First-Generation Students in Law School: A Proven Success Model

High school graduates whose parents did not themselves graduate from college are now entering undergraduate institutions in overwhelming numbers. They represent a significant constituency on college campuses across the country and undergraduate programs are investing resources to study and facilitate the academic success of these students as they work towards an undergraduate degree. Those students have been graduating in greater numbers and many are now pursuing graduate degrees, including law degrees. To grow student retention and graduation rates, law schools should be proactive in addressing the needs of this growing body of students. For over two decades, the University of Memphis Cecil C. Humphreys School of Law has offered an alternative admissions program, called the Tennessee Institute for Pre-Law (“TIP”). This program aims to facilitate the admission, academic success, and graduation of diverse law school applicants who are denied admission through the regular application process. Among the diverse students TIP serves are first-generation college students. Over the years TIP has guided numerous first-generation college students to achieve law school admission, succeed academically, graduate, and ultimately pass the bar exam. TIP implements many strategies that benefit first-generation college students and should serve as a model for law schools interested in investing in the success of this growing population

The Restyled Federal Rules of Evidence

A lightly edited transcript of the Symposium held at the William & Mary School of Law on October 28, 2011

The Restyled Federal Rules of Evidence

A lightly edited transcript of the Symposium held at the William & Mary School of Law on October 28, 2011

Eyes Wide Shut: How Ignorance of the Common Interest Doctrine Can Compromise Informed Consent

This Article addresses the novel ethical problems presented by the common interest doctrine that implicate an attorney\u27s duties of diligence, confidentiality, and loyalty to his or her client. These adverse effects of informal aggregation are not always fully considered before engaging a client in a common interest arrangement, but they should be. In Part II, this Article first explains the potential advantages that the common interest doctrine presents as an evidentiary tool, but then recognizes that exercise of the doctrine creates an undefined duty on the part of the attorney to the party with whom a client exchanges confidential information. Specifically, Part II.B warns that the common interest doctrine creates some duty-ethical or fiduciary-owed by an attorney to a third party. Part III.A explains the effect that this undefined obligation to other members of the common interest agreement may have on an attorney\u27s ability to provide her original client with the representational rights to which he is entitled. In Part III.B, the Article further explains that the relationship created between an attorney and the other members of the common interest group may so interfere with the attorney\u27s ability to represent her client as to require her to withdraw as counsel to the original client. Finally, Part IV of this Article proposes that a broader discussion of the risks of the common interest doctrine, as well as an individualized cost-benefit analysis, would serve to adequately inform a client of the risks associated with the common interest doctrine

First-Generation Students in Law School: A Proven Success Model

High school graduates whose parents did not themselves graduate from college are now entering undergraduate institutions in overwhelming numbers. They represent a significant constituency on college campuses across the country and undergraduate programs are investing resources to study and facilitate the academic success of these students as they work towards an undergraduate degree. Those students have been graduating in greater numbers and many are now pursuing graduate degrees, including law degrees. To grow student retention and graduation rates, law schools should be proactive in addressing the needs of this growing body of students. For over two decades, the University of Memphis Cecil C. Humphreys School of Law has offered an alternative admissions program, called the Tennessee Institute for Pre-Law (“TIP”). This program aims to facilitate the admission, academic success, and graduation of diverse law school applicants who are denied admission through the regular application process. Among the diverse students TIP serves are first-generation college students. Over the years TIP has guided numerous first-generation college students to achieve law school admission, succeed academically, graduate, and ultimately pass the bar exam. TIP implements many strategies that benefit first-generation college students and should serve as a model for law schools interested in investing in the success of this growing population