LawClinic.TV

John Feerick, Champion of the Human Side of Law

[Download this video to your computer | Upload to iPod, PSP]

It is my great pleasure to introduce to you John Feerick, the Norris Professor of Law and former Dean of Fordham Law School. John's storied career includes his joining what was then a small firm, Skadden, Arps and building a very successful Labor Law practice  and then making the move to academia to serve for twenty years as the Dean who brought Fordham Law School into the modern era. John's service to the law school, the bar and the larger community is the stuff of legend and you can get a bit of the flavor of it here, but I want to say a word about John as my friend and hero.

When I first met John, I simply did not have a clue about what to make of him. Speaking in his deliberate way, asking me questions about myself and listening intently, he gave me none of the cues I had come to expect from the many brilliant, accomplished New York lawyers I had been privileged to meet. But he was the Dean and he wished me well, so I went on my way and gave our meeting little thought. I can only plead callowness as an explanation for not recognizing that I had met a man who would change my life, as he has changed so many lives.

John’s unwavering and almost unlimited support for our clinical program gave me professional opportunities I would not have had anywhere else, but his friendship and role as moral example have come to mean the most to me over time.  He is the most authentic person I know and his loyalty and faith in others is unbounded.

In this clip, he talks about being asked to bring his expertise in ADR, alternative dispute resolution, to bear on the problem of homelessness in New York City. You can learn a bit about the work he did and also get a sense of this very straightforward, approachable man whose character runs so deep.

-- Ian Weinstein

Fordham, Law School, Clinical Legal Education, Law Clinic, Labor Law

New Math: "Doctrinal" Faculty + Legal Aid = Clinic

[Download video to your computer | Upload to iPod, PSP]

I want to introduce you to our Housing Rights Clinic which runs every other semester.  It is taught by Doug Seidman, a member of our adjunct faculty and a full time attorney for The Legal Aid Society Manhattan Housing Court Project and my colleague Russ Pearce.  The twist to this particular post is that Doug is an adjunct and Russ is a "doctrinal" or "stand-up" teacher, but when you put the two together, they create a wonderful clinical experience.  The labels are real, but the truth, of course, is so much richer. 

Doug Seidman is a bit of a legend.  He is a deeply experienced attorney who returned to Manhattan Housing Court some years ago, having had the opportunity for broader horizons, because he is a client focused lawyer who wants to help people with housing problems.  He is a hero to me because of his longstanding commitment to his clients.  Doug chose to return to Housing Court to run a direct service office in the courthouse. 

Knowing Doug a little, I doubt he thinks of himself as a hero, or recognizes how much his students gain from spending time with him and seeing him model his dedication to his clients and our profession.  He is a wonderful lawyer of great skill and a model of what I hope my students will understand as the heart of professionalism - a willingness to answer the call to service. 

In this clip Doug talks about the wonderful range of experiences his students have in the courthouse.  I note that Doug talks about the work he and the students do on behalf of clients.  His dedication to the work comes through in the clip and I think you can easily see what a wonderful experience he offers his students.

The Other Half of the New Math - The "Non Clinical Clinician" in the Team

I noted above that my colleague, Russ Pearce, co-teaches the Housing Rights Clinic.  Russ' background includes three years as a housing rights lawyer in a legal services practice (Doug Seidman was his supervisor).  He was interested in clinical teaching when he moved into academia, but Russ came to Fordham as a "non-clinical" faculty member. 

Russ taught traditional courses, published extensively on legal ethics, and became a full professor before he began to teach in a clinic.  Although he did not take the usual route into clinical teaching, his commitment to his clients and students, as well as the fact that he is among the most creative thinkers I know, makes him a wonderful clinical teacher. 

I don't think there are too many law professors who choose to use the freedom that tenure and promotion gives us to jump into the swirl of activity that supervising clinic cases involves, but Russ is a model to all of us who are far enough along in our careers to be faced with the choice between using all we have learned to do something new or just continuing to do the same thing because we know how to do it.  I have long been drawn to Eric Erikson's life stages and have often thought about his formulation of the challenge of middle age as the struggle between generativity and stagnation. Russ is a generative guy in little danger of stagnating. 

