Law School Academic Support Blog

Dear Practicing Attorneys: Please Stop Giving Our Bar Students Inaccurate Advice.

I still fondly remember the judge for whom I interned as a 3L.  Knowing that bar prep was coming up and sensing my anxiety, he asked me about my plan.  I told him that the bar prep company each day would provide lectures, outlines to read, some more outlines to read, and then finish things off with some outlines to read.  When I told him that the program started just after Memorial Day and ended the day before the exam, he was astonished.  His advice was to save myself all that money, take three weeks off from work, and study from July 4^th until the exam.  He said that would be plenty.

Of all the advice my judge gave me, this was the one bit I did not take.  His guidance was well-intentioned, and I appreciated his attempts to calm me down.  But as the Type-A person that I am, I could not rest without feverishly checking off each scheduled study item.  His was advice I could not take.    

Twenty-something years later, students still receive that advice.  They insist:  “The partner at my firm said that she took just two weeks off for the exam and did just fine.”  The partner professed:  “You’re a smart kid.  You don’t need to do all that work.  Just watch the videos, read the outlines, and you’ll pass.”  Happy to internalize this message so as to mentally corroborate the partner’s flattering assessment, students’ confirmation biases drive them to adopt suboptimal learning behaviors. 

And then they fail the bar exam.

The practicing lawyers who give this advice sometimes believe that the bar exam world is a static place devoid of change.  However, recent substantial reforms severely limit the applicability of their experiences.  Below the fold, I describe those changes and how they require more careful advising. 

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Academic and Bar Support Scholarship Spotlight

First, a big thank you and congrats to those who planned, attended, and/ or presented at last week's Annual AASE Conference.  To say it was a great event would be an understatement.  

As for the scholarship spotlight, we have a lot of ground to cover.  Please see below.  

1.    Patrick Meyer (UDM), Adding Legal Research to the Bar Exam: What Would The Exercise Look Like, 53 Akron L. Rev. 109 (2019, posted 2022).

Various authors have criticized the current bar exam format and have offered meaningful suggested changes. This article will focus on deficiencies pertaining to a lack of legal research readiness in the practice of law: A recent study found that 45% of a new attorney’s time will be spent researching. The authors of the MacCrate Report found ten practice skills that are “essential for competent representation,” which are universally referred to as Fundamental Lawyering Skills. One of the ten Fundamental Lawyering Skills is legal research. The report states that “if anything, the bar examination discourages” the teaching of lawyering skills in law school. My proposal is to add an interactive legal research exercise to the MPT, meaning that applicants would have to conduct research in one or more databases to answer questions. By making the exercise interactive, other Fundamental Lawyering Skills will be tested, as explained in this article.

2.     Christine A. Corcos (LSU), Legal Uncertainties: COVID-19, Distance Learning, Bar Exams, and the Future of U.S. Legal Education, 8 Canadian J. of Compar. & Contemp. L. 1 (2022).

The COVID-19 pandemic forced the U.S. legal academy and legal profession to make changes to legal education and training very rapidly in order to accommodate the needs of students, graduates, practitioners, clients, and the public. Like most of the public, members of the profession assumed that most, if not all, of the changes would be temporary, and life would return to a pre-pandemic normal.

These assumed temporary changes included a rapid and massive shift to online teaching for legal education, to online administration of the bar exam in some jurisdictions, or the option to offer the diploma privilege in others. Many employers made efforts to accommodate new law graduates and employees who needed to work from home.

As legal educators and the legal profession shift back to ‘normal’, we are now discovering that some of these changes might be rather desirable. Thus, we can begin to look at the last two years as an opportunity to re-evaluate how we teach and learn law and how we might evaluate the competence of those entering the profession in different ways. As we move forward, instead of automatically readopting to the status quo, we can instead examine approaches that would allow us to make headway on solving problems that have been with us for decades.

3.    Christopher Birdsall (Boise State) & Seth Gershenson (American University), The Pro Bono Penalty: Extracurricular Activities and Demographic Disparities in Bar Exam Success, posted to SSRN 19 May 2022.

