Upcoming Best Practices-related Events

Recent Best Practices-related Events

Past Best Practices-related Events

Best Practices Powerpoint Presentations

Upcoming Events:

 

April 2010 - Alternative Bar Licensing Conference
Franklin Pierce Law Center and the Society of American Law Teachers (SALT) are co-hosting a small national conference of law faculty, law deans, state Supreme Court justices, and state Bar Examiners interested in learning more about Franklin Pierce Law School's Daniel Webster Scholar Honors Program (DWS) with an eye toward potentially developing a similar program in their states. 

DWS is designed to help make students "client ready."  Students enrolled in DWS take a variety of doctrinal courses, simulation courses, clinics, and externships.  Professionalism experiences are infused through this course of study.  DWS students develop a portfolio containing both written and videotaped material.  Their portfolio and skills performances are assessed by law faculty, practitioners, Justices of the NH Supreme Court , NH Bar Examiners, and "standardized clients." Students successfully completing the DWS program are licensed in NH without having to take the traditional bar exam.

Please contact Tim Floyd, Chair of the SALT Subcommittee on Alternatives to the Bar Exam, at Floyd_tw@law.mercer.edu to get more information about the upcoming April conference. For more information on DWS click here.

April 9-10, 2010 - "Challenges in Constructing and Reconstructing Experiential Education Programs
University of Minnesota Law will host a curriculum and development roundtable where, selected clinical and experiential program faculty will present working documents to be discussed in facilitated groups. This will be an opportunity for peer collaboration in responding to the Carnegie Report, Best Practices, and the MacCrate Report.  The organizers hope to provide a forum for the publication and dissemination of papers defining issues, outlining strategies, and addressing needs in the changing experiential education environment.

For more information contact Ms. Lori Peterson at pete6294@umn.edu.

April 10, 2010 - "Teaching Law for Engaged Learning"
This one-day conference for new and experienced legal educators interested in developing as teachers will take place at the Elon University School of Law in Greensboro, North Carolina.  The conference co-sponsors are the Institute for Law Teaching and Learning (Gonzaga and Washburn) and the Center for Engaged Learning in the Law (Elon). The conference will consist of four sessions: (1) course and class planning; (2) teaching methods; (3) assessment and exams; and (4) developing as a teacher.

For more information on this conference, and for registration details, click here.

May 4-8, 2010 - "Answering the Call for Reform:  Using Outcomes Assessment, Critical Theory and Strategic Thinking to Implement Change." 
The 2010 AALS Conference on Clinical Legal Education will take place at the Renaissance Harborplace Baltimore Hotel in Baltimore, Maryland.  The Conference's planning committee has described the event as follows:

Best Practices for Legal Education and the Carnegie Report, Educating Lawyers, have stimulated a conversation about change in many law schools, including about how and whether to educate lawyers for practice.  As professors who have played a central role in educating graduates for practice and in pushing reform in legal education, clinicians have been and will be an important voice in these conversations.  This Conference aims to provide clinical educators with knowledge and skills needed for improving their own programs and participating meaningfully in institutional change.  The conference's goal is to empower clinicians and other faculty whether their school is deeply engaged in discussions about Carnegie and Best Practices or whether the conversation has not even begun.  To that end, the conference will follow an arc that considers the possibility of change in our own teaching (through examination of outcomes-based approaches), in the vision of lawyering we employ and transmit to our students (through engagement of the role of critical perspectives in effecting positive change), and, finally, in our clinical programs, academic institutions and legal education as a whole (through examination of theoretical models that explore how change occurs).

To view the request for proposals click here.
For more information on the conference contact, Susan Bryant, City University of New York School of Law, Chair (bryant@mail.law.cuny.edu).

May 27, 2010 - Assessment And Student Outcomes Conference - Implications Of The Proposed ABA Standard On Student Learning Outcomes

The recently proposed ABA Standard on Student Learning Outcomes makes clear that law schools will need to be more versed in assessing and measuring the development of their students. This conference seeks to further the dialogue by introducing in more detail methods by which such assessment may be accomplished. This one-day conference will be hosted by the Charlotte School of Law. Please refer to http://www.charlottelaw.edu/assessmentconference/ for more information about the conference and to register online.

