The new practice standard
True North for Emory Law is the confluence of the school’s core values, the cornerstone of which is student flourishing. Rich Freer, dean and Charles Howard Candler Professor of Law, has often said over the past almost two years that student flourishing is about preparing and educating students to confidently practice law in any milieu.
To meet the developing needs of practicing attorneys today, law schools's curriculum commitees must continually consider their approaches to teaching law. That work is reflected in the develoment of new programming being taught within the classrooms of Gambrell Hall.
Program for Academic Excellence
As part of our commitment to student flourishing, we have introduced the Program of Academic Excellence comprising Associate Dean Kamina Pinder, her program director, and three experienced academic advisors. The expansion of this program was made possible by a gift from Richard Conviser, distinguished legal educator and founder of BARBRI, the nation’s largest bar review company.
The program begins the summer before orientation and continues throughout the Emory Law experience. During the summer prior to orientation, students are required to answer a series of questions to establish their fluency in critically reading legal information, answering comprehension questions, and engaging in synthesizing and analyzing information. They receive personalized feedback on their submissions after orientation.
Thereafter, during the academic year, 1Ls complete a single-credit course in which they are introduced to tools for academic success. The classes are designed to build on the skills and doctrine in their other classes. Students are coached via formative assessments consistent with the integrated approach of NextGen bar. The experience also incorporates a wellness piece.
Academic Excellence also supports an integrated approach to curricular design and pedagogy throughout our upper-level curricular programming/offerings. Specific to the 3Ls, we offer two courses that are focused on bar preparation including both key skills for success along with targeted reviews of frequently tested subjects.
New Courses This Academic Year
Government Lawyering
Government lawyers play a uniquely important role in our legal system: they wield significant influence, shoulder special responsibilities, and help uphold the rule of law. This course introduces students to the fundamentals of government lawyering by exploring the roles lawyers play in state government and all three branches of the federal government, and by examining legal and ethical issues government lawyers navigate on a daily basis. The course was taught by Sara Zdeb, who joined the faculty following senior leadership roles in the US Department of Justice and US Senate. Students develop fluency in several bodies of law relevant to government lawyers, including the Freedom of Information Act, state open records laws, conflict of interest laws, and other laws designed to make government more transparent and accountable. The course also addresses the role government lawyers at all levels play in upholding the rule of law. Guest speakers—including a former United States attorney, a former State Department inspector general, and a former Georgia attorney general—expose students to a wide variety of government lawyering careers and describe how the legal principles covered in this class are applied in practice.
Georgia Law, Practice and Procedure
Georgia Law, Practice and Procedure is designed for third-year JD students planning to take the Georgia bar exam. The course will address Georgia law distinctions covered by the four 45-minute essay questions appearing on the Georgia bar exam. The topics include, inter alia, Professional Ethics, Corporations, Civil Procedure, Evidence, and Torts. This section of the Georgia Bar exam comprises approximately 30% of the bar exam score and is administered during the afternoon session on the first day of the Georgia Bar. Students review a survey of bar-tested subjects and come to class prepared to discuss the Georgia distinctions on those subjects. The course builds fluency in the six core skills tested on the Georgia Bar exam including problem solving, legal analysis and reasoning, factual analysis, communication, organization and management of a legal task, and recognizing/resolving problems.
AI and Legal Writing
AI and Legal Writing invites students to try new genres of legal writing and explore the production of legal writing in various practice areas. Students experiment with prompting, evaluating responses, and integrating AI output into their work. Students broaden their perspectives through engaging with speaker panels and/or individually interviewing practitioners. These approaches are integrated with discussion of relevant ethical rules such as competence and confidentiality, as well as access-to-justice critiques of the legal profession. An unfortunately necessary skill in AI and Legal Writing is responding to hallucinated legal authorities, a problematic trend among pro se parties and some licensed attorneys. This course, taught by Jennifer Romig, invites students to develop an informed opinion on AI's role in their intellectual and professional development as legal writers and practicing lawyers.
Email the Editor
