Digital Directions

Students Play the Parts and Email (and Blog) the Scripts: Creating a Realistic E-Discovery Experience through Simulation

A recent blog post by Paula Schaefer, Associate Professor, University of Tennessee College of Law on the Best Practices for Legal Education blog reviews an interesting idea - using law students to develop learning materials.

"As I planned to teach pre-trial litigation for the first time in 2009, I wanted my case to include electronic-discovery (e-discovery). My research quickly revealed that the pre-packaged pre-trial litigation cases involved car accidents and simple contract disputes. No ESI (electronically stored information) was included, so it would be impossible to conduct e-discovery in these cases. Undeterred, I mused that I could make my own course materials from the contents of my overflowing email inbox.

From that idea, I developed a plan for a two-semester simulation. I offered a group of law students course credit (as an independent study) to email one another, following a loose script, to create a business dispute among their assigned characters. Their dispute would become the lawsuit in my pre-trial litigation class the following semester. In that course, the independent study students would play the clients and the witnesses, and the pre-trial litigation students would be their lawyers. 

The result was not just ESI, but also a realistic case that benefited both groups of students. The article about my experience is tentatively titled Legal Dispute Simulation Meets Pre-Trial Litigation Simulation: An Integrated Approach to Teaching E-Discovery Doctrine, Practice Skills, and Professionalism, available at http://ssrn.com/abstract=1676976."

Paula 'justifies' the students doing all the work as they will develop practical and professional skills whilst drafting the materials, and they also will learn about the substantive legal issues relating to e-discovery.  Paula also addressed whether this approach can work for other topics:

"Though I developed my simulation with e-discovery in mind, it could work in many doctrinal and skills classes. The simulation creates a complex business dispute with numerous claims, making it the perfect go-to example in a business torts class. The evidentiary issues generated could be the subject of an evidence class. The simulation characters could also make an appearance in skills classes like negotiation, contract drafting, trial practice, and transactional lawyering (like the University of Tennessee’s capstone Representing Enterprises). I have plans to invite another professor’s mediation students to my pre-trial litigation class next semester to see if they can mediate a resolution to the case prior to trial.  

My loose script for simulation characters (a link is provided in my article on SSRN) could be used by law students anywhere to create a new legal dispute. Or a professor could easily create a new script involving issues he or she is interested in exploring in a doctrinal or skills class. From my experience, I believe such simulations are worth the effort. These simulations can transform an ordinary class into something more realistic. And with that realism comes an opportunity for law students to make the transition to lawyers."

Casebooks: from Langdell to H2O

Earlier this week, Kevin Ramakrishna at the Best Practices for Legal Education Blog reviewed a new suite of classroom tools that the Berkman Center and Harvard Law School Library have developed:

"The casebook began with Langdell at Harvard Law School, and so it is reimagined by another Harvard Law School professor.  Jonathan Zittrain and other developers, introduced a new electronic “casebook” today at a luncheon held at the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University. 

The goal of the new system is not simply to provide students with a digital casebook, but a new suite of tools to help students and professors collaberate.  The suite is called H2O and includes a syllabus (called a “playlist”), a question tool, casebook creation tool, and a “rotisserie” discussion tool “which enables a structured discussion. Users respond to a question, then are assigned discussion partners, who critique their responses.”  The professor can also mark up the text using a resource called “collage” which “allows for tagging text, annotating it, and hiding portions of text without changing the original document.”

One key benefit to the system is to promote student discussion. “Students can outline and mark up cases they’re assigned to study and share them with a study group.”  Another benefit is that it could help create new course structures. “I like contracts, I like torts, I’m not going to teach contorts because there’s no book for it. but if I can easily do my own bespoke syllabus drawing on the work of others, I could.”"

Further commentary on this new approach can be read at The Atlantic and in a blog post by Ethan Zuckerman.

There is also a number of playlists available on the H2O website (see for example Chapter 2: Battery).  Here, you get a brief overview of what is covered and how the cases fit together.  Click on a case to see important aspects highlighted.

The casebook has never taken off in UK legal education, so will this new development make any difference over here?

The inclusion of "Question Tool", a backchannel for live lecture feedback and questions may well be a valuable asset, especially for teaching large classes; and the Rotisserie, which is a structured forum for offline discussion of class content is designed to encourage class interactions outside the lecture.

Currently, the use of VLEs such as Blackboard, Moodle, WebCT etc are constantly under revision to inlcude various bells and whistles to support learning and teaching.  Whilst bells and whistles are all well and good,technology-enhanced learning should be driven by the pedagogy rather than the technology.

The big difference here, is that the tools are specifically designed for legal education, albeit teaching by casebook.