Demographic disparities in bar exam pass rates are problematic but poorly understood. We investigate a possible explanation: participation in extracurricular activities, which could either distract from bar exam preparation or motivate and prepare students to succeed. Generally, participation in extracurricular activities while in law school does not play a large role in bar exam success. However, there is a significant, arguably causal, penalty associated with one particular activity–pro bono work–most notably in lower-ranked law schools. This penalty is sizable: pro bono work is associated with a 5 percentage point (6%) decrease in the chances of passing the bar exam on the first attempt. This penalty is largest for Black and female students and may explain as much as 20% of the Black-white gap in first-attempt bar pass rates.

4.    Edwin S. Fruehwald, A Companion to Torts: Thinking Like A Torts Lawyer, Chapter One, posted to SSRN 27 May 2022. 

The goal of this book is to teach law students to think like torts lawyers. Thinking like a lawyer means solving a problem to produce a legal solution. This process involves using several types of reasoning in combination, including synthesis (synthesizing rules; inductive reasoning), rule-based reasoning (deductive reasoning), analogical reasoning (reasoning by precedent), distinguishing cases (the opposite of reasoning by analogy), policy-based reasoning, and creativity. A torts lawyer uses these reasoning methods to solve torts problems. This book will 2 include a variety of torts exercises on the different types of legal reasoning to achieve the goal of teaching students to think like torts lawyers.

5.    Andrele Brutus St. Val (Pittsburgh), Survey Says—How to Engage Law Students in the Online Learning Environment, 70 J. Legal Educ. __ (2021).  (H/t, TaxProf Blog).

The pandemic experience has made it clear that not everyone loves teaching or learning remotely. Many professors and students alike are eager to return to the classroom. However, our experiences over the last year and a half have also demonstrated the potentials and possibilities of learning online and have caused many professors to recalibrate their approaches to digital learning. While the tools for online learning were available well before March of 2020, many instructors are only now beginning to capitalize on their potential. The author of this article worked in online legal education before the pandemic, utilizing these tools and exploring ways to make the online experience more effective. This article is the result of her research on online legal education prior to the pandemic, which sheds light on future possibilities for online learning in law schools in post-pandemic times.

The discussion explores various engagement strategies used by online legal educators, assesses students’ perceptions of those strategies, and examines these findings against the backdrop of existing learning theories. The article contributes to the scholarly literature on legal education and pedagogy by tying empirical evidence of student learning preferences to educational theory and identifying concrete strategies for increasing law student engagement and enjoyment.

[Louis Schulze, FIU Law]

An Illusion

Did you know that the collective noun for a group of magicians is an “illusion?”[1] I believe that Academic Support Professionals are the magicians of law school academics, not because we engage in sorcery, but because we do so much hard work behind the scenes that it seems like things just happen.

Last week, I was lucky to be able to share the tricks of the trade (with the best community of colleagues ever!) at the 9^th Annual AASE Conference at the lovely St. Mary’s University School of Law in San Antonio, Texas and on Zoom!  I already knew that ASP folks are the hardest-working, kindest, and most generous people. I was also aware that we are supreme innovators. In short, the brain power in the sessions at our conference could have provided enough energy for the entire state of Texas.[2] And it would have been a clean, renewable source of power!

It was amazing to be in the company of people who truly understand the work—and the flip side of doing so much important work often without having job security or recognition. I know that I am extremely fortunate that my law school is supportive and offers long-term contracts with options for more security,[3] as well as funding for scholarship and conferences. Yet, academic support and bar prep are often seen as—oh wait, actually, we are often not seen at all…

At a faculty meeting last week, after what I consider a big win that added a DEI course graduation requirement,[4] we moved on to an agenda item that tangentially dealt with tenure policy. During this discussion, a tenured, doctrinal faculty member referred to people who had our (ASP and other non-tenure track) faculty status as “faculty with a small f.” As in, essentially, lower case “f” faculty should very clearly not be allowed to vote on tenure policy changes. Yes, I had a big F reaction to that.[5] That was more than just rain on my parade, it was a full-on blizzard: cold and windy. Following my glorious moment in the sun, I was returned to my cubby crumpled and dirty like a kindergartener’s lunchbox after recess.

