Reflections on Values and legal education.
Raymond T. NimmerDean and Leonard Childs Professor of Law
University of Houston Law [email protected]
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
