preLaw - Back To School 2008 - (Page 22) theory but practice of a given area of law,” Rigg said. Jerry Foxhoven, assistant professor at Drake Law and director of Middleton Children’s Rights Center, said unlike most law schools, Drake University is able to boast that all of its law school faculty members have actually practiced law. “As a result, each faculty member appreciates and supports the clinical experience that our law school offers to our students,” he said. “The substantive courses regularly integrate the clinical and other ‘hands on’ opportunities that are offered to our students.” At Drake, real life experience is provided to law students from the very beginning of their law school career. The First-Year Trial Practicum suspends classes for first year students for one week to observe an actual jury trial conducted at the legal clinic. Students are paired up with practicing lawyers and judges to discuss the trial as it unfolds. The Drake Legal Clinic operates like a private practice law firm, complete with firm meetings held during the semester, Foxhoven said. The University of Georgia Law School who ranked No. 6 with 42.8 percent is providing students the opportu- For Policy Shakers Only Top-ranked programs at the intersection of politics, law, science, and ethics prepare you for a future of change. Juris Doctor Master of Laws in Environmental Law Master of Laws in International Law Master of Studies in Environmental Law for the community and the world www.vermontlaw.edu nity to experience a full range of unique clinical programs. Alex Scherr, associate professor and director of civil clinics at the University of Georgia Law School, said their “unique” clinics are based on the “Best Practices for Legal Education” model and the Carnegie Report “Educating Lawyers: Preparation for the Profession of Law.” In the history of legal education in the United States, there is no record of any concerted effort to consider what new lawyers should know or be able to do on their first day in practice or to design a program of instruction to achieve these goals, according to Roy Stuckey, author of Best Practices for Legal Education. The book, published by the Clinical Legal Education Association in 2007, also discusses the recent study conducted by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. The Carnegie Report discovered that faculty attention to the overall purposes and effects of a school’s educational efforts is surprisingly rare. “We also are conscious of the overlap between clinical classes and the real problems in the real world,” said Scherr, who served as the 2005 CLEA president. “We take a lot of effort to encourage students to do a lot.” The University of Georgia Law School continues to practice thinking long-term and strategically. “We take the classroom component quite seriously,” Scherr said. “All of our clinics have a strong classroom component taught by full-time faculty instructors.” One role of clinics is to get students out of their classroom comfort zone and both expose and challenge them with real-world experiences. Professor David Gotlieb, associate dean of clinical programs at the University of Kansas School of Law, said their various programs allow students who are interested in different kinds of practice settings to have the opportunity to engage in those activities. “One of the things that the Carnegie Report emphasizes and that we’re taking very seriously is an effort to integrate even better what we do with the rest of the curriculum and making sure that people who are in clinical programs are getting in traditional courses and interacting with traditional teachers,” he said. Gotlieb said there are practice areas they hope to move into. “We don’t regard ourselves as a finished 22 preLaw http://www.vermontlaw.edu http://www.vermontlaw.edu
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