Welcome to Regent University School of Law’s newest blog, devoted to legal pedagogy. As many of you already know, legal education is currently experiencing a sea change. Regent has embraced this call to change. This site is designed to serve a number of roles in this regard: (1) to serve as a “hub” for information (links) to other sites promoting the change, (2) to create awareness of the reasons for the needed reforms, and (3) to provide examples of responses designed to implement reforms.
Specifically, the focus for this site will concentrate on how best to implement the suggestions from both the Carnegie Foundation’s Educating Lawyers: Preparation for the Practice of Law (2007) and Best Practices for Legal Education(2007). With that focus in mind, you will be able to find multiple resources through our site. First, you will have available Regent’s resources in general, as well as those of our individual faculty members in particular.Second, you will receive links to other notable websites seeking to further the same goals.Third, you will see information from legal conferences, the American Bar Association, the American Association of Law Schools, and other organizations advancing pedagogical reform.Fourth, resources from both other law schools and law professors may be found. I am well aware that collaboration will be a key to success in changing something as well-rooted as the current legal education system. Therefore, I hope that all those behind the movement toward improved teaching techniques will share those efforts with us. All contributions are welcomed.Believing that the reform prompted by the Carnegie and Best Practices’ reports will occur only through cooperation and collaboration, this site is not designed to highlight Regent’s efforts alone. Rather, it is aimed at shining a light on the efforts of anyone working toward progress in legal pedagogy.
You are invited to subscribe to our blog and keep up to date of legal pedagogy nationwide. Each new blog posting will concentrate on one narrow aspect of legal pedagogy.Taken together, these blogs will eventually address the subject in its entirety. Guest bloggers are requested. If you are interested in being a guest blogger, please click the “Contact Us” tab at the top of the page.
Other exciting projects are connected with this project and can be seen on various pages of the site. I invite you look around and learn more about the other several initiatives, such as the Pretrial Practice & State Civil Procedure Listserv, my new casebook, Civil Procedure for All States (one of a series of casebooks edited by Professor Michael Schwartz and Professor Gerald Hess designed to provide much-needed casebooks amenable to the Carnegie method of teaching), and Regent’s specific emphasis on Professional Identity Formation.
Lastly, your suggestions, comments, and active participation are encouraged.I hope blog postings will spark meaningful conversations regarding how best to advance legal education.Please be on the lookout for our next blog, which will discuss one of Carnegie’s three Apprenticeships—“Professional Identity Formation.”Specifically, the blog will examine the idea that this particular apprenticeship seems to be the one most professors struggle to implement into doctrinal courses, how best to approach its implementation, and the ways in which Regent is already integrating it. Thank you for taking the time to read our blog, and we look forward to working with all of you.
- Professor Ben Madison, Professor of Law, Regent University School of Law
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