On Testing Legal Skills

Since we’re all in the middle of finals right now, I thought I would share a quick problem, an incongruous message, that’s been bothering me.

Raise your hand if you’ve heard a law professor say something like, “No matter how well you think you know the rule, read it again every time you need to use it.” Almost all of you. Now keep it up if you’ve heard this from more than one professor. Still almost all of you. I agree that this is very good advice; rules change, subtleties escape us on first readings, and sometimes our memory is just wrong.

Now, raise your hand if you’ve heard a law professor explain a test like, “Although this is open book, you won’t have time to look up the rules. You need to know them very well yourself and just use the materials for the few you don’t know.” That’s almost the very definition of how an open-book exam is usually structured.

I’m not really sure the two are compatible.

Continue ReadingOn Testing Legal Skills

What’s New in the Classroom: Legal Research in the Real World

The Advanced Legal Research courses at Marquette have a “real world” focus.  For my part, I have tried to select research problems for final projects and assignments that place students in real world practice situations. 

To the extent that I can, I avoid the “hunt and find” type research problems for which there is one right answer hidden somewhere.  The legal issues the students have to research sometimes, but do not always, have a straightforward answer. 

In the “real world,” legal research and legal writing go hand in hand.  Thus, in addition to their research plan and research log, the students must then submit a written product such as a letter or a memo summarizing their research results for a supervising attorney, a judge, a client, etc.  

This past semester I added a more detailed cost-effective research component than I had in the past.  In some of their research assignments students only had limited Lexis/Westlaw packages (like Westlaw PRO).  In order to completely and accurately respond to the research problem, the students had to come up with a cost-effective research strategy that involved using only a subsection of their current academic Lexis or Westlaw subscription in conjunction with the print materials in the library and the freely available online legal resources like PreCYdent, GPO Access, Thomas and the Cornell Legal Information Institute that we discussed in class.  The student response to my focus on the free legal research options has been largely positive.

This coming semester I plan to deliver research assignments in the variety of different formats students will encounter in practice.  This includes the delivery of research assignments through a larger case file, brief email messages that require further questions for clarification, longer written memos, and spoken conversations.  I look forward to the feedback I will get from my students after next semester.

Continue ReadingWhat’s New in the Classroom: Legal Research in the Real World

Good Result for the Wrong Reason

I am not the right guy to play Scrooge this time of the year, but why is the resolution of the Republic sit down strike something to be applauded. I understand the plight of the employees. State law entitled them to notice and pay that they were not about to receive.

But this is hardly the fault of Bank of America. BOA has been politically pressured to make a loan that will never be repaid.

You may say “who cares?” BOA is a big bank and 1.75 million dollars is barely a crumb in its cookie jar. But, as the old saying goes, a million here and a million there, and pretty soon we are talking about real money. Neither BOA nor any other bank can survive by making, not merely a poor – but an insane “loan” in response to political pressure. In a free economy, businesses fail and various stakeholders – shareholders, employees and creditors – will be hurt by it. We can’t expect banks – even those who have had an influx of federal capital – to insure against it.

The Republic employees acted boldly and certainly benefited from being from the President-elect’s hometown. Maybe (although I would oppose it) the government should guarantee obligations under the plant closing laws. But shifting the costs to a firm’s lender based upon who can and cannot exert the requisite political pressure seems irrational and even dangerous.

I suppose that those who are committed to a greater collectivization of losses and gains, this is a fumbling step in the right direction. My own view is that, if you want to assume community responsibility for private obligations, it ought to be done directly so the community can assess the costs and benefits.

Crossposted at Shark and Shepherd and Prawfsblawg.

Continue ReadingGood Result for the Wrong Reason
Newer Posts
Older Posts