It is moments like this that make a national conference of all the law school thaumaturges[6] even more imperative for the survival of our profession. We need to work together to collectively ask that the curtain be pulled back so that our doctrinal colleagues[7] can see the work that is often going on out of their sight. There is no magic in what we do, just a lot of hard work that should be transparently visible.

A huge thank you to Afton Cavanaugh and the team at St. Mary’s for solving the huge logistical puzzle that this hybrid conference must have presented!! It was glorious and I am truly enriched by the endless magnificence of this community. I am already looking forward to next year’s 10^th annual AASE conference at Santa Clara Law.[8]

And finally, did you know that the collective noun for a group of doctrinal professors is known as a “pomposity?[9]” 

(Liz Stillman)

 

[1] http://www.collectivenouns.biz/list-of-collective-nouns/collective-nouns-people/

[2] Texas is huge! I knew it was big before, but I really had not understood it until I was there.

[3] A presumptively renewable contract-but not tenure.

[4] I was the leader on this effort, and I am crazy excited that it really happened!

[5] Silently-but I am originally from the Bronx. I’ll just leave it at that.

[6] https://www.dictionary.com/browse/thaumaturge (I had a little fun with google on this…)

[7] Those who don’t already know-there are always going to be allies in every school!!

[8] May 23-25, 2023-save the dates!

[9] http://www.collectivenouns.biz/list-of-collective-nouns/collective-nouns-people/

Associate Director of Bar Programs at Pace

The Elisabeth Haub School of Law at Pace University seeks applicants for the position of Associate Director of Bar Programs. This position presents an opportunity to become a member of a vibrant and supportive law school community that embraces innovation and advancement.  The posting is located here.

The Associate Director will report to the Director of Academic Success and will assist in designing and implementing the bar preparation aspects of Pace’s well-established Academic Success Program.

Job Duties:

Create and implement programs for bar exam success, including workshops, classes, peer support programs, and individual counseling.
Teach classes for third-year students preparing for the bar exam.
Work in the summer and winter Supplemental Bar Skills Program, including teaching and grading written work.

Oversee and train alumni mentors who work in the post-graduation bar exam mentorship program.
Provide administrative support to the department and the Director, including student tracking and data analysis assessing the efficacy of bar programming.

Implement new services relevant to enhancing our students’ performance on the bar exam. Work closely with JD and LL.M students, and law faculty.
Perform other such duties as assigned from time to time.

Qualifications:

J.D. degree, law firm, or similar experience.
Excellent writing and speaking skills.
Membership in at least one bar, a strong academic record, and a desire to work closely with students and faculty.
Prior academic support experience, teaching experience (e.g., legal writing), membership on law review or moot court, and counseling skills are preferred.

Living Courageously

After a couple of very difficult years for our students, ourselves, and the world, author Elizabeth Bernstein writes: "Now, it's time to push ourselves outside our comfort zone."   Bernstein, E., "It's Time to Restore Excitement to Your Life," Wall Street Journal (May 18, 2022).    But how?

Well, Bernstein suggests taking a few chances in your life to be, well, different, challenged, growing, or, to put it in my own words, a bit quirky.  That doesn't mean that you have to quit your job and go tackle Mount Everest but it does mean that change requires, well, change.  It requires us to take a courageous step to try something new. And, because that something is new, it will be uncomfortable.  But living a life of comfort is not necessarily the best life of all, for us or our students, because living in comfort means that we are not being challenged and growing.

As a start, Bernstein suggest picking out some small adventures.  Perhaps having a conversation with someone that you're uncomfortable with (for me its bosses).  Or perhaps it's saying hello to the person behind the counter at the coffee shop and asking them about how they are doing.  Maybe its just a smile (because a smile is never, frankly, just a smile).  Those little things, you'll never know for sure, might be just what the "doctor ordered" to help someone else have a bit of a brighter day.  

