A Way Forward for an Ailing Legal Education Model
In this article, Professor James Moliterno makes some interesting observations and describes the modified 3rd year program at Washington and Lee.
Initially, the article dispels the notion that the reason legal education is "in trouble," is due only to current economic events of the last decade. Instead, Moliterno suggests that the "root of the problem" is really the late nineteenth century reforms of legal and medical education and the dichotomy of approaches adopted by the reformers in those two fields.
What is innovative about the article is that it tangibly identifies and labels the pedagogical goals of this reformed third year curriculum. The basic goal is for the students to mentally transition from critical thinking to learning law the way lawyers do. Read full text at Chapman Law Review http://www.chapmanlawreview.com/archives/2283.
Upcoming conferences: http://lawteaching.org/conferences/:
Assessment Across the Curriculum: Saturday, April 5, 2014, University of Arkansas at Little Rock William H. Bowen School of Law Little Rock, Arkansas. Co-sponsored by the Institute for Law Teaching and Learning, the one day conference is designed for new and experienced law teachers who are interested in designing and implementing effective techniques for assessing student learning.
What the Best Law Teachers Do: June 25-27, 2014, Northwestern Law in Chicago, Illinois. This two-and-a-half day conference will provide a forum to hear the insights and teaching techniques of remarkable law educators from among those interviewed in Harvard Press' recently-released book: http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674049147. Registration and conference information can be found at http://www.law.northwestern.edu/research-faculty/conferences/teachers/.