National Jurist - January 2009 - (Page 34)

PEGGY COOPER DAVIS JOHN S. R. SHAD PROFESSOR OF LAWYERING AND ETHICS, and DIRECTOR FOR THE LAWYERING PROGRAM AT NEW YORK UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF LAW What Peggy Cooper Davis and her colleagues are doing at New York University School of Law is quite unusual. As part of the first-year curriculum, the Lawyering Program provides students with the tools they will use as lawyers. The program is grounded on the philosophy that the act of doing, followed by reflection and discussion, deepens understanding and solidifies learning. Davis, director of the Lawyering Program and the John S.R. Shad Professor of Lawyering and Ethics, said the program is a natural extension of the Socratic Method — an ongoing process to train people on how to be professionals. “I think that what we need to do more of in legal education is to say we need to spend more time developing the many kinds of skills and intelligences for necessary practice,” said Davis, who joined the NYU law faculty in 1983. That includes the understanding that lawyering is an interpretive process, a process that needs to be enlightened by all of the human sciences, and a broader sense of what professionals need to do. It also includes, a more realistic sense of what law really is. “And I’m of the belief that professional education has to become multi-disciplinary and multi-faceted to keep up,” she said. In the last couple of years, Davis has begun to develop a colloquium that has a clinical component with a focus on juvenile justice. All of it follows pretty much the same principals described for the Lawyering Program, which tries to broaden the range of expertise of legal professionals. Davis previously served for three years T H E H O NO RA B LE A N T ON I N S CA L I A Associ at e Justi ce of the Supre me Court of t he U ni te d St at e s Dist ingui shed G ue st Juri st C apit als of Europe : July 6 t o J ul y 1 6 SUMMER SEMINARS ABROAD For more information and online registration, visit our Web site http://www.dsl.psu.edu/programs/studyabroad.cfm M ONTR ÉAL F L OR ENCE R OME SIENA THE H AGUE B RUS SEL S LUXEM BOURG STR AS B OUR G V IENNA : Ca pita ls o f Europe May 11 - June 12 May 30 - June 26 June 28 - July 24 34 THE NATIONAL JURIST January 2009 http://www.dsl.psu.edu/programs/studyabroad.cfm http://www.dsl.psu.edu/programs/studyabroad.cfm

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of National Jurist - January 2009

National Jurist - January 2009 Contents Hot Button: Affirmative Action Entertainment: A Road Trip Through Law School News: American Justice, Kaplan Survey, Part-time Ranking The Firm Report: Diversity Law School Online No label No label Fordham Student Honored for Public Interest Work Former Law Student's Life Lives on After Her Death Most Influential People in Legal Education Most Innovative Law Schools Your Guide to Studying Abroad Career Hotline Texas Tech Law Grads Explore Dispute Resolution Evaluating First-Year Exams Disturbing the Peace

National Jurist - January 2009

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