You see, adventures are not meant to be lived alone.  Or, as someone from church recently told me, love without relationship is no love at all. So, love boldly.  Live courageous.  And, if you see me at the upcoming AASE conference, feel free to invite me to share in an adventure with you.  I could use a helping hand. We call could, I suspect.  (Scott Johns).

Crowd Control - Bar Exam Style

With the move to the Next Generation bar exam, here's an interesting chart, produced using data from the ABA and printed by the State of California, that might caution about placing too much trust in numbers to do the hard work of measuring competency to practice law.

So let's take a closer look. What do you see?  On the horizontal access, we see cut scores for the jurisdictions varying from low too high.  On the vertical access, we see attorney discipline rates corresponding with those jurisdictions. Except for the two outliers, North Dakota and South Carolina, the chart suggests that bar exam cut scores have no apparent relationship in lowering rates attorney discipline claims.  Or, as the State of California put it:

What the scatter plot shows is that attorney discipline – as measured by private and public discipline per thousand attorneys – appears to have no relationship to the cut score. With so many states using 135 for their cut score, the details of the Figure can be somewhat difficult to tease out. The big picture, however, is clear. At a cut score of 135 the rate of attorney discipline ranges from a low of 1.9 per thousand in West Virginia to 7.9 per thousand in Tennessee. Looking across the entire range of cut scores we see strikingly similar rates of attorney discipline in states with cut scores from 130 – Alabama – all the way to 145 – Delaware. California’s rate of discipline (2.6 per thousand) is just over one-half (55 percent) the rate of discipline in Delaware (4.7 per thousand). Given the vast differences in the operation of different states’ attorney discipline systems, these discipline numbers should be read with caution. But based on the data available, it raises doubts as to whether changing the cut score would have any impact on the incidence of attorney misconduct. As with the research conducted by professors Anderson and Muller, this measure of “misconduct” is admittedly limited to cases where misconduct is detected, reported, and sanctioned. There is however currently no better measure of the actual incidence of attorney misconduct or, more importantly, of public protection.[1]

Granted, as California recognizes, attorney misconduct is perhaps a poor proxy for whether bar exam cut scores relate to attorney competency.  But make not mistake.  Bar exam cut scores, by nature of their very arbitrariness, likewise are imperfect proxies for measuring attorney competency.  

Why is this important?  

Well because state supreme courts are now in pitched conversations about whether to adopt the s0-labeled "Next Generation" bar exam.  The chart below suggests caution because it's easy to place confidence in numbers, more confidence that they deserve, like a friend who has betrayed one's trust. As a person trained in mathematics, count me as a skeptic.  Just picking a number out of "thin air," as the range of cut scores suggest, doesn't compute, in my book, as the proper way to judge whether one is competent to practice law.  So as jurisdictions contemplate big changes to a possible next exam format in several years, let's hold them accountability for the math.  Our students and the public at large deserve nothing less. (Scott Johns).

[1] Final Report 2017 Studies, The State Bar of California, available at: https://www.calbar.ca.gov/Portals/0/documents/reports/2017-Final-Bar-Exam-Report.pdf (last accessed Sep. 16, 2021). 

Vote for AASE Leadership!

Voting is now open! I encourage all AASE members to vote for our slate of candidates, as well as bylaw changes. To view the full list of candidates and cast your vote, visit this link: https://associationofacademicsupporteducators.org/nominations-2022-2023/

Voting is completely anonymous, however, you must be logged into your AASE account to vote.  Don’t forget to scroll to the end so you can vote for ALL positions, as well as our bylaw changes.

Voting will close on Tuesday, May 24^th at 6pm Eastern/5pm Central.

Also, as a reminder, there is still time to register for the AASE conference next week - in person or remote! Afton Cavanaugh has done such an amazing job planning everything, and it is sure to be a phenomenal time. If you have any questions, let us know! I'm so excited to see many of you! Register here: https://associationofacademicsupporteducators.org/events/2022-ninth-annual-aase-conference/

 

Survey says....