In the next clip, Jeff Margolies, a student in the Housing Rights Clinic offers his views on the benefits of working at the courthouse, rather than the law school, and comments on the differing styles of his two clinic teachers.  In his typically perceptive way, Jeff comments on the value of being immersed in the bustle of the courthouse and goes on to capture Russ and Doug's differing styles.   

As you might guess, Doug urges the students to jump in and Russ is more oriented toward planning and analysis.  Students can benefit so much from team teaching that combines different styles, so long as the teachers can help them understand and negotiate the differences.  There is always the danger, and I have seen it realized too many times, that the students will not benefit from the difference, but only feel confused and pushed in different directions.  But as we all know, successful collaboration demands real work and attention.  It starts by forming groups, but it only works when we really build a team.

[Download video to your computer | Upload to iPod, PSP]

-- Ian Weinstein

Housing Rights, Law school, Housing Court, Clinical Legal Education

The Tremendous Value of Experiencing Difference

Adblock

[Download video to your computer | Upload to iPod, PSP]

Here are three very insightful comments from Jeff Margolies, Katie Nielson and Ajay Chheda, who speak about the challenges and rewards of being required to work in teams in their clinics.  I am struck by how each of them recognizes and values both the challenges and rewards of teamwork.  All too often we only talk about the rewards - how our teammates and partners offered new ideas, fresh insights and brought new skills to the table.  All that is usually true and important to recognize. 

Less often, I think, do we recognize the challenges and frustrations that can come from teamwork.  When I work with other people I must consider other viewpoints, accommodate other working styles and reconsider my positions.  I see these things happening to my students all the time and as I recognize the discomfort I can experience, I am better able to empathize with their difficulties. 

I also know, however, that conflict and discomfort are always opportunities for growth.  Don't get me wrong, I don't seek discomfort for myself or my students in pursuit of growth, but I try to accept and recognize the opportunities in the difficult situations I encounter.  My teaching challenge is to guide my students through these experiences in ways that help them remain open and continue learning - and given what good learners my students are, it is not that hard to do.

I like these three comments because they are concrete reminders of the value of mixing diverse perspectives.  It has become so easy to find others who are just like us in whatever dimensions we choose and for each of us to remain cocooned among people who do not challenge us.  I know that my students represent a very narrow slice of America in many dimensions, even as they are quite diverse for an American law school.  But, I also know that teaming them and helping them be self-conscious and reflective about how difference works in teams helps them to swim a little upstream against the current tide that is pushing all of us into smaller and smaller communities of like minded people.  Call me old school, but I still think I can learn from people with whom I don't agree and I even think I can come to like people who I may find challenging at first.

--Ian Weinstein

Teamwork, Law School, Law Clinic, Clinical Legal Education

Preparing for the Future - Teaching Teamwork

Adblock

[Download video to your computer | Upload to iPod, PSP]

Although I know this thought will induce a bad reaction in many, I think law school is really pretty good at teaching people how to analyze cases and pick apart legal doctrine.

I know folks will react badly because so many of us who have been through the experience question whether law school does anything well.  But once I get past the emotions that still well up when I think about first year (it still has power for me, let alone my dear friend who still recalls getting a spontaneous nosebleed upon being cold called in Contracts Class), it seems to me that Tony Amsterdam, was right when he suggested that in the old days law school taught that one thing, case analysis, over and over again (Prof. Amsterdam's article, Clinical Legal Education -- A 21st Century Perspective," 34 Journal of Legal Education  612 (1984), is always worth rereading if you have not looked in a while).

One of the advances of clinical legal education has been to help broaden the range of analytic modes and skills taught in law school.  Even a person of my advanced years, who still reads news in print on paper and occasionally looks up statutes in bound, hardcover volumes, understands that the future of good lawyering is in adding value through teamwork and collaboration. 

Here is my colleague, friend and former student, Michael Martin, talking about teaching teamwork and preparing law students for the future - which is quite literally really tomorrow, not ten years out.

--Ian Weinstein

Teamwork,  Law School, Law Clinic, Clinical Legal Education