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