Section Webinars & Discussions

Commencement Cheers and tears

Tuesday, May 9, 2023, 3:00 – 4:00 PM ET

Section on Institutional Advancement

Break out the regalia and cue Elgar’s Pomp and Circumstance – it’s graduation time! Gather with your IA colleagues to celebrate (or commiserate!) about this annual milestone.

 This Event was Not Recorded

Critically Evaluating Legal Information with ChatGPT

Wednesday, May 24, 2023, 2:00 – 2:45 PM ET

Section on Technology, Law and Legal Education

As part of an assignment for a team-taught upper-level course on critical legal information literacy, students were asked to critique ChatGPT’s response to a legal research question by evaluating it in light of their own legal research results. The speakers will discuss the instructional scaffolding leading up to the assignment, the results of the exercise, the students’ reactions to the possibilities of ChatGPT, and ideas for future exercises in the legal research and writing classroom.

Watch Recording Here

Integrating Tech Competency Skills at All Levels

Wednesday, May 31, 2023, 2:00 – 2:45 PM ET

Section on Technology, Law and Legal Education

Currently, 40 states have adopted an ethical duty of technology competency similar to Comment 8 to the Model Rules of Professional Conduct. Some movement in legal education has followed. However, curriculum designers, law professors, and technologists struggle to find space for tech competency in an already crowded law school curriculum. This webinar will address multiple options for teaching technology competency skills, from resource-light training programs to easy structural course modifications to developing your own for-credit technology competency courses.

Watch Recording Here

Expanding Fundraising and Alumni Engagement Capacity through Partnerships

Tuesday, April 18, 2023, 3:00 – 4:00 PM ET

Section on Institutional Advancement

During this session, we will share and discuss ways to partner with teams within the law school and across the university, especially development and alumni engagement, to increase engagement and fundraising success. Whether you work for an independent law school or are part of a large university advancement system, there will be tips that everyone can use to develop meaningful partnerships.

Watch Webinar Replay Here

Myth-Busting: Learning Styles as a Pedagogical Tool

Wednesday, April 12, 2023, 1:00 – 2:00 PM ET

Section on Teaching Methods

What are your students dominant learning styles? Auditory, kinesthetic, visual text, or visual graphic? Does it matter? More importantly, should it change the way we teach?

Since the 1970s, educators have been discussing learning styles and whether educators should recognize them and “teach to” students’ particular learning styles. Teacher training has emphasized learning styles as a way of centering the students’ learning experience in the classroom, especially in K-12 education.

In recent years, as law professors have engaged with more pedagogy-focused scholarship, some have sought to differentiate their instruction based on their students’ perceived learning styles. But current scholarship has discredited learning styles as a useful approach to teaching and learning. Where do we go from here?

This panel will explore learning styles, separating fact from fiction, and examine differentiated instruction, assessing whether and to what extent differentiated instruction should play a role in law school learning environments.

Join this timely and important discussion sponsored by AALS Teaching Methods Section with panelists Prof. Kris Franklin of New York Law School, and Prof. and Assoc. Dean Karen Sneddon of Mercer Law School, and moderators Professors Cindy Thomas Archer, University of California, Irvine Law and Jeff Minneti, Seattle University Law. The Discussion will be hosted on the AALS platform on Wednesday April 12, 2023, at 1:00 pm eastern.

Watch Webinar Replay Here

The Healing Effects of After-Death Communications and Recognition

Wednesday, March 15, 2023, 12:00 – 1:00 PM ET

Section on Institutional Advancement

Discuss how marketing and communications and DAR colleagues recognize, memorialize and communicate the death and retirements of key and influential community stakeholders to various audiences. We will discuss best practices and lessons learned. Please come with examples and questions from your own schools.

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NIL: The good, the bad, the ugly

Monday, October 17, 2022, 2:30 – 3:30 PM ET

Section on Law and Sports

The world of college sports has changed dramatically in the past few years. Litigation has secured unparalleled rights for individual athletes. The most notable, following the NCAA’s 2021 Supreme Court loss in NCAA v. Alston, is that college athletes can now receive compensation for their “name, image, and likeness” (NIL).

This change ushers in an era of new recruiting approaches, fresh opportunities for donors and boosters to influence athletes, and a predictable focus on the corrupting influences of money. This webinar brings together three national sports law experts to discuss NIL — the good, the bad, and the ugly.

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Strategies for Implementing Technology in Law Courses: A Roundtable

Wednesday, October 26, 2022, 1:00 – 2:30 PM ET

Section on Technology, Law and Legal Education

Technology is transforming the practice and teaching of law. Law librarians are often the earliest and most energetic advocates for new technology in many law schools.

Recognizing the vital role of law librarians as agents of change, the Collaboration Committee of the AALS Section on Technology, Law and Legal Education and the AALS Section on Law Libraries and Legal Information Committee are planning a spring 2023 program on strategies for implementing technology in law course curricula.

To broaden our thinking and sharpen our focus, the Committees will facilitate a preliminary open roundtable discussion to identify topics and best practices for the spring program.

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Thinking About Becoming A Law School Dean? A Zoom Discussion for Prospective Candidates

Wednesday, September 14, 2022, 3:00 – 4:00 PM ET

Section on Dean, for the Law School

Next year, nearly a third of the nation’s law schools will be recruiting new deans. Are you thinking about throwing your hat in the ring? We invite aspiring deans to an hour-long Zoom discussion organized by the Executive Committee of the AALS Deans Section.

*This Webinar was Not Recorded

State Attorneys General: Teaching Public Law through the Lens of the People’s Lawyer

Wednesday, September 21, 2022, 4:00 – 5:00 PM ET

Section on State and Local Government Law

Although a growing number of law professors and students are coming from or going into Attorney General offices around the country, and many state solicitors general are now serving as federal or state judges, few law schools teach about the distinctive functions of the office. This panel discussion will discuss ways in which law schools can integrate the role of the Attorneys General into the curriculum, including full courses, clinics, and class sessions that feature this important perspective.

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Starting MSL (and Similar) Programs

Thursday, September 29, 2022, 4:30 – 5:30 PM ET

Section on Post-Graduate Legal Education

One way for law schools to meet the unprecedented challenges that our society faces is to provide Master’s programs that offer legal training for non-lawyers. These programs allow professionals (such as those with STEM backgrounds) to make more legally-informed decisions in their careers, and they can lower the high barriers to legal knowledge in their chosen field for those who do not have J.D. degrees. The panelists will discuss why their law schools have decided to set up and run several in-person and online Master’s programs (collectively, “MSL Programs”) for students with non-legal backgrounds.

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Employment Discrimination Law Summer Workshop – Session 2

Thursday, August 18, 2022, 12:00 – 1:30 PM ET

Section on Employment Discrimination Law

Please join us for the second session of the ED Section’s Summer workshops, which help Section members workshop research projects at stages from incubator sessions to discussions of drafts. This session will include discussion of a project by Ryan Nelson (on “An Employment Discrimination Class Action by Any Other Name”), with initial comments from Sandra Sperino; and an incubator session for a project by Sherley Cruz (on “Decoding the Barriers within Workplace Sexual Harassment Policies”) with initial comments from Shayak Sarkar. These presentations will be followed by discussion with attendees.

*This Webinar was not recorded.