Funding Legal Education in a Post Recession Britain

‘Funding Legal Education in a Post Recession Britain’, held at Glasgow University, began today with an Introduction from Head of the Law School, Rosa Greaves and the new College Head/DRM.

The first session, ‘A View from the Regulators and Professional Bodies’ was chaired by Eileen Paterson, Deputy Director of Professional Legal Practice and the speakers were Liz Campbell, Director of Education and Training, Law Society of Scotland and Callum Jones, Clerk, Faculty of Advocates. Rosa Greaves made an analogy to medical education – the building blogs of academic study, practical training and professional based training. Delegates were urged not to dwell on the problems but were urged to look for solutions to the problems we face, and to discuss innovative ideas.

Liz Campbell then spoke of the historical perspective of funding for the Diploma in Legal Practice (the Scottish equivalent to the LPC – Legal Practice Course). Notably, there is uncertainty as to the number of places and that maintenance awards will no longer be offered, this pot of money being possibly used to fund additional fee awards instead. Whilst the Law Society of Scotland sets recommended salary rates during the subsequent traineeship, these are recognized to be lower than other graduate trainees. 2007 was a bumper year with demand for traineeships much higher than supply, this trend was reversed in 2009 with a 72% drop resulting in places being available, but not taken up. For 2010, places may only marginally exceed demand.

The issues raised by Liz include rising levels of student debt, the issue of part time work and the removal of maintenance grants. What impact will this have on the make-up of the profession? Looking to the future, what creative solutions can possibly come forward – discussion ensued as to a form of training levy to be met by law firms that may exist in a number of ways. It may be adjustable to reflect the contribution the firm makes to educational training and materials. The Faculty of Advocates (the Scottish bar) model was also discussed where training is provided free by the Faculty whose members contribute towards the costs, however raising of the cost of a solicitor’s practicing certificate to meet this burden may not be welcomed. Prof Leo Martin of Strathclyde University put forward a tongue-in-cheek suggestion that lawyers follow the early career footballer transfer fee arrangement that may assist to combat against smaller firms who provide training from losing their newly-qualified lawyers to the larger firms, or at least recompenses their commitment to legal education which benefits the profession as a whole.

John Hamilton, Director of Training and Education Faculty of Advocates was unable to attend, however Calum Wilson set out why the Faculty of Advocates has an interest in legal education as their Intrants must first complete the LLB, diploma and traineeship. There is perceptively a second hurdle for students wishing to pursue a career at the bar, as the faculty requires examinations in 8 core subjects, most of which are covered within the LLB although many must undertake the exams for either or both of Roman Law and International Private Law, which are not frequently covered in typical undergraduate studies. A second issue was raised in relation to unpaid traineeships – Calum indicated that he knew not of any currently being undertaken – the law society may frown upon such practice but are not in a position to enforce payment and it is hoped that this potential problem does not arise in this time of economic austerity. The process of ‘devilling’ or pupilage for 9 months is funded by the Faculty, so there is no fee, although there is no payment for the devils either.

The second session, ‘Developments in Adjoining Jurisdictions’ was chaired by the event organiser, Douglas Mill, Director of Professional Legal Practice and the speakers were Anne Fenton, Director of the Institute of Professional Legal Studies, Queens University, Belfast and Melissa Hardee, Hardee Consulting, London.

It was particularly important and interesting to see the issues and developments in other jurisdictions. Northern Ireland is a small jurisdiction (1.8m population, 2,500 solicitors, 620 barristers, 548 law firms of which 271 are single practitioners – the largest firm having only 18 partners) facing large financial cuts. There are a set number places at Institute for Professional Legal Studies (120 for solicitors and 60 bar places) and the Graduate School of Professional Legal Studies (28 places) of which all are self-funding. For 2010/11 neither have filled their places and the issues of financial viability of the courses along with the educational impact of running with small cohorts were discussed.

Of particular interest was the joint delivery of training to the two branches of the profession (which also leads to greater collegiality and two branches, rather than two professions) where common areas exist, leading to economies of scale. Anne noted the benefits of sharing ideas and understanding between not only students, but staff and practitioners, which also received the support of the judiciary.

Melissa Hardee started with a question:

Is legal education too expensive…[for what you get]?

With unrestricted access to the LPC, the bottle-neck in England and Wales is entry to a training contract, unlike Scotland where the bottle-neck is entry to the LPC equivalent, the DipLP. With higher LPC course fees and capped undergraduate tuition fees, there are some emerging trends that LPC graduates are moving into paralegal work, paralegals are being hired in place of law firms taking in trainees and some training contracts are being deferred or withdrawn.

