Well-Being Courses & Programs

Date: Tuesday, July 13, 2021, 4:00 – 5:00 PM EST

Webinar Description: The AALS Section on Balance in Legal Education General Programming Committee is excited to present a six-part “Speed-Idea Sharing Series” on Promoting Well-Being in Law School.  Each session will feature a collection of brief presentations highlighting different approaches to promoting law student well-being, followed by Q&A and conversation.  Session 4 will focus specifically on well-being courses and programs.

Learning Objectives:

 

Click Here to Watch the Webinar Replay

 

Moderators

Jordana Alter Confino, J.D., Director of Professionalism & Adjunct Professor, Fordham Law School

Jordana Alter Confino joined Fordham Law School in summer 2019 as the Director of Professionalism and Special Projects in the Office of Academic Affairs.  In that role, Jordana is responsible for overseeing the 1L house system and developing additional programs to promote student wellness, professionalism, and holistic learning. Jordana also serves as an Adjunct Professor of Law, co-teaching Peer Mentoring & Leadership and Positive Lawyering.

Prior to joining Fordham, Jordana served as the Assistant Director of Academic Counseling, Acting Clerkship Advisor, and a Lecturer in Law at Columbia Law School. Jordana previously clerked for the Honorable Robert D. Sack on the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, and for the Honorable Paul A. Engelmayer on the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York.

Jordana is an Executive Committee Member of the AALS Section on Balance in Legal Education. She is also a founding member of the NYC Area Law Schools Wellness Consortium, and an active member of the Law School Assistance Committee of the ABA Commission on Lawyer Assistance Programs and the New York City Bar Association’s Mindfulness & Well-Being in Law Committee. Jordana earned a Certification in Applied Positive Psychology from the New York Open Center in 2018.


 

Speakers

Ryan Dooley, J.D., Assistant Dean of Academic Affairs, CUNY School of Law

Ryan Dooley is the Assistant Dean of Academic Affairs at the CUNY School of Law. Prior to becoming Assistant Academic Dean, Ryan served as the Director of the Pipeline to Justice Program, an Immigration Staff Attorney with Catholic Charities and a Wild Land Firefighter with the United States Forest Service. Ryan received a BA from the the George Washington University and a JD from the CUNY School of Law.

 

 

 

 

 

Leanne Fuith, J.D., Associate Professor; Dean of Career and Professional Development, Mitchell Hamline School of Law

Leanne Fuith is dean of the Career and Professional Development at Mitchell Hamline School of Law. She previously practiced business law, employment law, and commercial  and employment litigation at Laurie & Laurie, where she helped clients with matters involving business formation and management, discrimination, sexual harassment, whistleblowing, breach of contract, non-competes, wage and hour violations, unemployment hearings, and other claims. She is admitted to practice in the State of Minnesota.

She is visiting assistant professor at Mitchell Hamline teaching Business Organizations, Deals and Dispute Resolution, The Law and Business Externship, Lawyer as Business Owner, and Transactions and Settlements.

Professor Fuith is a member of the Minnesota State Bar Association and Minnesota Women Lawyers and she co-chairs the Ramsey County Bar Association Solo Small Section. She also speaks on topics related to the formation and management of closely held businesses and law firm management and marketing.

Professor Fuith has extensive experience in marketing strategy, corporate communications, and business development and negotiations for publicly and privately held businesses. She continues to work as a freelance writer and marketing consultant and is a board member of the Community Education Advisory Council in her local area. She is involved with the Volunteers Lawyers Network and has experience as a guardian ad litem for Ramsey County.

 

 

Dr. Susan Landrum, J.D., Assistant Dean for Academic Success & Professionalism, Nova Southeastern University Shepard Broad College of Law

Dr. Susan D. Landrum is the Assistant Dean for the Academic Success and Professionalism Program. Prior to joining NSU Law, Dr. Landrum served as the Assistant Dean for Academic Achievement at St. John’s University School of Law and as Director of the Office of Academic Achievement at Savannah Law School. Before becoming a law school administrator and educator, she also practiced as an associate attorney at Zieger, Tigges & Little LLP and clerked as staff attorney for the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals.

Dr. Landrum was an experienced university educator prior to attending law school, having earned a Ph.D. in history. As a historian, she specialized in the history of U.S. foreign policy, the Cold War, and space exploration. She also held a faculty fellowship at NASA’s Johnson Space Center.

Dr. Landrum currently serves on the executive board of the American Association of Law Schools Academic Support Section and is a past chair of that section’s Bar Exam Subcommittee. She is on the editorial board of The Learning Curve, the biannual publication of the AALS Academic Support Section, and she is the author of a blog for law students, Law School Success.

Her research interests include legal education theory, academic success, civil procedure, and alternative dispute resolution.

 

 

Lynn LeMoine, J.D., Dean of Students, Mitchell Hamline School of Law

Lynn LeMoine serves as the Dean of Students at Mitchell Hamline School of Law. Lynn collaborates with faculty and other law school departments when issues arise concerning students’ academic and emotional well-being. Lynn advances a student-centered culture; and ensures a climate supportive of students coming from diverse backgrounds. Lynn also teaches in Foundations of Practice, a required first year course; as a coach for the Mitchell Hamline ABA Negotiation and Mediation competition teams; and has co-taught in the Mediation Clinic. Prior to her role as Dean of Students, Lynn worked as the Assistant Director of Admissions at Mitchell Hamline and as a judicial law clerk in Hennepin County Family Court. Lynn is licensed to practice law in the State of Minnesota and is a qualified neutral under Rule 114 of the Minnesota General Rules of Practice on the Civil, Adjudicative, and Family Rosters and has extensive volunteer mediation experience.

 

 

 

Carolyn Nelson, J.D., Professor, CUNY School of Law

Carolyn Nelson is the founder and President of Nelson Test Prep, a commercial entity that focuses primarily on providing affordable LSAT instruction to those who traditionally underperform on the LSAT. Carolyn started her LSAT instruction career over 25 years. In addition to the courses she provides to undergraduate pipeline programs, Carolyn has been the Pipeline to Justice Law Instructor at CUNY Law School, since 2013. There she is the sole instructor for the LSAT portion of the CUNY Law School Pipeline to Justice Program and co-teaches the introduction to legal analysis portion of the program. Carolyn is the author of the Barron’s LSAT Logic Games (1st and 2nd editions) study guide, originally published in 2014. Carolyn received her B.A. from Columbia University, Barnard College and a J.D. from the University of Michigan Law School.

 

 

Charity Scott, J.D., MSCM, Professor of Law Emerita, Georgia State University College of Law

Charity Scott, JD, MSCM, was the founding Director of the Center for Law, Health & Society at Georgia State Law and of a medical-legal collaboration in Atlanta known as the Health Law Partnership and its associated clinic.  Scott has taught, published, and presented on health law and policy, bioethics, tort law, negotiation, mediation, and mindfulness for the legal profession.  A member of the American Law Institute, Scott has served on the Governing Council of the ABA Health Law Section, and as past Chair of the Health Law Section of the State Bar of Georgia.  She has been instrumental in developing mindfulness and wellness programs at Georgia State Law.  She graduated from Stanford University (AB), Harvard Law School (JD), and Kennesaw State University (MSCM). Enrichment Program.

Resources: 

  1. Charity Scott Reflective Lawyer Course 
  2. Syllabus and Course Policies for the Reflective Lawyer Course 
  3. Calming Down and Waking Up – 21 Nev. L. J. 277 (2020) – Article on our empirical study’s results about the impact of mindfulness training on law students.