New Books Session

Wednesday, August 17, 2022, 4:00 – 5:00 PM ET

Section on Constitutional Law

This webinar will feature 4 authors presenting their cutting-edge, thought-provoking new books on constitutional law and inequality.

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Jurisprudence Works in Progress Workshop

Friday, August 12, 2022, 11:00 – 12:30 PM ET

Section on Jurisprudence

This is a workshop where two junior scholars, Zalman Rothschild and Nina Varsava, will present drafts of papers, with comments by Ash Bhagwat and Jeff Pojanowski.

*This Webinar was not recorded.

Employment Discrimination Law Summer Workshop – Session 1

Friday, August 5, 2022, 11:00 – 12:00 PM ET

Section on Employment Discrimination Law

Please join us for the first session of the ED Section’s Summer workshops, which help Section members workshop research projects at stages from incubator sessions to discussions of drafts. This first session will discuss drafts written by Naomi Schoenbaum (on “Equal Protection and the End of Sex”) and Daiquiri Steele (on “Retaliation Deterrence Incentives”) with initial comments from Nicole Porter and Sachin Pandya, followed by a discussion with attendees.

*This Webinar was not recorded.

Engaging Students in Hybrid Classes

Wednesday, August 3, 2022, 2:00 – 3:00 PM ET

Section on Technology, Law & Legal Education

This webinar will address ways to engage students in hybrid classes. Strategies for creating interactive class videos and using data to shape in-class time will be covered. Additionally, the webinar will cover strategies for engaging students in classes delivered simultaneously through in-person and online modalities.

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Golan v. Saada: A Recap

Tuesday, August 2, 2022, 12:00 – 1:00 PM ET

Section on Family & Juvenile Law

Get ready for the new school year by reviewing the recent Supreme Court case of Golan v. Saada. Join us as we discuss the case, its jurisprudential relevance for the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction, its implications for domestic violence victims, and its relevance for your family law curriculum.

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From Constitutional Law to Constitutional History? How to Teach Constitutional Law in the Midst of a Constitutional Revolution

Thursday, July 28, 2022, 4:00 – 5:00 PM ET

Section on Constitutional Law

This webinar will bring together Constitutional Law professors to discuss how to approach teaching in the wake of the recent Supreme Court decisions.

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Well-Being Offerings

Wednesday, July 27, 2022, 4:00 – 5:15 PM ET

Section on Balance and Well-Being in Legal Education

The AALS Section on Balance in Legal Education General Programming Committee is excited to present a six-part “Speed-Idea Sharing Series” on Incorporating the New ABA Standards on Professional Identity, Cross-Cultural Competency, and Well-Being Resources for Students.  Each session will feature a collection of brief presentations highlighting different approaches for incorporating the new standards, followed by Q&A and conversation. Session 6 will focus specifically on law school well-being offerings.

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Begin with the End in Mind: Streamline Formative Assessment Using CALI LessonLink

Wednesday, July 27, 2022, 2:00 – 3:00 PM ET

Section on Technology, Law & Legal Education

This webinar explains how CALI LessonLink can make formative assessment easier to administer and more effective. “Starting with the end in mind” means clarifying how learning outcomes relate to formative assessment before data is gathered and analyzed. To use LessonLink, an instructor assigns a CALI lesson, then students click through the link to access the lesson. CALI captures score and interaction data the instructor can download after students finish. The hard part of this process is not data analysis, it’s articulating how learning outcome and formative assessment relate so that data analysis provides helpful insights to instructors and students.

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Teaching Cybersecurity Law and Policy

Wednesday, July 20, 2022, 2:00 – 3:00 PM ET

Section on Technology, Law & Legal Education

U.S. Law schools have begun to offer various certificate programs, advanced degrees, and specialized executive education in the area of cybersecurity law and policy. As Professor Robert Chesney notes, while the subject’s evolving nature invites creativity, “the same quality makes it difficult to decide what to cover, what learning objectives to set, and which reading assignments to use.” This session hopes to provide those considering cyber legal pedagogy with useful resources and tools for preparing and designing their courses. The proposed session will be based on Professor Lubin’s forthcoming book to be published by Edward Elgar in 2023

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A Framework for Teaching and Exercises to Support Students’ Professional Identity Formation

Tuesday, July 12, 2022, 4:00 – 5:15 PM ET

Section on Balance and Well-Being in Legal Education

The AALS Section on Balance in Legal Education General Programming Committee is excited to present a six-part “Speed-Idea Sharing Series” on Incorporating the New ABA Standards on Professional Identity, Cross-Cultural Competency, and Well-Being Resources for Students. Each session will feature a collection of brief presentations highlighting different approaches for incorporating the new standards, followed by Q&A and conversation. Session 5 will focus specifically on developing a framework for teaching professional identity formation and exercises that faculty can offer to support students’ professional identity formation.

Watch the Webinar Replay

Teaching Remedies

Monday, July 11, 2022, 2:00 – 3:00 PM ET

Section on Remedies

Please join the Section on Remedies for our 2022 Section Webinar where remedies professors will offer tips on teaching.

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Interactive Questions Embedded in CALI’s eLangdell OER 1L Casebooks

Wednesday, July 6, 2022, 2:00 – 3:00 PM ET

Section on Technology, Law & Legal Education

Professors Ruthann Robson and Zahr K. Said both have authored CALI eLangdell(r) casebooks available for free to law students. Their casebooks make extensive use of interactive questions embedded within the casebook, using the h5p add-on to the Pressbooks platform. The h5p platform allows for students to answer questions and be provided with immediate feedback. Professors Robson and Said will discuss the benefits of allowing students to self-assess their understanding of the material as students complete reading assignments and how the use of h5p questions has changed their classroom teaching.

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What Law Professors Should Know About No-Code and Low-Code Platforms

Wednesday, June 29, 2022, 2:00 – 2:45 PM ET

Section on Technology, Law & Legal Education

No-code and low-code platforms can provide robust options despite limited resources. They lower barriers to entry into legal technology and help advance automation and transformation of our legal system. In this session, participants will learn to leverage next-generation applications, empowering law students to build solutions in practice areas they pursue. The speaker will share experiences, using a low-code program to create a state-wide protection order portal and other access to justice solutions.

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Speed Idea Sharing Session: Teaching Elder Law Topics

Tuesday, June 28, 2022, 12:00 – 1:00 PM ET

Section on Aging & the Law

The AALS Section on Aging and the Law welcomes you to attend a Speed Idea Sharing Session on “Teaching Elder Law Topics.”  Attendees are welcome to listen and/or share an effective method or two they have used to teach a subject related to elder law.  This is an informal session for members to learn from one another.

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Teaching Responsible AI Together

Wednesday, June 22, 2022, 2:00 – 2:45 PM ET

Section on Technology, Law & Legal Education

For the past 2 years, the presenters have been teaching an interactive course on “Responsible AI” to both law and data-science students in the U.S., Europe and Israel. This course is designed to enable students from both disciplines to speak to each other in a similar “language,” despite different professional backgrounds. Creating a dialogue between the two disciplines will contribute to the development of responsible AI systems. The presenters will share their insights on how to teach responsible AI to students with diverse backgrounds.

