NALP just published the third and final installment of Louis Bilionis and Neil Hamilton’s three-part series on the Standard 303 revisions. Part 1 and Part 2 appeared in the May and June 2022 editions of NALP’s PDQ, respectively.
The last article in the series, which is titled “Revised ABA Standards 303 (b) and (c) and the Formation of a Lawyer’s Professional Identity, Part 3: Cross-Cultural Competency, Equal Access, and the Elimination of Bias, Discrimination, and Racism,” can be read here.
By: Karen Tokarz, Charles Nagel Professor of Public Interest Law & Policy, Director of the Negotiation & Dispute Resolution Programs, and Director of the Civil Rights & Mediation Clinic, Washington University School of Law
Washington University Law School is striving to address the revised ABA Standards of 303(b) and 303(c) in multiple ways. The law school utilizes a short course on Negotiation, which we have required for 1Ls for over a decade. It is offered each year in August and January. As set forth in the syllabus, one of the four days focuses on professional identity, bias, and cross-cultural competency. This course offers a unique way of introducing 1L students to these issues via education, experiential learning, negotiation partner feedback, and self-reflection.
In addition, all of our upper-class dispute resolution courses explicitly address professional identity, bias, and cross-cultural competency, especially Cross-Cultural Dispute Resolution, which is offered both semesters.
Below are links to the syllabi of the Negotiation course and Cross-Cultural Dispute Resolution, followed by the text of each syllabi.
Cross-Cultural Dispute Resolution Syllabus
Washington University School of Law Required 1L Negotiation Course (1cr.)
Class Schedule, Objectives, Learning Outcomes, and Assignments
All times are approximate
Course Objectives/Learning Outcomes:
Negotiation is the most commonly used form of legal dispute resolution in the United States and around the world. This required course is designed to introduce students to the basics of negotiation through reading, discussion, simulation exercises, and videos. The course focuses on negotiation theory, negotiation skills, lawyer (agent)/client (principal) dynamics, negotiating in teams, and negotiation ethics.
The ability to participate successfully in legal negotiations rests on a combination of five core skills that students will begin to develop in this course: 1) theoretical understanding; 2) interpersonal and intrapersonal awareness; 3) planning; 4) drafting; and 5) reflection. This course provides students with a set of conceptual frameworks and practice experiences that will enhance understanding and skill level in these areas, from the various perspectives of negotiators, advocates, and clients in negotiations.
This introductory course lays the foundation for learning in upper-level negotiation and dispute resolution courses, as well as doctrinal courses. The course introduces issues of leadership, professional identity, bias, cross-cultural competency and cross-cultural humility. The course also helps prepare students for negotiation and dispute resolution issues soon to be added to the multi-state bar exam.
Course Requirements:
In addition to the four required papers, there are other short assignments, including a Negotiation Self-Analysis & Partner Feedback Form following each Students must submit passing papers related to the negotiations by the conclusion of each class to pass the course.
ABA Standard 310:
ABA Standard 310 requires “not less than one hour of classroom or direct faculty instruction and two hours of out-of-class student work per week or the equivalent amount of work over a different amount of time” for each credit hour awarded.” This course is designed to meet this requirement, and each student is expected to spend no less than 42.5 hours of total work per credit hour.
Texts:
Students must read Roger Fisher & William Ury, Getting to Yes: Negotiating Agreement Without Giving In (any edition) before beginning the course. Assigned readings in addition to Getting to Yes will be available on the course Canvas page. Students are strongly encouraged to read the additional readings before beginning the course. Each day’s module on Canvas will include assigned readings and relevant handouts and links.
Tuesday August 23: Negotiation Theories, Strategies, and Styles
Class Schedule:
1:00-2:00 Introduction to the Course and Overview of Day
2:00-2:35 First Negotiation Exercise: The Gallery
2:35-2:45 Share Reflections with Other Side
2:45-2:55 Break
2:55-3:30 Analysis of First Exercise
3:30-4:30 Discussion of Getting to Yes and Theories of Negotiation
Assignment: Please read the entirety of Roger Fisher & William Ury, Getting to Yes: Negotiating Agreement Without Giving In (any edition). Please come to class prepared to discuss the reading and to pose two comments or questions.