On the horizon is the Greene Report (due 11/10/10) which may see a raise or removal of the capped fees system, possibly a Graduate Tax or some other form or variable contribution. The problems that are brewing are the new pathways that may come with alternative business structures (ABS) both north and south of the border and the wider definition of ‘lawyer’ and provision of legal services beyond that of a qualified solicitor.

Many questions were raised by Melissa, to ‘provoke’ and engage the audience – I didn’t note them all, but attach a couple of badly-taken photos (I blame the light!):

Melissa felt that one final question should be take n for discussion from today:

Should law be a postgraduate subject?

Melissa agrees that it should, but also feels that the one year Graduate Diploma in Law (GDL – a postgraduate conversion course that covers the essential LLB elements for progression to the vocational level) is too short to generate the critical legal thinking required of the profession.

Hype Cycle for Education 2010

Last year, I reported on the 'Hype Cycle for Education 2009' from Gartner IT, which has been the most viewed page from this blog!

This year, the Hype Cycle for Education, 26 July 2010 states:

"The priority for education institutions in 2010 is to continue balancing organizational efficiency with personal productivity. IT is driving change in many ways: first and foremost by the proliferation of delivery mechanisms that threaten to bypass the CIO. CIOs need new tools to stay in control."

So, what's new in Education for 2010?  Open Source is mentioned at just about all stages of the cycle: open source portals and e-learning applications are climbing the slope towards the plateau.  Likewise, social media, e-portfolios and wikis are climbing the slope too.  Blogs, on the otherhand, have entered the plateau, so expect to see more solid use of those if the future.

Sliding into the trough are: e-textbooks, microblogging, virtual worlds, e-learning repositories and mashups.  At the peak is mobile learning and other low-midrange handsets.

Additionally, the Hype Cycle for Emerging Technologies, 2 August 2010 notes that:

"High-impact technologies at the Peak of Inflated Expectations during 2010 include private cloud computing, augmented reality, media tablets (such as the iPad), wireless power, 3D flat-panel TVs and displays, and activity streams."

A pdf presentation from the report's author, Jackie Fenn, describes the 2010 hype cycle and notes some of the significant changes.  On the up, from trigger to inflated peak, is augmented reality (AR) - which seems set to replace Second Life and other such virtual worlds.  The clear benefit of AR is that an entire new world does not need to be re-created - just use the real one and superimpose anything new that you need!

Earlier this year, I saw an excellent presentation by Minhua Eunice Ma from the University of Derby on Virtual Reality and 3D Animation in Forensic Visualisation.  This example of the use of AR for forensics can be expanded into several areas of legal education where students can undertake experiential learning with more 'reality' than is possible with current virtual reality (VR) software which, along with the other public virtual worlds are still languishing in the trough of disillusionment with 5-10 years to wait until mainstream adoption.

Microblogging, which includes Twitter, continues along the cycle towards mainstream adoption within 2/3 years.  It has not, however, passed through the trough so it still has some inflated expectations that need to die out.

Of the 100 or so Hype Cycle Reports from Gartner, one of the six new additions for 2010 includes Business Use of Social Technology:

"This Hype Cycle complements the "Hype Cycle for Social Software, 2010" and was initiated to provide our perspective on the accelerating adoption of social technologies for specific business functions and within selected industries. As reflected in the clustering of technology profiles in the early stages of this Hype Cycle, the business use of social technologies is just emerging. We expect adoption to accelerate and to expand across business functions and industries. Even where overt social-media initiatives are not planned, examination of social technologies will become an imperative where key business participants (such as employees, customers, constituents and partners) engage in social interactions outside of structured or sanctioned enterprise technology solutions."

This, of course, has relevance for law firms, their delivery of services or advertising through social media.  Many law firms have a subject area blog and several law firms are using twitter to communicate news, ideas and thoughts to others in the legal community and the world at large.  I would argue that law firms are further along than 'emerging' into business use, but agree that 'imperative' use is some distance away.  I read somewhere on the Gartner site that potential customers are more likely to look for reviews and advice on social networking sites before purchasing... this, then, may well extend to include both individual and commercial clients looking for legal services in the not too distant future.

Mapping Online Legal Education Communities

As a tribute to XKCD’s ‘Map of Online Communities’, Flowtown decided to re-create their own, updated version of this map. The numbers are taken to reflect many new developments in the social networking communities, including Facebook surpassing Myspace as the preeminent online community.

