scholarly journals Extra Time as an Accommodation

2008 ◽  
Vol 69 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ruth Colker
Keyword(s):  
Empirical Study ◽  
Standard Method ◽  
Rank Order ◽  
Law School ◽  
Law Students ◽  
Extra Time ◽  
Admissions Test ◽  
The Law

Although the provision of extra time has become the standard method of accommodating students with various disabilities when they take the Law School Admissions Test (LSAT) or in-class timed exams, this Article suggests that we consider other means of attaining fairness on exams. Through a survey of the psychometric literature, as well as a modest empirical study, this Article argues that the rank order of students is likely to be significantly affected by the type of examination instrument used. This Article places the psychometric literature on examination results in the context of testing of prelaw students as well as law students and suggests that we place less emphasis on timed instruments in ranking students.

Nurturing Commitment in the Legal Profession: Student Experiences with the Osgoode Public Interest Requirement

2009 ◽  
Vol 10 (6-7) ◽  
pp. 1087-1094 ◽  
Author(s):  
Janet Leiper
Keyword(s):  
Public Interest ◽  
Teacher Educator ◽  
Law School ◽  
Law Students ◽  
Student Experiences ◽  
First Year ◽  
Profession Student ◽  
Ethics Course ◽  
The Law ◽  
The Many

“Eye-opening,” “disheartening,” and “inspiring” are some of the words used by law students who met in 2008–2009 to discuss their mosaic of experience in the field doing public interest work. These students had returned from placements under the first mandatory public interest requirement to be introduced in a Canadian law school (the Osgoode Public Interest Requirement, OPIR). OPIR arose from questions about the relationship between what is learned in law school and what is required to be a professional. Academics have challenged each other to do more to instill an “ethos of professionalism” during law school. Others have suggested that law students who do not receive exposure to the world outside the walls of the law school carry an “idealized conception of the profession” and are often unaware of the many practice contexts available to them. Others have warned that if ethical and professional responsibilities are not modeled and articulated for students, that teaching only the “law of lawyering” does not prepare students for becoming ethical lawyers. Teacher-educator Lee Shulman has bluntly accused law schools of “failing miserably” at connecting its lessons in how to “think like a lawyer” with how to “act like a lawyer.” For years, there have been similar concerns raised about the decline of professionalism among lawyers, both in Canada and in the U.S. A survey of Osgoode graduates revealed that students wanted more opportunities to engage with the community and to experience non-traditional forms of law practice. Osgoode Hall Law School grappled with many of these questions, and in 2007 it approved changes to the curriculum, including a new first year Ethics course (Ethical Lawyering in a Global Community, ELGC) and OPIR. In addition to the more traditional first year mandatory course load, Osgoode Hall law students must also complete ELGC, a minimum of 40 hours of public interest work and then engage in a discussion or written exercise reflecting on their experiences. These reflections are a valuable lens for seeing the profession and the administration of justice through the eyes of first and second year law students. Their experiences remind us in the profession that learning can flow in both directions.

scholarly journals Perceptions and attitudes with regard to public international law: empirical evidence from law students in the city of São Paulo

2017 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Marcel Kamiyama
Keyword(s):  
International Law ◽  
School Curriculum ◽  
Sao Paulo ◽  
Law School ◽  
Law Students ◽  
São Paulo ◽  
Public International Law ◽  
Perceptions And Attitudes ◽  
The Law ◽  
The City

This article empirically examines, by means of a survey conducted at four universities in São Paulo, two issues related to the teaching of international law in Brazil: (1) what law students think of the discipline as a material branch of the law (its effectiveness, legitimacy etc.) and (2) what they think of the discipline as a component of the law school curriculum. The first part draws upon the semiological concept of “myth” in order to paint a picture of students’ views about the place of international law in the world, as well as upon quantitative data to assess their understandings about compliance with international norms. The second part, which also relies on quantitative and qualitative data, describes students’ ideas about how international law should be taught (if at all). The responses paint a picture of mild student scepticism and dissatisfaction with teaching methods that invite a number of questions for reflection, which are raised in the final part. 

scholarly journals ‘Placing’ the other: final year law students’ ‘imagined’ experience of rural and regional practice within the law school context

2012 ◽  
pp. 1-10
Author(s):  
Trish Karen Mundy
Keyword(s):  
Narrative Analysis ◽  
Student Attitudes ◽  
Research Study ◽  
School Context ◽  
Law School ◽  
Law Students ◽  
Law Schools ◽  
Research Findings ◽  
The Law ◽  
Depth Interviews

This paper discusses the partial findings from a research study involving a narrative analysis of in-depth interviews with twelve final year law students. The research explored student attitudes to, and perceptions of, legal practice in rural, regional and remote (RRR) communities – that is, their ’imagined experience’. The research findings suggests that, at least in the context of the non-regional law school, the rural/regional is both absent and ‘other’, revealing the ‘urban-centric’ nature of legal education and its failure to adequately expose students to rural and regional practice contexts that can help to positively shape their ‘imagined’ experience. This paper argues that all law schools must take up the challenge of rural inclusiveness by integrating a sense of ‘place-consciousness’ into the law curriculum.

The Law of Confusion: An Examination of Misunderstanding, Mistake, and Ignorance in Contract Law

2018 ◽  
Vol 45 (2) ◽  
pp. 347-353
Author(s):  
NORMAN OTTO STOCKMEYER
Keyword(s):  
Contract Law ◽  
Law School ◽  
Law Students ◽  
States Of Mind ◽  
The Law

ABSTRACTCourts have distinguished between several forms of confusion on the part of parties to a contract. This article examines the leading cases defining these related states of mind and their differing legal effects. It offers a fresh look at old chestnuts familiar to generations of law students: cases involving two sailing ships, a pregnant cow, and an uncut diamond. And it shares revealing backstories rarely mentioned in law school.