To be eligible for credit for the course, students must submit before the beginning of class via Canvas a Pre-Negotiation Course Profile, along with a written memo of minimum four (4) pages, maximum five (5) pages, that addresses the questions below. Please use 12 pt. Times New Roman font, 1.5 spacing. In your memo, please answer the following questions:
Wednesday, August 24: Lawyer (Agent)/Client (Principal) Relationships, Professional Identity, Confidentiality, Negotiation Ethics
Class Schedule:
1:00-2:10 Discussion of Readings and Overview of Day
2:10-2:30 Prepare for Second Negotiation Exercise (with same party)
2:35-2:45 Break
2:45-3:30 Second Negotiation Exercise: Client Interview/Retainer Agreement
3:30-3:40 Share Reflections with Other Side
3:40-4:30 Analysis of Second Exercise
Assignment: Please read the Model Rules of Professional Conduct (focus on the Preamble and Rules 1, 4, and 8); read pp. 95-138 in Art Hinshaw & Jess K. Albert, Doing the Right Thing: An Empirical Study of Attorney Negotiation Ethics; and read Beyond Words (and complete the short listening test at the end of that article).
Please come to class prepared to discuss the readings and to pose two comments or questions. To be eligible for credit for the course, students must submit before the beginning of class via Canvas a completed listening test (located at the end of the Beyond Words article), plus a written memo of minimum three (3) pages, maximum four (4) pages, that addresses the below questions. Please use 12 pt. Times New Roman font, 1.5 spacing. In your memo, please answer the following questions:
Thursday, August 25: Bias, Cultural Competence, Cultural Humility
Class Schedule:
1:00-1:40 Discussion of Readings and Overview of Day
1:40-2:00 Prepare for Third Negotiation Exercise (with partner)
2:00-2:40 Third Negotiation Exercise: Sally Soprano
2:40-2:50 Share Reflections
2:50-3:00 Break
3:00-4:00 Analysis of Third Exercise
4:00-4:30 Joint Planning for Fourth Exercise (with same party)
Assignment: Please read Sue Bryant and Jean Koh Peters, Five Habits for Cross-Cultural Lawyering.
Please come to class prepared to discuss the readings and to pose two comments or questions. To be eligible for credit for the course, students must submit before the beginning of class via Canvas a written memo of minimum two (2) pages, maximum three (3) pages, that addresses the below questions. Please use 12 pt. Times New Roman font, 1.5 spacing. In your memo, please answer the following questions:
Friday, August 26: The Art of Persuasion
Class Schedule:
1:00-1:40 Discussion of Video and Overview of Day
1:40-1:50 Prepare for Fourth Exercise (with partner)
1:50-3:00 Fourth Exercise: Multi-Party Negotiation
3:00-3:10 Share Reflections
3:10-3:20 Break
3:20-4:30 Analysis of Fourth Exercise, Concluding Lecture, Next Steps to Improve as a Negotiator
Assignment: Please watch the first 17 minutes of Mr. Rogers and the Power of Persuasion , http://www.youtube.com/watch?y=_DGdDQrXy5U (link also available on Canvas), and read Carmine Gallo, The Art of Persuasion Hasn’t Changed in 2,000 Years, available at www.carminegallo.com/the-art-of-persuasion-hasnt-changed-in-2000-years/ Please come to class prepared to discuss the video and reading, and to pose two comments or questions as to how the art of persuasion is relevant to negotiations and dispute resolution.
To be eligible for credit for the course, students must submit before the beginning of class via Canvas a written negotiation plan of minimum two (2) pages, maximum three (3) pages. Please use 12 pt. Times New Roman font, 1.5 spacing. In your negotiation plan, please include four columns, one each for you and your partner and one each for the other side and her/his partner. Identify what you understand/guesstimate each side wants (substantive and relationship goals/ positions), why (underlying interests), how (optimal negotiation styles), cultural/ethical issues, options for achieving mutual gains as to substantive and relationship goals, information you want to obtain/retain, aspiration points, resistance points (bottom lines), and BATNAs.