To learn more about the ABA's Student Learning Outcomes, click here.

December 10-11, 2010 - "Teaching in a Transformative Era: The Law School of the Future"
Hosted by SALT, at the William S. Richardson School of Law in Honolulu, Hawaii, the conference's
theme will examine the most pressing challenges law schools face in the 21st century.  Speakers will discuss "justice" in various socio-economic settings, student diversity and rising indebtedness, as well as issues affecting law faculty, such as tenure and accreditation standards. For more information, click here.

SALT is seeking ideas for a range of sessions including panels and workshops that fit within the conference themes, and are encouraging proposals from small groups of three or four as well as from individuals.  If you are proposing a panel discussion, please note whether you would be open to an additional speaker.  We welcome a variety of session formats from formal papers to more informal discussion topics.  Please send your proposals to Ngai Pindell (ngai.pindell@unlv.edu) by March 15, 2010, proposals will be accepted on a rolling basis.

 

Recent Best Practices Events: 

December 4, 2009 - "Developing and Defining Measurable Goals for Teaching Law Students"

Hosted by Albany Law School, the conference focused on the importance of setting measurable learning goals and implementing them in both the clinic and non-clinic classroom setting. Participants discussed both general trends in curriculum reform and specific ways to develop goals to measure student learning.

Professor Roy Stuckey, author of Best Practices for Legal Education and a Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Law at the University of South Carolina School of Law, spoke about "Setting Measureable Goals for Law Student Teaching," calling out legal education for preparing students to think like appellate judges rather than lawyers.

The conference was sponsored by the AALS Section on Legal Education, Albany Law School, Syracuse University College of Law, University at Buffalo Law School and Vermont Law School.

• Conference Agenda
  
• Professor Corrine Roth Smith & Professor Theresa Ward - Pedagogy & Course Goals
  [MP3 Audio]
• Psychoeducational Laboratory Teaching Assessment
• Assessments Mapped to Proficiencies and Dispositions for Candidates in Inclusive Elementary and Special Education
• Syracuse University Psychoeducational Teaching Laboratory Consulation Skills
• Teacher Education Proficiencies & Unit Dispositions
  
• Professor Roy Stuckey - Keynote Address: Setting Measurable Goals for Law Student Teaching [MP3 Audio]
• Professor Stuckey's Powerpoint Slides (.pdf)
  
• ABA Student Learning Outcomes - Draft for Jan. 2010 Meeting
• "The Perfect Storm" for Legal Education Reform, by Dean Thomas Guernsey

 

Past Best Practices Events:

March 19-21, 2010 - Spring 2010 Workshop of the National Institute for Teaching Ethics and Professionalism (NIFTEP) 
This NIFTEP workshop took place at the Red Top Mountain Lodge, located 40 miles northwest of Atlanta, and will be entitled, "New Professionalism Opportunities in a Time of Crisis."  Attendance at this highly participatory event is limited to invited speakers and to those selected to be Spring 2010 NIFTEP Fellows. For more information on this program  click here. 

March 19-20, 2010 - "Vulnerable Populations and Economic Realities:
An interdisciplinary approach to law teaching"
Golden Gate University School of Law and the Society of American Law Teachers (SALT) are presenting a two-day teaching conference in San Francisco.  The conference will explore questions such as: how can law teachers integrate economic issues precipitated by class, race, and gender into a broad range of courses, including, for example, first-year Contracts or Professional Responsibility, Health or Environmental Law, Clinics and Externships? What types of nontraditional classes would most effectively focus student interest on the economic needs of vulnerable populations? How do law schools initiate and encourage collaborative alliances to broaden discussions and promote positive change? The conference will consider these issues from the perspectives of interdisciplinary academics, practitioners, and activists.

