in modern history. Another will call them self-involved knuckleheads. Depending on the prediction, this generation either will save the planet, one soup kitchen at a time, or crash-land on a lonely moon where nobody ever reads.

Related Content

• A List of 51 Generational Labels Over the Years
• Commentary: Teachers Must Look Beyond Generational Stereotypes

Everyone in higher education has pondered "the Millennials," people born between 1982 and 2004 or thereabouts (the years themselves are a subject of debate). Ever since the term went prime time about a decade ago, a zillion words have been written about who Millennials are, how they think, and why they always _______________. In short, Millennials talk is contagious.

READ THE REST HERE

More comments on ABA experiential learning standards

Submitted by Bob Seibel, Karen Tokarz and Peggy Maisel

Learning Outcomes Subcommittee of the American Bar Association Section of Legal Education and Admission to the Bar's Standards Review Committee

Dear Subcommittee members,

We understand that there is draft language under consideration for amended accreditation standard 302 (c) as follows:

(c) A law school shall offer/require every student substantial opportunities for at least one

learning experience in live-client clinics, field placements, simulations or other real-life

practice experiences, appropriately supervised and designed to encourage reflection by

students on their experiences and on the values and responsibilities of the legal profession,

and the development of one's ability to assess his or her performance and level of

competence.

We believe that the language should require every student to have at least one real life lawyering experience, and that simulations do not provide a comparable learning experience.

Each of us has taught classroom, simulation, and clinical courses for more than 25 years. Professors Seibel and Tokarz are founding members and past presidents of the Clinical Legal Education Association. Tokarz also is past chair of the AALS Section on Legal Education, past member of the ABA Standards Review Committee, and past member of the ABA Accreditation Committee. Professor Maisel is a Board member of the Society of American Law Teachers.

We are currently drafting a law review article that will address fully the reasons why we believe that every law student should be required to enroll in a course in which they perform in the role of a lawyer in real life situations before graduating from law school in order to be prepared as competent, ethical practitioners. We will share with you here briefly some of the points that we will elaborate on more fully in the article.

First, as many observers and critics of the current state of most law school programs have noted, the weakest parts of law school curricula generally are those relating to professional skills and values. We believe that the only effective way to inculcate a fundamental understanding of the values of the profession is through actual participation and close observation of lawyers engaging in and meeting the demands of real legal work. Most often this learning occurs in the context of client representation, but might also occur in judicial chambers, legislative and administrative government offices, or even in non-government organizations that address policy issues related to the application of law. The key learning dynamic is that the student assumes the role of a lawyer in circumstances where the choices and decisions have real consequences, and then engages in guided reflection on those situations. This requires two essential activities—addressing real problems and reflecting. A well structured law school course would require reflection in ways that might not occur during paid internships, volunteer activities, or even post-graduation work experiences.

Second, in addition to experiencing professional values in a real life setting before graduating, each student should learn explicitly about ways to learn effectively from experience. This skill set will enable lifelong learning from experience and substantially improve the quality of legal services delivered by these future lawyers. It also is likely to improve the quality of professional life experienced by students who have been so trained. A well structured law school course requires reflection and involves a faculty member who teaches students to learn effectively from their experiences.

Third, although professional skills may be taught and practiced in simulation courses and settings, the ability to perform them effectively in real life situations is a very different learning experience. Anyone who has worked with clients and tried cases can attest to the difficult transition that occurs for both lawyers and witnesses when shifting from practice or rehearsal to the real world of a courtroom. The same occurs with interviewing, counseling, and other fundamental lawyering skills.

Fourth, most of law school doctrinal (and simulation) courses involve the application of law to pre-set facts. Although some challenge can be added by varying the facts through hypotheticals in discussions, or through gradually revealing facts in simulations, the presentation of legal issues in the full context of real life pressures and considerations simply cannot be simulated. Law students need to comprehend and understand how to evaluate factual information and identify legal issues, and how to use their knowledge of law to guide the search for additional facts that may be relevant. They also need to understand that for clients and (even societal institutions) the resolution of a legal problem cannot be done without consideration of the myriad of factors that form the context of the problem.

We strongly believe that the most effective way for a law school to ensure that these essential learning goals are accomplished is through a requirement that every law student engage in at least one real life lawyering course experience before graduation. We do not mean to suggest that simulations and other hybrid course experiences are not valuable. Indeed, we would say that ideally a student should have some such experience as a pre-requisite to real lawyering experience, but they are not substitutes.