Practising lawyers, I would suggest, are currently navigating their flotilla in a decisive and fashion between the Twitter peninsula (wisely avoiding the island of FourSquare, but occasionally making treks into the Facebook mainland); making occasional stop-offs at various archipegalos and isles of apps that spew from the iPhone volcano; observing the wild and IPR infested Wikimedia territories from a respectable distance; as they head for the respectable and sheltered bays of LinkedIn where they may even gather offerings from the nearby Google empire, cragged with media mountain ranges!

Academics, law schools and universities are perhaps less confident or clear in their navigation, often floundering in the sea of desperation as they attempt to build colonies in YouTube; establish contact with their students in the distant lands of Facebook and Twitter; maintain some out-posts in Flickr and Blogspot; and grow increasingly concerned about storms brewing in the sea of personal information.

Far safer, perhaps, is the parallel universe of virtual learning environments where the United Nations of Moodle and the Blackboard - WebCT Empire battle for VLE supremacy.

Guided somewhat by the 2010 Horizons Report and the Hype Cycle for Legal Education, I now present a somewhat cruder Atlas for Legal Education!  Any additions or suggestions are most welcome!

"The New Realities of the Legal Academy"

The title of this post is the title of this intriguing new paper by Larry Solum available via SSRN.  Here is the abstract:

This short paper is the Foreword to Brannon P. Denning, Marcia L. McCormick, and Jeffrey M. Lipshaw, Becoming a Law Professor: A Candidate's Guide, American Bar Association, Forthcoming.

One of the great virtues of Denning, McCormick and Lipshaw’s guide is that it reflects the changing nature and new realities of the legal academy.  Not so many years ago, entry into the elite legal academy was mostly a function of two things -- credentials and connections. The ideal candidate graduated near the top of the class at a top-five law school, held an important editorial position on law review, clerked for a Supreme Court Justice, and practiced for a few years at an elite firm or government agency in New York or Washington.  Credentials like these almost guaranteed a job at a very respectable law school, but the very best jobs went to those with connections -- the few who were held in high esteem by the elite network of very successful legal academics and their friends in the bar and on the bench. The not-so-elite legal academy operated by a similar set of rules.  Regional law schools were populated by a mix of graduates from elite schools and the top graduates of local schools, clerks of respected local judges, and alumni of elite law firms in the neighborhood.  In what we now call the "bad old days," it was very difficult indeed for someone to become a law professor without glowing credentials and the right connections.

via lsi.typepad.com

Typepad Re-Blog

This is my first attempt at a 're-blog' post, and I was expecting something a bit more exciting!  There is a link (above) to the Law School Innovation blog where I read this post, but the re-blog function doesn't make this original ownership particularly obvious!

Review

The paper makes some interesting points regarding elitism, "the bad old days" and the changing landscape of how American law professors are hired.

The table of contents for the full book - Becoming a Law Professor: A Candidate’s Guide - is also available on SSRN (http://ssrn.com/abstract=1650713) and will be published by the American Bar Association.

The book covers a range of issues in eight, occasionally witty-named, chapters:

Chapter 1. What Do Law Professors Do All Day?
Chapter 2. Where Do Law Professors Come From?
Chapter 3. Pleased to Meat You, Hope You Guess My Name: Preparing For (and
Surviving) the AALS Faculty Recruitment Conference
Chapter 4. The On-Campus Interview
Chapter 5. Which One of These Is Not Like the Others? Advice for
Nontraditional Faculty Candidates
Chapter 6. Offer and Acceptance: Handling Job Offers
Chapter 7. Now What? Things to Do Before You Teach Your First Class
Chapter 8. Converting an Unsuccessful Job Search into Future Opportunities

I don't seem able to find the title on the ABA's bookstore, but I did see a new title Social Media for Lawyers: The Next Frontier that looked interesting and a forthcoming Little Book of Coffee Law!

Field Trips for Law Students?!

Last month, Matt Lister at The Faculty Lounge wrote about Field Trips for Law School Classes and this was followed up by the Law School Innovation blog.  From the replies and comments so far, it looks like the following issues exist:

Preventing issues:

• Inertia on the part of the academic
• Fitting a visit in around other classes
• Large classes
• Cost of transport

Possible solutions:

• Share ideas (see the comments here and below)
• Set aside full days in the timetable for visits
• Suggest students make visits themselves!

One comment in particular from Doug B suggests using videos (in this example from the Eastern State Penitentiary) as an alternative.

Eric Fink suggested visiting landmarks relating to cases, in particular the bridge from Rockingham County v. Luten Bridge Co., 35 F. 2d 301.

On the issue of multimedia resources, there are many sites with stuff that can be used to augment lectures or the VLE - In particular, scottishlawreports.org.uk have pictures of 'the most famous litigant of all time' May Donoghue, the Paisley Snail Bottle and the Wellmeadow Café.

