The Carnegie Report and Legal Writing: Does the Report Go Far Enough?

Journal of Legal Writing Institute, Vol. 17, p. 279, 2011

Drexel University Earle Mack School of Law Research Paper No. 2011-A-09

47 Pages Posted: 23 Nov 2011

See all articles by Lisa A. Tucker

Lisa A. Tucker

Drexel University Thomas R. Kline School of Law

Christine Nero Coughlin

Wake Forest University - School of Law

Deborah S. Gordon

Drexel University Thomas R. Kline School of Law

Date Written: November 23, 2011

Abstract

The 2007 release of a comprehensive and innovative report on legal education, known now simply as the “Carnegie Report,” has generated widespread enthusiasm throughout the legal academy. Recognizing that law school “forms minds and shapes identities” of nearly all legal professionals, this landmark look at legal education applauds and defends legal pedagogy that integrates “theoretical and practical legal knowledge and professional identity.” Many legal educators have acknowledged the Carnegie Report’s importance, and some have begun to propose and develop educational programs that implement the Report’s recommendations.

Not all responses to the Carnegie Report have been positive, however. While heralding the Report’s broad goal of fostering a law school experience that integrates theory, practice, and professionalism, some legal educators have cautioned that the Report does not go far enough because it continues to embrace case dialogue as law school’s signature pedagogy, recommends additional forms of pedagogy that replicate the same fundamental problems, or sacrifices traditional subject matter necessary for the development of professional skills.

With respect to legal writing, the Carnegie Report praises the work of legal writing faculties, largely in recognizing that these professors grasp that the best law school teaching is interactive and experiential in nature. Much of the Report’s discussion of legal writing, however, reinforces the hierarchies and damaging stereotypes that undermine the Report’s fundamental lessons about educating thoughtful, engaged, and ethical lawyers. The Report also fails to appreciate the significant lessons that legal writing professors can teach their "non-skills" colleagues. With expertise in developing techniques for experiential learning, outcomes assessment, and formative assessment, skills faculty have much to share with the rest of the academy.

In an effort to further the already significant strides in legal pedagogy that the Carnegie Report has engendered, this Article highlights some of the Report’s shortcomings in its description of legal writing and the place that legal writing has in traditional legal teaching. It describes the Carnegie Report’s basic recommendations for legal educators and some of the many responses to those recommendations, then examines the Carnegie Report’s unquestioning acceptance of hierarchies within the legal academy and describes how these attitudes damage law student learning. It explains that skills faculty — who know a great deal about formative assessment, the focus of the proposed ABA standards — can both provide guidance on making legal learning more interactive and experiential and guide non-skills faculty in implementing the Report’s fundamental charge to make assessment more meaningful.

In sum, although this Article commends the Carnegie Report’s recognition that legal education can benefit from an integrated approach to learning, the Article also addresses the Carnegie Report’s shortcomings in its approach to and commentary on skills faculty. Specifically, the Article criticizes the Report’s failure to recognize that legal writing professionals routinely use best practices in education, including formative assessments, and notes its missed opportunity to promote this particular expertise throughout the academy.

Keywords: Educating Lawyers, Carnegie Report, legal writing, skills curriculum, faculty, hierarchy, legal education

Suggested Citation

Tucker, Lisa A. and Coughlin, Christine Nero and Gordon, Deborah S., The Carnegie Report and Legal Writing: Does the Report Go Far Enough? (November 23, 2011). Journal of Legal Writing Institute, Vol. 17, p. 279, 2011, Drexel University Earle Mack School of Law Research Paper No. 2011-A-09, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1963843

Lisa A. Tucker (Contact Author)

Drexel University Thomas R. Kline School of Law ( email )

3320 Market Street
Philadelphia, PA 19104
United States

HOME PAGE: http://www.drexel.edu/law/lisa-mcelroy.asp

Christine Nero Coughlin

Wake Forest University - School of Law ( email )

P.O. Box 7206
Winston-Salem, NC 27109
United States

Deborah S. Gordon

Drexel University Thomas R. Kline School of Law ( email )

3320 Market Street
Philadelphia, PA 19104
United States

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