Using Mindfulness Meditation to Foster Reflection in Externships

In an externship setting, where students are asked to combine theory and practice, intentional reflection is key to processing what has been learned from experience. Students are asked to maintain an open curiosity about practice and to connect with their inner experiential world as part of this process. There is a natural connection between reflection and contemplative practice. Teaching reflection to law students can be enhanced by introducing mindfulness practices which share similar attributes such as open awareness, observation, and acceptance of both positive and negative outcomes. This article describes the ways in which mindfulness techniques can be introduced into an externship curriculum and shares lessons and improvements for the future

Tele-Lawyering and the Virtual Learning Experience: Finding the Silver Lining for Remote Hybrid Externships & Law Clinics After the Pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic has rocked the world in innumerable ways. This article argues that the COVID-19 pandemic has a silver lining for law students in experiential learning programs. The pandemic has forced law schools across the country to fully utilize remote learning technology. The pandemic similarly forced courts to accept virtual tools in an environment that had previously relied primarily on in-person appearances. The lessons that law faculty and judges have learned from the pandemic will be permanent and may change the methods of operation going forward. Law schools that embrace the lessons they learned can help their law students and graduates be better prepared for a new practice environment, as distance learning and virtual law practice are likely here to stay. This article discusses why, despite what some may think, remote learning can happen successfully with experiential education and why virtual experiences will benefit students, their employers, and the public in the future. This article offers a guide as to how one law school, with a long history of remote delivery, made this pivot, and offers concrete guidance for other schools that might want to continue using virtual technology to help deliver experiential education post-pandemic. In Part II of this article, we describe the legal academy’s historic resistance to remote learning and the standards that govern experiential learning. We analogize law school resistance to remote experiential learning to the resistance of parts of our judiciary system in embracing remote court operations. In Part III, we document the way in which COVID-19 changed the world of legal education and the courts. In Part IV, we offer our thesis that virtual or hybrid legal practice is here to stay, and virtual experiential learning is essential training for the modern law student. In Part V, we discuss several pedagogical modifications that should be made to address challenges that arise from the virtual practice format and how to most effectively teach law students. Additionally, we discuss best practices for designing fully remote and hybrid clinic and externship courses. Lastly, in Part VI, we discuss the broader lessons on how remote work in experiential settings can lead the way for transforming modern legal education post-pandemic and provide concrete guidance on how to do so. Finally, we offer an appendix, outlining some practical guidance and a checklist to utilize when designing remote or hybrid externships and clinics

Engaging Your Faculty

Career services professionals can utilize faculty as an additional resource when working to coach law students and alumni to successful careers. Working across departmental “silos” can help improve student career outcomes and engagement by tapping into additional professional contact networks. Developing relationships with tenure-track, contract and adjunct faculty, inviting them to programming, asking them to participate on committees and keeping faculty apprised of student employment, allow for a holistic and collaborate approach to advising students

Wellness Event: Yoga

Join Alison Lintal, our colleague from Penn State Dickinson Law, who will lead us in a yoga session on Friday morning - to stretch, breathe, and get ready to leap into the first day of our conference. (Conference clothes are fine, the goal is for folks to be able to head off from yoga to morning session - new clinicians, scholarship or sightseeing)

Using Mindfulness Meditation to Foster Reflection in Externships

In an externship setting, where students are asked to combine theory and practice, intentional reflection is key to processing what has been learned from experience. Students are asked to maintain an open curiosity about practice and to connect with their inner experiential world as part of this process. There is a natural connection between reflection and contemplative practice. Teaching reflection to law students can be enhanced by introducing mindfulness practices which share similar attributes such as open awareness, observation, and acceptance of both positive and negative outcomes. This article describes the ways in which mindfulness techniques can be introduced into an externship curriculum and shares lessons and improvements for the future

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As the number of first-generation college and graduate school students continues to rise, law schools have a responsibility to provide programming and support for first generation professionals. Academic, financial and psycho-social barriers play a role in the success of a first-generation student’s law school and subsequent legal career experience. By first identifying common barriers to success in the legal profession, schools can move to developing strategies to address these barriers. Depending upon the type of law school and its culture, there are multiple ways that schools can provide such services and tools to its students including through targeted professional development programming, peer or alumni mentoring, or collaboration with faculty and administration

Improv & Internships: Using Improvisation Techniques to Teach Vital Lawyering Skills

