News & Updates

The ABA Journal discusses the impact of Big Law's preference for graduates from Ivy League and other “elite” law schools. The article notes that such “near obsession with pedigree . . . is damaging to the entire profession” because new statistics…

Professor Michael Madison’s “goal is to inspire students to learn, and to have the confidence to learn, long after they have left [his] classroom.” He adopts a “writing to learn” pedagogy in his copyright course as practice leads to effective learning.

When Michael Madison left Silicon Valley to begin teaching law, he thought a lot about how to teach judgment. Today, he offers an upper level copyright law course that teaches students judgment, along with legal analysis, factual investigation and analysis, confidence to express an opinion regarding what a client should do (or not), and the ability to express all of those things in writing.

Mark Nadeau is a member of the Educating Tomorrow’s Lawyers Advisory Committee and the co-managing partner of the Phoenix office of DLA Piper, one of the largest law firms in the world. He recently took some time to talk with us about new lawyers, hiring needs, and legal education, including the limitations of “thinking like a lawyer.”

Educating Tomorrow's Lawyers is proud to announce the newest members of its Advisory Committee. Among the new members are a District Attorney, a former Public Defender, a recruiter of in-house counsel, a past president of the American Bar Association…

Previously, we have drawn from the Educating Tomorrow’s Lawyers’ survey to describe the 23 ETL Consortium schools, explore the kinds of curricular innovations in which they may be engaged, and see how they compare to law schools more generally. This post continues our description by looking at support for faculty engagement in the improvement of teaching and learning among the ETL Consortium schools.

Mark Nadeau regularly teaches oral advocacy and trial tactics and is a leading commentator on international dispute resolution. As a member of the Educating Tomorrow’s Lawyers Advisory Committee, he recently sat down with ETL to discuss his insights into legal education and the issues facing both law schools and new attorneys venturing into practice.

Yesterday, the National Law Journal featured a special report on law school innovators, including the Georgetown University Law Center; Luke Bierman, Associate Dean for Experiential Education and Distinguished Professor of Practice of Law at Northeastern University School of Law; and Robert J. Rhee, a professor who co-authored “The Law School Firm."

Educating Tomorrow's Lawyers' newest partner, Georgetown University Law Center has historic strength in linking the practical with the theoretical thereby producing lawyers with a broad range of skills in addition to substantive expertise. Georgetown…

Professor Ben Madison ( view his course portfolio here) argues that students continue to develop "ethical traits and values" while in law school and that professors should not take a "hands-off" approach. What we, as professors, are doing is…

Professor Brian Tamanaha, who authored Failing Law Schools, penned an op-ed for the New York Times on the debt and joblessness of recent law school graduates and points to two culprits: American Bar Association accreditation standards and the federal…

Bill Henderson takes a look at a question that has been making the rounds: What is the answer to high student debt? After dispensing with a number of attempted answers to the question, he says: My own belief is that educational quality is the next…

Professor Andrew Schepard was among our first ETL Fellows. Here, his school recognizes the honor. He teaches Family Law with Skills with, a course he co-created with Professor J. Herbie DiFonzo. It is based on the Carnegie Model and incorporates the traditional content of a family law course with court observation and extended simulation exercises.

As the Director of Custom Program, Training and Curriculum for NITA, Terre Rushton (also a member of our Advisory Committee) helps firms address their professional development needs. NITA's learning-by-doing programs are known for developing the fundamental skills (core competencies) that clients expect from associates.

Terre Rushton is Associate Executive Director of Programs for the National Institute for Trial Advocacy (NITA) as well as serving as a member of the Educating Tomorrow's Lawyers Advisory Committee. In her Voices from the Field interview, Rushton comments about learning professionalism, practical learning as a gateway to understanding the role of a lawyer, and developing common skills and understanding different perspectives.

Frank Bowman guest blogs on Concurring Opinions and offers some thoughts on how law schools outside the top 30 can sustain themselves while meeting the needs of their students. His suggestions? Reverse the trend toward competing for faculty by…

Professor Ben Madison explores how students develop their “professional identities,” –as recommended by the Carnegie report—through journaling assignments. Journals, he observes, help students appreciate the need for mentorship, experience the…

A key feature of the Educating Tomorrow’s Lawyers initiative is the Consortium of 23 law schools committed to innovation in the spirit of the Carnegie Report. What are these schools like compared to law schools as a whole? This post will take up this question, looking at three issues: 1. What are the ETL consortium schools like as to the types of institution they represent, their tier in school rankings, and where are they located? 2. What kinds of innovation are they engaged in, particularly in the area of curriculum? 3. How do they look on these measures when compared to other schools?

The California bar’s task force is set to issue recommendations in December 2013 regarding whether to impose a practical skills training requirement on lawyers applying for admission. Whether the country’s largest bar decides to adopt hands-on…

The University of California Hastings College announced that it will reduce enrollment by 20% over the next three years. "The critics of legal education are right," Dean Frank Wu said in a telephone interview on April 30. "There are too many law…