Implementing Best Practices and Educating Lawyers
Session 2 Workshops

Tuesday, June 23, 2009 – 10:45 a.m.-12:00 p.m.

[A] "Leaps of Faith": Jumping into Interactive Teaching Methods

Kris Franklin, New York Law School and Rebecca Flanagan, University of Connecticut

This program will focus on designing and developing interactive experiences in law classes. Participants will build an interactive classroom exercise together, and discuss both the design process and common blocks to experiential pedagogy. Those attending the session should leave with both some concrete models and ideas about specific interactive classroom exercises, as well as having carefully considered, and begun to break down, some of the implicit barriers to adopting this style of teaching more generally.

[B] Introducing 1Ls to "Thinking Like a Lawyer"

Debra R. Cohen, University of Baltimore School of Law

"Thinking like a lawyer" is critical thinking applied to law. Students come to law school with general critical thinking skills but, like the definition of "thinking like a lawyer," these skills are often somewhat amorphous. After discussing the component elements of "thinking like a lawyer," I will suggest some teaching strategies to assist students in focusing on, and honing, their existing critical thinking skills, and how this facilitates their ability to transfer these skills to the legal arena. In particular I will offer suggestions on focusing students on breaking down compound notions into the component parts and identifying and questioning assumptions.

[C] Why Tax Rules: Teaching Students about Clients' Biggest Moments through Tax

Leah Witcher Jackson, Baylor Law School

Tax law impacts most major decisions – e.g. choice of entity for new ventures, optimal purchase and finance terms, family and estate planning, charitable giving, etc. Tax classes can be used to teach practical aspects of common transactions, and tax should be integrated into the study of transactions and decisions in non-tax classes. This workshop will include several examples, such as reviewing real estate closing documents and financial statements to teach income tax, using entity tax law to teach about the life cycle and legal issues of various entities, and requiring students to learn Excel to create financial statements.

[D] The Village Approach to Raising Professional Lawyers

Terri Davlantes, Florida Coastal School of Law

After being bewildered by numerous instances of uncivility and unprofessionalism by students that left us scratching our heads in amazement, the school decided to take action. We garnered the support of faculty, staff, alumni, local practitioners, the state bar association, and most importantly, the students. This workshop will examine instances of unprofessional behavior, many of them so humorous that we think we need to write a book, and discuss approaches schools can take to develop a proactive approach to promoting professionalism.

[E] Integrating Writing into Casebook Courses without Significantly Increasing Grading

Karen J. Sneddon, Walter F. George School of Law, Mercer University

This workshop highlights techniques to integrate writing into traditional casebook courses. The workshop will tackle the issues typically cited for not incorporating writing into traditional casebook courses, such as lack of professor expertise in writing instruction, time constraints, and grading demands. The featured active learning techniques will range from in-class exercises that take as little as five minutes of class time to extended projects to be completed outside of class time. Litigation and transactional writing opportunities will be included. Various methods of assessment, including group edits, structured peer reviews, and self-assessment, will be addressed. Workshop participants will try selected activities.