Cross-Cultural Dispute Resolution Fall, 2022
Mondays, 9:00 AM – 10:52 AM Anheuser-Busch Hall, Room
Prof. Juan Del Valle juandelvalle@wustl.edu
SYLLABUS
CREDITS: 3.0
COURSE DESCRIPTION
Disputes and dispute resolution frequently involve cross-cultural conflict. Effective dispute resolution methods involve additional elements than those used in intra-culture adjudicatory and amicable dispute resolution processes. Through a harmonic integration of legal, sociological, psychological, and neurological concepts and findings, this course is designed to equip students with valuable tools that will allow them to choose suitable dispute resolution methods and strategies for resolving cross-cultural controversies, and managing legal conflicts involving individuals from diverse cultures and backgrounds, including but not limited to gender, religion, national origin, and race. The course is designed to enhance negotiation and dispute resolution skills by increasing cultural intelligence (CQ) for legal professionals who will be involved in diverse conflict resolution scenarios, whether as attorneys, negotiators, facilitators, or adjudicators. The course includes assigned readings, drafting, and simulations related to cross-cultural dispute resolution.
ABA STANDARD COMPLIANCE
ABA Standard 310 requires “not less than one hour of classroom or direct faculty instruction and two hours of out-of-class student work per week or the equivalent amount of work over a different amount of time” for each credit hour awarded. This course has been designed to meet this requirement, through the inclusion of mandatory readings, free research and assignments that will be explained during the course and a final essay, expecting each student to spend at least two hours of out-of-class time for each one hour of in-class-time per credit hour.
COURSE OBJECTIVES AND LEARNING OUTCOMES
By the end of the semester, students will be able to effectively:
ASSESSMENT AND GRADING
Students are expected to prepare for every class. Participation in class discussions and class exercises, including a final project will be highly graded and will be assigned twenty-five percent (25%) of the final grade. A final, anonymous essay of approximately 6 pages will have a seventy five percent (75%) weight on the grade.
READINGS AND EXERCISES
Students must read and prepare for a discussion of the assigned readings prior to each session and come to class prepared to actively participate in class discussions. Students are encouraged to read any additional material they find useful to complement lectures. The instructors may suggest complementary readings during the course.
ATTENDANCE POLICY
This is a participatory course. Its success depends on everyone’s active participation and preparation for the exercises that are assigned. Students are allowed to miss 2 classes without that absence negatively impacting their grade; provided that, (i) I am notified in advance of your expected absence (preferably at the previous class) and (ii) any materials you are required to turn in are delivered to me before the class you will miss. Failure to provide advanced notice of an absence, turn in any assignments prior to class or missing more than two classes (absent extreme circumstances approved by Elizabeth Walsh, Associate Dean for Student Services) will count as an unexcused absence. We can be notified about expected absences in class or by email. Unexcused absences will negatively impact both the class participation and performance portions of your grade.
SIMULATION EXERCISES & CASE STUDIES
We will have 2-4 exercises in the course of the semester.
For the simulations to be successful and allow you to develop your skills, it is important that they are approached as seriously as you would approach a real-life negotiation. It is also important that you maintain your assigned role, try to maximize the outcome of the party you are assigned and fully prepare for each simulation. Most of all, I want you to enjoy every single session of this course.
LAPTOP POLICY
Laptops may be used during class discussions to take notes and used during simulations if you are instructed to do so. At no time may laptops be used to surf the web or communicate about subjects not related to the class. Cell phones shall NOT be used at any time while class is in session to make calls, take in-coming calls, or text, except during class breaks. Use of laptops, cell phones, or other electronic devices during class at prohibited times is extremely distracting and reflects a lack of respect to your classmates and me and will result in a failing participation grade for that class session.
CLASS PARTICIPATION
Your final grade will be a combination of the following:
Weekly Class Attendance, Class Participation, and Final Project (25%)
Weekly Participation:
Your weekly class participation throughout the semester, as demonstrated through preparation and discussion of the assigned reading materials, active engagement in the simulations, and negotiation planning memos will be worth 25% of your grade.
Final Essay:
75% of your grade.
