CLEA Newsltr0910.Pub

CLINICAL LEGAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION Volume 14 No. 1 September, 2010 CLEA Newsletter PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE ON MAKING SAUSAGE, LEGISLATION & ACCREDITATION STANDARDS As the famous New York Yankee philosopher Yogi Berra Bob Kuehn once said, “you can observe a lot by watching.” There is always Washington University much to watch at the beginning of a school year – yourself as you in St. Louis shake off the sand and sunscreen of summer and start another (or your first!) year of teaching, 1Ls as they become acclimatized [email protected] to law school, your clinic students as they begin their metamor- phosis into student attorneys, and the faculty as it steps back Inside this issue: into its governance role for the law school. There is also much to watch this time of year at the ABA, and some of it not pretty. Committee Reports 3 ABA Advocacy Notices 5 It been said (though by Chancellor Otto von Bismarck , not Yogi Berra) that there are two things you should never watch be- Conferences 10 ing made – sausage and legislation. Sadly, we can now list a New Clinicians 13 third – the making of ABA Accreditation Standards dealing with 17 law school faculty. Transitions In July, the ABA’s Standards Review Committee began its Promotions, Honors & 20 public discussion of the proposed deletion, advanced by the Awards Chair of the Committee (Don Polden, Dean of Santa Clara School of Law), of Standards 405(b) (addressing tenure) and 405(c) News from Clinical Pro- 24 (addressing security of position for full-time clinical faculty). The grams American Law Deans Association (ALDA) has long sought to Books & Publications 54 eliminate security of position for clinical faculty, and some think that the ABA’s apparent interest in expanding its accreditation Job Announcements 60 reach to foreign law schools (particularly the new Peking Univer- CLEA Writing Contest 74 sity School of Transnational Law in China) is further fueling the effort inside the ABA to eliminate tenure. EDITOR Like the making of sausage and legislation, the Commit- tee’s deliberations weren’t pretty. In fact, the Committee’s ac- tions were downright ugly, especially to those who appreciate the Larry R. Spain importance of those Standards to the education of law students Texas Tech University School of Law and the future of legal education. 1802 Hartford Avenue Had Yogi been watching, he would have observed the Com- Lubbock, TX 79409 (806) 742-4312 mittee: misstate the analysis and conclusions of the ABA’s Spe- (806) 742-4199 FAX cial Committee on Security of Position (see CLEA’s objection to [email protected] these misstatements at http://www.abanet.org/legaled/ committees/comstandards.html ); eliminate (without any men- tion, much less any discussion) the role of faculty in law school governance; repeatedly claim that any effort to develop enforceable rules that would enhance legal education is an “intrusive mandate” on the powers of law school deans; assert, without support, that the Accreditation Standards have never required tenure (a claim subsequently demonstrated to be false by Richard Neumann at Hofstra Law School – see http:// bestpracticeslegaled.albanylawblogs.org/2010/08/03/aba-current-standards-do- require-tenure-despite-assertions-otherwise ); fail to acknowledge the many comments that were submitted to the Committee on the importance of Standard 405 (including CLEA’s carefully laid out history of Standard 405(c) and of the ABA’s two recent rejections of the approach now being advanced in the Committee – see http://cleaweb.org/ index2.php#/info2/1/ ); fail to have even the most basic discussion of the issues and the pros/cons of competing approaches; and not once ask what the proposed deletions might mean for students or clinical legal education. It was hardly what one would expect of the ABA. The shallowness of the ABA Committee’s consideration of these important issues was driven home to me when compared to the recent report of the Judicial Conference Committee on Rules of Practice and Procedure on proposed amendments to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 26 (applying work-product protection to the discovery of draft reports by testifying expert). The report revealed the Judicial Conference Committee’s careful consideration of the history of the rule, the arguments in favor and against any change and views submitted by proponents and opponents, and the likely impacts of the change. Surely, the ABA owes legal education the same with faculty standards. Among the many objecting to the ABA’s process is the incoming president of the AALS, Professor Michael Olivas, who stated to Inside Higher Ed that he believes a small group within the ABA leadership “just doesn't believe in tenure” and is “trying to ramrod through an ill-advised proposal.” ( http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2010/07/26/ law ). But, as Yogi Berra also said, “it ain’t over till it’s over.” The Standards Review Com- mittee next takes up Standard 405 at its meeting in St. Louis in November and will likely not forward its proposal to the Council until 2011. Perhaps at that meeting, the Commit- tee won’t turn a tin ear to the well-being of students and legal education. CLEA Board Elections & Jobs It’s election time at CLEA, with the CLEA Elections Committee soliciting nominations through October 1st. This year, there are seven open Board of Director positions and two officer positions (Vice President and Treasurer) that begin three-year terms in January. You can nominate yourself or someone else by contacting the chair of the CLEA Elections Committee, Binny Miller , at American University, Washington College of Law, [email protected] . Keep in mind that in order to run or vote in the upcoming election, you must be a current CLEA member, which you can easily become at http://www.cleaweb.org/forms/ form_menu.php . Also, as the faculty hiring season begins, keep in mind that CLEA’s website posts announcements for open clinical teaching positions around the country. Check it out at http://cleaweb.org/index2.php#/info4/2/ . If you wish to post a job announcement on the CLEA website, please send a copy of notices for any open positions to the CLEA website at [email protected] or to Kate Kruse at [email protected]. Thank you, thank you, thank you to David Santacroce and the University of Michi- gan CLEA is moving! Well, our membership database is moving -- from David Santacroce 2 and the University of Michigan Law School to the University of Buffalo Law School , where Kim Diana Connolly is now the Director of Clinical Legal Education and has agreed to take over the membership information and dues duties. CLEA is very apprecia- tive of David’s work over the past nine years and the University of Michigan Law School’s generosity in providing support for the database. We are using the occasion to begin the process of updating our membership computer software and hope that we will soon have a process that makes joining and supporting CLEA even easier. Finally, as you move forward this school year and struggle with the day-to-day chal- lenges of clinical teaching, keep in mind Yogi’s malapropism on decision making: “If you come to a fork in the road, take it. -Bob Kuehn CLEA President Washington University in St. Louis [email protected] Recent CLEA Activities CLEA has been active in responding to recent attacks on the Maryland and Louisi- ana clinics. Comments and other documents related to these attacks are collected and posted on the CLEA website at http://www.cleaweb.org/index2.php#/info2/1/ Also, at the same location, recent comments and other documents are collected related to pro- posals related to Outcome Measures and Security of Position being considered by the Standards Review Committee of the ABA Section on Legal Education and Admission to the Bar. CLEA COMMITTEES CLEA Best Practices Implementation Committee A sub-group of the CLEA Best Practices Implementation Committee met in Minnea- polis, MN in September to plan a workshop at the University of San Francisco on January 5, 2011. The goal for the workshop is to continue to develop a group with expertise on legal reform and to build allies in the quest to reform legal education. We expect that one of the outcomes of the workshop will be to identify and further prepare experts who can pro- vide consultations to law schools about curricular reform and pedagogy. Look for more information about initiatives by the Best Practices Implementation Committee in the newsletter or at the Best Practices in Legal Education Blog , at http:// bestpracticeslegaled.albanylawblogs.org/ . CLEA Elections Committee The CLEA Elections Committee is soliciting nominations through October 1, 2010 of individuals to serve on the CLEA Board starting in January, 2011. This year, there are a total of seven open Board positions and two officer positions. The open officer positions are Vice-President and Treasurer of CLEA. All positions require a three-year commit- ment. A memo prepared by the CLEA Elections Committee, which sets forth the activities and responsibilities of CLEA Board members in more detail, follows this announce- 3 ment. Duties of the Vice-President and Treasurer are spelled out in our Bylaws, which can be found at: http://www.cleaweb.org/index2.php#/info1/2/ . In the spirit of our open election process, we encourage current CLEA members to actively participate in generating a robust and diverse slate of candidates by nominating themselves or other CLEA members as candidates for one of these open positions. We especially hope to encourage "new clinicians" (defined as clinicians with fewer than 6 years of experience) to run for the CLEA Board this year, since no continuing members of the CLEA Board will fit this category.

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