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The Future of Affirmative Action in Legal Education

Monday, June 20, 2022, 2:00 – 3:00 PM ET

Section on Dean, for the Law School

During the next term, the Supreme Court of the United States will decide two consolidated cases challenging colleges’ affirmative-action admissions policies.  Some pundits predict that the Court will overrule its previous holding in Fisher v. University of Texas, which upheld the University of Texas’ consideration of race in its undergraduate admissions process.  Please join an esteemed panel to learn more about these cases and how law schools might forge a path forward if race may no longer be considered in our admissions policies.  Panelists will provide strategies they used to diversify their law school classes in states that restrict the use of race in admissions.

*This Webinar was not recorded.

An Interdisciplinary Approach to Professional Identity Formation

Wednesday, June 15, 2022, 4:00 – 5:15 PM ET

Section on Balance and Well-Being in Legal Education

The AALS Section on Balance in Legal Education General Programming Committee is excited to present a six-part “Speed-Idea Sharing Series” on Incorporating the New ABA Standards on Professional Identity, Cross-Cultural Competency, and Well-Being Resources for Students.  Each session will feature a collection of brief presentations highlighting different approaches for incorporating the new standards, followed by Q&A and conversation. Session 4 will focus specifically on what legal education can learn from other disciplines as we help students develop their professional identities.

Watch the Webinar Replay

Using Collaborative Learning and Virtual Reality to Co-create a Legal Clinics Metaverse

Wednesday, June 15, 2022, 2:00 – 2:45 PM ET

Section on Technology, Law & Legal Education

Integrating virtual reality (VR) in the classroom brings forth both opportunities and challenges. Presenters will share their interdisciplinary journey in the project based ENGR 497 Design4Justice course offered Fall 2021 as part of the Law, Policy, and Engineering initiative at Penn State University. Join the session to learn how engineering students collaborated with law students to explore the use of human centered design principles to pioneer a VR scene for Penn State Law’s Family Law Clinic and Veterans and Servicemembers Legal Clinic. Discover opportunities to incorporate VR in legal education and legal services, and the impact it can have for self-represented litigants.

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Addressing Pandemic Technology in a Post-Pandemic World

Wednesday, June 8, 2022, 2:00 – 2:45 PM ET

Section on Technology, Law & Legal Education

When the world shut down in 2020, the legal field had to utilize technology in new and innovative ways. We adjusted as needed to keep the wheels of justice moving. However, how do we as researchers and educators address the use of pandemic technology when existing law doesn’t support it? Cases are being filed every day where courts must decide that although exceptions were made, should they continue? This webinar will discuss how to get creative and think outside the box when educating students on how to deal with these perplexing and looming questions.

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1L Professional Identity Formation

Tuesday, June 7, 2022, 4:00 – 5:15 PM ET

Section on Balance and Well-Being in Legal Education

The AALS Section on Balance in Legal Education General Programming Committee is excited to present a six-part “Speed-Idea Sharing Series” on Incorporating the New ABA Standards on Professional Identity, Cross-Cultural Competency, and Well-Being Resources for Students.  Each session will feature a collection of brief presentations highlighting different approaches for incorporating the new standards, followed by Q&A and conversation. Session 3 will focus specifically on first-year professional identity formation courses and offerings.

Watch the Webinar Replay

Tools for Every Course – Integrating Technology Across the Curriculum

Wednesday, June 1, 2022, 2:00 – 2:45 PM ET

Section on Technology, Law & Legal Education

Legal technology instruction does not have to be limited to a stand-alone class. Technology skills and knowledge can be easily integrated into almost any course, including Word skills in legal writing, technology ethics in professional responsibility, and redaction in civil procedure. Introducing students to common legal technologies, such as case management software, time tracking, or even Excel, sets students up for success as lawyers. You can incorporate technology into most legal classes, skills-based or doctrinal. This webinar covers how law schools approach teaching technologies, the benefits of integrating technology in law schools, and how to start teaching technology in your own classes.

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Using Open Educational Resources (OER) in Legal Education

Wednesday, May 25, 2022, 2:00 – 2:45 PM ET

Section on Technology, Law & Legal Education

OER (Open Educational Resources) would be a welcome option in all law school classes, including the legal writing field. Professor Zakarin is working on turning her unique style of teaching into an OER format that reads like an online
textbook but is accessible and available for free to all legal writing students.

In this program, she will present her work in progress.

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GRE Part Two: Reactions from Law Schools

Thursday, May 19, 2022, 2:00 – 3:00 PM ET

Section on Pre-Law Education and Admission to Law School

This moderated panel will engage three law school admissions deans in conversation on implementing and administering GRE admissions at their individual law schools. We will discuss the pros, cons, learning curves, and success stories involved in GRE admissions, along with insight on how to recruit GRE test-takers, how scholarships are awarded, and what the admissions deans wish they would have known when implementing GRE admissions.

*This Webinar was not recorded. 

Upper-Level Professional Identity Formation

Wednesday, May 18, 2022, 4:00 – 5:15 PM ET

Section on Balance and Well-Being in Legal Education

 The AALS Section on Balance in Legal Education General Programming Committee is excited to present a six-part “Speed-Idea Sharing Series” on Incorporating the New ABA Standards on Professional Identity, Cross-Cultural Competency, and Well-Being Resources for Students.  Each session will feature a collection of brief presentations highlighting different approaches for incorporating the new standards, followed by Q&A and conversation. Session 2 will focus specifically on upper-level courses and offerings to support students’ professional identity formation.

Watch the Webinar Replay

Using Online Teaching Tools to Improve the In-class Experience

Wednesday, May 18, 2022, 2:00 – 2:45 PM ET

Section on Technology, Law & Legal Education

This is the first in the summer series of webinars brought to you by the AALS Section on Technology, Law & Legal Education Committee.

The experience of hybrid and online education during the pandemic should prompt us to rethink what happens in the classroom, to take full advantage of an experience of being together that we can no longer take for granted. Online teaching tools permit us to distinguish in our teaching between those interventions that require group interactions in the classroom and those interventions that are directed towards students as individual learners. This webinar describes how to use digital tools to facilitate student study outside of class to prepare students to take full advantage of the affordances of the analog, physical classroom.

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Cultural Heritage Destruction in Ukraine

Friday, May 13, 2022, 1:00 – 2:30 PM ET

Section on Art Law

Ukraine is a country rich with sites of immense cultural, historical, and archeological significance. It boasts several World Heritage Sites, as well as a host of treasures in their national and regional museums. Russia’s war against Ukraine has resulted in the decimation of cities, the killing of hundreds of civilians, and the destruction of some of Ukraine’s important cultural treasures. As the war rages on, experts fear that Ukraine’s cultural heritage may also be another casualty of war. This panel will examine the current destruction of Ukraine’s cultural heritage and those sites that are at critical risk. Through this perspective, the panel will examine the international legal regime behind the protection of cultural heritage during armed conflict. This includes a discussion of the obligations of parties to protect cultural heritage, enforcement mechanisms against intentional or collateral destruction, the doctrine of military necessity, and subsequent accountability for any unwarranted damage to cultural heritage.

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Thinking About Becoming a Law School Dean? A Zoom Discussion for Prospective Dean Candidates

Wednesday, April 20, 2022, 2:00 – 3:00 PM ET

Section on For the Law School Dean

Next year, nearly a third of the nation’s law schools will be recruiting new deans. Are you thinking about throwing your hat in the ring? We invite aspiring deans to an hour-long Zoom discussion organized by the Executive Committee of the AALS Deans Section to be held at 2-3:00 PM ET on April 20. In this highly interactive program, participants will select two of three break-out sessions, facilitated by experienced deans: (1) Is being a dean right for you and are you right for being a dean? A discussion of skill sets and preparation to be an effective dean, and the upsides and downsides of the position. (2) How to successfully apply for a deanship: A discussion of building experience, writing an effective application letter, and preparing for interviews. And (3) What’s it really like to be a dean? A discussion of leadership, management, fundraising, advancing diversity and inclusion, and handling crises.