*Required Course Textbooks
Fisher, R., Ury, W. (2011). Getting to Yes: Reaching Agreements Without Giving In. New York, NY: Penguin Books. ISBN-10: 0143118757; ISBN-13: 978-0143118756.
Lewis, R. (2018). When Cultures Collide: Leading Across Cultures. Boston, MA: Hachette Book Group. ISBN-10: 9781473684829; ISBN-13: 978-1473684829.
Randolph, P. (2016). The Psychology of Conflict: Mediating in a Diverse World. Bloomsbury Continuum. ISBN-10: 1472922972; ISBN-13: 978-1472922977.
*Required Additional Readings
Cairns, D. (2005). Mediating International Commercial Disputes: Differences in U.S. and Euro- pean Approaches. Dispute Resolution Journal. Aug-Oct, 2005; 60, 3. Available at http://www.nysba.org/workarea/DownloadAsset.aspx?id=67718
Pair, Lara M. (2002). Cross-Cultural Arbitration: Do the Differences Between Cultures Still In- fluence International Commercial Arbitration despite Harmonization? ILSA Journal of International and Comparative Law. Vol 9, Issue 1, Article 2. Available at https://nsuworks.nova.edu/il- sajournal/vol9/iss1/2/
*Suggested Complementary Readings
Groves, K., Feyerherm, A., Minhua, G. (2015). Examining Cultural Intelligence and Cross-Cul- tural Negotiation Effectiveness. Journal of Management Education, Vol. 39(2) 209-243. Available at www.sagepub.com.
Class Schedule and Assigned Mandatory Readings
Week 1: Basics of Legal Negotiation and Dispute Resolution
Readings: Fisher, R., Ury, W. (2011) Getting to Yes. Chapters I – IV.
Week 2: The Psychology of Conflict in Legal Dispute Resolution: Cross-Cultural Perspectives on Existentialism, Psychological Perceptions in Conflicts, and the Impact of Emotions
Readings: Randolph, P. (2016). The Psychology of Conflict: Mediating in a Diverse World. Bloomsbury Publishing Plc. Chapters 1, 2, 3.
Week 3: The Psychology of Conflict in Legal Dispute Resolution: Cross-Cultural Perspectives on Self-Esteem, Values and Polarities, Interpersonal Relationships, and Psychological Impact of Listening.
Readings: Randolph, P. (2016). The Psychology of Conflict: Mediating in a Diverse World. Bloomsbury Publishing Plc. Chapters 4, 5, 6.
Week 4: The Psychology of Conflict in Legal Dispute Resolution: Cross-Cultural Perspectives on Assumptions and Biases, Amicable Dispute Resolution, Differing Models of Negotiations and Mediations, Empathy, and Neurology of Conflict Resolution.
Readings: Randolph, P. (2016). The Psychology of Conflict: Mediating in a Diverse World. Bloomsbury Publishing Plc. Chapters 7, 8, 9.
Week 5: Overcoming Cross-Cultural Barriers in Legal Dispute Resolution: Language Differences
Readings: Lewis, R. (2018). When Cultures Collide: Leading Across Cultures. Boston, MA: Hachette Book Group, Chapter 1.
Week 6: Overcoming Cross-Cultural Barriers in Legal Dispute Resolution: Cultural Conditioning
Readings: Lewis, R. (2018). When Cultures Collide: Leading Across Cultures. Boston, MA: Hachette Book Group, Chapter 2.
Week 7, October 10: Overcoming Cross-Cultural Barriers in Legal Dispute Resolution: Culture Categorization, Culture Relativism v. Constructivism, and Integration
Readings: Lewis, R. (2018). When Cultures Collide: Leading Across Cultures. Boston, MA: Hachette Book Group, Chapter 3.
In-Class Activity Links: Video: Richard Evanoff. (2016). How can People from Different Cultures get Along with Each Other? TedX on Youtube.com. Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=osZr7DLxs8A
Week 8: Overcoming Cross-Cultural Barriers in Legal Dispute Resolution: Time in Cross-Cultural Negotiations
Readings: Lewis, R. (2018). When Cultures Collide: Leading Across Cultures. Boston, MA: Hachette Book Group, Chapter 4.
