Update on Current Legal Education Reform Movement By Professor Mary Lynch 3/26/2009

1. Update on Current Legal Education Reform Movement By Professor Mary Lynch3/26/2009

2. Legal Education Reform Movement • Studied law school as an educational model • 3 areas stood out as in need of reform • Curriculum • Teaching • Assessment / Evaluation

3. --- A Non-Divisive, Forward Thinking, Student Centered Movement Which Binds Collaboration with Pragmatism • Non – Divisive • It values all parts of the enterprise and refuses to fall into the trap of false dichotomies • Scholar vs. Teacher • Doctrinal vs. Theory vs. Skills Training vs. Clinical • Social Justice Goals vs. Experiential Learning Goals • Collaboration: Have FUN at work! • Co-teaching with colleagues • National networking • Pragmatism: • Engaged learning as a method for achieving a higher bar passage. • National reputation

4. Today’s Objectives: • Overview of the academic critique of legal education and reform documents. • Describe the current national reform movement. • Albany Law School – Where are we now?

5. Carnegie Study, Best Practices for Legal Education, and Other Reform Documents I. The History:

6. Law School Traditional Educational Model • Case dialogue method • Formal knowledge abstracted from context • Cool stance from detached criticism

7. OUTDATED CONCEPTS OF LAW • The New Deal & the Modern Administrative State was not even contemplated at the time of Langdell. • Law = Common Law only.   • Judges were the only legitimate lawmakers. • “Thinking Like a Lawyer” limited to ANALOGIC reasoning. Know how to compare cases. • Even by 1914, Langdellian concepts were outdated.

8. OUTDATED CONCEPT OF THE LEARNING PROCESS • We now know that humans learn in specific ways and that educational programs and processes can be geared to facilitate that learning. • This is a modern idea not contemplated in 1860. • Experts and “brainiacs” learn differently than most novice learners.  

9. Results of Our Outdated 1860’s Educational Model • Traditional curriculum mainly provides law students with one experience • Not a progressive developmental model • Not psychologically motivating for novice learners • Not designed interactively to engage the thinker in solving the problem.

10. Student’s Experience of Legal Education 1st year – Frightened to Death 2nd year – Worked to Death 3rd year – Bored to Death

11. The Carnegie Study: Educating Lawyers • Comparative Study: “Preparation for the Professions Program” • Part of a comparative study of 5 “public” professions: clergy, physicians, nurses, engineers, and lawyers. • The Research Team: • Law professor, former dean, psychologist, philosopher, Carnegie Foundation President, and Vice President, former Dean of Stanford Law, and psychological measurement and assessment specialist • Team Activities: • Met law schools’ admission counsel, LSAT, LSAC visited 16 law schools, consulted with AALS, reviewed legal education literature.

12. The 3 Apprenticeships The Signature Pedagogy of all professional fields: “ Teach Students how tothink, perform & conduct themselves like professionals.” 1.) THINK – intellectual analysis, university teaching 2.) PERFORM – expert practice shared by competent practitioners. (Simulated Practice settings/ Case Studies / Actual Clinic Experience with Real Clients) 3.) ETHICAL / SOCIAL– introduce students to the purposes and attitudes that are guided by the values for which the professional community is responsible

13. The “near exclusive” focus of law schools on systemic abstraction from actual social context has two major defects: 1.) Fails to teach “students how to use legal thinking in the complexity of actual law practice.” 2.) Fails to to complement the focus on skill in legal analysis with effective support for developing the ethical and social dimensions of the profession.

14. Best Practices for Legal Education: a vision and a roadmap • Set Goals • Organize Program of Instruction • Deliver Instruction • Assess Student Learning • Evaluate Success of Program of Instruction

15. Best Practices – How to Set Goals How: Continue dialogue with academics, practitioners, judges, licensing authorities, and the general public about how best to accomplish this goals. How: Focus on what students will be able to DO… on their 1st day in practice.

