Accomplishing Your Scholarly Agenda While Maximizing Students’ Learning (A.K.A., How to Teach Legal Methods and Have Time to Write Too)

Abstract

In response to the demands of prospective law students, pressure from outside law organizations, and forces from within the legal academy, law schools are offering more skills training for students and more job security for Legal Methods professors. As a result, Legal Methods professors’ primary responsibilities in the legal academy are changing from a single focus of teaching to a dual focus of teaching and scholarship. Although the changes are welcomed, the task of producing scholarship remains especially difficult for Legal Methods professors because in many instances they still lack the necessary funding and time to fulfill this new obligation. The modest salaries many Legal Methods professors earn, and the weighty teaching responsibilities all Legal Methods professors carry, present obstacles that need and can be overcome to enable the production of meaningful scholarship. The article articulates the dilemma facing Legal Methods professors and law schools as more job security and writing opportunities become available. By rethinking teaching methodologies and highlighting ways to produce scholarship, the article proposes solutions that can enrich students’ learning and the teaching, scholarship, and discipline of Legal Methods.

Keywords: Legal Education, Legal Research & Writing, Legal Methods, Scholarship, Collaborative Learning, Cooperative Learning

JEL Classification: K10, K19, K40, K49