Little, Camesha (Detroit Mercy), Think, Reflect, Refine: Shaping The Modern Lawyer (SSRN, September 13, 2024).
From the abstract:
Legal education must undergo a substantive transformation to adequately equip future lawyers for an increasingly complex, technology-driven legal landscape. This article critically examines the limitations of current pedagogical practices, particularly the persistent reliance on traditional methodologies such as the case method, which can engender a hostile and exclusionary learning environment—especially for students from historically underrepresented identities. It contends that the prevailing focus on doctrinal instruction often comes at the expense of cultivating essential humanistic competencies, including emotional intelligence and self-awareness. These attributes are indispensable for promoting professional well-being, sound judgment, and the development of a robust professional identity. The article advocates for the integration of reflective thinking and writing as pedagogical strategies to assist law students in navigating complex emotional landscapes, enhancing critical reasoning skills, and fostering professional growth. Embedding these reflective practices within doctrinal courses is imperative to creating a more inclusive, empathetic, and supportive academic environment, thus preparing students to emerge as competent, emotionally intelligent legal professionals capable of thriving in the modern era.
2. Chilton, Adam (Chicago), Goldin, Jacob (Stanford), Rozema, Kyle (Northwestern), and Sanga, Sarath (Yale), Occupational Licensing and Labor Market Mobility: Evidence from the Legal Profession, Yale Law & Economics Research Paper (September 20, 2024).
From the abstract:
We study how state occupational licensing requirements shape labor mobility across U.S. legal markets. Drawing on newly collected data, we link variation in state bar exam waiver policies to lawyers’ license acquisitions, professional disciplinary records, and educational histories. We find that bar exam waivers increase the number of experienced lawyers obtaining a new license by 38 percent, but that the additional lawyers are subject to more professional discipline and tend to have graduated from less selective law schools. Our results suggest that state-level occupational licensing regimes can create a trade-off between the supply and quality of professionals in an industry.
3. Conklin, Michael (Angelo State), Zoom to the Bar: How Remote Instruction Affected Bar Exam Performance (SSRN, September 01, 2024).
From the abstract:
The Covid-19 pandemic had a profound effect on nearly every aspect of life starting in 2020. Existing research measuring the relationship between covid restrictions and academic performance has found significant harm across numerous settings. This first-of-its-kind study is designed to measure if a similar phenomenon is present with performance on state bar exams taken by law school graduates. The counterintuitive results from this study—that more restrictive covid lockdowns correlated with improved bar examination performance—spark discussion regarding lockdowns, legal education, remote learning pedagogy, and the bar exam. Furthermore, the findings of this study will hopefully serve as a powerful catalyst to spark productive debate regarding the inherent tradeoffs involved in pandemic policies. This comes at an opportune time as we are currently at a critical juncture of relevant events. These include rising online teaching modalities in the twenty-first century, a growing movement to abolish the bar exam, the threat of artificial intelligence replacing some aspects of the practice of law, increasing salience regarding race and educational outcomes, and a movement to diminish the importance of higher education.
4. de Perio Wittman, Jessica (Connecticut) and Brown, Kathleen (Katie) (Charleston), Next-Gen Bar Exam That Truly Tests Daily Practice Skills Must Include Technology (SSRN, September 20, 2024).
From the abstract:
The article "Next-Gen Bar Exam That Truly Tests Daily Practice Skills Must Include Technology" by Jessica de Perio Wittman and Kathleen (Katie) Brown discusses the urgent need to integrate technology competency into the upcoming bar exam, set to debut in 2026. The authors advocate for bar examiners to include assessments of basic technology tasks, such as document creation and electronic communication, to ensure newly licensed lawyers possess the necessary skills for effective practice. The authors argue that incorporating these competencies into the bar exam is essential for aligning legal education with the realities of legal practice, thereby enhancing the readiness of new attorneys in a rapidly advancing technological landscape.
