Law Professors, Law Schools

First Monday Musings By Dean Vik Amar: Broadening Our Teaching Horizons

How can law schools be less insular with regard to teaching? Here are three ideas from Dean Amar.

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professor teacher at blackboard chalkboard students raising handsSoon after I arrived in Champaign to begin my tenure as dean of the University of Illinois College of Law in 2015, Above the Law founder and managing editor David Lat interviewed me. (Indeed, that interview planted the seed in my mind for this monthly column.) At that time, I told David that law schools these days seem too isolated and that I wanted to try to help remedy that, at least at my school. In particular, I said I wanted to help (1) “make law school more collaborative within [a] great research universit[y]” and (2) “make law school less insular by increasing connections between the legal academy, the law and business professions and the public and by exploring increased connections between Champaign-Urbana and our operations in [our] Chicago Program.”

When I offered these objectives, people may have inferred that I was talking primarily about scholarly/research output, which is something about which all top law schools (mine included) care deeply (perhaps even increasingly). But I was also thinking very much about teaching – I am proud of the fact that I am at one of a relatively small number of law schools where a tenured faculty member feels a heavy obligation to be a highly effective classroom teacher as well as a highly productive and influential scholar.

But how can law schools be less insular with regard to teaching? Here I can speak from recent example. In my two years at Illinois, I have taught in three classroom formats, each of which is unconventional and each of which involves building bridges outside the College of Law.

First, I have taught two undergraduate survey courses in (my field of) constitutional law. We cover both structural issues (separation of powers, federalism, presidential election and judicial appointment processes) and individual and group rights (primarily the First and Fourteenth Amendments). All the materials are drawn from the law school casebook that I co-author and from my and other law professors’ academic and general-audience writings.

My teaching undergraduates has been challenging — for me and likely also for them — but it has been very rewarding. If law schools want to understand why fewer college students express a desire to pursue a career in law today than in the past, we in the law schools need to engage college students more – to see what they value, how they think, what their strengths and weaknesses are, and, particularly, what informs their attitudes about law and the legal profession. Less selfishly, law schools need to help ensure that all college graduates — most of whom will never go on to law school — understand the basics of the American legal system, not just with respect to criminal justice but more broadly. Regardless of one’s political leanings, there should be consensus that we are at a national moment when broad-based understanding of legal norms is particularly important.

My second teaching experience at Illinois is taking place this semester, in Chicago (where we have students in residence through our Chicago Program). Not only am I teaching a few hours north of our main campus, but I am co-teaching (a class on how various state constitutions and statutory schemes are trying to address modern policy challenges) with a faculty member at another law school – Dean Daniel Rodriguez of the Pritzker Northwestern University Law School. Dan and I have been friends and colleagues for many years, and it has been fun (for both of us, I hope!) to collaborate this spring. But more important, I think it has been great for the members of the class (a mix of U of I and Northwestern students) to be exposed to faculty and students from another law school. Law professors from different schools often co-write scholarship. But in a time of constrained resources (even at elite law schools), sharing teaching expertise via co-teaching (made more doable with modern technology such as Skype) makes ever more sense.

Finally, I have taught a few class sessions in a first-year law course in Champaign with one of my alums, Fred Bartlit. The class (a required first-year offering called “Fundamentals of Legal Practice”) focuses not on substantive law, but on the skills – e.g., communication, client service, business development and marketing, etc. – needed for success in the legal profession. Fred, former managing Partner of Kirkland & Ellis in Chicago and founding partner of Bartlit, Beck, Herman, Palenchar and Scott, is one of America’s most renowned trial lawyers, and a person of amazing practical intelligence. The class sessions he and I co-teach focus on leadership (one of Fred’s areas of special interest) and, as Fred puts it, try to drive home the difference between leaders and bosses. I have learned much from this teaching collaboration. I see how the head of a prominent law firm is adapting to changes in the marketplace and technology. I hear about how lawyers (and clients) are viewing law schools and law professors. I sense how the students in the class appreciate being able to combine academic and theoretical insights with examples drawn from cutting-edge legal professional organizations. And I learn personally from the example of Fred’s own career and decision-making experiences. Law deans and managing partners have very different jobs to be sure, but both can probably learn more from each other than we realize.

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Obviously not everyone on a law faculty can or should be teaching undergraduates, co-teaching with faculty of other law schools, or co-teaching with practicing lawyers, but I do think my own recent experimentation in these three arenas may provide food for thought for my colleagues in law schools around the country.

Earlier: Meet A New Law School Dean: An Interview With Vikram Amar

Vikram David Amar Vik AmarVikram Amar is the Dean of the University of Illinois College of Law, where he also serves the Iwan Foundation Professor of Law. His primary fields of teaching and study are constitutional law, federal courts, and civil and criminal procedure. A fuller bio and CV can be found at https://www.law.illinois.edu/faculty/profile/VikramAmar, and he can be reached at amar@illinois.edu.

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