Professor Ben Madison Presents at Southeastern Association of Law Schools (SEALS) Annual Conference

On July 31-Augst 6, CEFLER Co-director Professor Benjamin Madison presented at the Southeastern Association of Law Schools (SEALS) Annual Conference.

Madison gave a presentation of implementing program learning outcomes in the classroom. These outcomes are designed to help students cultivate professional skills and qualities beyond analytical skills. This comes in response to the new ABA Standard 302.

According to the ABA, this standard involves using learning outcomes to include, other than knowledge of the law itself and legal reasoning skills, the “[e]xercise of proper professional and ethical responsibilities to clients and the legal system; and [o]ther professional skills needed for competent and ethical participation as a member of the legal profession.”

The ABA goes on to say that professional skills include, but are not limited to “skills such as, interviewing, counseling, negotiation, fact development and analysis, trial practice, document drafting, conflict resolution, organization and management of legal work, collaboration, cultural competency, and self-evaluation.”

Other skills Madison says he hopes to have implemented at Regent include those put forth by the Holloran Center at the University of St. Thomas. These include skills such as active listening, giving and receiving feedback, improving professional integrity, and forming a personal code of ethics.
In his presentation at SEALS, Madison discussed how to implement these skills into a law school’s curriculum, and how to further reinforce them into courses.