January 2016 CEFLER Quarterly eNewsletter

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DIRECTOR'S GREETING Happy New Year and welcome to the first edition of the Center for Ethical Formation & Legal Education Reform's quarterly eNewsletter. The Center for Ethical Formation & Legal Education Reform coordinates the programs and resources Regent Law has committed to developing students' professional identity. It accentuates Regent Law’s expertise in providing practical training that develops in students the judgment and decision-making skills important to the practice of law. The Center’s goal is to produce lawyers who have an understanding of the nature and purpose of the legal profession and are committed to the ethical practice of law. Every few months, we'd like to share with you what the Center is doing and provide some expertise in the areas of ethical formation and legal education reform. We hope you will take a moment to read through our first edition and let us know what you think. Please also join us on Blogger, Twitter, and LinkedIn! NEWS Center for Ethical Formation and Legal Education Reform Director Natt Gantt Presents at Educating Tomorrow's Lawyers Conference CEFLER Director L.O. Natt Gantt, II, recently gave a presentation titled "Leadership Development for Law Students" at the Fourth Annual Educating Tomorrow's Lawyers (ETL) Conference in Denver, Colorado. Professor Gantt's presentation focused on defining leadership, explaining the need for leadership education in law schools, and identifying specific initiatives Regent Law has implemented to promote leadership development among its students. "Many leaders in this country are lawyers," said Professor Gantt. "Yet law schools have traditionally focused very little on how they can prepare students for these leadership roles. As law schools devote more instruction on the skills that are important for professional success, we as legal educators need to do more to help our students understand the skills and attributes of effective leaders." Watch Professor Gantt's presentation online »  Center for Ethical Formation Hosts Dr. Rob Martinez of Norfolk Southern Corp On October 29, 2015, the Center for Ethical Formation had the privilege of hosting at Regent University Dr. Rob Martinez, Vice President of Business Development and Real Estate with Norfolk Southern Corp. Dr. Martinez shared in law chapel service his amazing story of being a child of the Cuban Revolution. His family recognized that Communism was coming, and fled the country a year and a half following the takeover by Fidel Castro when Dr. Martinez was just four years old. This experience, said Dr. Martinez, has in some ways defined his life. He saw his father do whatever was necessary to protect his family, including being labeled a traitor. Dr. Martinez also learned that the majority can often be wrong. Watch Dr. Martinez's talk online »  Regent Law Students Learn Legal Workplace Skills On October 30, 2015, Regent University School of Law held a Legal Workplace Skills "Mini-Course" coordinated by Center for Ethical Formation director Professor Natt Gantt. Over 50 students participated in the course, which consisted of two panels and a Meyers Briggs Type Indicator training. "Recent studies are underscoring how important character traits and 'soft' skills are to lawyers' professional success," said Professor Gantt, "so facilitating a course like this is a wonderful opportunity to provide students with needed training on those traits and skills." Learn more about the Legal Workplace Skills Mini-Course »	ANNOUNCEMENT: 2016 CMBA ETHICS AND PROFESSIONALISM ESSAY COMPETITION AmericanLawRadio.com and the Law Office of David B. Malik in Chesterland, Ohio, are sponsoring an essay competition on ethics and professionalism. The competition is open to all full- and part-time students enrolled in a JD or LLM program at an ABA-accredited law school. Entering the competition would be a great idea for any student who plans to practice in Ohio (the competition is open to law schools nationwide). The 2016 topic: How should a new attorney respond if a supervisor instructs the new attorney to engage in non-criminal conduct that the new attorney believes would violate the Ohio Rules of Professional Conduct? Submission Deadline is February 12, 2016. Click herefor competition rules and here for a submission form. BEYOND THE RULE The Emperor Has No Clothes, but Does Anyone Really Care: How Law Schools Are Failing to Develop Students' Professional Identity and Practical JudgmentCriticism of law schools has come often of late. Although some of this criticism may be unjustified, this Article contends that the deficiency exposed in two recent and influential studies of law teaching is accurate. Most law schools fail to cultivate students' professional ethical identity and practical judgment. The two studies, one by the Carnegie Institute for the Advancement of Teaching and Learning in Educating Lawyers (Carnegie Report), and the other by the Clinical Legal Education Association in Best Practices for Legal Education (Best Practices Report)(collectively, the 2007 Reports), represent arguably the most comprehensive evaluations of law school education in more than a century. Download this article for free »  Beyond the Rule & Family Restoration by Lynne Marie Kohm, Associate Dean of Faculty Development & External Affairs Understanding the basics of marital strength as the foundation for the family is critical to any lawyer in America today. With nearly half of all marriages ending in divorce, and less than half of all children born into married families, a lot of families need hope and restoration. Understanding the breakdown of the family from a legal and personal perspective, discerning what can be done, individually, morally and legally, to restore the family to that complete design intended can make a tremendous difference to individuals – and to an entire culture. A lawyer of character who understands his or her role can be the key to that hope for restoration. Read more »  Dealing with Difficult People in Litigation Creatively by Ben Madison, Associate Dean of Instructional & Curricular Affairs Some of the best advice I ever received was to ask, before sending any communication or making any comments (in writing or verbally), three questions: Does it need to be said/written? Do I need to be the one to say it/write it? (Is it really within my responsibility to tell the other person what I want to say, or is my ego getting riled up so that the response was more personal gratification than something necessary); and Does it need to be said by me right now--or should I wait, run it by a trusted friend, and possibly not say/write anything? Only if the answer to all three of these questions was"yes" was I to write the e-mail, send a letter, or tell the other person whatever I had on my mind. Read more »
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