"After decades of taking a back seat to doctrine, lawyering skills have lately become the star of the legal education reform movement. Few law schools continue to question whether essential lawyering skills such as legal writing, research, and advocacy deserve a prominent place in the curriculum. Yet law schools continue to struggle with an artificial split between "doctrinal" courses and "skills" courses-a split that ignores best practices and undermines student learning. In this book, which includes an Introduction by Sophie Sparrow, more than twenty law professors who have figured out how to bridge the gap show why integrating skills into traditional doctrinal courses is crucial to student learning and offer proven strategies for how to do it"--
This book is for instructors of Statutory Interpretation and related courses who want to introduce practical lawyering skills into the doctrinal curriculum. It is also comparatively inexpensive for students. Much like any law school case book, Statutory Interpretation: A Practical Lawyering Course covers the leading cases; but it also offers much more. For example, it includes: interpretive exercises to concretize lessons and to help students to self-assess their learning; legislative negotiation and drafting exercises to give students practical experience and a deeper understanding of the complexities of the legislative process; lawyers' briefs and case documents to help students understand how cases and arguments are put together; case files and brief-writing exercises to teach students to craft arguments based on their doctrinal studies; exercises that require students to problem-solve, prompting them to think strategically; a mix of heavily-edited, lightly-edited, and unedited cases to help students prepare to work in the real world; issues and questions for students to focus on as they read cases and other materials.
The Challenge of Educating Lawyers "This volume, under the presidency of Lee Shulman, is intended primarily to foster appreciation for what legal education does at its best. We want to encourage more informed scholarship and imaginative dialogue about teaching and learning for the law at all organizational levels: in individual law schools, in the academic associations, in the profession itself. We also believe our findings will be of interest within the academy beyond the professional schools, as well as among that public concerned with higher education and the promotion of professional excellence." --From the Introduction "Educating Lawyers is no doubt the best work on the analysis and reform of legal education that I have ever read. There is a call for deep changes in the way law is taught, and I believe that it will be a landmark in the history of legal education." --Bryant G. Garth, dean and professor of law, Southwestern Law School and former director of the American Bar Foundation "Educating Lawyers succeeds admirably in describing the educational programs at virtually every American law school. The call for the integration of the three apprenticeships seems to me exactly what is needed to make legal education more 'professional,' to prepare law students better for the practice of law, and to address societal expectations of lawyers." --Stephen Wizner, dean of faculty, William O. Douglas Clinical Professor of Law, Yale Law School
This concise text offers a straightforward guide to developing legal writing and analysis skills for beginning legal writers. Legal Writing and Analysis, Third Edition, leads students logically through reading and analyzing the law, writing the discussion of a legal question, writing an office memo and professional letters. The author then focuses on writing for advocacy and concludes with style and formalities and a chapter devoted to oral argument. The Third Edition features new material throughout on drawing factual inferences, one of the most important kinds of reasoning for legal writers, as well as additional examples on the book s companion web site. Among the features that make Legal Writing and Analysis a best-selling text : It tracks the traditional legal writing course syllabus, providing students with the necessary structure for organizing a legal discussion. The consistent use of the legal method approach, from an opening chapter providing an overview of a civil case and the lawyer s role, to information about the legal system, case briefing, synthesizing cases, and statutory interpretation. The emphasis on analogical reasoning and synthesizing cases, as well as rule-based and policy-based reasoning, with explanations of how to use these types of reasoning to organize a legal discussion. Coverage of the use of precedent, particularly on how to use cases. Superior discussion of small-scale organization, including the thesis paragraph. Numerous examples and frequent short exercises to encourage students to apply concepts. Many exercises focus on first-year courses and others focus on professional responsibility. The Third Edition offers: New material on drawing factual inferences, one of the most important kinds of reasoning for legal writers. Citation materials updated to cover the new editions of both ALWD and the Bluebook. Companion web site will include additional examples of office memos, opposing briefs, letters, and summary judgment motions.
