Examines the teaching methods of David Wilkins, an African American Harvard Law School professor considered an exciting teacher by his students and colleagues. Describes his skill in getting students to attend class, engage in legal thinking, feel comfortable in the classroom, and learn the formal rituals and procedures for the court. (SM)

This article argues that the culture and practice of legal education in the United States functions to dehumanize law students and potentially produce one-dimensional lawyers in the service of corporate interests and the capitalist status quo. These lawyers are trained to serve not only as the guardians of legal rights, social entitlements and…

Background: To overcome the "teacher bandwidth problem" in supporting large groups of students, both automated process support (cueing) and face-to-face feedback by peers during small group work (collaboration) can be provided to students. Aim: The purpose of this experimental study was to examine whether a multimedia practical…

This book, written for individuals contemplating a career in law, presents insights about the legal profession from 28 of the nation's top lawyers, judges, and legal scholars. Updated to address the critical issues facing the legal profession in the aftermath of the 1980's, the revised edition reflects the changing marketplace for lawyers and…

This manual is intended to serve as a resource book for law professors and program directors who would like to conduct a program for teaching law students to instruct the public in their areas of the law. Over 30 law schools nationwide offer credit or compensation to law students to teach in the community, primarily in high schools, but also in…

Although law professors often say that first year law students need training to "think like lawyers," many law students survive law school by practicing the "skill" of rote memory. It is when they take the bar examination or actually begin to work in a law office that they need the faculty of analytical thinking, for notes must…

A study compared the attitudes toward change held by students preparing for careers as teachers, nurses, medical doctors, and lawyers. It was hypothesized that: (1) education majors are less likely to be open to change than other students; (2) education and nursing ("semi-professions") majors are less likely to be open to change than other…

Despite the myths and the movies, law teaching does little more than the most obvious things for its students. It is a sometimes clever, often boring, initiation rite for the legal profession, and it serves up reams of information about the law. However, the materials of law are the materials of human beings, and these experiences have to be…

The textbook, written for first year law students and for paralegals, or legal assistants, attempts to break down the components of legal research and writing and to identify effective starting points for these activities. It was designed for use in a classroom setting or on-the-job as a dictionary/reference source. The first part, Legal Research,…

This book contains information on legal education opportunities for minority groups, focusing especially on scholarships and special programs. The bulk of the book consists of a directory of the approximately 135 law schools that responded to a questionnaire. For each school, information is offered on: total size, freshman class size, out-of-state…

A study, conducted to test the influence of biorhythms on law school performance, focused on academic disadvantages, absenteeism and withdrawal, biorhythm compatibility among students and teacher, and study efficiency. One conclusion is that outside employment and basic ability are more important than biorhythms in determining success. (JMD)

The development of Georgetown University Law Center's clinical law course, which involves law students teaching street law to high school students and inmates, is presented. Information on program origins, training and clinical experience of law students, street law curriculum, and the National Street Law Institute are included. (JMD)

The problem method is defined and legal education objectives and achievement of those objectives by the problem method are examined. The use of the problem method in specific courses is discussed. An appendix lists problem method materials currently available to law teachers. (Author/MLW)

This report proposes an approach to formalize the law school admission process by first requiring law schools to delineate the characteristics they want their incoming classes to possess (e.g., types of undergraduate major, percent of in-state versus out-of-state residents, and levels of cultural diversity). These are then used as constraints on…

This study was designed to address questions of differential validity and questions of differential prediction in the law school admission process. The former were evaluated by comparing the magnitude of validity coefficients resulting from both simple and multiple correlations between first-year performance in law school and the traditional…