March 4 - 7, 2010 - "Externships 5: Externships in Changing Times"
To be held at University of Miami School of Law, Externships 5 will explore how externships respond to and advance changes in the legal profession, legal education, and the economy B changes both past and future. The questions to explore include: "How can externship clinics advance the promise of Carnegie and Best Practices? "How should changes in our students' career prospects affect our programs? "How might changing roles for lawyers affect our teaching and clinical supervision? and "How might new ABA Standards affect the externship community?"

For the conference website, please click here.

October 16-17, 2009 - "The Pedagogy of Interviewing and Counseling II: Continuing the Quest for Improved Methodology."
UCLA School of Law and Brigham Young University J. Reuben Clark Law School are co-hosting a second conference to focus on the pedagogy of Interviewing and Counseling at the UCLA School of Law. Through interactive panels, small group discussion, and demonstration, this conference will explore methods teachers can use to increase student retention in experiential coursework. For more details on this conference, click here.

September 25 - 26, 2009 - "2nd Biennial Workshop on Promoting Diversity in Law School Leadership"
Co-hosted by Seattle University School of Law, through its Korematsu Center for Law and Equality and the Society of American Law Teachers (SALT), this conference targeted those who are interested in pursuing deanships or other administrative positions with the legal academy, as well as those who are involved in search committies for decanal positions. More information on this conference can be found on the Seattle University School of Law's Web site.

September 24-25, 2009 - "Interdisciplinary Collaborative Education:  Partnerships Between Law Schools and the Health Professions" 
Hosted by the Georgia State University College of Law in Atlanta Georgia.  Law schools are increasingly partnering with other professional schools and other professionals in their community who work in health-relateddisciplines, such as medicine, social work, public health, nursing, mental health, and education.  This conference explores the opportunities and challenges in interdisciplinary collaborations in various educational settings. For more details on this conference, and to register, go to http://www.lawhealthconference.org/

September 11-13, 2009 - Legal Education at the Crossroads v.3.0 - "Assessment Demystified, Demonstrated, and Deployed:  Driving Curriculum Reform at your Law School"
The University of Denver, Sturm College of Law requests proposals to participate in a working conference on assessment in legal education.  This conference is intended to respond to the calls for better methods of assessment made in the Carnegie Report, and BEST PRACTICES.

• Conference materials and presentation videos.
  

June 23-24, 2009 - "Implementing Best Practices and Educating Lawyers: Teaching Skills and Professionalism Across the Curriculum"
Sponsored by the Institute of Law Teaching and Education of Gonzaga University School of Law. This conference explored techniques for teaching skills and professionalism across the law school curriculum. Building on the energy generated by the publications of Carnegie's Educating Lawyers and CLEA's Best Practices for Legal Education, the Institute's summer conference provided a forum for dedicated teachers to share with colleagues innovative ideas and effective methods for modern legal education.

June 7 - 9, 2009 - 3rd Annual Indian Law Clinics and Externship Programs:  Symposium and Workshop
Sponsored by UNM School of Law and University of Denver College of Law, the goal of this gathering is to allow Indian Law Clinics, and other clinicians working with minority populations to work in solidarity on Poverty Law and community lawyering issues, to discuss our shared mission and differing perspectives, and to support new ideas.     
Where:  Isleta Casino & Resort, Pueblo of Isleta (South of Albuquerque, NM)
Contacts:  Professor Chrsitine Zuni Cruz, UNM School of Law - zunich@law.unm.edu ; Professor Aliza Organick, Washburn University School of Law - aliza.organick@washburn.edu ; Professor Barbara Creel, UNM School of Law - creel@law.unm.edu .

April 17, 2009 - Rutgers Law Review 2009 Symposium
"A LegalEducation Prospectus: Law Schools & Emerging Frontiers in Curriculum, Lawyering, and Social Justice"!  Rutgers gathered an amazing group of speakers to discuss innovative approaches to legal education, including curricular reform, the use of technology, and the unique potential for law schools to inculcate public and professional values in students. 
For more information about the Symposium, please visit: http://pegasus.rutgers.edu/~review/symposium09.php  

March 6 - 7, 2009 - University of Maryland School of Law hosted a national conference on Best Practices in Clinical Legal Education. The conference gathered educators to explore and summarize the best practices discussions taking place all over the country and in the academy in response to the recently published Carnegie Report Educating Lawyers, and Best Practices for Legal Education by Roy Stuckey. Programs that are implementing the reports' recommendations were explored.January 7, 2009 - AALS Section - Teaching to the Entire Class:  Innovative and Effective Instruction to Engage Every Student

September 5 -7, 2008 - University of Washington School of Law hosted a conference addressing efforts to implement the insights from Best Practices and Educating Lawyers. The conference was entitled Legal Education at the Crossroads: Ideas to Implementation. 