I am on the precipice of turning in all my final grades for the spring. I am looking forward to taking a much-needed break before my summer class begins…on Wednesday. What will I do with my abundant “free time” besides walking the dog, feeding the children, laundry, and saving the universe? I’ll probably go through the survey I sent my summer students and pull out the important information to prepare for class.

For the past few summers, I have taught a class for incoming accelerated JD students which is basically a law school success bootcamp. We only meet for six sessions and the class is one credit (pass/fail), but these students are taking their first semester of law school (with a different curriculum than non-accelerated students) over the summer. They will have midterms around the time we are having BBQs, so they need to be quickly brought up to speed. There isn’t a lot of time, so I carefully plan the syllabus and try to get to know students ahead of time by posting a survey.

I always like sending a survey to students before class begins (accelerated or not) because that way I can ask for pronouns and nicknames early. I’ve recently rephrased my nickname question from: “I should call you,” to, “What would you like me to call you?” I did this mainly because every semester at least one student would write their cell phone number in the box below when I used the former phrasing. It did make me wonder if they really wanted me to phone them and I was disappointing them by just chuckling at how literal they were being.

I try to ask some fun questions, like TV shows they have recently loved and whether they have food allergies (I like to bake for my students without harming them). I also ask if there is anything I need to know about them-and offer both some multiple-choice options and a blank box for “other.”  They can check all that apply. One of the choices I offered this summer was, “I have recently been abducted by aliens and enrolling in law school was a condition of my release.” I got 11/21 checks on that box, so I am thinking this will be a fun group. I also got some important pieces of information: I have a lot of students who have been out of school for a while, a bunch have children or parents they are caring for at home, one is pregnant, and one has a degree in musical theater (which is great to keep in mind for when I finally get to stage “ASP: The Musical”).

My final survey question was new for this class. Since we have limited time together, I want to be sure I can offer as much support as possible (support is our middle name, after all). So, I asked, “My most pressing question about this class, or law school in general, is…” and put a text box below for their questions. Here are a few of the questions I got (almost every student who answered the survey had one):

1. What is the most important thing to do to succeed?
2. What are some common mistakes or missteps you see your students take?
3. What proactive steps can I take to ensure that I have a job right after graduation in the field of law I prefer?
4. My interests and enthusiasm regarding a particular field/area of law are still quite varied. Is there a typical semester or point in time where most undecideds choose a specific path?
5. Will I still be able to have normal life?
6. When is a reasonable time in one's law school-career for their anxiety level to decrease to a normal level?
7. Are we gonna live?

These are not questions that can be answered with a shrug and a joke about the traditional law school answer being, “it depends,” even though it might be the right answer to some of them. The last three questions in particular need to be carefully addressed at the start, middle, and finish of classes, semesters, and years in law school.  A simple: “no”, “maybe never”, and “holy sh*t, I really hope so” just aren’t going to suffice.

So, to roughly paraphrase Phineas and Ferb[1], I know what I am going to do tomorrow.

(Liz Stillman)

 

[1] Yes, again, can you believe it? I should really go through the survey question on TV shows and pick something intended for adults….

The Bar Prep Marathon

Congrats to everyone graduating across the country.  Obtaining a J.D. is an amazing accomplishment.  You should celebrate your victories, but for most of you, the J.D. is not your final hurdle.  You still have 10 more weeks of preparation and one more test.  Don't get distracted now.  Finish strong on this last obstacle.

I know many students looked at their bar prep schedule and saw a little time before full time studying begins.  My advice is to start bar prep early.  Every major course pre-recorded all the lectures, so you can start the full course right after graduation.  Don't wait until June.  You need to study approximately 400 billable hours.  Spreading it over 10 weeks increases the likelihood of completing the work.  You can also spend extra time on your weak areas later in bar prep if you are ahead.  

