Philosophy of Teaching

LAW 6829 Professional Responsibility
Professor Vernellia R. Randall
The University of Dayton School of Law

"A lawyer, as a member of the legal profession, is a representative of clients, an officer of the legal system
and a public citizen having special responsibility for the quality of justice."
ABA Model Rules for Professional Conduct.

Please notify me of any typo, misspelling, etc.

How one teaches is necessarily influenced by what one perceives as the goals of legal education. Certainly, the primary goal is to prepare you to be effective lawyers, judges and policy makers. At a minimum, that includes helping you to develop the ability to:

think critically, precisely, and clearly;
express yourself succinctly;
understand the expressions of others; particularly those who are different than yourself;
understand human nature, particularly the motivations and needs of your clients, opponents, jurors, judges, etc.; and
use the techniques of the legal profession to represent a client in general matters, to recognize where you lack competence, and to comply with accepted ethical standards.

While it is hardly arguable that preparing you to be an effective lawyer is an important goal, it is not the only one. Many of you will be law makers and policy makers, thus training you to understand the values implicit in the law is an important goal. Another important goal is to train you to address in a systematic manner your social responsibilities as an individual lawyer and your collective responsibilities as a member of the bar. This includes your responsibility to assist your community in maintaining an accessible, effective and socially responsible legal system.

Thus, my objective is to help you continue the process of meeting those goals. The primary focus of my teaching method is to provide you an educationally sound introduction to a lawyer's professional responsibility. Furthermore, given the impact race and gender have on the law (and vice versa) my approach to teaching is to explicitly explore diversity issues (particularly race, class and gender) as a component of professional ethics. Finally, my objective is to provide you tools for improving your bar test-taking skills.

A. Teaching Objective #1: Educationally Sound Pedagogy

An educationally sound legal pedagogy is a philosophy of legal education which is grounded in known educational theory. To be so grounded, an educationally sound legal pedagogy:

trains you to solve legal problems by providing you with working program for solving problems;

provides you with the opportunity to excel.

provides you with criteria for what it is you need to do to excel and specifically the progress you are making;

provides you with the opportunity to practice each new skill throughout the learning process; and,

provides you with adequate instruction on how to study for law school and this course.

Thus, it is my goal, through an educationally sound pedagogy, to provide you with an opportunity to learn and to excel.

B. Teaching Objective #2: Professional Responsibility Teaching Objectives

Professional Responsibility teaching objectives are those objectives that relate directly to the substantive area of the law. They can be divided into two categories: knowledge and skills/abilities. The objectives of this course are:

to provide you with a basic understanding professional ethics ;

to provide you information about selected principles o (or black letter law) and significant issues (or unsettled matters) in professional responsibility;

to help you understand the value implications of legal choices;

to help you develop and improve your analytical skills including understanding, issue-spotting, problem-solving, judgment and synthesis;

to help you to understand the importance of inference and intuition in problem definition and problem-solving; and

to emphasize that "personal neutrality" is not necessary to scholarly objectivity.

C. Teaching Objectives #3: Diversity-Conscious Legal Pedagogy

Class, disability, gender, race and sexual preference issues are such an integral part of our society (and the legal profession) that we often overlook how the law affects individuals with different backgrounds differently. In a diverse society, such as ours, awareness of how different class, disability, gender race and sexual preference are effected differently by the law is essential. This is true whether the person is a defendant, plaintiff, lawyer, juror, judge or law student. Diversity awareness should be a normative part of the value system of the practicing attorney. An education which is aware of diversity:

explores how racial, ethnic, gender, class, disability, cultural and sexual orientation are related to and impacted by the structure of law. In particular, it illuminates the connection between racial and gender issues and the values, interests, rules and theories that appear to be neutral but, are in fact a representation of the values of the dominant culture.

broadly frames classroom discussion so that we step outside the doctrinal bounds of the law to critique the rules and legal practice; and,

focuses discussion on problems, interests and values that reflect a broad range of perspectives.

D. Teaching Objectives #4: Improving Bar Test-Taking Skills

Passing the bar is not only about knowing the law, it is also about having
a sufficiently developed test-taking skills. One of the most significant area of concern for many students is their ability to take standardized test (multiple choice). This course will help you improve your multiple choice test-taking skills.
We will do that by :

explicitly teaching you those skills,

by providing frequent opportunity to practice the skills and

by structuring a process of improvement that can be used by you beyond this course

This Page Last Updated:
Friday, March 28, 2008

You are visitor number
Hit Counter
Since January 1, 2008

Please Remember I May Modify the Syllabus and the Lesson any time up to three days before class.

Always Under Construction!

In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, some material on this website is provided for comment, background information, research and/or educational purposes only, without permission from the copyright owner(s), under the "fair use" provisions of the federal copyright laws. These materials may not be distributed for other purposes without permission of the copyright owner(s) whose name is clearly displayed beneath the title of the page.

Since May 1, 2008,
you are visitor number
Hit Counter
to the Syllabus Folder of the
Professional Responsibility Course.