Teaching the Law School Curriculum - Institute for Law Teaching ...

302 Professional Responsibility
The major problem with videos is their length. Most videos run 30 minutes or more. If the video is played in
full, you will have little time to discuss the video in the standard 50-minute class. I have thought of three solutions
to the problem of length. First, if you plan to use videos in the course, you could try to arrange to teach the
course in a block of time longer than one hour: 90 minutes, two hours, or three hours. Second, you could use a
carefully selected portion of the video, leaving sufficient time for discussion of the video in class. I do not recommend
dividing the viewing and the discussion of the video into two classes because memories fade and some
students may be unable to participate in the discussion if they were absent when the video was shown. Selection
of a portion of a video, however, is somewhat time consuming; you must, in essence, edit the video. I have attempted
to provide guidance to instructors who wish to use portions of videos. Third, you could arrange a special
two- or three-hour class to show and discuss a video. Usually once a semester I treat my class to a pizza-andethics
video dinner. Deans are often willing to pay the cost of such a class.
Guest Speakers or Panels
Some critics of legal education have condemned the isolation of law schools from the life of the law. Using
guest speakers or panels is one way to bridge this divide. In addition, guest speakers can provide context and
practical details regarding particular ethical problems that students can then critically evaluate. Many of the problems
in this book can be usefully taught with the assistance of guest speakers.
Student Projects or Reports
Role plays are, of course, a type of student project, but you can assign other types of projects. The projects can
be either individual or group. One type of project to consider is a written analysis of a problem in the materials.
This project requires the students to focus more carefully on a problem than they would normally do in preparing
for class. In addition, the project requires the students to present their analysis in a written form. Students can be
directed to select problems that relate to the type of practice that they are considering. A drafting exercise is another
possible written exercise that you could assign. A number of the problems have suggested drafting exercises.
Another type of student project is more empirical in nature. Students can be required to conduct interviews
dealing with a particular issue. For example, a group of students could interview lawyers in several large firms to
determine the types of conflict of interest issues the firms face; how the firms deal with these conflicts; and the
documents, such as consent forms, used by the firms to deal with conflict problems. Or, students could determine
by interview and research the methods for delivery of legal services in criminal cases used in their jurisdiction
and the problems with those methods.
What form should the presentations of the projects take? The results of the project should be reduced to written
form. In addition, you could arrange for oral presentations. For example, you could set aside the last class of
the semester for presentation of selected projects to the entire class. Another possibility is to have a special session
for group presentations. Consider the following workshop format: Arrange a special two-hour session time
(a Friday afternoon, when classes are often not held, is a possibility). Divide the class into three groups. Students
or teams in Group A make their presentations during the first 30-minute session while the other two groups act
as the audience. Groups B and C make their presentations during the next two sessions, with the nonpresenting
groups serving as the audience. To further stimulate interest, you could invite local attorneys and judges to participate
in the workshop. A concluding social would be a nice ending to the workshop.
First Day, Challenges, and Top Cases
Nathan Crystal, University of South Carolina School of Law
On the first day of my Professional Responsibility course, I provide students with an overview of the course.
I also suggest that it is important to their professional well-being and that it can be a pleasant learning experi-