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Advising 2.0: Helping Students Achieve Academic Success Through Meaningful Academic Advising
Get PDFIt is becoming increasingly clear that current law students are seeking more wraparound support than previously provided by legal education, which begs the question, why? The answer is simple - modern law students are different and come to law school with very different expectations and experiences than students from previous years. To aid our students in achieving academic success, it is essential that we understand the complex needs of our students by first examining their previous educational experiences.
Academic advising is commonplace at institutions that serve undergraduate students. In fact, some would argue that academic advising is the cornerstone of student success. Advising at the undergraduate level is viewed as a collaborative relationship between student and advisor that is designed to provide the meaningful support students need to achieve their academic goals throughout matriculation. Professional academic advisors, academic support and academic resource centers are as common to undergraduate students as hornbooks and supplements (or Westlaw and Lexis) are to law students
Vulnerability and the Legal Organization of Work
No full textThis book uses the concepts of vulnerability and resilience to analyze the situation of individuals and institutions in the context of the employment relationship. It is based on the premise that both employer and employee are vulnerable to various social, economic, and political forces, although differently so. It demonstrates how in responding to those complementary institutional relationships of employer and employee the state unequally and inequitably favors employers over employees.https://commons.law.famu.edu/faculty-books/1031/thumbnail.jp
Slave Gambling in the Antebellum South
Get PDFIn the Antebellum Era (c. 1800-60), Southern slaves gambled regularly, both with each other and with free blacks and poor whites. This fact has received a fair amount of scholarly attention. Curiously, however, the reported court opinions involving such gambling have been all but overlooked. Accordingly, this article collects and discusses these decisions. As will be seen, Southern judges often were exasperated by the less-than-precise wording of the laws that were put in place to punish slaves who gambled and whites who facilitated or participated in such gambling
Big Law Dreams
Get PDFUpon graduation, law students continue to seek positions with large law firms in record numbers. Graduates are drawn to Big Law for the purported pluses of high compensation; interesting work; extensive training and resources; mobility and prestige. However, a closer examination of the present-day realities reveals that these beliefs may be outdated, overstated, or simply incorrect. Students who make their career choices based on such premises may find themselves trapped in ill-fitting and unsatisfying positions. Moreover, an unyielding focus on Big Law based on faulty assumptions may have costs and consequences for legal education and the provision of legal services. This essay focuses on the factors contributing to the law student’s unrelenting drive toward Big Law. It examines the underlying assumptions built into that drive and whether they are valid. It explores the cost to graduates, the profession and society if students follow these assumptions and pursue a career in Big Law without careful thought and reflection. Finally, it considers the alternatives to Big Law that might give students what they are really seeking. By understanding the assumptions that drive them toward Big Law, students can make more informed career decisions. Law school faculty and administrators can also provide better curricular and career guidance if they understand the allure and limitations of the Big Law dream
If You Build It, They Will Come: What Students Say About Experiential Learning
Get PDFOur purpose here is to explore one of the “natural experiments” cited by the Task Force: the Experiential Advantage (EA) program at the University of Denver’s Sturm College of Law (Denver Law). EA was developed as a part of a greater general focus on experiential learning and is built upon the three “Carnegie Apprenticeships” – “the intellectual or cognitive,” “the forms of expert practice,” and “identity and purpose.” It was implemented at Denver Law starting with students entering in August 2013. To explore this natural experiment, we took a particular route and did so for what we see as good reason. It is often the case with such curricular experiments that the views of students are missing. But of course, it makes little sense to neglect them because such changes are supposedly made for the students’ benefit. So, it seems more than appropriate to ask them – from their perspective – if a change worked, or improved matters, as it was designed to do. This article is a first report on the findings of an extensive case study — a three-year, survey-based, study of Denver Law students concerning the EA Program “natural experiment.” The findings should be of considerable interest to the legal community, given that there is general support for experiential learning across most law schools, but a study of this kind — one exploring student views on curricular innovation — has never been conducted before. This Article is divided into four sections. The first provides a general context for Denver Law’s efforts. The second outlines the study itself, and is followed by section three, which analyzes the reasons first-year students chose Denver Law and their interest in EA and experiential learning. The fourth section changes focus and turns to Denver Law students nearing the end of their legal education – 3 and 4Ls. These students, nearing the end of their legal education, were asked a series of “look back” questions asking them about their law school experience, including the EA program and experiential learning
Using Problem-Enhanced Library Tours Rather than Scavenger Hunts to Teach Incoming 1Ls About Legal Sources and the Research Process
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A Critique of the Uniquely Adversarial Nature of the U.S. Legal, Economic and Political System and Its Implications for Reinforcing Existing Power Hierarchies
Get PDFThis article argues that the uniquely adversarial nature of the United States litigation system, rooted in the medieval English system of trial by battle, has replicated itself in almost all aspects of American society, distinguishing the United States from even its common law counterparts that shared the genesis of their legal systems in English trial by battle. This trial by battle is often characterized in the context of speech by terms such as the \u27marketplace of ideas, or in the context of economics by terms such as the law of the jungle., Even resolution of basic Constitutional concepts are subject to battles between parties, rather than a proactive determination by a Constitutional Court as can be found in many other legal systems. Thus, American society is unique from all other industrialized nations in the extent to which it employs adversarial techniques to resolve conflicts in the areas of contract law, criminal law, constitutional law, labor law, and economic and social policy, in addition to its legal system. This article suggests that the implications of this emphasis on procedure over substance are profound, and that the shibboleth of procedural fairness invoked to justify disparate substantive outcomes may be more illusory than real