How students choose to collaborate and communicate can have a significant impact on the outcome of a workplace project as well as their legal career. Additionally, the importance of face-to-face communication, body posture, and learning to interpret body language cues is crucial for building professional relationships. Through these interactive exercises, students get the opportunity to practice responses in a setting that fosters student development and growth. Furthermore, improvisation provides the legal profession with tools that can be used to enhance communication, active listening, collaboration, agility, trust, authenticity, and resilience. An important emphasis in externship courses is a focus on cultivation of the habit of self-reflection. Equally important is the need for externship teachers to provide a safe space for students to practice immediate reactivity to challenges that they will face in a law practice setting. Improvisation exercises provide a tool for responding to workplace challenges by teaching techniques that will enhance communication skills while at the same time bolstering law student wellbeing

Engaging Your Faculty

Career services professionals can utilize faculty as an additional resource when working to coach law students and alumni to successful careers. Working across departmental “silos” can help improve student career outcomes and engagement by tapping into additional professional contact networks. Developing relationships with tenure-track, contract and adjunct faculty, inviting them to programming, asking them to participate on committees and keeping faculty apprised of student employment, allow for a holistic and collaborate approach to advising students

Tele-Lawyering and The Virtual Learning Experience: Finding the Silver Lining for Remote Hybrid Externships & Law Clinics after the Pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic has rocked the world in innumerable ways. This Article argues that the COVID-19 pandemic has a silver lining for law students in experiential learning programs. The pandemic has forced law schools across the country to fully utilize remote learning technology. The pandemic similarly forced courts to accept virtual tools in an environment that had previously relied primarily on in-person appearances. The lessons that law faculty and judges have learned from the pandemic will be permanent and may change the methods of operation going forward. Law schools that embrace the lessons they learned can help their law students and graduates be better prepared for a new practice environment, as distance learning and virtual law practice are likely here to stay. This article discusses why, despite what some may think, remote learning can happen successfully with experiential education and why virtual experiences will benefit students, their employers, and the public in the future. This article offers a guide as to how one law school, with a long history of remote delivery3, made this pivot, and offers concrete guidance for other schools that might want to continue using virtual technology to help deliver experiential education post-pandemic. In Part II of this article, we describe the legal academy’s historic resistance to remote learning and the standards that govern experiential learning.4 We analogize law school resistance to remote experiential learning to the resistance of parts of our judiciary system in embracing remote court operations. In Part III, we document the way in which COVID changed the world of legal education and the courts. In Part IV, we offer our thesis that virtual or hybrid legal practice is here to stay, and virtual experiential learning is essential training for the modern law student. In Part V, we discuss several pedagogical modifications that should be made to address challenges that arise from the virtual practice format and how to most effectively teach law students. Additionally, we discuss best practices for designing fully remote and hybrid clinic and externship courses. Lastly, in Part VI, we discuss the broader lessons on how remote work in experiential settings can lead the way for transforming modern legal education post-pandemic and provide concrete guidance on how to do so. Finally, we offer an appendix, outlining some practical guidance and a checklist to utilize when designing remote or hybrid externships and clinics

Tele-Lawyering and The Virtual Learning Experience: Finding the Silver Lining for Remote Hybrid Externships & Law Clinics after the Pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic has rocked the world in innumerable ways. This Article argues that the COVID-19 pandemic has a silver lining for law students in experiential learning programs. The pandemic has forced law schools across the country to fully utilize remote learning technology. The pandemic similarly forced courts to accept virtual tools in an environment that had previously relied primarily on in-person appearances. The lessons that law faculty and judges have learned from the pandemic will be permanent and may change the methods of operation going forward. Law schools that embrace the lessons they learned can help their law students and graduates be better prepared for a new practice environment, as distance learning and virtual law practice are likely here to stay. This article discusses why, despite what some may think, remote learning can happen successfully with experiential education and why virtual experiences will benefit students, their employers, and the public in the future. This article offers a guide as to how one law school, with a long history of remote delivery3, made this pivot, and offers concrete guidance for other schools that might want to continue using virtual technology to help deliver experiential education post-pandemic. In Part II of this article, we describe the legal academy’s historic resistance to remote learning and the standards that govern experiential learning.4 We analogize law school resistance to remote experiential learning to the resistance of parts of our judiciary system in embracing remote court operations. In Part III, we document the way in which COVID changed the world of legal education and the courts. In Part IV, we offer our thesis that virtual or hybrid legal practice is here to stay, and virtual experiential learning is essential training for the modern law student. In Part V, we discuss several pedagogical modifications that should be made to address challenges that arise from the virtual practice format and how to most effectively teach law students. Additionally, we discuss best practices for designing fully remote and hybrid clinic and externship courses. Lastly, in Part VI, we discuss the broader lessons on how remote work in experiential settings can lead the way for transforming modern legal education post-pandemic and provide concrete guidance on how to do so. Finally, we offer an appendix, outlining some practical guidance and a checklist to utilize when designing remote or hybrid externships and clinics