This Webinar was Not Recorded

GRE 101

Thursday, March 24, 2022, 2:00 – 3:00 PM ET

Section on Pre-Law Education and Admission to Law School

Join Educational Testing Services for an in-depth discussion about the GRE, including content, how it is administered, what it costs, diversity and accommodation considerations, and other pertinent details for test takers, prelaw advisors, and law schools considering adopting the GRE as an option for applicants.

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A Conversation with Legal Education Reporter Christine Charnosky from Law.com

Thursday, March 10, 2022, 12:00 – 1:00 PM ET

Section on Institutional Advancement

Please join your AALS Institutional Advancement colleagues for a Q and A with Christine Charnosky the newly named Legal Education Reporter from Law.com. Christine is our law school go-to reporter for all our academic news! While she is new to the law beat, she has 20 years of college-level journalistic experience and is eager to meet as many contacts as possible during her first few months in the role.

You will hear directly from Christine, learn how to pitch to her, understand the kinds of stories she is interested in writing, trends she is following, and much more. This session will be of interest to both our communications and alumni/development colleagues.

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Transitional Justice in the USA Speakers Series – Part II, Does Criminal Punishment of Police Contribute or Distract from Societal Transformation of Racism?

Monday, February 28, 2022, 12:00 – 1:30 PM ET

Section on International Human Rights

While many celebrated Dereck Chauvin’s conviction for the murder of George Floyd as a sign of progress, others worried that it would distract from the systemic change needed to combat racism in policing and put the focus instead on a few “bad apples.” Such considerations about criminal punishment are familiar to transitional justice scholars and activists, who have long debated the appropriate aim and reach of criminal accountability in transitioning societies. On one hand, some have argued there is a duty to prosecute all involved in mass atrocity, while critics are concerned that criminal punishment reinforces an individualized and decontextualized understanding of harms and diminishes the likelihood of more profound transformation. This panel will contextualize these debates by centering the role of police accountability in the much needed racial reckoning in the United States and discussing both the potential benefits and limitations of prosecuting police for racial violence. In particular, the panel will explore whether criminal accountability has lived up to its promise in other transitioning contexts and what lessons we can learn from those examples that might be applicable in the United States.

*This Webinar was not recorded.

AALS Conversations on the Administrative State: Executive Transactionalism and the Decline of Governmental Capacity

Friday, January 28, 2022, 12:00 – 1:00 PM ET

Section on Administrative Law

AALS Conversations on the Administrative State is a regular series of conversations that will bring together scholars of administrative law with scholars of public administration to discuss areas of shared intellectual interest and different approaches to the study of the administrative state.

In this third conversation, Ernie Joaquin and Thomas Greitens will discuss how the politics of administrative reform and presidentialization have weakened the federal government’s capacity for addressing the country’s problems. To rebuild a capable bureaucracy, Congress must rediscover its prerogative and responsibility for effective administration and administrative leaders must be nurtured and allowed to engage better. Both should aim for the renewal of civic trust in professional government.  Sally Katzen will comment.

*This Webinar was not recorded. 

Rethinking Criminal Law Language

Friday, January 14, 2022, 12:00 – 1:45 PM ET

Section on Criminal Justice

The language we use to frame criminal law conversations shapes community perceptions of the way that our system works, the victimization it is supposed to remedy or prevent, and the harms it inflicts. In recent years, as critiques of the criminal legal system have amplified, scholars, practitioners, and community members are describing the system and its actors and processes differently. Each of our panel participants has written scholarship that reconsiders key terms in the criminal law lexicon, including labels like “criminal,” “victim,” “felon,” “progressive prosecutor,” “flight risk,” “recidivism” “redemption,” “public safety,” and “sexual assault.” While our perspectives differ—some of us urge reform, while others are moved by abolitionist visions—we share a passionate belief in the ability of language to inspire or hinder needed change and we believe that one crucial part of this discussion is the question of who gets to dictate the terms of criminal discourse.

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The Winds of Change – Insights from AccessLex on Washington

November 18, 2021, 2:00 – 3:00 PM ET

Section on Pre-Law Education and Admission to Law School

Some believe the election of Joe Biden signaled “the winds of change,” the event that effectuates large and important changes. During this Congress, lawmakers will be focused on a myriad of policy changes that may impact higher education. Learn about what is happening on Capitol Hill and with the Biden Administration that could impact graduate student aid, hear AccessLex’s outlook, and see how these policies can impact you and students. AccessLex Institute is a nonprofit organization committed to helping talented, purpose-driven students find their path from aspiring lawyer to fulfilled professional.

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Exploring Our Love/Hate Relationship with Alumni Magazines

Tuesday, November 9, 2021, 3:00 – 4:00 PM ET

Section on Institutional Advancement

Creating and distributing an alumni magazine is a herculean effort. It takes time, money, and collaboration. The process has evolved substantially in recent years. How does your school think about engaging and connecting your alumni with this particular effort? Who still prints magazines? How many pages are they? How do you approach the question of print vs. digital? What has changed over the years in your approach and what has stayed the same? How do you measure success? This and much more will be discussed during our next webinar!

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AALS Conversations on the Administrative State: Experts, the Deep State, and the Challenge of Administrative Law

Friday, October 29, 2021, 12:00 – 1:00 PM ET

Section on Administrative Law

AALS Conversations on the Administrative State is a regular series of conversations that will bring together scholars of administrative law with scholars of public administration to discuss areas of shared intellectual interest and different approaches to the study of the administrative state.

In this first conversation, Don Kettl and Emily Bremer will discuss Americans’ increasing distrust of experts. That distrust has driven a deeper wedge into the already enormous problems of political polarization in the country. These problems raise new challenges for administrative law, both in enhancing the power of experts in government and in devising strategies to hold them accountable.

*This Webinar was not recorded. 

Campaigns…Tricks or Treats? 

Wednesday, October 27, 2021, 12:00 – 1:00 PM ET

Section on Institutional Advancement

How do you know if your organization is campaign ready? Are you trying to wrap-up a campaign, and unsure of next steps? Join your development, alumni relations, and communications colleagues in a discussion of successful campaign best practices.

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Teaching Ideas for Incorporating Anti-Racism in In-house Clinics and Externships: Part 2
Friday, October 22, 2021, 2:00 – 3:00 PM ET

Section on Clinical Legal Education

Teaching Anti-Racism: The Clinical Section of  the Teaching Methodologies Committee is hosting two webinars to assist in-house and field placement clinicians with teaching anti- racism. Each webinar will have three presenters  discuss discrete tools and ideas on incorporating a variety of anti-racist teaching. Through a variety of lenses, presenters will address ways to evaluate and improve feedback to students, provide ideas for teaching about racism, and examine ways to empower students while in law school, as well as prepare them to be effective life-long advocates for change.

*This Webinar was not recorded. 