Designed for law teachers who want to improve their teaching and students' learning, this book offers general teaching principles and dozens of concrete ideas. The first two chapters present foundational principles of learning and instruction as well as insights from students. The next 12 chapters address classroom dynamics, technology, questioning, discussion, collaborative learning, experiential learning, feedback, assessment, and continued development for teachers. Each of these 12 chapters introduces the topic based on educational research and then offers classroom-tested exercises, approaches, material, and methods contributed by veteran teachers. The co-authors/editors, Gerald Hess (Gonzaga), Steven Friedland (Elon), Michael Hunter Schwartz (Washburn), and Sophie Sparrow (New Hampshire) are experts in legal education pedagogy. Techniques for Teaching Law 2 retains the format of the first volume, but introduces new content and new ideas that instructors of any level and background will find useful.
Justice for All identifies ten central flaws in the criminal justice system and offers an array of solutions – from status quo to evolution to revolution – to address the inequities and injustices that far too often result in courtrooms across the United States. From the investigatory stage to the sentencing and appellate stages, many criminal defendants, particularly those from marginalized communities, often face procedural and structural barriers that taint the criminal justice system with the stain of unfairness, prejudice, and arbitrariness. Systematic flaws in the criminal justice system underscore the inequitable processes by which courts deprive citizens of liberty and, in some instances, their lives. Comprehensive in its scope and applicability, the book focuses upon the procedural and substantive barriers that often prohibit defendants from receiving fair treatment within the United States criminal justice system. Each chapter is devoted to a particular flaw in the criminal justice system and is divided into two parts. First, the authors discuss in depth the underlying causes and effects of the flaw at issue. Second, the authors present a wide range of possible solutions to address this flaw and to lead to greater equality in the administration of criminal justice. The reader is encouraged throughout to consider and assess all possible options, then defend their choices and preferences. Confronting these issues is critical to reducing racial disparities and guaranteeing Justice for all. Describing the problems and assessing the solutions, Justice for All does not identify all problems or all solutions, but will be of immeasurable value to criminal justice students and scholars, as well as attorneys, judges, and legislators, who strive to address the pervasive flaws in the criminal justice system.
The Little Black Book is designed to fill a gap in law school pedagogy: the skills needed for succeeding in law school competitions. Law schools perpetually struggle with the need to fit an ever-expanding universe of both doctrinal studies and skills development into a finite curriculum. Training in competition skills inevitable gets squeezed and edited down, and sometimes even left on the cutting room floor. Yet students can benefit enormously from these competitions, as they provide a way for students to practice and develop skills that will benefit themselves and their clients once they enter the workforce. Part I of this manual is designed to guide the user in applying the analytical, writing, and research skills students learned (or are learning) in the first-year courses to the task of preparing an appellate brief. The manual does presuppose some background in legal analysis and persuasive argument. Part I also instructs students on developing and presenting an oral argument based on their briefs. Part II focuses on non-brief writing competitions, specifically the Client Counseling, Negotiation, and Mediation Competitions. Bucholtz, Frey, and Tatum have created a book that is easily adapted to a broad spectrum of instruction: individual, self-teaching, coach-student training, and classroom teaching. "At last, there is a guide for the uninitiated who need a concise guide on how to conduct themselves at law school competitions... This compact guide to student competitions should be required reading for coaches as well as student competitors." -- Bimonthly Review of Law Books, January/February 2003
"Drawing upon the experience of faculty from across the country, Integrating Doctrine and Diversity is a collection of essays with practical advice, written by faculty for faculty, on specific ways to integrate diversity, equity and inclusion into the law school curriculum. Chapters will focus on subjects traditionally taught in the first-year curriculum (Civil Procedure, Constitutional Law, Contracts, Legal Writing, Legal Research, Property, Torts) and each chapter will also include a short annotated bibliography curated by a law librarian. With submissions from over 40 scholars, the collection is the first of its kind to offer reflections, advice and specific instruction on how to integrate issues of diversity and inclusions into first-year doctrinal courses"--
Covers various aspects of professional sports, including the unique office of the league commissioner, the many contract, antitrust, and labor law dimensions of the player-labor market, and the peculiar institution of the player agent in a unionized industry. Looks at the system of college athletics governed by the NCAA and how law impacts individual sports like golf, tennis, boxing, and the motor sports, as well as the structure and operation of international Olympic sports. Also focuses on tort and criminal law issues arising out of the personal injuries caused by sports.
