Presentation Transcript

1. Curricular Innovation Goes Global: Pushing the Boundaries of LRW

   Pacific McGeorge School of Law Mary-Beth Moylan Director , Global Lawyering Skills
2. We are all in the midst of big curricular changes. Why? Changes in legal practice driven by economy. Employer-training is limited at best. Shrinking market for lawyers. Shrinking interest in law school. Curricular Innovation
3. What it means for our students? For some, be ready to hang a shingle. For some, need to be ready to compete for scarce jobs. For others, readiness to jump into J.D.-preferred job. For all, obtain a diverse skill set that makes them ready for a wide variety of tasks. Curricular Innovation
4. What it means for us? Need to teach diverse skill set – not just memo and brief writing and research. Need to prepare ethical, practice-ready, lawyers. Need to show leadership in creative thinking about what being a lawyer means. Curricular Innovation
5. Pacific McGeorge started Global Lawyering Skills (GLS) in 2009. We have had 4 years of experience teaching a greater range of domestic skills in our LRW classes, as well as introducing cross-border legal issues into our first and second-year LRW classes. Globalizing The Curriculum
6. Two years of LRW+ instruction. Full-year graded courses with 2 units each semester. GLS I is required for all J.D. students. GLS II is required for all J.D. students except those accepted to law review. Global Lawyering Skills
7. In both classes we begin by “softening the ground”: Help students realize that awareness of other cultures and countries is critical to success as a lawyer in this global economy. Impart cultural sensitivity that allows lawyers to assess situations more effectively and provide advice more aptly. Cross-Cultural Goals of GLS
8. Susan Bryant, The Five Habits: Building Cross-Cultural Competence in Lawyers, 8 Clinical L. R. 33 (2001): Outlines a series of exercises that can be done in a clinical or skills setting.The Habits require a look to cultural differences and how they might impact communication in the legal system. Cross-Cultural Competence
9. GLS I is the first-year required legal research and writing course. It generally covers: Legal and court systems Case analysis Objective and persuasive legal writing Client interviewing Professional Correspondence Legal research in both print and electronic form Introduction to International and Foreign law US Treaty research Mediation and ADR GLS I
10. GLS II is the second-year required legal research and writing course. It generally covers: Persuasive written and oral advocacy Trial and Appellate briefs and arguments Campus-wide moot court competition Advanced legal research Client-counseling Mediation Settlement negotiation Transnational legal practice GLS II
11. Presentations by International LL.M. students to GLS II students: International students enrolled in our LL.M. program compare how a legal dispute would be resolved in their home country and in the United States. The students include a description of legal systems, judicial structures, and law schools in their home country. Introduce Foreign Legal Systems
12. Why? Cross-Border issues arise with more frequency in a global marketplace. Increased foreign travel and interactions mean more cross-border familial and social issues. Cross-Cultural issues arise in daily practice in almost all communities across the U.S. Integrating International and Transnational Skills
13. How? GLS I U.S. Treaty Research Open Research Assignment with an international or transnational issue GLS II International or Foreign Law Research Case File simulation with an international or transnational issue that stretches over the year-long course LL.M. Presentations Integrating International and Transnational Skills
14. 1. Usually single issue 2. Require Treaty Research 3. Completed in Spring Semester of First Year GLS I Problems
15. A client purchased a time share for a condominium in Cancun, Mexico from a Mexican corporation. The Mexican corporation breached the time share contract and the client wanted to sue. The students researched how to effectuate service of process in Mexico. Example GLS I Problem
16. A client and his wife divorced several years ago, with the wife getting full physical custody of the couple’s only child. The mother now wants to move to Canada to take a more prestigious job. The father wants either to get physical custody of the child or, at the very least, to protect his visitation rights. The students researched and analyzed the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction to determine if it provided the client with a means to enforce his visitation rights once his ex-wife moved to Canada. Example GLS I Problem
17. A U.S. company purchased dextrose monohydrate from a company in El Salvador, which the U.S. company used as an ingredient to produce an energy drink. The purchase agreement, which had been negotiated over the telephone, ultimately was breached by the company in El Salvador. The students researched and analyzed whether, under the Convention on the International Sale of Goods, there was a valid contract between the parties and whether a clause in the seller’s invoice was an effective limitation on consequential damages. Example GLS I Problem
18. 1. An issue with cross-border implications that arises in a domestic litigation process. 2. Litigated first in a federal district court. 3. Becomes one of the issues on appeal in the same litigation at the circuit court level. GLS II Problems
19. An American woman attended sessions with a psychotherapist in Austria. Several years later, tapes of the therapy sessions came into the possession of an American journalist who threatened to publish them. The students researched and analyzed whether the court should apply the doctor-patient privilege under U.S. law or the doctor-patient privilege under Austrian law. This analysis required them to compare the laws and the policies underlying the two privileges and to apply conflict of laws rules. The case also required the students to research and analyze whether the U.S. court could have personal jurisdiction over the psychotherapist, who was a resident of Austria but a U.S. citizen. Example GLS II Problem
20. A lesbian couple married and adopted each others’ children in the Netherlands. They then moved to Mississippi and sought to have the adoption recognized by Mississippi under principles of comity for purposes of obtaining health benefits for the adopted daughter of one of the women, who worked for the State. Note: We sincerely hope that this problem is now retired in light of the movement in the courts, legislatures, and ballot boxes toward marriage equality. Example GLS II Problem
21. A Mexican national matching an anonymous tip description provided to the FBI about a potential terrorism suspect is stopped, followed, detained, questioned, and confesses to transporting illegal materials. He is not informed of his consular communication rights or his Miranda rights. Students are asked to research the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations and prepare a motion to suppress based on the VCCR and the Fifth Amendment. Example GLS II Problem
22. “I thought the international component was very helpful. There are many students, like myself, who have not taken any international law classes and do not plan on focusing on this area of the law. I think this amount of exposure to international law was really helpful for those of us who do not plan on practicing international law. There will be many times in our professional careers when we will need to refer matters to other attorneys more experienced in a particular area. This cannot be done if we do not know what other areas and complications exist. In other words, it was helpful to expose us to international law to know what we do not know.” Student Feedback
23. “I liked the variety of the subject matter, in regards to what students expect to research.  I think too often that students expect to be researching California, if not domestic law. To remind them that law has a transnational component helps keep students on their toes and also proves useful for students who may be going into international law.  It opens their eyes topically to conflicts common to transnational law and provides good variety to their research.”  Student Feedback
24. Contact: Mary-Beth Moylan mmoylan@pacific.edu (916) 739-7223 Shameless Plug: Mary-Beth Moylan, Stephanie Thompson, with contributing authors, Global Lawyering Skills(West 2013). Other Questions