Although Paisely is almost on the doorstep to many law students in Glasgow, a visit is perhaps less valuable than the image of the bottle - which takes some effort to explain why the 'the bottle is brown and opaque, its content completely incapable of intermediate examination'!

On a related note, I remember being 'taken on a walk', by the law teacher of the year at the 2009 LILAC conference as part of his conference presentation - this was easy enough with small numbers, but I also know staff members who regularly take students to a variety of places:

• courts
• employment tribunals
• buildings (historical)
• construction sites
• prisons
• police stations

The list can be expanded, but rather depends on where you are located, how much time you have and, of course, the willingness of the hosts to receive a bunch of students!

iLegal iphone app

The BIALL blog has a review of the latest apps for lawyers / law students (and academics I suppose?) for the iPhone.

James Mullan reported:

Thursday, 29 April 2010

Anyone who has an iPhone (I wish!) might be interested in having a look at the following website http://www.ilegalapps.com/index.html described as the "law in your pocket" this app has been developed by a law student and is available for downloading from the iTunes app store.

The app offers access to nearly 5000 items of legislation and a fast and easy to use interface* This is an interesting development both for law librarians and fee-earners working in a Law firm.

If I was a fee-earner I'd love to be able to access 5000 items of legislation whilst on the go, but from a law librarians perspective there have to be some concerns, like how accurate the information is, what the source is they're using for the information and the potential impact on the work law libraries do.

It will be interesting to see how well used this app is.

Update - For anyone who is currently using the app, or thinking about using the app you should probably review a post on the Nearly Legal blog, which looks in more detail at the app.

*http://www.ilegalapps.com/features.html

BILETA 2010 - E-learning at the Vienna Universities: Round-table Session

I thought, whist in Vienna, I would attend this parallel as the last session of the day to see how two universities in Vienna are using e-learning.

The university law faculty is one of the oldest and largest faculties in Europe, with an e-learning strategy in place since 2005 for blended learning, or bLearning.  As the law in action involves human interaction, this strategy aims to keep legal education based largely on human interactions too.

 E-learning tools have helped with administration, facilitated communication between students in a more intelligent way than previous email systems, and the dissemination of exam results.  The key notions of the strategy are:

1. Law literacy - which may be delivered online and remotely

2. Law knowledge - to be provided on campus in real time and face to face

The official platform is Fronter (review in German), with Moodle used as a secondary alternative platform.  This VLE is also used for induction, exchange students, international seminars/papers and exams as well as the typical teaching materials.

E-learning at the more modern Vienna University of Economics and Business was also discussed - in particular the advent of web2.0 and social media tools such as user-driven content (wikipedia),  OER sites (iTunes), and social networks (facebook).  Strategies have been developed to take account of these technologies and develop their own VLE platform Learn@WU based upon open-source technologies  The website offers quite a wealth of information about the VLE in English.

BILETA 2010 - E-learning Tools II

The second e-learning tool session started with Sarah King and Angela Kerry who presented their Virtual Solicitors' Office at Birmingham City University.  Their emphasis is on the clients, their needs and reacting to the problem rather than solely concentrating on the legal issues and the 'right answer'.  This means that the scenarios are never really out of date, even if the law changes this is only related to the responses the students give to the scenarios.

The project received input from practitioners to ensure both a high degree of realistic content and to ensure the 'look and feel' is right.  Indeed the speakers indicated that the law practices are interested in the concept of the virtual office for CPD and ongoing training for solicitors working with clients.  They also gave an amusing set of 'out-takes' from the cutting room floor as they themselves featured in some of the video'd scenarios as the solicitor!

The second speaker was Paul Maharg, who along with Karen Barton and Patricia McKellar gave an overview of open education resources (their JISC funded project) which will be followed by a workshop tomorrow afternoon.

Paul classified three types of OER initiatives:

• Institutional - for example Open University (OpenLearn) which is also a marketing tool as students see the value of what is publicly available and also interactive.  Paul presented the stats for user access at MIT, the largest OER with no proprietary wall.  3.7 million iTunes / Youtube downloads suggests a huge audience!
• Disciplinary - where subject specific materials are reposited.
• Pedagogic - for particular approaches and methods for learning.

Karen and Patricia then gave an overview of the SimShare project, which will allow users to download simulations, change them if required for their own purposes, and then upload new additions back onto the site.  Sustainabilty appears not to be the main issue, rather it is the Community of Practice (CoP) needed to get things started and creating content as a 'commons-based peer production'.

The speakers finished with a call for simulations (not necessarily SIMPLE-based, or particularly complex) and for academics to become involved, not just from law, but from other disciplines too.