• Conference Materials
• Supplementary Materials

July 24-25, 2008 - Michigan State University College of Law hosted the Great Lakes Symposium on Clinical Scholarship & Best Practices.  This conference "initiated a dialogue among clinical educators in an effort to enhance the clinical experience for all participants," while allowing clinicians to identify appropriate clinical scholarship opportunities and best practices for clinical legal education.  The program  provided a forum for clinicians to share experiences, teaching and research methods, and recent innovations in clinical education. 

June 19-21, 2008 - University of Maryland School of Law  hosted the annual CALI conference (Conference for Law School Computing).  This year's theme was "Transforming Legal Education."  The keynote speaker was Paul Maharq.

June 12-14, 2008 - Second Annual Indian Law Clinics & Externship Program Symposium
Hosted by the University of New Mexico School of Law & The Southwest Indian Law Clinic hosted the entitled, Moving towards Best Practices for Indigenous Representation: "Listening to our Communities, Assessing our past, Reframing our future-clinical methodology, pedagogy, and curriculum design."  This event was designed for clinicians or extern program supervisors training future lawyers to represent Native peoples, those who work with tribes or in Indigenous communities, lawyers who work with clinics to deliver legal services to these communities, and other community lawyering clinicians.  It was held at the Tamaya Hyatt Resort at Santa Ana Pueblo, New Mexico, just 20 minutes North of Albuquerque, NM.  

March 28 - 29, 2008 - Haywood Burns Conference - "Teaching Law in a Multi-cultural, Multi-lingual Context." 
CUNY School of Law and the Center for Diversity in the Legal Profession hosted the 2008 Haywood Burns Conference.  Among the topics presented: providing access and diversity through Pipeline programs; the immigrant experience in law school , understanding the multiplicity of "cultures" within law students; clinical approaches to multiculturalism from the perspective of faculty, student, and client; strategies for reaching first-year students in the small or large classroom. 

March 21, 2008 - American University Washington College of Law hosted "Innovations in First Year Curriculum."
Affirmation of the importance of rethinking the first year is evident in the Carnegie Foundation Report issued in 2007, the Best Practices for Legal Education project, and most recently in the Session at the Annual Meeting of the AALS in January 2008 (Reassessing Our Role As Scholars and Educators in Light of Change).This event brought together academic leaders to discuss some of the dynamic changes in theory and pedagogy related to the first year experience.

February 20-23, 2008 - Georgia State Law School hosted an International Conference on the Future of Legal Education. The conference focused on two questions: 1) if one was starting a new law school, how would one incorporate the recommendations of the Carnegie Foundation's report on legal education, and 2) how might an existing law school transform itself into the kind of law school envisioned by Carnegie?  For further information, visit the conference website at http://law.gsu.edu/FutureOfLegalEducationConference 

January 4, 2008 - Plenary session at AALS on "Rethinking Legal Education for the 21st Century" featuring Edward L. Rubin (Vanderbilt University Law School), Vicki C. Jackson (Georgetown University Law Center), Robert Mac Crate, Esq. (Senior Counsel, Sullivan and Cromwell), Martha L. Minow (Harvard Law School), Suellyn Scarnecchia (University of New Mexico School of Law), William M. Sullivan (Senior Scholar The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching), Judith W. Wegner (University of North Carolina School of Law). (Outline) (podcast)

December 7 & 8, 2007 - "The Legal Study Project" held its first meeting of the ten law schools (CUNY, Dayton, Georgetown, Harvard, Indiana-Bloomington, New Mexico, NYU, Stanford, Southwestern, and Vanderbilt) at the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation on the Stanford campus.