The Art of Choosing a Textbook for Your Course: Ideas to Help You Approach This All-Important Decision
Thursday, October 14, 2021, 4:00 – 5:00 PM ET

Section on New Law Professors

Choosing the right casebook is a challenge for even the most experienced professors. There is no one best method or one right answer; it’s often more art than science. Several experienced professors will identify factors that you should consider when selecting materials for a course and discuss how they’ve gone about making their choices given the many competing considerations. In choosing the right book for first-year, upper-level, and legal-writing courses, professors should consider the coverage and clarity of the book, teaching style, the teacher’s manual, supplemental materials, financial burden to students, institutional politics, and so much more!

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Teaching Ideas for Incorporating Anti-Racism in In-house Clinics and Externships: Part 1
Friday, October 8, 2021, 2:00 – 3:00 PM ET

Section on Clinical Legal Education

Teaching Anti-Racism: The Clinical Section of  the Teaching Methodologies Committee is hosting two webinars to assist in-house and field placement clinicians with teaching anti- racism. Each webinar will have three presenters  discuss discrete tools and ideas on incorporating a variety of anti-racist teaching. Through a variety of lenses, presenters will address ways to evaluate and improve feedback to students, provide ideas for teaching about racism, and examine ways to empower students while in law school, as well as prepare them to be effective life-long advocates for change.

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Accentuate the Positive – Eliminate the Negative: Pandemic Pedagogy Wins
Wednesday, October 6, 2021, 4:00 – 5:00 PM ET

Section on Teaching Methods

The webinar will consist of a diverse group of faculty each sharing a quick positive takeaway from their pandemic teaching experiences.  Each speaker will share a “five minute fabulous tip” from their lessons learned teaching during the pandemic that they plan to keep using moving forward,  designed to help others who may consider integrating it into their teaching practices.   After each speaker, there will be a short discussion/Q &A  on each tip.

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Navigating A Leadership Transition
Tuesday, September 21, 2021, 12:00 – 1:00 PM ET

Section on Institutional Advancement

A new dean presents both challenges and opportunities for development, alumni, and marketing teams. This webinar will discuss best practices on how to support new leadership. We will discuss implications for both alumni/development teams and marketing/communications teams – including new dean arrivals, launch plans, visits, and helping a new dean find their platform. Please join us for this important conversation!

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Balance Section Speed-Idea Sharing – Session 6: Anxiety & Stress Management Strategies
Tuesday, August 10, 2021, 4:00 – 5:00 PM ET

Section on Balance in Legal Education

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 6 will focus specifically on strategies to promote anxiety and stress management.

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Learning Games as a Tool to Foster Inclusion in Law Classes
Wednesday, August 4, 2021, 2:00 – 2:45 PM ET

Section on Technology, Law, and Legal Education

This webinar will blend nuts-and-bolts instruction on learning games with a broader discussion on diversity and inclusion in the law school classroom.  Kara Bruce will share her experiences using learning games in commercial law courses, highlighting the subtle shifts to the classroom dynamic that followed their use.  She will link these observations to pedagogical theories on inclusion in education, positing that games can be a useful tool to break down barriers to engagement.

The session is designed for faculty who have limited experience with learning games and limited time to innovate. It will provide concrete suggestions for how to easily develop and integrate learning games into law classes.  It will also provide resources for those who are ready to develop more sophisticated learning games.

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“I Am a Native Law Student”: Diverse Perspectives Panel on the Native Law School Experience
Tuesday, August 3, 2021, 4:00 – 5:00 PM ET

Section on Indian Nations and Indigenous Peoples

Law school is not inclusive enough of Native students — not by a long shot. Fewer than 1 in 10 ABA-Accredited law schools have a single Native faculty member and fewer than 1 in 100 enrolled law students identify as Native American.  But more and more Native students are going to law school.  Who are they? This panel is an opportunity to hear from some of these students. What are their experiences and what are their hopes for a more inclusive legal education? Panelists will provide perspectives of value for both incoming Native students and legal educators looking to better serve Native students.

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The Virtual Trial Notebook: Using a spreadsheet at Trial
Wednesday, July 28, 2021, 2:00 – 2:45 PM ET

Section on Technology, Law, and Legal Education

As we move toward a paperless world, finding a way to organize and use materials at trial can be challenging. This webinar demonstrates how you can use an Excel spreadsheet to organize and synthesize discovery, create hyperlinks to quickly access audio, video, photographic exhibits, take notes during jury selection and trial, prepare and execute direct and cross-examinations for witnesses, and have all the court filings in one place at your fingertips. It is the virtual trial notebook you can create using an Excel spreadsheet.

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Balance Section Speed-Idea Sharing – Session 5: Incorporating Well-Being Into Any Class
Monday, July 26, 2021, 4:00 – 5:00 PM ET

Section on Balance in Legal Education

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. Section 5 will focus specifically on “bite-sized” wellness practices that faculty can implement in virtually any classroom or practice setting.

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Technology & Professional Responsibility
Wednesday, July 21, 2021, 2:00 – 2:45 PM ET

Section on Technology, Law, and Legal Education

Technology has significantly changed the practice of law, including how lawyers communicate with clients, draft documents, prepare for trial, and perform research, among other tasks. The Model Rules of Professional Conduct include a comment specifying a duty of technology competence (Rule 1.1, comment 8), and the majority of states have adopted the comment. Please join us on Wednesday, July 21 to explore the duty of technology competence and its application to technology commonly used in the practice of law, including artificial intelligence. Attendees will also learn strategies to educate law students about the intersection of professional responsibility and technology.

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Multi-Media Grading Tools: Advancing the Community of Inquiry
Wednesday, July 14, 2021, 2:00 – 2:45 PM ET

Section on Technology, Law, and Legal Education

In an educational Community of Inquiry students and teachers collaboratively engage in purposeful critical discourse and reflection to construct personal meaning and to confirm mutual understanding. The CoI theoretical framework is a collaborative-constructivist concept process of creating learning experiences through the development of three interdependent elements – social, cognitive, and teaching presence. CoI is especially useful in social sciences, such as law. During the pandemic, the CoI framework proved valuable for distance learning.

In this webinar, Professor Joshua Aaron Jones will offer tips for grading electronically with a discussion about creative use of applications to heighten social, cognitive, and teaching presence, thereby developing a stronger community of inquiry.

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Balance Section Speed-Idea Sharing – Session 4: Well-Being Courses & Programs
Tuesday, July 13, 2021, 4:00 – 5:00 PM ET

Section on Balance in Legal Education

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.

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Webcam Like You Mean It
Tuesday, July 13, 2021, 1:00 – 2:00 PM ET

Section on Section on Pre-Law Education and Admission to Law School

Elisabeth Steele Hutchison, Co-Chair of the Section on Pre-Law Education and Admission to Law School will offer practical and cost-effective tips to elevate your video appearances and experiences.  Join this interactive and fast-paced workshop to:

•            Add a working knowledge of camera angles and lighting to your toolkit
•            Improve your audio and video quality with things you already own
•            Stage your background with cinematic flair!

Elisabeth has been teaching law professors and attorneys how to webcam using lessons from cinematographers, YouTubers & online gamers OF COLOR since 2020.