I hope everyone enjoyed graduation.  Congratulate yourself on your accomplishment.  Also know, you have the grit to pass the bar.  Most of you completed most of law school online or in a hybrid format.  You experienced social upheaval while navigating a pandemic.  You already overcame obstacles for the opportunity to take the bar exam.  Seize your opportunity and finish the summer strong.  Good luck!

(Steven Foster)

Empty Nesters

Two out of my three children are “adults.” One lives on her own in another city, one comes home for college breaks, and the third is a junior in high school. People ask me how I feel about having an empty nest in a year or so, and I tell them this: I am not done parenting, we are just moving into a new phase. I field texts about how to do laundry, or whether to purchase a t-shirt, or even with pictures of dogs in New York that look like our dog here in Massachusetts. I get a lot of cooking and baking questions. There is still a lot of parenting happening, it is just different (and sometimes long-distance). This is where we are with our students after they cross the stage at Commencement.

I love the way graduation is titled in a way that suggests both an ending and a beginning. For our students, it is the end of law school and the beginning of their life….as bar applicants. And hopefully, after that, the beginning of their life as licensed lawyers. While we will all wear our uncomfortable garb and silly hats later this month (or maybe you already have?) to celebrate our students’ achievements thus far, it isn’t the end of the relationship we will have with them.

For our colleagues who are engaged in bar prep, very late July will be when the nest is temporarily empty. The rest of us are hopeful that students will still e-mail, ask for recommendations, or even stop by-although there has been less stopping by lately because of the pandemic. There is still a lot of supporting happening, it is just different (and sometimes long-distance).

So, for anyone feeling like their law school nest is empty, you will be happy to know that there are approximately 105 days until orientation (that is just one more day than Phineas and Ferb got for their summer vacation[1]). And then we commence once again...

(Liz Stillman)

[1] https://www.google.com/search?q=phineas+and+ferb+theme+song+lyrics&oq=phineas+and+ferb+theme&aqs=chrome.0.0i512j46i512j69i57j0i512l7.10685j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

Assistant Director of Academic Advising at American University

American University Washington College of Law is seeking an Associate Director of Academic Advising & Policy Development. Due to an internal re-organization, this position will join the Office of Academic Excellence and report to the Assistant Dean of Academic Excellence. We are excited to expand our team and look forward to combining our efforts to increase the position’s capacity to support the WCL student experience.

The link to apply and position summary are below.

Associate Director of Academic Advising & Policy Development

 

Summary/Objective

The Associate Director of Academic Advising is the sole academic advisor for WCL’s 1100 JD students. The person in this position will be responsible for conducting individual academic advising appointments; designing, creating, and delivering programs on academic planning, course selection, and selecting between/among co-curricular activities; and working with the Dean of Students and the Office of the Registrar to assist students in academic jeopardy. In addition, the Academic Advisor is responsible for the development and execution of the 1L Compass program, which serves to orient students to law school in general and WCL in particular. 

Assistant Director of Academic Achievement at Oklahoma City University

OCU School of Law is conducting a search for an Assistant Director of Academic Achievement to start on August 1.  This position will have an opportunity to teach classes, provide voluntary workshops, and work individually with at-risk students.  The Department will have 3 ASPs with programming from pre-matriculation to bar passage.  The position description and place to apply is copied below.

Posting and Application Portal:  https://jobs.silkroad.com/OKCU/StaffCareers/jobs/1270

Position Summary: 

The Assistant Director supports the Academic Achievement department to train law students for the rigor of law school, the bar exam, and the practice of law with academic workshops, courses, and individual coaching.  The Assistant Director will primarily design and implement workshops for students from pre-matriculation through the second year, supervise Academic Fellows, and provide individual tutoring throughout law school and preparation for the bar exam. 

The Assistant Director reports to the Director of Academic Achievement and collaborates with the Student Success Team in other law school departments.  The Assistant Director is a member of the School of Law staff.  Qualified candidates will be eligible for a faculty appointment as an Instructor. 

The planning start date for this position is August 1st. 

Duties and Responsibilities:

Demonstrate an attitude that reflects the mission and values of the University and School of Law.

