Two ABA presidents to weigh in on future of legal education at South Carolina Law Review symposium Feb. 27 – 28.
For more information and to register online, go to the South Carolina Law Review website.
Will non-lawyers soon be allowed to provide certain legal services? They might if one of the key conclusions from a recent report by the ABA Task Force on the Future of Legal Education is implemented. (See my blog post on this topic at: Limited Licensing of Legal Technicians: A Good Idea?
I am participating in this program so I will get another opportunity to air my somewhat contrarian views on whether there should be another licensed class of professionals serving the public directly who are not lawyers. A complicated subject that needs more debate.
The report, released in January, will be the focus of the South Carolina Law Review Symposium Feb. 27 – 28 at the University of South Carolina School of Law. The symposium will explore why law schools and the legal profession must make changes – and what those changes should be – to keep up with the evolving marketplace for legal education and legal services delivery.
Titled “On Task?: Expanding the Boundaries of Legal Education,” the symposium will take place in the law school’s auditorium.
The symposium will begin at 4 p.m. Thursday with a panel discussion in response to the Task Force’s report and a keynote address by Jim Silkenat, president of the American Bar Association and partner at Sullivan & Worcester LLP in New York. Silkenat will discuss the legal profession and future of legal education and its impact on law schools, corporate counsel and private attorneys. USC board of trustee, alumnus and ABA president-elect William Hubbard will introduce Silkenat and offer his views on the future of legal education.
Friday’s sessions, which take place 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. will focus on proposals outlined in the Task Force’s recent report and law schools’ responses to changing markets within—and outside of—the law curriculum. Panels also will address the changing expectations of law firms and clients, new platforms in the delivery of legal services, the growing demand for information management by corporate clients, and the promises and challenges of limited licensing.
Participants include, among others:
- Elizabeth Chambliss, USC professor of law and director of the Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough Center on Professionalism;
- Steve Crossland, chairman of the Washington Supreme Court Limited License Legal Technician Board;
- Barry Currier, managing director of accreditation and legal education, ABA Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar;
- Neil Hamilton, professor of law and director of the University of St. Thomas School of Law’s Holloran Center for Ethical Leadership in the Professions;
- Renee Knake, professor of law and co-director of Michigan State University College of Law’s Kelly Institute of Ethics and the Legal Profession;
- Paula Littlewood, executive director of the Washington State Bar Association;
- Hon. Barbara Madsen, chief justice of the Washington Supreme Court;
- Lisa Rohrer, executive director of executive education and the Case Development Initiative at Harvard Law School; and
- Ronald Staudt, professor of law and director of Chicago-Kent College of Law’s Center for Access to Justice and Technology.
I am participating on a Panel with my colleague and friend, Ron Staudt, focusing on teaching legal technology in the J.D. curriculum, a current project of mine through the new Center for Law Practice Technology at Florida Coastal School of Law..
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