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Cyberlaw, Plain View, and Officer Inadvertence
Wednesday, June 30, 2021, 2:00 – 2:45 PM ET

Section on Technology, Law, and Legal Education

As the age of technology has taken this country by surprise, many courts are forced to adapt by applying pre-technology rules to new technological scenarios. One illustration is the plain view exception to the Fourth Amendment. Recently, the issue of officer inadvertence at the time of the search, a rule that the United States Supreme Court has specifically stated is not required in plain view inquiries, has been revisited in cyberlaw cases. It could be said that the courts interested in the existence of officer inadvertence, despite its lack of necessity, are properly doing so as a means of analysis for cyber cases to more suitably adjust to the searches of computers and related technology. The Tenth Circuit has knowingly disregarded Supreme Court precedent, and this continues its disagreement with the Fourth Circuit. This perpetuates a circuit split that should be resolved by the Supreme Court. In anticipation of a judicial resolution, this article was written to outline the problem and explain the positions of the circuits that have addressed this issue.

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Ranking, Reputation & Response: U.S. News
Tuesday, June 29, 2021, 12:00 – 1:00 PM ET

Section on Institutional Advancement

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The Art of NFTs
Friday, June 25, 2021, 12:00 – 1:00 PM ET

Section on Art Law

Within the past few months, the art market has seen an unprecedented boom of so-called NFT art. Once on the fringe of the art industry, cryptoartists are now selling their works at large auction house for millions of dollars. From the perspective of practitioners and law professors, this panel will discuss how NFTs work and the legal and regulatory issues underly this evolving technology.

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Balance Section Speed-Idea Sharing – Session 3: Well-Being Teaching Strategies
Thursday, June 24, 2021, 4:00 – 5:00 PM ET

Section on Balance in Legal Education

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 3 will focus on a diverse array of brief approaches to improving outcomes and bringing well-being into a course, clinical, or academic support program.

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Cybersecurity
Wednesday, June 23, 2021, 2:00 – 2:45 PM ET

Section on Technology, Law, and Legal Education

Although the news is rife with examples of cyber-attacks on large corporations and infrastructure, the majority of these threats affect individual users. Recent polls indicate that the average users believe they can spot cybersecurity threats such as phishing, malware, and more.   Yet one study indicated that 59% of users cannot recognize phishing attempts. Additionally, 94% of cyber-attacks happen through email.

This webinar will provide a fundamental understanding of this rapidly changing landscape by illustrating some of the most current types of attacks and techniques used to impact everyday users. The webinar will also provide insight into tools and techniques for preventing and thwarting attacks.

Professor Sydney Beckman, in his youth, spent years as an active hacker deeply imbedded into the hacking community and running one of the largest hacking forums in the world. Eventually, Professor Beckman turned his interests to legal pursuits and had an active trial practice for approximately 15 years before becoming a full-time academic. Professor Beckman remains up-to-date in the area and regularly teaches Technology and the Law which includes discussions of various cyber-threats.

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Top 5 Lessons Learned about Teaching from the Pandemic
Wednesday, June 16, 2021, 2:00 – 2:45 PM ET

Section on Technology, Law, and Legal Education

Wooo! We made it through the pandemic!  Now, let’s reflect on what we learned and see if there are any lessons learned that can advance law teaching. In this webinar I’ll share my top 5 takeaways about legal education from the pandemic:

1. Law professors are looking for new models of legal education.  Most law professors have used traditional Landellian models of legal education for years.  The pandemic forced us to change our ways.  Some professors liked what they learned and want to start to embrace new models.
2. Faculty development is key for new pedagogies to evolve. Faculty development is needed.  Law professors get little to no formal training about teaching and learning.  The pandemic taught us that we can all benefit from more instruction on instructional design for our courses.
3. Student-centered design will guide our teaching. For legal education to be successful, we need to appreciate that teaching and learning are two different verbs performed by two different sets of actors.  For years, I assumed that if I taught a topic, my students learned it.  Now, I realize the mistake in that way of thinking and have started to think about teaching and learning from my students’ perspectives.
4. Learning goals, learning activities that align with those goals and formative assessments all support student learning. Student-centered design starts by understanding how students learn best.  By clearly articulating the learning goals for our courses and for each unit (class, week, section), we can ensure that our teaching aligns with what we want our students to learn.
5. Collaboration and Crowdsourcing We don’t need to do it alone.  Through online technologies, we can collaborate and crowdsource in ways that are much harder to do without technology.  Collaboration will also make it fun!

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Q&A for Beginner Empiricists
Thursday, June 10, 2021, 3:00 – 5:00 PM ET

Section on Empirical Study of Legal Education and the Legal Profession

The AALS Section on the Empirical Study of Legal Education and the Legal Profession is bringing together a group of folks who have successfully conducted empirical work, some of whom had no prior training and knew little about how to do so before embarking on a research project, to share about their experiences with getting started and to give some general advice for those who are interested in starting down this path. We will then shift to small group discussions in break-out rooms to hear about attendees’ research interests and offer advice and support where possible. Pep talks and technical advice are sure to be included! Some of us may even have a cocktail, depending on proclivity and time zone.

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Online Dispute Resolution (ODR) – Promise and Pitfalls
Wednesday, June 9, 2021, 2:00 – 2:45 PM ET

Section on Technology, Law, and Legal Education

Join us on June 9th as Professor Schmitz explains the reasons why ODR was developed to advance access to remedies, and discuss necessary research to explore whether it is living up to the promise – with the end goal of promoting user-centric ODR design that expands access to justice.

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A Conversation with Authors of Recent Books on Constitutional Law
Tuesday, June 8, 2021, 5:00 – 6:00 PM ET

Section on Constitutional Law

This webinar, organized by the Section on Constitutional Law, hosts a conversation with four authors of important recent books in the field of constitutional law. The authors and their books are: Dorothy A. Brown, The Whiteness of Wealth: How the Tax System Impoverishes Black Americans–and How We Can Fix It (2021); Jamal Greene, How Rights Went Wrong: Why Our Obsession with Rights is Tearing America Apart (2021); Martha S. Jones, Vanguard: How Black Women Broke Barriers, Won the Vote, and Insisted on Equality for All (2020); and Andrew Koppelman, Gay Rights vs. Religious Liberty? The Unnecessary Conflict (2020). Each author will briefly describe his or her book, and then engage with audience questions

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Balance Section Speed-Idea Sharing – Session 2: Well-Being From Day 1
Thursday, June 3, 2021, 4:00 – 5:00 PM ET

Section on Balance in Legal Education

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. Section 2 will focus specifically on ideas that can foster well-being ranging from the first day of a law school course to the beginning of a student’s law school experience.

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The Law and Life Online
Wednesday, June 2, 2021, 2:00 – 2:45 PM ET

Section on Technology, Law, and Legal Education

So many of our professional and personal engagements and interactions these days occur online and navigating those engagements and interactions online as a lawyer, law student or other legal professional is filled with special pitfalls and ethical considerations. Law faculty pay a special role in educating students about these challenges. Join us on Wednesday, June 2 to learn about the pitfalls that lawyers, law students, and other legal professionals face using online and social media technologies and specific situations in which lawyers, judges and students have caused difficulty for themselves through the use of online and social media technologies. Attendees will also discover specific strategies for teaching students to avoid problems in online and social media use.

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Finding Legal Jobs Around the World: How LLM and JD Study Abroad Programs Help
Wednesday, May 26, 2021, 4:00 – 5:30 PM ET

Section on Gobal Engagement

International LLM and US JD students alike are under pressure to find “good” jobs after they complete law school. Study abroad provides a distinct advantage, and there are many opportunities for US and international students alike to gain an edge.

