Welcome to the Law School Cafe
January 3rd, 2013 / By Deborah J. Merritt
Law School Cafe is a resource for anyone interested in reshaping legal education. Here is the basic information you need to use the site:
Cafe Tables
The site’s main page includes a series of posts called “Cafe Tables.” Each table focuses on a particular proposal for change. Some innovations are small, others are large. We draw these proposals from many sources: published papers, other websites, formal comments submitted to the ABA’s Task Force on the Future of Legal Education, and personal conversations. If you have a proposal, please let Deborah Merritt (the cafe manager) know at merritt52@gmail.com. We will be starting new tables regularly.
Each table includes a brief description of the proposal, links to sources, and observations or questions to start the conversation. The comment threads are open: We invite you to offer your reactions, critiques, and ideas for improvement on each proposal (but please read the “Comment Policy” below). The tables offer a way to explore the pros and cons of each proposal, as well as to refine ideas.
If you have experience with a proposed change, or would like to offer an extended comment, please let the cafe manager know (again, that’s merritt52@gmail.com). You can create a “perspective” post for a table, which will appear on the main page together with the original post. The perspectives allow further development of ideas.
Book Club
The Book Club complements the Cafe Tables by offering brief summaries of recent papers or books related to legal education. These pieces don’t always propose specific changes, but they offer useful insights to the problems facing us. Comments are open here as well, so feel free to post your reactions.
Comment Policy
To facilitate discussion in both the Cafe and Book Club, comment threads are open; we do not moderate comments before posting. But we will delete comments in which obsessive whining, trolling, or name calling substantially outweighs probative value. Cf. Federal Rule of Evidence 403.
Cafe Manager and Contributors
Deborah J Merritt manages the Law School Cafe; she is the site’s primary moderator and contributor. DJM is also the John Deaver Drinko/Baker & Hostetler Chair in Law, at Ohio State University’s Moritz College of Law, but the Cafe is an independent project. Deborah has written about many facets of legal education, teaches in both doctrinal classrooms and clinics, and has developed a seminar on the Business of Law.
Kyle P McEntee, the Executive Director of Law School Transparency, is the Cafe’s co-moderator, frequent contributor, and website designer. The Law School Cafe is a partner site of Law School Transparency.
Law School Disruption
December 28th, 2012 / By Deborah J. Merritt
Campbell explores two disruptive forces undermining conventional legal education: new educational models (particularly online learning) and the expanding provision of legal services by non-lawyers. On the first, he asks: “What do universities sell for their tuition dollars in a world where world-class instruction is free?” On the second he notes: “Amazon has not succeeded in monopolizing book sales, but it took enough away so that Borders was no longer a profitable business.”
Law professors often scoff at these predictions of disruptive change, but the forces that Campbell describes are real: It is time to pay attention. Campbell offers a useful introduction to the major disruptions threatening legal education. He also offers a short description of his home institution, the innovative Peking University School of Transnational Law. Expect to hear more about a law school that graduates bilingual (English/Mandarin) lawyers ready to counsel clients on both U.S. and Chinese law.
Continuing Practice Experience . . . for Professors?
January 4th, 2012 / By Deborah J. Merritt
Emily Zimmerman, an associate professor at Drexel’s Earle Mack School of Law, proposes that law professors should fill “continuing practice experience” requirements. In an SSRN paper, Zimmerman notes that “many of the people who are entrusted with preparing students for law practice are people who may not actually have practiced law, who may only have practiced law for a short amount of time . . . , or who may not have practiced law recently.” (p. 7) Zimmerman acknowledges that these professors may “do an excellent job of helping students develop some of the skills that they will need to be successful lawyers.” But is that enough? Shouldn’t law schools strive to give students the best possible education for their role as lawyers? To accomplish that, Zimmerman argues that full-time faculty should enjoy more regular connection to the world of practice.
Modeling her proposal on CLE requirements, Zimmerman suggests that professors devote 10-15 hours a year to “law practice.” To give professors more flexibility, and to allow more in-depth engagement, a “CPE” requirement might mandate 30-45 hours of practice every three years. The activities fulfilling this requirement could range from actual practice (for paying or pro bono clients) to shadowing active lawyers and participating in bar committee work. Professors without active licenses, including those without law degrees, could participate in some of the latter activities.
Turning her eye to enforcement, Zimmerman outlines a variety of ways to impose a CPE requirement: Individual schools could adopt such a requirement for their professors; the ABA could revise its standards to require or encourage CPE; and/or the AALS could include CPE in its Statement of Good Practices.
Zimmerman’s brief paper offers a thoughtful suggestion for cultivating an ongoing connection between law schools and law practice. Professors might, as she notes, resist a CPE requirement; it might also degenerate into a loophole-ridden rule or another series of talking-head seminars. But Zimmerman’s core idea holds strong appeal. If law professors ventured into practice for at least a few hours each year, they might see their teaching and scholarship through new eyes. At the very least, they would see some of the market pressures that their graduates face each day.
About Law School Cafe
Cafe Manager & Co-Moderator
Deborah J. Merritt
Cafe Designer & Co-Moderator
Kyle McEntee
Law School Cafe is a resource for anyone interested in changes in legal education and the legal profession.
Around the Cafe
Subscribe
Categories
Recent Comments
- on Scholarship Advice
- on ExamSoft: New Evidence from NCBE
- on COVID-19 and the Bar Exam
- on Women Law Students: Still Not Equal
- on Ranking Academic Impact
Recent Posts
- Experiential Education
- The Bot Takes a Bow
- Fundamental Legal Concepts and Principles
- Lay Down the Law
- The Bot Updates the Bar Exam
Monthly Archives
Participate
Have something you think our audience would like to hear about? Interested in writing one or more guest posts? Send an email to the cafe manager at merritt52@gmail.com. We are interested in publishing posts from practitioners, students, faculty, and industry professionals.