Week 9: Overcoming Cross-Cultural Barriers in Legal Dispute Resolution: Power- less Communication, Power of Paraphrasing and Reframing, and Communication Gaps
Readings: Lewis, R. (2018). When Cultures Collide: Leading Across Cultures. Boston, MA: Hachette Book Group, Chapter 5.
Week 10: Overcoming Cross-Cultural Barriers in Legal Dispute Resolution: Motivation and Trust-Building, and the Low-Trust Syndrome
Readings: Lewis, R. (2018). When Cultures Collide: Leading Across Cultures. Boston, MA: Hachette Book Group, Chapter 9.
Week 11: Overcoming Cross-Cultural Barriers in Legal Dispute Resolution: Meeting of the Minds, Relationship-Building, Giving-In as a Strategy to Overcome Low Trust and Ot- her Cross-Cultural Barriers
Readings: Lewis, R. (2018). When Cultures Collide: Leading Across Cultures. Boston, MA: Hachette Book Group, Chapter 10.
In-Class Activity Links: Link: Rathi, A. (2015). This Simple Negotiation Tactic Brought 195 Countries to Consensus. Retrieved from https://qz.com/572623/this-simple-negotiation-tactic- brought-195-countries-to-consensus-in-the-paris-climate-talks/.
Week 12: Gender, Race, National Origin, and Religion in Dispute Resolution
Preparation for class: Please research on recent studies regarding the influence of race, gender, and religion in dispute resolution processes. Please be prepared to share your findings in class.
Readings: Pair, Lara M. (2002). Cross-Cultural Arbitration: Do the Differences between Cultures Still Influence International Commercial Arbitration Despite Harmonization? ILSA Journal of International and Comparative Law. Vol 9, Issue 1, Article 2. Cairns, D. (2005).
Week 13: Cross-Cultural Views of Commercial Dispute Resolution
Readings: Mediating International Commercial Disputes: Differences in U.S. and European Approaches. Dispute Resolution Journal. Aug-Oct 2005; 60, 3.
Cross-Cultural Arbitration: Do the Differences between Cultures Still Influence International Commercial Arbitration Despite Harmonization? ILSA Journal of International and Comparative Law. Vol 9, Issue 1, Article 2. Cairns, D. (2005).
Week 14: Giving, transparency, and building trust in Cross-cultural dispute resolution processes.
In-class activity: Final project presentation and discussion.
If you have any questions or comments about the courses, then please feel free to email me at tokarz@wustl.edu.
Karen Tokarz is the Charles Nagel Professor of Public Interest Law & Policy, Director of the Negotiation & Dispute Resolution Programs, and Director of the Civil Rights & Mediation Clinic at Washington University School of Law in St. Louis.
Learning by Example: Conversations with Leaders in the Legal Profession that Help Guide Law Students’ Professional Identity Formation
By: Pat Longan, William Augustus Bootle Chair in Professionalism Ethics, Director of the Mercer Center for Legal Ethics and Professionalism, Mercer University School of Law
[Note: This post is adapted from the Foreword to “Inside the Legal Profession – Conversations with Leaders of the Georgia Bench and Bar,” publication forthcoming from Mercer University Press]
All first-year students at Mercer University School of Law take a three-credit course on professional identity. I created the early versions of that course, which began in 2004, and for many years I have taught it with my colleagues Daisy and Tim Floyd. In our course, the students learn that to find success and meaning in the law they need to cultivate a certain kind of professional identity, one that is infused with the traditional values of the profession. The course teaches that lawyers must be competent, faithful to clients, faithful to the law, public-spirited, and civil. It also teaches that lawyers must have the practical wisdom to find the right combination of these virtues for particular situations. To see what we do in that course in detail, take a look at the text we co-wrote, The Formation of Professional Identity: The Path from Student to Lawyer (Routledge Press 2019) and the web page we maintain about it.
Knowing that these are the virtues that lawyers need is important but not enough. Cultivating them is hard work, and there are many obstacles to their implementation in practice. We discovered early in the evolution of the course that we needed to focus not just on the transmission of knowledge but also on motivating the students. We had to show the students the rewards of all that hard work and perseverance. To do that, we needed to bring to them lawyers and judges who are exemplars of the kinds of professionals we are urging them to become.
