searching for the best law professors in the country

This is a request from Michael Hunter Schwartz of Washburn University School of Law.

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Dear Colleagues,

I am in search of the best law teachers in this country, and I could use your help.  I have the extraordinary opportunity to conduct a law professor-focused, follow-up study to Ken Bain's wonderful What the Best College Teachers Do (Harvard University Press, 2004).

Thus, I am writing to solicit your nominations.  In particular, I am looking for teachers who consistently produce extraordinary learning, who change their students' lives and whose instruction stays with students long after they graduate from law school.

I hope what I produce inspires you as much as Professor Bain's work has inspired me. Over the next three years, I will be:

§  soliciting nominations;

§  gathering evidence of nominees' excellence;

§  paring the list of nominees to the most extraordinary law teachers;

§  visiting law schools around the country, sitting in on classes, interviewing the nominees, and talking to focus groups of students and alumni; and then publishing what I have found in a book: What the Best Law Teachers Do (Harvard University Press, forthcoming 2011).

I have set up a web nomination process (although I will also accept nominations by phone, by e-mail, by regular mail, or in person).  To nominate a candidate or learn more about this project, please go to http://washburnlaw.edu/bestlawteachers. Click on the link on the right side of the page to get to the nomination form.

To honor those who have been nominated, I have set up a website on which I will report the name of each nominee, the nominee's institutional affiliation, and a few comments from the nominator.  Here's a link to that website: http://washburnlaw.edu/bestlawteachers/nominees/index.php. 

I hope to gather as many nominations as possible, so I would appreciate any efforts to forward this message to your colleagues, listservs, students, and alumni.  If you are a blogger, please post this information on your blog.

Feel free to e-mail me at michael.schwartz@washburn.edu if you have any questions. The names of nominators and nominees will be withheld upon request.

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(njs)