• Collaborate with the Director of Academic Achievement to refine, improve, coordinate and direct the program of academic achievement including, but not limited to the summer admissions program, the academic support program, and the bar preparation program.
• Design and implement academic support programming for first-year students, including skills workshops, the academic fellow program, and outreach to at-risk students.
• Collaborates as a member of the Student Success Team to provide programming and support for the overall goal of improving student success.
• Work with the faculty to integrate academic support programming into first-year classes.
• Coordinate and provide tutoring to students in one-on-one and group settings.
• Develop, coordinate, evaluate, and monitor remediation/study plans and activities for individual students.
• Develop, evaluate, and administer the Academic Fellow program, including supervising the academic fellows.
• Coordinate with other departments on student success initiatives, including implementing individual student success plans.
• Teach skills-focused courses as assigned by the Associate Dean for Academic Affairs.
• Other duties as assigned.

Required Skills

• Excellent academic record (transcripts will be submitted with application materials)
• Superior written, oral, and interpersonal communication skills (writing sample will be submitted with application materials)
• Excellent organizational skills
• Demonstrated proficiency with technology including MS Office Suite, Internet, common software/applications, and the ability to acquire new technology quickly
• Commitment to working with a diverse population of students, faculty and staff
• Sensitivity to students with varied learning styles, disabilities, backgrounds, etc.
• Ability to work under pressure
• Ability to build and maintain a rapport with students
• Skill in presenting information, presentations and delivering instruction
• Ability to collaborate effectively with School of Law faculty and administrators
• Proficiency at project management, planning, and developing goals.

Required Experience

• A Juris Doctor degree from an ABA-accredited law school is required.
• A minimum of six months of experience is required.  Experience should be in the areas of academic advising, academic support, teaching (adjunct instruction accepted), and/or tutoring within an ABA-accredited law school.
• A suitable combination of education and experience may be substituted for minimum requirements. 

Roe is Me

Did you see the headlines yesterday? In these ongoing unprecedented times, the fact that a draft of a Supreme Court opinion was leaked ahead of the decision is mind-blowing and surprising. The fact that the current U.S. Supreme Court would overturn Roe v. Wade[1] given the opportunity is not. It is exactly like a tornado or tsunami warning: we can see it coming, and although we cannot be certain about where and when it will hit, it is going to hit. So here we are, huddled and waiting for the storm.

I’ve spent years telling my students that the belief in the rule of law is akin to a collective leap of faith, an almost spiritual way of looking at it. I have explained how the last administration made that leap a riskier venture. Today, the chasm we now need to navigate is wider and may even have sharks swimming in the murky area below. Sigh.

I will admit to thinking that the Roe decision was unnecessarily convoluted when I read it in Con. Law. The U.S. Supreme Court didn’t usually give such numerically bright line rules (the fertile octogenarian, anyone?). I thought such an important case should be clearly written and easily understood, but I loved what it stood for-I loved its place in the timeline of Griswold v. Connecticut,[2] Eisenstadt v. Baird[3], Planned Parenthood v. Casey[4]and on to Lawrence v. Texas[5]. But, in all honesty, the right to abortion was barely holding on after Casey, and here we are today.

My first reaction was to ask Amy Coney Barrett to turn in her uterus. I thought she should be banished from the sisterhood for her role in this-and then I stopped. Why am I blaming the only woman who signed on to this? Don’t get me wrong, she is not going to be invited to my birthday party this year (or any year, ever), but my hope that she was one of our own on the inside just because she is a woman wasn’t fair either. Assuming anything-- about anyone-- just because of their gender isn’t right. So, I will despise her actions exactly as much as I despise the actions of the four other justices who have purportedly signed onto this abomination.

I distinctly remember my eldest daughter asking me about abortion when she was about eight (she routinely asked me about really deep things at very inopportune times, usually while I was driving-which as you may know is already a fraught venture in Massachusetts). And I distinctly remember sitting on the edge of her bed, explaining what it was, and telling her that she would never need to worry about it because her body belonged to her.

And now I am a liar.