That need led to the creation of the “Inside the Legal Profession” component of our course. On Monday and Friday mornings over the course of the semester, I interview judges and lawyers with the entire first year class as the audience. I follow the format of the famous “Inside the Actor’s Studio” interviews that James Lipton conducted for many years, and I discuss with each guest his or her life in the law, leaving time at the end for the students to ask questions. The interviews are routinely recorded. More than fifty of the interviews are posted to YouTube, where collectively they have garnered thousands of views. You can find a link to those interviews here. Mercer Law received the 2014 E. Smythe Gambrell Professionalism Award for this project.
Over the years, I have had the privilege of interviewing justices and judges from the federal trial and appellate courts; the Georgia Supreme Court; the Georgia Court of Appeals; various Superior Courts around the state; State Court judges; a Juvenile Court judge; and a Magistrate Court judge. Lawyers from every part of the profession have participated: prosecutors; defense lawyers; big firm, big city litigators and transactional specialists; solo practitioners; divorce and family law attorneys; government lawyers; law professors and administrators; in-house counsel; plaintiffs’ lawyers; insurance defense lawyers; and bar counsel. Our students have heard from members of the profession at every stage of a career, including brand-new graduates who talk about those first months of practice, to young lawyers navigating the partnership track in law firms or struggling to make successes of their own firms, all the way to senior partners and distinguished judges with the perspectives of decades in the profession. The roster of guests has been diverse by gender, race, sexual preference, and ethnicity. At Mercer, we have been honored by the generosity of all the busy and important people who have volunteered their time to help introduce our new students to the many lives in the law from which the students might choose.
This fall, Mercer University Press is publishing the transcripts of eleven of these interviews. It was difficult to choose just a handful of the interviews to include in the book, but the lawyers and judges who appear represent an excellent cross-section of our guests. Five are graduates of Mercer Law School. United States District Judge Louis Sands describes his journey from the time when he was a child and told his mother that he wanted to attend Mercer University – this at a time when no African-American child could do so – through his Mercer education, service as a prosecutor, private practitioner, and Superior Court Judge, to his nomination, confirmation, and service on the federal bench. Angie Coggins talks about what it is like to serve as a public defender, the career choice she made as an intern in Mercer Law School and that she followed for more than thirty years. Tomieka Daniel, who has participated in the series every year since its inception, gives the students a look inside the challenges and rewards of representing clients who need but cannot afford a lawyer for a civil matter and thus turn to her as a legal services attorney. Doc Schneider tells of his serendipitous choice to attend Mercer Law School and how that led to a stellar career at King & Spalding in Atlanta, including working for two other famous Mercer lawyers, former judge and attorney general Griffin Bell and legendary trial lawyer Frank Jones. Lamar Sizemore, Jr., who along with Judge Sands is a member of the famous Mercer Law class of 1974, talks about his three careers, as a highly successful plaintiffs’ lawyer, as a Superior Court judge, and as a mediator. Along the way, he imparts memorable lessons, including what he learned from the late, great Hank O’Neill about how one deals with opposing counsel who mistreat you.
Others who appear in the book have connections to the Mercer Law faculty. Professor Jim Fleissner has taught at Mercer since 1994, and the graduating classes have selected him to receive the teaching award seventeen times; he talks about his earlier career as a federal prosecutor and about how to take advantage of the opportunities that law school affords. Dean Daisy Floyd, now University Professor of Law and Ethical Formation, describes her career trajectory from being an associate at a big law firm through her appointment and service as Dean of the Mercer Law School. Along the way, she had occasion to be a client, and in her interview, she candidly describes the circumstances that led her to need a lawyer and the lessons she learned about lawyering from the experience of being a client. Justice (then Judge) Verda Colvin is an adjunct professor at Mercer; she shares the insight and wisdom of someone who has succeeded in private practice, as a state prosecutor, as a federal prosecutor, and as a judge. Her dedication to excellence, and her courage to be herself as a judge rather than mimic what other judges do, have inspired our students every time she has visited our class.
