Mountain ridge

  • Simulated Client workshop summary

    The psychoanalyst Erik Erikson once observed that if you wish to understand a culture, study its nurseries. There is a similar principle for the understanding of professions: if you wish to understand why professions develop as they do, study their nurseries, in this case, their forms of professional preparation. When you do, you will generally…

  • Sim client workshop: programme and resources

    One of the initiatives I’ve been working on in the last 20 years is the Simulated Client Initiative. I’ve worked with a range of partners to establish SC projects internationally. I’ve also organised international workshops in London (Gray’s Inn), Canberra (ANU College of Law) and Toronto, which were liveblogged in this blog This month, people…

  • BILETA 2024: Legal education manifesto

    It was billed in the conference programme as the launch of the BILETA online teaching policy. But the document is more subtle and radical than this: a BILETA manifesto; not teaching-focused but learning-centred; not just online but education in the round. Why a manifesto, why now? There was a feeling that post-pandemic, with the drift…

  • BILETA 2024: Legal education session 1

    Four papers. First up, Nick Scharf from East Anglia U, on an intriguing interdisciplinary topic: ‘Give the Drummer Some: Reflecting on the use of the drum kit to enhance student learning of copyright law’. As he describes it in his abstract ‘The approach outlined here breaks from the traditional question/answer/discussion structure of seminars and allows…

  • BILETA 2024

    I’m at the two-day BILETA 2024 annual conference, held this year in Dublin, hosted by Dublin City University’s School of Law and Government. As an Honorary Vice President of BILETA I was invited by the Executive to participate in a roundtable on the newly-minted policy document, ‘A manifesto for the post-pandemic university’. The document describes…

  • ‘Tis fifty years since

    Thanks to Alan Treleaven for sending me an interesting news item from the US National Center for State Courts (NCSC) that announced ‘the formation of an 18-month study committee that will examine the state of legal education and bar admission processes in the United States along with the decline in attorneys dedicating their careers to…

  • Redivivus

    To all three of my readers, apologies for my disappearance over the past year and more. Many things intervened, including job changes, illness, house moves ending up here on the Isle of Skye; the acquisition of a giant collie and a motorbike (more of which anon), the renewal of old acquaintances, Hannah Arendt, Adam Ferguson…

  • SC Workshop: Final plenary

    First, a word about the two sessions that weren’t recorded, namely the demo interview with Alexis Callen as lawyer and Dana Mohr as SC, and the panel: Alexis, Dana, Joan Rilling.  Alexis did exceptionally well as a 1L lawyer, and Dana was first rate at enacting the client, and then switching into feedback mode with…

  • SC Workshop: Simulated clients in PREP

    The final presentation of the workshop, from Erica Green and Angela Yenssen.  For background, see PREP.  Erica gave us a short overview of the PREP model (spiral learning, TELL > SHOW > PRACTICE > PERFORM > REFLECT > DEMONSTRATE). SCs were introduced throughout the 4 phases of the program thus: Phase 1: Foundation Modules LSIA…

  • SC Workshop: Making students client-ready: A new model in legal education

    John was the initiator of this radical bar program (running since 2005) in New Hampshire, working with the Supreme Court of NH to produce what has been a sigificant innovation in US legal education.  The graduates of the program achieve admission to the New Hampshire bar based upon demonstrated mastery of practical legal skills and…

  • SC Workshop: demo interview & panel

    In these two sessions we’re focusing on how things look from the (student) lawyer and SC perspectives.  In the interview, our student did a superb job with a difficult scenario, which didn’t have an obviously legal solution to it, and required a bit more information to understand what seemed to be a straightforward storyline.  Our…

  • SC Workshop: Noel Semple

    Noel talked about his use of SCs at Windsor U Law JD program, in the Windsor Legal Practice Simulation (WLPS) which he directs.  It is a mandatory course for all 160 1L students. It takes place over 4 days in November, during which time the students have no other classes.  Simulated clients are an integral part…