The Disastrous First Fund-Raising Campaign in Legal Education: The Harvard Law School Centennial, 1914–1920

2013 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 535-578
Author(s):  
Bruce A. Kimball
Keyword(s):  
World War I ◽  
Legal Education ◽  
The United States ◽  
Fund Raising ◽  
Law School ◽  
Law Students ◽  
New Venture ◽  
Law Schools ◽  
The Law ◽  
The University

Between 1915 and 1925, Harvard University conducted the first national public fund-raising campaign in higher education in the United States. At the same time, Harvard Law School attempted the first such effort in legal education. The law school organized its effort independently, in conjunction with its centennial in 1917. The university campaign succeeded magnificently by all accounts; the law school failed miserably. Though perfectly positioned for this new venture, Harvard Law School raised scarcely a quarter of its goal from merely 2 percent of its alumni. This essay presents the first account of this campaign and argues that its failure was rooted in longstanding cultural and professional objections that many of the school's alumni shared: law students and law schools neither need nor deserve benefactions, and such gifts worsen the overcrowding of the bar. Due to these objections, lethargy, apathy, and pessimism suffused the campaign. These factors weakened the leadership of the alumni association, the dean, and the president, leading to inept management, wasted time, and an unlikely strategy that was pursued ineffectively. All this doomed the campaign, particularly given the tragic interruptions of the dean's suicide and World War I, along with competition from the well-run campaigns for the University and for disaster relief due to the war.

The Rise of Theological Schools in America

1937 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 260-273
Author(s):  
William Warren Sweet
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
College Students ◽  
The United States ◽  
Law School ◽  
Law Students ◽  
Theological Seminary ◽  
Law Schools ◽  
Professional Schools ◽  
Theological Schools ◽  
The Law

Professional Schools in the United States, whether of medicine, law, engineering, or theology, are of relatively recent orgin. It is a matter of interest that the ministry was the first profession in America for which a technical and standardized training was provided. While the first law school in America was founded in the same year as the oldest theological seminary (1784), the courses were loosely organized and there was no definitely prescribed amount of work required of graduation and no academic requirement for the practice of law. In all the institutions where there were law departments or law schools, even as late as the middle of the last century, the law students were considered as distinctly inferior to the regular college students.

scholarly journals “Bush Law 101”: Realising Place Conscious Pedagogy in the Law Curriculum

2016 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 83-102
Author(s):  
Amanda Kennedy ◽  
◽  
Trish Mundy ◽  
Jennifer M. Nielsen ◽  
◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
School Curriculum ◽  
Law School ◽  
Law Students ◽  
Collaborative Reflection ◽  
Pedagogical Tool ◽  
Team Members ◽  
Funded Project ◽  
The Law ◽  
Education Resource ◽  
Regional Australia

In 2012, a team of academics from six universities worked on an OLT-funded project, ‘Rethinking Law Curriculum: developing strategies to prepare law graduates for practice in rural and regional Australia’. The project was motivated by the declining proportion of lawyers being attracted to and remaining in practice in rural and regional Australia. The main outcome of the project was an open education resource designed to sensitise students to the realities of the rural and regional legal practice context in the form of a customisable curriculum package that can be embedded as components within existing units of study, or developed as a stand-alone unit. Three of the team members have now implemented the curriculum package within their law school programs, two in the form of a stand-alone elective unit delivered to undergraduate law students, and the third to support placement programs for law and paralegal students. Applying the process of peer observation and collaborative reflection, this paper reports on their experiences to offer insights on how to adapt and integrate the ‘Rethinking law’ package within the law school curriculum. In particular, this paper will discuss the significance of place-consciousness as a pedagogical tool, and the capacity of the ‘Rethinking Law’ package to encourage law students to ‘re-imagine’ careers in rural and regional Australia and their role as the country’s future lawyers.

scholarly journals The Work of the Commercial Courts.

1921 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 6-20 ◽  
Author(s):  
T. E. Scrutton
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
The United States ◽  
Law School ◽  
Law Students ◽  
Prodigal Son ◽  
Legal Subject ◽  
The Law ◽  
To Come ◽  
The University ◽  
Commercial Courts

During the last Long Vacation—which I am afraid, by the way, will be the last long vacation—I Was just about starting out to indulge in a pastime which a don of the rival, but much inferior, university has described as “putting little balls into little holes with instruments singularly unadapted for the purpose” when a letter was put into my hand with an American stamp and a United States postmark. I opened it hastily and glanced at it, and gathered the impression that some unknown society in the United States was inviting me to proceed there in the month of November to deliver an address on some legal subject. I was flattered and puzzled. I threw the letter on the table and went out to indulge in the aforesaid pastime. It was not till I got home and read the letter carefully that I discovered what it was all about. I gathered that your Downing Professor, who prefers to spend his holiday in a dry climate—a bone-dry climate—was conveying to me the request of the University Law Society that I should come back to my old university and my old college and speak to the law students, and I was very much flattered and grateful. I felt a little, however, like the Prodigal Son, for I thought that for the Cambridge Law Society and the Law School of Cambridge to invite a man who had paid little attention to them while he was up, to come and address them, was heaping coals of fire upon his head.

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