(Liz Stillman)

 

[1] Roe v. Wade, 410 U.S. 113 (1973).

[2] Griswold v. Connecticut, 381 U.S. 479 (1965).

[3] Eisenstadt v. Baird, 405 U.S. 438 (1972).

[4] Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania v. Casey,
505 U.S. 833 (1992). This was the beginning of pulling the teeth of Roe out.

[5]  Lawrence v. Texas, 539 U.S. 558 (2003).

Balance in Legal Education Presentation Series

The AALS Section in Balance in Legal Education's General Programming Committee are excited to invite you to participate in the Section's second-annual six-part Summer Speed Idea-Sharing Presentation Series.

Each session will feature a collection of brief presentations highlighting different successful approaches to the implementation of the new ABA Standards for Legal Education, specifically Standards 303(b) (professional identity formation), 303(c) (cross-cultural competency, bias, and racism), and 508(b) (law student well-being resources). The speed presentations will be by Q&A and conversation.

The first session in the series will be Tuesday, May 3 @ 4 pm ET.


Moderator:

Natalie Netzel, Assistant Professor of Law and Co-Director of Clinics, Mitchell Hamline School of Law

Speakers & Presentations:

• Janice Craft, Director of Professional Identity Formation and Assistant Professor of Legal Practice

•  Faculty Advising and Professional Identity Formation

• Larry Krieger, Clinical Professor and Co-Director of Clinical Externship Programs, Florida State University College of Law

• Creating a Vision of Possibilities for Joy in the Law

• Lynn Lemoine, Dean of Students, Mitchell Hamline School of Law 

• Creating a Community of “Mutual Care”

• Jerry Organ, Bakken Professor of Law and Co-director of the Holloran Center for Ethical Leadership in the Professions, University of St. Thomas School of Law

• Client Counseling Scenario with Reflection

• Katrina Robinson, Visiting Assistant Professor, University of Oregon School of Law

• Cross-Cultural Competency Exercise

The links for registration are in the google group.

Assistant Dean of Academic and Bar Success at Charleston

Assistant Dean of Academic and Bar Success

The Charleston School of Law seeks applications for a full-time Assistant Dean of Academic and Bar Success, responsible for the following:

• Prepare and teach a set curriculum for academic and bar success, including orientation and a combination of some of the following courses: Academic Skills (a required 1L course), Legal Skills (a required 2L course that focuses on the MPT and career-focused skills), and Bar Preparation (a required 3L course). Grade and provide feedback to students.

• Provide post-graduate bar support and programming, which includes supplemental workshops and one-on-one meetings with graduates as necessary.

• Meet with and assist students on academic probation, who are at-risk, or who otherwise seek assistance with success in law school.

• Provide leadership in adapting our curriculum and academic success initiatives given rising admissions credentials and the anticipated rollout of the NextGen bar exam in 2026.

• Supervise 3 full-time and 1 part-time academic support professionals (who teach a mix of the courses listed above), as well as several adjunct professors and student fellows.

• Serve on the Dean's Executive Leadership Team.
  Qualifications, Requirements, and Preferred Experience:

1. A Juris Doctor degree is required.

2. Bar licensure (active or inactive) in a U.S. jurisdiction is required.

3. Prior experience in academic support and bar support is required.

4. Prior experience supervising other academic support personnel is preferred.

5. Experience teaching academic and bar success courses, such as 1L academic

   skills, MPT courses, and bar preparation courses, is preferred.

6. Knowledge of the NextGen bar exam is preferred.

7. Good interpersonal skills and a commitment to student success are required.

8. Experience interpreting and using student success data to drive decision-making

   is preferred.

9. Familiarity with the relevant ABA standards is required.

Application requirements:

Complete applications consist of a cover letter and resume. Please send application packages as a single PDF to:

Laura Morse
Human Resources Administrator Charleston School of Law

By email to: [email protected]

Or by mail to:

P.O. Box 535 Charleston, SC 29402 Attn: Laura Morse

Review of applications begins immediately. For fullest consideration, please apply by May 15, 2022.