CELL Blog | Center for Engaged Learning in the Law

After attending a very interesting conference on the future of the law book, several thoughts come to mind:

1. Law books aren’t doomed, but there is a lot of pressure for change.
2. Talking about law books is really an opening for talking about almost all of legal education.
3. There is a whole new and evolving e-world out there. Readers, such as the Kindle,can readily replace the printed page and the heavy case books we carry around.
4. The generation “born digital” has a whole different take on materials, and the future looks bright for increasing electronic forms of material.
5. A goal of using technology is not simply to replace books with electronic gadgets, but to increase the mobility of learning (see Pod Casts and TWEN) and the utility of a legal education. (The gadgets, and the new vocabulary that accompanies them, however, sure are fun.)

Generally, it appears there are few, if any, law school dress codes, especially regarding informality. Many students begin law school dressed like they did in college. Students often learn quickly, however, that the same is not true for the world of law practice, particularly law firms. Lawyers, it seems, have uniforms. While the uniforms — suits — do not have team insignias, they are the calling card of lawyers nonetheless. It is interesting to see how the uniforms start infiltrating the classroom in the second year, especially when law firm interviewing begins. By the third year, no one looks twice when a student shows up in business attire. Perhaps this is just another way the law seems to creep up on us and “change our way of thinking.”

After watching the debates between Obama and McCain, I was less interested in who “won,” (unlike the many pundits who always declared victory for their guy), than how they responded to each other’s assertions. It seems to me they generally had two basic structural choices in responding to the opponent other than saying “I’m not sure:” (1) You are wrong because…..; and (2) You are correct, but….. Most of the time, they both were uttering “you are wrong” before the other person had finished his sentence. I don’t know what this means, but perhaps it has to do with going on offense or being on defense. At the very least, how they argue seems like something worth keeping track of, rather than who “won.”

–Steve Friedland

Though many of us have been told to stand in an “At Ease” position, such a stance is anything but “At Ease”.With legs apart and knees locked, one cannot stand for long periods of time without rocking, swaying, shifting, or bouncing. Such movement causes distraction to the audience and tires the speaker. Instead, stand with weight evenly balanced on both legs, placing one foot slightly forward of the other and keeping your knees flexed.You will be able to hold that position for long periods of time without tiring or succumbing to unnecessary and distracting movement.