December 6- 7, 2007 - 1st Annual Upstate/Western New York and Beyond Regional Clinical Conference: "Forming a Regional Community to Share and Define Best Practices",  Syracuse University  College of Law :  The conference explored and critically examined issues raised in the new Carnegie Report, entitled "Educating Lawyers: Preparation for the Profession of Law," and the Clincial Legal Education Association's (CLEA) "Best Practices for Legal Education:  A Vision and a Road Map."

November 9, 2007  -The Mercer Law Review hosted a symposium on The Opportunity for Legal Education.

November 2-4, 2007 - Legal Education at the Crossroads, Ideas to Action, Part I
A conference of 57 reform-minded law school deans, associate deans, clinical teachers, traditional teachers, legal writing teachers, and academic support people discussed how to implement recommendations for improving legal education contained in two recently published books. Educating Lawyers was published by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, and Best Practices for Legal Education was published by the Clinical Legal Education Association. Both books call on law schools to implement significant, fundamental changes in what they teach and how they teach it.

The by-invitation-only conference, Legal Education at the Crossroads, Ideas to Action, Part I, was planned and facilitated by the primary author of Best Practices for Legal Education, Professor Roy Stuckey, University of South Carolina School of Law; and one of the authors of Educating Lawyers, Professor Judith Wegner, University of North Carolina School of Law. Professor Wegner delivered the keynote address, but most of the conference time was spent in small group discussions followed by group reports and discussions.   

November 1, 2007 - Vanessa Merton of Pace Law School led an informal faculty colloquium discussing Educating Lawyers and Best Practices for Legal Education at Wake Forest University School of Law. A respectable portion of the faculty attended (there was a free lunch) and seemed intrigued by the notion of seriously and systematically applying assessment techniques to law school teaching.

September 28, 2007 - Antoinette Sedillo Lopez and Paul Holland were the luncheon speakers on Leading Change in Legal Education: The Carnegie Study, Educating Lawyers and the book by Roy Stuckey, Best Practices in Legal Education at the  Seattle University / SALT Deanship workshop, " Promoting Diversity in Deanships".

Best Practices PowerPoint Presentations (.pdf):

• AALS Clinical Conference - Using Critical Perspectives to Inform Change
  by Sameer Ashar, Sue Bryant, Mary Lynch, Margaret Montoya, Tirien Steinbach, May 2010.
• Best Practices, Carnegie, Outcomes Based Learning & ABA Revisions
  by Mary Lynch, to Roger Williams University School of Law Faculty, February 2010.
• Formative Assessment Can be a Professor's Best Friend,
  by Peter Joy, Carolyn Grose, Mary Lynch, & Barbara Glesner-Fines, at Crossroads 3.0, Denver, September 2009.
• Legal Education Reform Update,
  by Mary Lynch, to Albany Law community, March 2009.
• The Current Legal Education Reform Movement,
  by Carrie Kaas & Mary Lynch, to Southern New England School of Law faculty, October 2009.
• Update on Best Practices for Legal Education,
  by Mary Lynch, to NYSBA Committee on Legal Education & Admission to the Bar, September 2008.
• Forming a Regional Community to Share & Define Best Practices,
  by Carrie Kaas & Mary Lynch, at Upstate NY Regional Conference, December 2007.
• Reflections on Legal Education,
  by Roy Stuckey, at Mercer Law Review Symposium, November 2007.
• Challenging Assumptions About Legal Education: Best Practices for Educating Lawyers,
  by Peter Joy, to University of New Mexico faculty, October 2007.
• Challenging Assumptions About Business as Usual in Legal Education,
  by Margaret Moore Jackson, et al., to AALS Workshop on Clinical Legal Education, March 2007.
• Goals of In-House Clinics,
  by Roy Stuckey, to University of Tennessee College of Law Clinical Facutly, 2007.

Note:  For those interested in obtaining the orginal PowerPoint Slides of the above presentations, please send a request to bpblog@albanylaw.edu.