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Focuses on a major barrier to the full entry of blacks into the legal profession: the elaborate system of the American Bar Association (ABA) for accreditation of law schools. Discusses the academic racism and financial racism of the ABA accreditation system. (SLD)

Explores the purpose of law school and its impact on students' perceptions of professional norms. Reviews reasons for student dissatisfaction with law school and examines the current pedagogical and curricular practices. Offers suggestions to improve the relevance of legal education to the real world lawyers will encounter. (SLD)

Discusses how the controversy surrounding Franklin Roosevelt's court-packing plan was crucial in convincing law teachers that engagement with popular controversies through punditry could and indeed should become part of their job description. (EV)

Describes an instructional experiment in a law school torts class; rather than using electronic media to teach students, they were provided with an interactive computer program and required to use it to display their understanding of the subject matter. Discusses the effort's success. (EV)

Explores why the teaching and learning environment in law schools is so important. Reviews models of effective teaching and learning environments, and articulates eight components of an optimal classroom environment for legal education: respect, expectations, support, collaboration, inclusion, engagement, delight, and feedback. (EV)

Asserts that the diversity that law schools strive for today must envision much more than a student body that adequately reflects the larger community: the next step must involve the embrace of structural, curricular, and pedagogical innovation. Attention should be focused on the quality of interactions once minority groups are inside the institution. (EV)

Discusses the impact of trends in higher education regarding increasing demands for accountability, greater financial efficiency, increasing use of technology, and changes in organization and governance. Discusses the implications for law schools. (EV)

Surveyed law schools to see if they offered bar preparation courses or other programs and whether they were effective. Detailed findings include that about 39 percent do offer such courses. (EV)

Describes how medical schools have successfully used the "standardized patient" teaching technique, and the use of "standardized clients" at New York Law School. Proposes establishing consortiums among small groups of law schools to implement the standardized client technique, and using the technique in high stakes testing. (EV)

Evaluates arguments against the "U.S. News and World Report" law school rankings (students rely on them too much, the rankings are imprecise and unscientific, and they measure the wrong things or fail to measure the right things). Discusses why the criticisms are flawed and why the rankings are useful and important. (EV)

Compared law school mission statements with questionnaire responses about the school's program, overall direction, and values. Found that while many law schools are addressing issues effectively, they are not doing so through the use of a mission statement. In some areas, top-ranked schools have a significantly different focus, and there are major inconsistencies between stated objectives and questionnaire responses. (EV)

Discussion of the glass ceiling for women in legal education first examines categories of law school personnel, especially the fast-growing category of legal-writing teachers, and then considers trends in law school hiring. Concludes that law school trends mirror those in college and university hiring generally, suggesting the weakening and eventual death of tenure. Implications for women are drawn. (DB)

Asserting that law schools have entered an era when increasingly the law dean is a "rainmaker"--public envoy, professional fund raiser, and alumni booster. Considers implications for universities, colleges, faculties, students, and the deans themselves. (EV)

Used statistics from publicly available sources to establish how women are treated in legal education. Found that women will soon be the majority of students; although they have higher undergraduate grades than men, that differential reverses in the first year of law school. Also, women faculty are paid less than comparable male colleagues and achieve tenure less. (EV)

Reports on a survey of 177 law schools which identified widespread institutional indifference to plagiarism and large disparities in law schools' definitions of and punishments for plagiarism. Finds law schools have failed to teach students the rudiments of proper attribution and offers a definition of plagiarism, suggested disciplinary sanctions, and sample school policy statements. (DB)

Describes a course on civil litigation with the federal government at Drake University Law School (Iowa). Notes course objectives, including the practical aspects of federal government civil litigation, the concept of sovereign immunity in a democratic society, theories of statutory interpretation, and use of attorney fee shifting in such cases. (DB)

Describes and evaluates a three-year-old program at Franklin Pierce Law Center (New Hampshire) to improve classroom teaching, noting a national survey of law schools which found few such programs. Describes the school's decision to emphasize peer review, to hire a visiting professor recognized as a gifted teacher, and its cooperative teaching efforts. Appended is a peer classroom observation guide. (DB)

Describes the planning, implementation, and results of an experiment at Brooklyn Law School (New York) to teach legal writing skills by a simulation activity which integrates client interviewing skills with the process of composing the client-advice letter. Experience with this approach over three years is recounted. (DB)

Review of the history of clinical education at Yale Law School focuses on the influence of practitioners versus scholars. Discusses evolution from practitioner-based apprenticeship approaches, to university-based legal education, to student attempts to inject a measure of realism into theoretical studies through work in local legal aid offices, to development of an organized clinical education program, to the present program. (DB)

A law professor recounts her three years' experience serving as associate dean at Cleveland-Marshall College of Law, noting her original motivations for taking the position, changes in how colleagues treated her, difficulties in dealing with faculty governance, and her eventual decision to leave administration and return to teaching. (DB)

Argues that law schools systematically and pervasively fail to study and teach about the legal profession. This is seen as an ethical failure by the legal academy to meet the needs of its three principal constituencies: students; the bar; and society. Three concrete strategies that all law schools should undertake to address issues graduates will encounter are outlined. (MSE)

A discussion of the new era of legal education in Russia examines the general structure of the legal system and related careers, legal education within and outside the universities, costs, and curriculum design. A more detailed look at the St. Petersburg State University law school examines the curriculum, teaching methods, testing, instructional materials, library resources, faculty, research, and students. (MSE)

Describes the Massachusetts School of Law's efforts to reshape its curriculum and programs to prepare graduates better for the practice of law in the contemporary professional setting, including professional development and mentoring for young faculty; a curriculum that includes heavy emphasis on writing, speaking, and other practice skills; inclusion of ethics instruction and community involvement. (MSE)

Examines the role of law schools in creating emotionally dysfunctional students, and suggests ways in which they might act to produce healthier law students and practitioners, and perhaps a more functional legal system. Discusses lack of social and emotional support, lack of physical activity, and women's issues; offers problems and solutions for each. (Author/MSE)

A 1996 Association of American Law Schools survey of 83 institutions investigated recent developments in course and seminar additions to the law school curriculum. Results are reported here, including an analysis of the 25 most popular areas for curricular innovation and a dozen fields in which new courses were less common. Trends are identified and discussed. (MSE)

Chronicles a period of unrest over faculty tenure at the University of Minnesota (1995-97), focusing on the law school's role in the controversy and its resolution. Tells the story in three parts: proposed changes to tenure regulations in 1995; the part played by the university's regents, and the faculty's response; and intervention by the law school dean and faculty. (MSE)