reflections on values and legal education. raymond t. nimmer dean and leonard childs professor of...

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Reflections on Values and legal education.

Raymond T. NimmerDean and Leonard Childs Professor of Law

University of Houston Law Centerrnimmer@uh.edu

Basics

• You get what you seek or ask for• 180 law schools• About 8,000 law faculty• Many different – but a basic core:

• “Thinking like lawyer”• Subsequent – learning law• Increasingly – learn law skills

• Learning to be a professional• Learning to be a business person• Law as a business

Basics – the visit

• Fulbright Distinguished Chair three months• Lisbon – Catholica Law School• LLM students – Portugal and elsewhere

• Contracts• Electronic commercial transactions

• Class at Cambridge• General reaction: much to learn from

• Especially the dominant values; • We shape our by self-selection and by approach in L.

School

Topics

• Rules find/ search vs. attack/ avoid/ use

• Values vs. economic consequences• Effect of high stakes litigation• Relation between academics and

practice• Life style and language issues

Rule search vs …

• Teach in US style• Cases and challenging or questioning• Contrast: rule finding/ top down delivery• “Tell me why she was wrong”• “Tell me why case is wrong”• “Tell me how to get around this”• The last week on conditions• Was this good – what values change

Values and economics

• Its just money• The woman student’s comment• The wedding cake problem• The specific performance remedy• Is it just money?• Should it be?• The Cambridge class

High stakes litigation

• Law as viewed through risk and cost level

• Class action metric – e.g., recent 9th Circuit cases re arbitration etc.

• Compare – law as viewed through lower stakes lower costs

• Substantive shape – write rules to allow or avoid

• Procedural shape• Social welfare shaping

Privacy illustration

• Hypothetical – should X company disclose names of customers to Y company, with whom it works.

• Modern privacy law• Conflict of perspectives• Dollar risk vs. individual “protection”• Student response

Academics and practice

• The interaction in Portugal and England

• The split in the U.S.• How does this effect what is taught• Traditional – skills• Non-traditional – values• Traditional – ethics as separate

Language and style

• Life style choices• Small law firm models

• Billable hours and law as a business

• Law office management as a skill

Conclusion

• You get what you aim for and lose what you ignore

• There are other methodologies for creating good lawyers

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