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Creating A Diversity Tech Law Pipeline Program
Wednesday, May 26, 2021, 2:00 – 2:45 PM ET

Section on Technology, Law, & Legal Education

Living, learning and laboring during the global pandemic taught us the important role that technology plays in the delivery of legal education and the practice of law. As we became even more dependent on technology, we learned about the ways in which the digital divide adversely impacts the members of diverse communities. To close that gap in the legal profession, we need more tech lawyers from diverse backgrounds. I will discuss the steps that can be taken to create an effective tech law diversity pipeline program. The presentation will explain the reasons why a tech law diversity pipeline is necessary and address the barriers to establishing such a program. In the presentation, I will also examine the ways that a tech law diversity pipeline program differs from a traditional law school diversity pipeline program.

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Creating, Building and Growing Law and Technology Centers: The Why, The What & The How
Wednesday, May 19, 2021, 2:00 – 3:15 PM ET

Section on Technology, Law, & Legal Education

If you take even a cursory glance at law schools’ websites, you will see a plethora of law tech courses of one kind or another included in the school’s curriculum. While some law schools have fully developed law tech centers, institutes, and certificate programs, others are in the early stages of planning and development. During this webinar, established law and tech center/initiative directors will share the structure and development of their centers and share advice for those interested in or in the early stages of developing law tech centers.

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Balance Section Speed-Idea Sharing – Session 1: Well-Being Days & Spaces
Tuesday, May 18, 2021, 4:00 – 5:00 PM ET

Section on Balance in Legal Education

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 1 will focus specifically on dedicated times and spaces for well-being events and experiences.

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IA May Webinar: AALS Resources + Group Convos
Wednesday, May 12, 2021, 3:00 – 4:00 PM ET

Section on Institutional Advancement

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Ensuring Equality in Legal Academia: Strategies to Dismantle Caste
Monday, May 10, 2021, 2:00 – 3:00 PM ET

Section on Legal Writing, Reasoning and Research

Section on Academic Support

Moderated by AALS Past President Darby Dickerson, this webinar will explore the caste system in legal education and will discuss potential solutions to the problem, with a particular focus on legal writing and academic support programs and professors. The moderator and a panel of law school Deans (comprised of former academic support and legal writing professors) will discuss how their schools and others can address this issue by mobilizing institutional support for skills professors, capturing the value-add that skills professors bring to legal education, opening up pathways to tenure, and addressing inequities, among other topics.

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Painting Constitutional Law – An Author Discussion
Tuesday, April 27, 2021, 2:00 – 3:00 PM ET

Section on Art Law

This panel will discuss the recent book “Painting Constitutional Law”, a collection of ten essays and accompanying paintings illustrating important Supreme Court Constitutional cases that concerned the State of Florida. Artist Xavier Cortada will discuss his motivation and inspiration for each of the paintings illustrating these cases, and leading Constitutional scholars will comment on the cases and their significance.

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How to Better Construct and Grade Exams to Enhance Assessment and Learning
Thursday, April 15, 2021, 3:00 – 4:30 PM ET

Section on New Law Professors

Many law professors—even those with years of experience—say that constructing and grading exams is the most onerous part of their otherwise wonderful jobs. This webinar will provide many actionable suggestions to help you accomplish these tasks more effectively and efficiently, and with greater fairness. Topics to be addressed include: integrating discussion of exams and test-taking into your teaching, generating ideas for questions, drafting questions, utilizing different question formats, avoiding common pitfalls and mistakes, ensuring fairness in constructing and administering exams, using grading methods that are both fair and efficient, managing expectations of both professor and students, and giving useful feedback.

The presentations will be by Professor Sharmila Murthy, an award-winning teacher and Director of Faculty Scholarship and Research at Suffolk University Law School, and Professor Howard E. Katz of Cleveland State University College of Law, the author of Strategies and Techniques of Law School Teaching.

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Irresponsibility, Reconsidered
Monday, January 4, 2021, 2:00 – 3:15 PM ET

Section on Criminal Justice

In Kahler v. Kansas, the U.S. Supreme Court held that due process does not require the provision of an affirmative insanity defense​. In defending the need for flexibility, the Court stressed:

Defining the precise relationship between criminal culpability and mental illness involves examining the workings of the brain, the purposes of the criminal law, the ideas of free will and responsibility. It is a project demanding hard choices among values, in a context replete with uncertainty, even at a single moment in time. And it is a project, if any is, that should be open to revision over time, as new medical knowledge emerges and as legal and moral norms evolve.

This panel will debate the wisdom of Kahler, notions of responsibility, and the implications of current medical knowledge.

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Becoming More Physically Active While Stuck Inside
Wednesday, November 18, 2020, 6:00 – 6:30 PM ET

Section on Balance in Legal Education

Since the onset of the pandemic our work has become much more than teaching. Although we want to help as much as possible, being helpers for stressed out students is emotionally draining to us individually. We hear and we listen, and we assist to the point where we find ourselves numb, and we still forge ahead to continue to help the students, ignoring our own vulnerabilities and to overlooking our own needs. We have a self-care blind spot as teacher-helpers. We experience compassion fatigue.

One thing that is helpful to reduce compassion fatigue is to color Mandalas. The word Mandala comes from the ancient Sanskrit language and loosely means “circle” or “center.” With ancient roots, the Mandala is used in indigenous practices around the globe and symbolizes sacred ceremonial space and the circle of life. In both eastern and western cultures, the Mandala has come to symbolize harmony, unity, wholeness, and healing.

Our brain treats coloring as meditation, which is a hard thing for some of us who have difficulty calming our minds.

In this session, we will color a Mandala.

Please bring colored markers, pencils, crayons and print out a copy of the attached Mandalas if you do not have any already.

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Yoga: Aligning the Body to Still the Mind
Wednesday, October 21, 2020, 4:00 – 4:30 PM ET

Section on Balance in Legal Education

As lawyers and academics we often primarily engage and (over)work the brain and intellectual center of the body. Yoga as a holistic system provides a means to integrate the mind-body-spirit which enables us to be less overwhelmed by the constantly changing nature of our world and the challenges it presents. The path of yoga is much more than asana or physical posture practice. Join Certified Level 1 Iyengar Yoga Teacher, Alison Lintal for a brief yoga philosophy discussion followed by a short guided yoga practice where we will explore how alignment in the physical sheath of the body can provide courage and support to the constantly fluctuating mind, especially during challenging or uncertain times. Those who are new to yoga as well as experienced practitioners are both welcome.

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Conscious Practices: The Language of Well-Being in the Law School Classroom
Wednesday, September 16, 2020

Section on Balance in Legal Education

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Adaptive Zoning: Climate, COVID, & Racial Justice
Monday, August 10, 2020, 2:00 – 3:00 PM ET

Section on Property Law

What kinds of communities will emerge from the three key crises that have dominated U.S. news in 2020:  climate change, COVID19, and systemic racism? This panel will discuss zoning actions that can or are being taken by local communities, and in some cases state governments, to more quickly adapt land use rules to various crises.

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Are Your Students Learning? Online Formative Assessment is Vital!
Wednesday, August 5, 2020

Section on Technology, Law and Legal Education

This description is being written in May of 2020 before we know if schools will be open for in-person classes in the Fall.  I predict that ALL law school courses will be entirely online or have an online component for all students.