Thank you for your consideration of our views.

Respectfully,

Robert F. Seibel

Visiting Professor

California Western School of Law

Karen Tokarz

Charles Nagel Professor of Public Interest Law & Public Service

Washington University School of Law

Peggy Maisel

Associate Professor and Director of the Clinical Program

Florida International University College

Cut Back in Part Time Programs

This was predictable: Law Schools Start Cutting Back on Part-Time Programs Now that US News Factors Them In

from Brian Leiter's Law School Reports by Brian Leiter

In the first instance,that's what George Washington is doing, whose U.S. News travails we noted last Spring.  True to form, the WSJ journalist fails to note that part of the problem is that journalists report the U.S. News ranking as though it constitutes news.  If the journalists ignored U.S. News, or treated it as the misleading farce it has sadly become, then the law schools would find it much easier to pay it no mind either.

More on Apprenticeships

Yet another employer predicts major changes in how new grads are trained and hired

click here for the whole post

from Legal Writing Prof Blog by legalwritingprofessors

As if there's any doubt that the legal marketplace is undergoing fundamental change, yet another BigLaw hiring partner is endorsing an "apprenticeship" model that requires new grads to get some practical experience before they are ready for prime-time. As the...

As if there's any doubt that the legal marketplace is undergoing fundamental change, yet another BigLaw hiring partner is endorsing an "apprenticeship" model that requires new grads to get some practical experience before they are ready for prime-time. As the...

and CLEA's comments to the ABA, plus CLEA news

First and foremost, CLEA submitted comments on the current proposal being considered by the ABA Standards Review Committee.  Claudia Angelos and I will be attending the forthcoming Committee meeting in Chicago.  You can read CLEA’s comments here: http://www.abanet.org/legaled/committees/Standards%20Review%20documents/Comments%20of%20CLEA%20on%20September%202009%20Outcome%20Measures%20Subcommittee%20Document%20-%20October%202,%202009.pdf   Special thanks for the long hours put in by the primary drafting committee of Ian Weinstein, Alex Scherr and Claudia Angelos, and vital input from the Outcomes Measures Committee and more than half of the former CLEA Presidents.  We are also working on other standards issues, including security of position matters.  If you would like to get involved in future work on CLEA’s very important standards advocacy process, please get in touch! 

 

Second, CLEA is looking for volunteers to work on the contest for the updated CLEA Logo (for those of you who love the old logo, there will be a vote with an option to retain the old logo…or replace/amend it) as well as the CLEA Creative Writing (etc.) Contest.  Please email me if you are interested!

 

Finally, there will be a CLEA membership meeting at the AALS Annual Meeting in New Orleans on Saturday morning at 7:30, location TBA.  Please mark your calendars and stay tuned

CUNY Law School Moving!

from Law School Headlines by admin

A new, centrally located home for CUNY Law School has been approved by The City University of New York’s Board of Trustees, a move that will give the School nearly 70,000 additional square feet of space, enable it to offer a new, part-time program, and situate it within walking distance of numerous city subway and bus lines, the Long Island Rail Road, and the New York State Supreme Court building in Long Island City.

Under action approved by the Board, CUNY will own a condominium interest in a 14-story environmentally green building at historic Court Square. The 26-year-old Law School, currently in Flushing near Queens College, will be relocated to the first six floors, and Citigroup will retain ownership of the remainder of the building. The Board’s action follows a competitive request for proposal process which led to the identification of the site.

Served by seven subway lines, seven bus lines, the LIRR and within minutes of midtown Manhattan, the new convenient location will expand accessibility for current and prospective students drawn to CUNY Law’s high academic quality, nationally recognized clinical training, and public service mission. Additionally, the space already contains classrooms previously used for staff training, as well as smart technology and study areas. And the larger space will enable the Law School to expand opportunities with a new part-time program.

“The CUNY Law School is already soaring as a result of the exemplary leadership of Dean Michelle J. Anderson and its dedicated faculty, staff and students,” said Chancellor Matthew Goldstein. “This new facility will assure that CUNY Law School is marvelously positioned to achieve new heights, both academically and in fulfillment of its vital public service mission. I want to especially thank Governor Paterson, the New York State Legislature and Queens County elected officials for their longstanding support of CUNY Law School, the only public law school in New York City dedicated to public service and the public interest.”

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.

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

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)

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

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?