• Hong Kong U Faculty of Law: virtual & f2f sims

    I’m in Hong Kong U Faculty of Law, on an exchange scheme with Wilson Chow of the Law Faculty, funded by HKU Teaching Exchange Fellowship Scheme.  Wilson has already visited the UK, and conducted a survey of students using SIMPLE at Strathclyde, Northumbria and Glamorgan.  He presented his results at the BILETA conference, and  will…

  • NTU Centre for Legal Education conference: session 2, LETR discussion

    Second session — I’m presenting on this so it’ll be short…  Jane Ching opened the session, then the three of us talked to the slides, then there was an activity with coloured paper, etc — legal kindergarten in action!  I talked about the literature review largely, and where the project is at the moment.  Jane…

  • NTU Centre for Legal Education conference: session 1, visions of legal education

    I’m liveblogging the Nottingham Law School’s Centre for Legal Education launch conference.  Directors of the Centre are Becky Huxley-Binns, Jane Ching, my colleague on the LETR project, and Andrea Nollent, who introduced the event and Baroness Deech, who gave the first address.  The session was called Visions of Legal Education.  Ruth pointed out how critical…

  • Collaboration & convergence

    I shouldn’t really be, but I’m always surprised by how little inter-institutional collaboration takes place in legal education.  Here’s an example of how valuable it can be not just for the partners, but for students and regulators too.

  • NCBE Conference reflections: the hot and the cool

    First of all, a big thanks to Erica Moeser for the invitation to speak, and to Deb Martin & colleagues for all their helpful admin support.  Having just finished hosting the BILETA conference it’s fresh in my mind just how complex & time-consuming conference design & admin is. This conference has been so instructive for…

  • NCBE Conference: final session

    Final session I attended was a discussion session for 0-2 years Bar members and staff, in order to hear the basic issues being raised.  Key points: Administration issues.  Training of proctors — what we’d call exam invigilators (teachers noted as excellent proctors), and monitoring of proctor performance. Grading Bar exams — variability in marking.  One…

  • NCBE Conference: In the Trenches: Character and Fitness Issues

    Barbara D’Aquila, practitioner and member of the Minnesota Board of Law Examiners. In Minnesota Rule 5 spelled out eligibility requirements — honesty, good judgment, lawful, respectful conduct, etc.  Went at a fair pace so cdn’t really take notes.  Session was interactive: six scenarios, participants debated what they’d do, then Barbara & Emily Eschweiler (assistant director…

  • Plenary: Candour in Disclosing Character and Fitness Issues

    The full title of the first speaker’s session is ‘Trends in Character and Fitness from the perspective of a Seasoned Law School Administrator’ — Ann Lukingbeal, from Cornell — Asst Dean, Admin.  She pointed out that students are sanitizing their applications to law school, ie concealing negative information.  eg at Cornell the ‘Have you ever…

  • Globalization Comes to Main St, USA

    Alan Treleaven started us off in this session, describing the situation in British Columbia, and how the Law Society of BC dealt with the issues involved.  Useful summary of the Canadian system.  Interesting that lawyers can move between provinces (though as I understood him they can’t set up in two provinces) in their representation of…

  • Plenary: Significant Developments Affecting the Regulation of Lawyers

    Important plenary, with Catherine Carpenter, Gerald VandeWalle and Hulett (Bucky) Askew. First up, Catherine Carpenter.  Standards Review Committee’s Comprehensive Review  has been ongoing for over three years now.  She started with learning outcomes — something new to American law schools, she said.  The focus on outputs, not inputs, was essential.  And the Bar Exam as…

  • Breakout session 1: Testing for Law School Admission & Licensing

    I attended ‘Testing for Law School Admission & Licensing’ — Michael Kane & Peter Pashley.  The session concerned how measurement affects the ‘pipeline’ into the profession. Peter introduced the Law School Admissions Council — he’s principal research scientist.  LSAC started in 1947, and the first real LSAT administered in 1948 (though as I point out…

  • Plenary: Introducing the NCBE Content Validity Study

    Next up was the session on the Content Validity Study (CSV).  David Boyd introduced the subject by focusing on validity — assembling evidence that justifies the decisions made on the basis of test scores; and evidence that the test actually measures what it intends to measure.  Bar exams are licensing tests, he pointed out; and…