16. “Best” Values • Writing & Problem Solving Across the Curriculum • Prompt Feedback • Formative & Multiple Assessments • Integrated & Progressive Curriculum • Experiential Lawyering • Emphasis on Professional Identity & Purpose from Orientation to Graduation

17. II. The legal academy’s response to reform proposals

18. The National Landscape • LEARN – Carnegie Study continues • ABA Council on Legal Education Special Committee on Outcome Measures • Individual Law School Initiatives

19. LEARN Legal Education Analysis & Reform Network Participating Schools • CUNY Law School • Indiana University School of Law (Bloomington) • Georgetown University Law Center • Harvard Law School • New York University School of Law • Southwestern Law School • Stanford Law School • University of Dayton School of Law • University of New Mexico Law School • Vanderbilt University Law School

20. LEARN Legal Education Analysis & Reform Network Steering Committee • Professor Jane H. AikenGeorgetown University Law Center • Professor Susan J. BryantCUNY School of Law • Professor Peggy Cooper DavisNew York University School of Law • Dean Bryant G. GarthSouthwestern Law School • Professor Lawrence C. MarshallStanford Law School • Dean Lauren K. RobelIndiana University School of Law • Dean Edward L. RubinVanderbilt University Law School • Professor Ann C. ShalleckAmerican University Law School • JamienneStudleyPresident, Public Advocates • William M. SullivanCarnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching

21. LEARNLegal Education Analysis & Reform Network Working Groups: Law Schools • William P. AlfordProfessorHarvard Law School • Michelle J. AndersonDeanCUNY School of Law • Norman BayProfessorUniversity of New Mexico School of Law • Mary Lu BilekProfessorCUNY School of Law • Hannah L. BuxbaumProfessorIndiana University School of Law • Catherine L. CarpenterProfessorSouthwestern Law School • Deborah EpsteinProfessorGeorgetown University Law Center • Lisa A. KloppenbergDeanUniversity of Dayton School of Law • Rebecca Love KourlisExecutive DirectorUniversity of Denver Institute for the Advancement of the American Legal System • J. Michael NorwoodProfessorUniversity of New Mexico School of Law • Richard L. ReveszProfessorNew York UniversitySchool of Law • Lauren K. RobelDeanIndiana University School of Law • Edward L. RubinDeanVanderbilt University Law School

22. LEARNLegal Education Analysis & Reform Network Working GroupS: Law Teachers • Jane H. AikenProfessorGeorgetown UniversityLaw Center • Lisa S. BressmanProfessorVanderbilt University Law School • Susan J. BryantProfessorCUNY School of Law • Christopher D. R. CameronProfessorSouthwestern Law School • Clark D. CunninghamProfessorGeorgia State UniversityCollege of LawDennis GreeneProfessorUniversity of Dayton School of Law • Allen HammondProfessorSanta Clara University School of Law • Larry D, KramerDeanStanford Law SchoolElizabeth E. MertzProfessorUniversity of Wisconsin Law School • Todd D. RakoffProfessorHarvard Law School • Ann C. ShalleckProfessorAmerican University Law School • Norman W. Spaulding IIIProfessorStanford Law School • Stephen WiznerProfessorYale University

23. LEARNLegal Education Analysis & Reform Network Working GroupS: Student Assessment • Peggy Cooper DavisProfessorNew York University School of Law • Bryant G. Garth • Dean • Southwestern Law School • John B. Garvey • Professor • Franklin Pierce Law Center • William D. Henderson • Professor • Indiana University School of Law • Peter Joy • Professor • Washington University Law School • Antoinette Sedillo Lopez • Professor • University of New Mexico School • of Law • Nancy Morawetz • Professor • New York University School of Law • Lori E. Shaw • Professor • University of Dayton School of Law • Kevin Stack • Dean • Vanderbilt University Law School

24. LEARNLegal Education Analysis & Reform Network • CONTINUING REFORM EFFORTS • Update Educating Lawyers • Create a website with rich collection of teaching resources (Housed at Albany Law School?) • Conduct small teaching seminars and workshops for law teachers across the country. • Design and operate a summer institute on law teaching for exchange among faculty with at least 3 years experience. • Develop pilot “Rounds About Teaching” project in a few law schools. (replication projects) • Coordinate National Collaboration in Course Development and teaching by doctrinal, clinical, and skills faculty. • Create a network for deans to provide OPPORTUNITIES for INNOVATION in assigning profs to courses & INCENTIVES (grants, travel stipends, sabbaticals) for those who want to develop innovative programs

