Howard University School of Law had a problem, and school officials knew it. Over a 20-year period, 40 percent of its graduates who took the Maryland bar exam failed it on their first try. During the next 24 months--the time frame required to determine its "eventual pass rate"--almost 90 percent of the students did pass. What they did…

The literature on student academic success of law students is limited to mostly single institution studies, and as such, a nationwide, multi-institutional empirical study of the factors that predict student academic success is greatly needed by higher education scholars, law school admission officers, faculty, and administrators. This dissertation…

Recent law school graduates face the tightest job market in years. Amid lingering industrywide uncertainties, officials at some law schools are scrambling to ensure that underrepresented minorities get jobs, especially law schools not customarily tapped by the country's largest law firms. In some of the more striking measures, a dean will troop…

This article focuses on the formation of conceptions of professional responsibility. Perspectives developed by the moral philosopher Larry May, supported by the social theory of learning, constitute the main analytical tools for the interpretation of law and psychology students' conceptions of professional responsibility by the end of higher…

Controversy surrounding the use of race-conscious admissions can be partially resolved with improved empirical knowledge of the effects of racial diversity in educational settings. We use a national sample of law students nested in 64 law schools to test the complex and largely untested theory regarding the effects of educational diversity on…

As a result of the transformation that has taken place in Russia, people there today are living in a different country with a different name, a different political system, a different present and future. For this reason, the problem of identifying with this new "different thing," the foundation of which still, to a considerable extent,…

Purpose: This case study aims to provide a critical evaluation of the decision by the University of Wolverhampton's School of Legal Studies to develop a number of work-based learning modules, offered as part of the undergraduate programme. It seeks to examine why the School has taken the approach of embedding work-based learning into what has…

This study examined legal writing as it was represented in legal memoranda prepared by first-semester law students at 12 different law schools. The study was based on the cumulative judgments of the instructors and professors of law in those institutions, humanities specialists at the Educational Testing Service, and two legal consultants. A…

The author suggests that interviewing is a skill that can be learned, and describes a program designed especially for law students that is based on the fundamentals of assertiveness training. (Author/HMV)

Four different groups of respondents completed a set of simulation exercises intended to reflect lawyering skills involved in client interviews. Results suggest the appropriateness of simulation exercises as measures of clinical skills in legal education and the effectiveness of clinical programs in promoting development of such skills in law…

Reports a study which examined the performance of 41 law students in an Economic Analysis of Law course. Conclusions are that prior formal study of economics appears to have no effect on performance in law school economics courses. The main determinant is performance in other law school courses. (KC)

Describes how law reviews are debating whether to change the qualification rules and competitions so that more minority students are admitted as members. (EV)

Describes "The Southworth Project," an effort to bring together a small group of law students and journalism students to generate in-depth coverage of a Supreme Court case involving students, the University and the First Amendment. Examines the Southworth Project in detail and explains how the Project ideas developed. Notes the project's…

Based on the results of a Phase 1 investigation into the nature of legal writing, a prototype writing assessment, the Diagnostic Writing Skills Test (DWST) for entering law students was developed. The DWST is composed of two multiple-choice testlets based on prompts and responses to the Law School Admission Test (LSAT) Writing Sample. It contains…

Test takers were asked to report which, if any, methods they used to help prepare for the Law School Admission Test (LSAT). The study began with the 1991-1992 academic testing year and ended with the 1996-1997 academic testing year. More than 100,000 students responded in each of the years, with the exception of a smaller sample in 1996-1997…