Courthouse Comes to the Classroom as New Law School Emphasizes Engaged Learning

Litigating in North Carolina's specialized Business Court?  Soon, you'll have to go to law school to do it.  North Carolina's special for complex business cases is moving into the new Elon Law School in North Carolina.  Eric Collins of the online News-Record.com reports that the Business Court's technological and architectural needs have been incorporated into the law school's design.Merging the courtroom and classroom seems like a natural step for Elon, which plans to emphasize "an active, experiential style of learning that emphasizes engaged learning and leadership." 

Elon's Dean, Leary Davis, who served as the founding dean of Campbell University's Norman Adrian Wiggens School of Law, explains:   "in 1975 . . . schools were teaching law, but they were not doing a lot of the other things they needed to do to prepare students to practice law.  . . . Here I am, almost 30 years after we first tackled the skills training gap, ready to address what I and many others see as a different but enduring problems in legal education: keeping students more engaged in their work in law school and connecting it better to the real world of lawyering so they will have careers that are more satisfying and productive, both to themselves and to society."

Leary explained how Elon plans to create an engaged community of students and lawyers:

"First, this will be a program focused on the total development of students. We'll do an outstanding job on the basics, but this school will go beyond that. We're going to build on that basic foundation:

- Assessing better the strengths and progress of each student

- Providing constant feedback and working with students on more wide-ranging lawyering skills,

- Teaching them how to listen, communicate, and interact effectively so they can resolve conflicts in the many difficult situations in which lawyers find themselves.

Secondly, this will be a program that is built around the concept that good lawyering skills are also good leadership skills. Most students come to law school with a strong interest in leadership. It is our intention to build on that strength. This process will begin with foundational experiences in leadership development during first-year orientation. Throughout their three years here they'll have opportunities for community involvement and public service. And a major part of their third year will be a capstone leadership experience of their own design."

Elon Law School will open for students in the Fall of 2006.