What does this have to do with Formative Assessment?

Everything!

It is harder to track student progress and engage them in online settings.  Teaching without formative assessment is like flying a plane without any working gauges in the fog.  You won’t find out how things are going until you try to land and crash.  Also, students need and want formative assessment so that they know they are tracking the material in the class.  I will use this webinar to talk about some ways to introduce formative assessment in your teaching. As CALI’s Executive Director, I will naturally use CALI lessons, LessonLink, and QuizWright as examples, but the lessons apply no matter what tools you use.

To be clear, this is about graded mid-terms exams.  Those do provide some level of formative assessment – they can send up a flare if the class is missing important points, but there is a difference between graded and ungraded assessment.

Incorporating more formative assessment will make you a better teacher and wakes up students to their responsibilities as learners.  You can only do so much, they have to do the rest.  Formative assessment in how.

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Utilizing Industry Software When Teaching Electronic Discovery as a Paradigm for Legal Education
Wednesday, July 29, 2020

Section on Technology, Law and Legal Education

Fundament concepts in electronic discovery such as search precision and recall are best understood by students when struggling to create legally defensible searches. This webinar will show the pedagogical use of commercial-grade electronic discovery tools and software to ground fundamental legal concepts.

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Difficult Conversations on Racial Equity When Educating Law Students
Friday, July 24, 2020, 1:00 – 2:00 PM ET

Section on Academic Support

On Friday, July 24 at 1:00 EST, panelists Yolanda Sewell (Cooley), Russell McClain (Maryland Carey Law), and Goldie Pritchard (MSU) will provide concrete suggestions on how start difficult conversations around racial equity. We will also discuss who bears the responsibility to facilitate discussions on racial equity and pointers for how to successfully facilitate such conversations. Afton Cavanaugh (St. Mary’s) will moderate the discussion.

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Helping Law Students Become Tech-Ready for Practice
Wednesday, July 22, 2020, 2:00 – 3:00 PM ET

Section on Technology, Law and Legal Education

We will explore the core categories of technology that recent graduates and working law students are expected to be familiar with, how cultivating the right attitude towards tech can support law students’ professional growth over time, the common pitfalls law students run into at their jobs when it comes to tech, and some tips for incorporating real-practice technologies into law school curriculum (like e-discovery, document management, and so on).

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Leadership Lessons from COVID 19 to Black Lives Matter: A Discussion on Lawyers Leading in Crisis
Wednesday, July 15, 2020

Section on Leadership

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What Law Faculty Need to Know About Artificial Intelligence
Wednesday, July 15, 2020

Section on Technology, Law and Legal Education

As AI systems permeate our society and impact our legal system, we must prepare law students to engage with these systems. In the same way that ‘governments’ are not entities separate and apart from the humans involved, machine learning systems are reflective of the decisions made by the humans who create it.

This webinar will cover the stages of machine learning system creation, highlighting crucial decision points and common pitfalls in the process in the process. Attendees will learn how to interrogate these systems in much the same way as we do the founding principles of our legal system.

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Digital Accessibility: Tips on Making Your Course Accessible
Wednesday, July 8, 2020

Section on Technology, Law and Legal Education

In our current environment, it’s even more crucial that we consider digital accessibility when making choices about course materials and platforms.  Dean Sampson will provide an overview of requirements and share tips for creating and selecting course materials that meet the needs of students with a variety of disabilities.

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Distance Learning Revisited: Here Comes Fall 2020
Wednesday, June 24, 2020

Section on Associate Deans for Academic Affairs Research

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Using Technology to Advance Law Student Professional Identity Formation
Wednesday, June 24, 2020

Section on Technology, Law and Legal Education

ABA Standard 314 requires that students receive meaningful feedback through the use of formative and summative assessments. This webinar will demonstrate how technology can be used to assist the professor in meeting this standard and, in turn, helping the student as well. Participants will explore ways in which electronic commenting and grading can save time and keep feedback clear and organized. The session will review rubrics, address text comments on Microsoft Word and will touch on grading using a learning management system like Canvas.

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Using Technology to Advance Law Student Professional Identity Formation
Wednesday, June 17, 2020

Section on Technology, Law and Legal Education

This webinar will discuss the use of technology to advance law student professional identity formation and professional development. Participants will explore best practices for helping law students develop critical skills and thinking around the use of technology as identified in the recent IAALS Foundations for Practice study, including the use of technology to support law student work experiences, the need for students to engage with technology as a means of professional branding and relationship building, and understanding how technology can be leveraged in the changing practice of law.

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What Law Professors Should Know About Cyber Security
Wednesday, June 10, 2020

Section on Technology, Law and Legal Education

As computers have become increasingly important for both teaching and practicing law, law professors have had to confront cybersecurity concerns ranging from cybercrime and espionage to digital privacy and online extortion. In this webinar, I will discuss both some hands-on practical cybersecurity best practices for law professors related to online communications and teaching, as well as some of the ongoing legal disputes and controversies around cybersecurity topics such as illegal hacking, spyware, and cyber-insurance claims. This webinar will be of particular interest to those who are concerned about online security for their own teaching and scholarship, or who are interested in how the topics they teach may be influenced by or applied to cybersecurity challenges. It assumes no prior technical knowledge and is intended to be accessible to a general audience.

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Top 5 Tips for Teaching Law Online
Wednesday, June 3, 2020

Section on Technology, Law and Legal Education

Teaching law online is daunting. Because of the Covid 19 shift to remote learning, we are all being asked to change the way we have been teaching for years. And, we are doing this all in a vacuum because there are not many models for how to teach law online effectively.

This webinar is designed to help you overcome some of the pain points of designing an online course. The Top 5 Tips for Teaching Law Online derives from a several-session workshop conducted by Professor Michele Pistone at the AALS Clinical Conference for several years. She will walk you through tips she learned over the last ten years as she has designed online course and videos for legal education.

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The Paperless Law Prof
Wednesday, May 27, 2020

Section on Technology, Law and Legal Education

As a result of COVID-19 and the need to teach remotely, professors quickly saw the value of having digitized materials. In this webinar, I will share tips, techniques, and strategies for becoming a paperless law prof. Among other things, I will discuss digital casebooks, digitizing class prep materials, and paperless grading. I will address challenges associated with going paperless and offer suggestions. This webinar will be of particular interest to those who have or are considering getting an iPad and Apple pencil or other tablet and stylus. However, even if you do not have a tablet, there will be plenty of suggestions for digitizing and becoming paperless with just your computer.

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Learning from the COVID-19 Crisis Legal Education Pivot: Opportunities for Innovation
Wednesday, May 20, 2020

Section on Technology, Law and Legal Education

Before COVID-19 struck, we were at a moment of immense social change, in which technology, globalization and the need for cross-cutting knowledge were foundationally changing the practice of law. Our public health crisis – with its accompanying remote instruction and legal practice – has accelerated the pace of change. This crisis gives us an opportunity to learn, and to reimagine legal education in needed ways.

This webinar will focus on those learning opportunities, drawing from my experiences over the past three years as a dean at Penn State Law and the School of International Affairs. It will explore some of the opportunities to develop legal education for a changing society through technology, innovation, and interdisciplinary partnerships, and consider how the COVID-19 experiences might influence our pathways moving forward.

Watch the Webinar Replay