Gerry Hess and Michael Hunter Schwartz
Institute Co-Directors
Gerry Hess
Professor Hess has taught at Gonzaga University School of Law since 1988. He founded the Institute for Law School Teaching in 1991, served as its director until 2004, became the co-director of the Institute for Law Teaching and Learning in 2008. He has served as a co-editor of The Law Teacher, as a member of the Advisory Committee for the Journal of Legal Education, and as an inaugural member of the editorial board of the Canadian Legal Education Annual Review.
Professor Hess is a co-author and co-editor of five books on teaching and learning in law school: Techniques for Teaching Law (1999), Teaching the Law School Curriculum (2003), Teaching Law by Design: Engaging Students from the Syllabus to the Final Exam (2009), Teaching Law by Design for Adjuncts (2010), and Techniques for Teaching Law 2 (forthcoming, 2011). He has published twelve journal articles on faculty development, curriculum design, and teaching and learning in law school. He has published articles in the areas of commercial law, civil procedure, and environmental law.
Professor Hess is a frequent speaker at national conferences about legal education. He conducts workshops on law teaching at law schools in the United States, Canada, and Japan. Prof. Hess has been the chair of the AALS Teaching Methods Section and is a faculty member and educational consultant at the National Judicial College.
Michael Hunter Schwartz
Professor Schwartz is a co-author of Teaching Law by Design: Engaging Students from the Syllabus to the Final Exam (2009). He also is the author of a contract law text, Contracts, A Contect and Practice Casebook (2009), and he is the series designer and editor for a casebook series based on his model for the contracts text that implements best practices in instructional design, the Carnegie Foundation's Educating Lawyers: Preparation for the Practice of Law (2007), and the Clinical Legal Education Association's Best Practices for Legal Education (2007). Professor Schwartz also authored two books designed to help students succeed in law school, on the bar exam and in law practice, Expert Learning for Law Students (2d ed. 2008) and Pass the Bar! (2006), two law review articles and five shorter works addressing various topics relating to law school teaching and learning, and is a named contributing author to Best Practices for Legal Education.
Professor Schwartz has delivered presentations on teaching and learning topics at conferences sponsored by the International Society for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, the American Association of Law Schools, the Center for Computer-Assisted Legal Instruction, the Institute for Law School Teaching, the American Bar Association, the Practicing Law Institute, the State Bars of New York and Kansas, the Southeastern Association of Law Schools, the Legal Writing Institute, and the Association of Legal Writing Directors. Professor Schwartz has delivered law teaching and learning presentations as an invited speaker at more than 30 law schools around the country and consulted with a number of law schools regarding the development and staffing of their academic support programs. Professor Schwartz is the Immediate Past Chair of the AALS Balance in Legal Education Section and is the secretary of the AALS Academic Support Section.
