46 research outputs found
Introduction: The Social Responsibility of Lawyers
Washington University School of Law inaugurated its Public Interest Law Speakers Series, entitled “Access to Justice: The Social Responsibility of Lawyers,” during the 1998-1999 school year. One of the goals of this on-going series is to highlight the social justice responsibility of lawyers. Through the series, the School hopes to send a strong message to our students and to the community that access to justice is an important part of the professional responsibility of lawyers and the professional responsibility education of Washington University graduates. Another goal of the series is to bring together students, faculty, alumni, and members of the community in an ongoing, interdisciplinary discussion about the future of the legal profession. A third goal is to highlight the excellence of the Law School clinical program, through which many of our students are exposed to pubic service and public interest law practice. In our clinical program, which celebrated its 25th anniversary in 1998-1999, law students assist indigent and underrepresented clients with domestic violence, employment rights, environmental, criminal defense, and death penalty cases, and work with state and federal judges, Congressional committees, and federal agencies.
The year-long series featured a number of speakers, from diverse backgrounds and careers, each independently dedicated to providing access to justice, each demonstrating in their personal and professional lives the best of the legal profession–extraordinary integrity, inexhaustible courage, and unbounded compassion. The talks ranged in focus from international criminal justice, to systemic race and poverty biases in our legal system, to the role of our federal courts in influencing public interest law, to the day-to-day fights confronted by individual consumers, to public service in government and private practice. The series soundly dispelled the myth that lawyers work only for high wages and prestige, and provided an inspirational look, through the lives and words of real individuals, at the responsibilities and possibilities the field of law offers
Introduction: The Social Responsibility of Lawyers
Like the prior eight volumes dedicated to Access to Justice, most of the Articles and Essays in this volume are written by presenters in the School of Law’s annual Public Interest Law & Policy Speaker Series, entitled “Access to Justice: The Social Responsibility of Lawyers.” These presenters are prominent academics, practitioners, and authors from diverse backgrounds in areas such as international human rights, the economics of poverty, racial justice, immigration, capital punishment, conflict resolution, clinical legal education, government public service, and pro bono private practice, who share a commitment to access to justice. The Public Interest Law & Policy Speaker Series was developed in 1998–99 in celebration of the School’s nationally recognized Clinical Education Program, through which many of our students are introduced to public service and public interest law practice. The Series informs the Washington University community and wider community on issues of justice through the presentations of the speakers (that are posted on the law school’s web site), through the Articles drawn from the presentations that are published in the Journal, and through the seminar course that accompanies the series in which students have the opportunity to meet with the speakers, read their work, and develop papers that focus on the speakers’ ideas
Introduction
The 1999-2000 school year marked the second annual Washington University School of Law Public Interest Law Speakers Series, entitled “Access to Justice: The Social Responsibility of Lawyers.” This important Series serves to further three essential goals in educating students and the legal community: first, highlighting the social justice responsibility of lawyers to provide access to justice; second, bringing together students, faculty, alumni, and members of the community in an evolving, interdisciplinary discussion about the future of the legal profession; and third, celebrating the excellence of the Law School clinical program, through which many of our students experience public service and public interest law practice, and confront first-hand their personal and professional responsibility to provide access to justice to all individuals. This Series continues to dispel soundly the myth that lawyers work only for high wages and “prestige,” and provides a truly inspirational look, through the words and stories of real leaders, at the broad responsibilities and aspirations of lawyers
Poverty, Justice, and Community Lawyering: Interdisciplinary and Clinical Perspectives
This introduction recognizes the efforts toward social justice through interdisciplinary clinical teaching and practice. The goals of this project are three-fold: to raise awareness about interdisciplinary clinical teaching and practice, to inspire thoughtful discussion and debate, and to develop scholarship, guidelines, and course materials.
Throughout the project, there has been a focus on questions raised in both academia and practice: What are the goals, the rewards, and the challenges of interdisciplinary teaching and practice? How does one go about designing and developing an interdisciplinary clinic or course? What are the ethical issues that arise in interdisciplinary education and practice, and what are some guidelines for resolving them? What can we learn from reports from the field as to what are the best practices, different models, and likely problems? In what ways do interdisciplinary collaborations advance or impede the delivery of legal services and justice
Women Judges and Merit Selection Under the Missouri Plan
The use of nonpartisan, merit judicial selection raises many public policy concerns: the effect of the procedure on the quality of judges ultimately chosen, the appropriate balance of public, professional, and government involvement in the process, the proper role of politics in judicial selection, and the influence of the selection and retention method on judicial decision-making. This Article addresses one additional facet of that debate: the impact of the Missouri Plan on women\u27s opportunities to become judges. The research conducted by this author demonstrates that in Missouri, the mother state of merit selection, women paradoxically are elected to the judiciary far more often than they are chosen under the Missouri Plan. Missouri trails the rest of the country in merit selection of women to its judiciary, especially at the appellate level. Missouri also lags behind other states in the overall percentage of women judges on the bench. This Article discusses the development of various methods of judicial selection in the United States, including the Missouri Plan. It analyzes the progress of women lawyers gaining access to the bench, both nationwide and in Missouri. The Article points out suggestions to improve the operation of the Missouri Plan and calls on Missouri to assume a leadership role in reforming the Plan
Introduction: Promoting Justice Through Interdisciplinary Teaching, Practice, and Scholarship
Professionals across a wide range of fields have increasingly recognized the benefits of interdisciplinary teaching, practice, and scholarship. Educational institutions, especially law schools, have responded by developing clinical courses and other types of courses in a variety of subject areas, using a range of interdisciplinary approaches. Yet, there has been little focused discussion concerning the goals of these collaborative enterprises, how best to structure these efforts to achieve their intended objectives, and the potential impact on each discipline’s ethical obligations.
The working conference, as well as the pre and post-conference volumes of the Journal, will address the following issues: What do we mean by “interdisciplinary” and “multidisciplinary,” and is there a meaningful difference? How does one go about discerning the goals of collaborations between disciplines? What can we learn from reports from the field as to what are the best practices, different models, and likely problems? In what ways does the clinical teaching model, with its goals of educating students, providing services to the community, and advancing justice, serve as a model? How does one go about designing and developing an interdisciplinary program or class? What are the common ethical issues that arise in interdisciplinary education and practice, and what are some guidelines for resolving them? What are some of the challenges to interdisciplinary teaching, practice, and scholarship