Ponderings of a Law Professor: Moving from Law School to Law Practice

(Editor’s note:  Professor Mazzie’s June post for the Ms. JD blog remains relevant, as last year’s law graduates make their transitions from school to work, and current students contemplate their future paths.)

[T]housands of law students have graduated from their respective law schools [in May and June].  They will spend this summer studying for bar exams and possibly looking for work.  Most are probably ecstatic that law school is behind them and “real” legal work is ahead.  Perhaps, though, in August when their classmates begin to gear up for classes these graduates will have a moment of feeling left out – a sense of emptiness because for  years their lives have run on an academic calendar that will no longer apply to them.

Continue ReadingPonderings of a Law Professor: Moving from Law School to Law Practice

Ponderings of a Law Professor: Where Are Women’s Voices?

I hated the silence.  In law school classes where the professor relied solely on volunteers, I hated the silence and ended up raising my hand more often than not.  I found I was most interested and engaged in class not when there was lecture but when there was some sort of dialogue, and there needs to be more than one voice to dialogue.  I didn’t really want to hear my own voice all the time (and I’m certain my classmates didn’t want to hear it all the time, either), but I would offer it if no one else spoke up.

Maybe I’m remembering myself speaking more than I actually did.  Or maybe I was an anomaly.  A female law student quoted in a recent National Jurist postsaid that “it feels like men do most of the talking during class discussions.” And indeed they might.  Data from the 2010 Law School Survey of Student Engagement (LSSSE) suggest that women do not speak up as much as men in law school classes.  The National Jurist reports that according to the LSSSE, which for 2010 surveyed 25,000 law students at 77 law schools, 47% of women students frequently ask questions in class, while 56% of male students do.  This, LSSSE notes, is an area “that needs attention.”

Continue ReadingPonderings of a Law Professor: Where Are Women’s Voices?

Constitutional Rights in Action

All eyes are on Wisconsin these days.  Governor Scott Walker unveiled details of his budget repair bill on February 11; the bill itself is 144 pages, but provisions that immediately captured attention were those that remove the collective bargaining rights of most state and local employees.  By Monday, February 14, when the bill was introduced, protestors began to fill the Capitol building in Madison.  As the week went on, more and more people descended on the Capitol to protest the passage of the bill, with Saturday’s crowd topping at an estimated 68,000, 60,000 of whom flooded the Capitol grounds and square, while another 8,000 filled the Capitol building itself.  Even more were expected yesterday, which was a furlough day for many state employees.

What is happening in Madison, Wisconsin, is monumental, and I am not solely referring to the proposals contained in the bill.  What is exceptionally important here is that we are able to see the expression of constitutional rights in a most obvious way, a fact that I think has received little attention.

Continue ReadingConstitutional Rights in Action
Newer Posts
Older Posts