25. LEARN Legal Education Analysis & Reform Network PROVIDING TOOLS, INFORMATION & ASSESSMENTS • Use of interactive classroom technology (e.g. clickers) • Costs and benefits of periodic written assignments/ examinations as supplements to, or supplements for traditional final exams • Use of monitored wiki-postings and listservs • Modifications to the end-of-term letter or number grade • How and when to use and/or standardize simulations • Alternatives to the traditional bar exams

26. Individual Law School Initiatives • Many law schools have engaged in systematic reform efforts already. These fall into 5 categories: • Programmatic Efforts • First-Year Reform • Third-Year Reform • Experiential & Client-Focused Initiatives • Teaching Effectiveness & Learning Assessment

27. Programmatic Efforts • Case Law School’s “CaseARC Integrated Lawyering Skills Program” • Cal Western’s “STEPPS Program” • Dayton School of Law:“Lawyer as a Problem Solver” • William Mitchell “Pathways” Program – http://www.wmitchell.edu/pathways • Vanderbilt – National PR / U.S. News

28. First-Year Reform • By end of 1st year,  students should have learned to: read a case, a statute, a contract, a lease, a complaint, an interrogatory, and a treaty. • The University of Washington (Seattle) “Foundation for Legal Studies.” • Harvard: 3 new requirements • Legislation & regulations course • Global legal systems and concerns • “Problems and Theories” focusing on problem solving • Vanderbilt: Two new courses --- “The Life of the Law” and “The Regulatory State” • Mandatory first-year curriculum should provide students with an introduction to the modern legal system. • Administrative State • Transactional Law • How Administrative State & Transactional Law are in Business • Globalization • Social Policy

29. Third-Year Reform “No other educational model uses a passive learning model in the third year of teaching.” • Capstone Courses: • New York Law School • Osgood Hall Law School (Toronto) • University of Pennsylvania • Duke University • University of Tennessee • Missouri State • University of Dayton • Baylor • William Mitchell • Entire 3rd Year devoted to experiential learning • Washington & Lee entirely reinvented the third-year to make it a year of professional development through simulated and actual practice experiences. • Coherent Organization • Of the upper class curriculum so that students are encouraged to study one area in-depth.

30. Experiential & Client Focused Initiatives • Expanding Clinical / Field Placement Offerings • Intersession Courses • Interdisciplinary Simulation Efforts • Bringing Expert Practitioners into Doctrinal Classes • Requiring Clinics

31. Teaching Effectiveness & Learning Assessment • Collaborative teaching efforts: doctrinal & skills & clinical & practitioners • Focus on what Students learned NOT what teacher “covers” • Structured Feedback from Professors (Clickers, Midterms, Written submissions….) • Structured Practice-Theory Integration

32. Where do we fit in? III. Albany Law

33. Involvement in the Reform Effort • Several Albany Law professors involved in the development of the Best Practices for Legal Education text. • Some professors administer mid-term assessments in the first-year • At least one professor uses clickers • Other professors individually employ Best Practices • Dean Guernsey and Mayer’s input • Curriculum Committee reviewed Carnegie, Best Practices, and Vanderbilt Dean Ed Rubin’s, “What's Wrong with Langdell's Method, and What to Do About it.” • Faculty voted to adopt Committee recommendations to reorganize first-year and add intersession courses. • Albany Law hosts the Best Practices for Legal Education Blog

34. The Best Practices Blog http://bestpracticeslegaled.albanylawblogs.org

35. Albany Law is Perfectly Positioned to be an Acknowledged Leader in the Reform Movement. • This movement is about a student-centered approach to education. Albany Law prides itself on this approach. • Students EXPECT to pass the bar and they EXPECT to be able to begin practice immediately upon graduation. • We have a faculty who cares about students becoming excellent lawyers. • We have alumni and a Board who are active contributors to the School, and are potential resources for the integration of theory and practice. • Concentrations program • Emphasis on developing policy making skills (GLC) • We are not a school which has traditionally sent the middle of the class to large firms to get mentored.

36. Food for Thought • Have we integrated our doctrinal, clinical, skills, and professionalism courses and teaching methodologies? • Have we systemized, labeled and marketed what we do? • Do we engage in Best Practices in teaching, curriculum development & assessment?