Paul Lippe Interviews Dean Martin Katz on Legal Education Reform
In an interview with Paul Lippe on Legal OnRamp, Dean Martin Katz, Educating Tomorrow’s Lawyers executive committee member, discusses experiential learning, the Carnegie Report, and Educating Tomorrow’s Lawyers.
Asked how law school faculty members can be motivated to embrace change, Dean Katz said:
The first thing that a school that wants to adapt to the new normal must do is to shift its focus outward – not just at the administrative level, but at the faculty level. At Denver Law, our entire faculty engaged in outreach that informed our strategic planning process…
The second thing that a school motivated to change must do is to address impediments to change. The most valuable commodity for most professors is time (followed closely by pride). So the key is to free up time for innovation and to make innovation as efficient and as low-risk as possible. For example, once someone has developed a great problem-based simulation class, others can use the template – and sometimes even the problem – in their own classes. They can learn from the successes and failures of other innovative teachers. Historically, law professors have not had networks in their own schools that allow them to operate in this way, much less networks across schools. That is why we started Educating Tomorrow’s Lawyers (ETL).