For many lawyers, the memory of law school is not a pleasant one. We endured it
while we were there and we escaped. But, for the very reasons that we ran
screaming away from law school, it is fertile ground for new ideas about
humanizing the law. Many of the models of Transformational Law are based in law
schools. Clinical, Practical Skills, Legal Writing, Professional
Responsibility, and Student Services staffs are the groups most open to this
conversation but there are some members who teach in Substantive areas. (The
Constitutional Law professor in a major southern law school also leads the
meditation group.)
Daisy Floyd, a Texas law professor, has said that law students seem to be going
through a grief process. She and her students have noticed that all of the
stages of grief, ending with resignation, are expressed in law school. Perhaps,
says Steve Keeva, this is a result of loss of self and what is important
to the individual. In the quest for "thinking like a lawyer", students
lose the ideals that called them to law school in the first place.
In fact, many law professors and legal educators are committed to humanizing
legal education. The following was taken from an email on the listserv of a soon
to be founded organization. If you are a legal educator and want to be included
on the list or for more information, email Larry
Krieger, a clinical professor at Florida State University School of
Law.
- The cover story of the November 2002
issue of Student Lawyer, the membership magazine of the ABA Law
Student Division, is called "Humanizing Law School". The
article is available online at www.abanet.org/lsd/stulawyer
.
Law
as a healing, holistic, therapeutic, fun, effective, even spiritual
profession?
A special interest group especially for law students and new
lawyers, sponsored by Renaissance Lawyer, a not for profit organization
committed to the transformation of the legal system. Each month, students from law schools all over will take an hour to
unplug from being reasonable men and women and
plug-in to discussions about visionary law, the comprehensive law
movement, law
school reality, law school possibilities and more.
The Law Student Salon serves as a network for law students who are, and
who want to, emerge as leaders in the creation of a legal system that works
for everybody. Contact Kevin Ginsberg at kbginsberg@hotmail.com
to express your interest.
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