Two of the interviews in this volume are of lawyers who have no direct connection to Mercer but who nevertheless made the effort to come to Macon and speak with our students. Emmet Bondurant talks about his varied and highly successful career, as a Supreme Court advocate, founder and leader of a highly successful commercial firm in Atlanta, as an attorney for two detainees at Guantanamo Naval Base, and as the pro bono lawyer for a man wrongfully convicted of murder. He describes his motivation for some of his most high-profile pro bono work: “I hate bullies.” Former Chief Justice Harold Melton (now a partner at Troutman Pepper in Atlanta) shared with the class his experiences as the first African-American president of the student body at Auburn University; as a law student at the University of Georgia who placed at “the top of the bottom half of the class;” as a lawyer in the Georgia Attorney General’s office; as counsel to Georgia Governor Sonny Perdue; as a Justice on the Supreme Court of Georgia; and finally as Chief Justice of that Court. He speaks of the importance in his life of the mentorship of a previous Chief Justice, the late Harris Hines.
As part of their development of their professional identities, students need to see and hear from lawyers and judges who have succeeded and found success and meaning in their work. They need to have exemplars, people whose stories inspire them and whose paths they may want to follow. With the help of the people whose interviews appear in the forthcoming book, and the help of the dozens of others who have participated in the “Inside the Legal Profession” project, we have been able to do that at Mercer Law School. If you are interested in doing something similar as part of a professional identity program, or you want to create a professional identity class, then please contact me at longan_p@law.mercer.edu.
Patrick Longan
William Augustus Bootle Chair in Ethics and Professionalism in the Practice of Law, Mercer University School of Law;
Director, Mercer Center for Legal Ethics and Professionalism
The American Bar Association (ABA) requires that all law schools develop a plan in the fall of 2022 regarding how schools will implement in the fall of 2023 the revised ABA standards 303(b) and 303(c) that cover professional identity formation and bias, cross-cultural competency, and racism. Appalachian School of Law (ASL) tasked its Curriculum Committee to draft a proposed plan for compliance with the revised standards. The Committee, chaired by Professor Dawn Figueiras, included the Honorable Larry G. Elder, Professor Jeremy Hurley, Associate Dean of Students Shelly James, Dean of Experiential Learning Lucy McGee, Professor Ken Russell, Chief Academic Officer Laura Wilson, and President & Dean Keith Faulkner. The committee spent the summer discussing what ASL already does in these spaces and how ASL would utilize those efforts, along with new ones, to create a proposed plan for the faculty to review. Professor Figueiras participated in webinars sponsored by AALS, SUNY-University at Buffalo School of Law, and others, and gratefully utilized the resources links compiled and hosted on the Buffalo School of Law website. On August 8-9, 2022, at ASL’s Faculty Retreat, the Committee presented its plan to the faculty and engaged in productive discussions to revise the plan. Although the ABA did not set a date for completion of the plan, the full Faculty unanimously adopted the Implementation Plan below on August 16, 2022.
The following is the IMPLEMENTATION PLAN FOR REVISED ABA STANDARD 303’s REQUIREMENTS approved by the ASL faculty.
ADOPTED ASL Implementation Plan for Revised Standard 303 2022-08-16 (003)
A. Revised 303(b)(3)—“provide substantial opportunities to students for . . . the development of a professional identity.”
Students take the Professionalism Oath at ASL
B. New 303(c)—“provide education to law students on bias, cross-cultural competency, and racism … at the start of the program … and at least once again before graduation.” “For students engaged in law clinics or field placements, the second educational occasion will take place before, concurrently with, or as part of their enrollment in clinical or field placement courses.”
Professor Chris Young
Lucy McGee as a general elective in Fall and Spring semesters as well as summer sessions. This course is a pre-requisite for student participation in ASL’s Medical-Legal Partnership Clinic. The Clinic is a joint project of Ballad Health Systems, ASL, and Virginia Tech’s Pamplin College of Business.
Should you have any questions or if you would like to discuss the plan, then please contact Professor Dawn Figueiras at dfigueiras@asl.edu.
Guest Contributor Professor Dawn Figueiras