And my head, I'd be scratchin' While my thoughts were busy hatchin'

or: New Age Hippie Dippy Crap or am I really on to something??

I beg of you to allow me to indulge myself. You see, I was ready to begin my blog and had this amazing epiphany (which, by the way, was my drag name a VERY long time ago) which totally changes the direction of my post. BUT! I worked forever on this stupid Scarecrow GIF, and I'll be damned if I'm not going to use it!

The A.I.M. For Law Program, I've talked about (that has been more or less cancelled due to COVID-19) is through The California Western School of Law. A.I.M. For Law is an outreach diversity program designed to prepare underrepresented or disadvantaged college students for their first year of law school. It's a great program that gives you the inside track on things like the LSATs, admissions, tuition costs, and most importantly, networking. I actually found out about this program cuz I decided to clean out my spam folder and found an email through the EOPS program at Miramar about it.

YEAH, AND...?

The purpose of my this project was to discover how (if at all) the dialogical approach to argumentation is being used in law and the people I met through A.I.M. I could use as interviewees to shed a little light the subject. It was a loaded topic, to be sure. The assumption, of course, being that they were all just cold adversarialists out to make a quick buck. Well, at least that is what the textbook for our class would have us believe.

"...attorneys might present evidence in misleading ways..."

"...desires for courtroom victories encourage advocates to succumb to unethical adversarial practices..."

"Motivated to win, advocates may seek biased jurors, easily manipulated into voting for a preferred decision."

(Pretty harsh statements. I understand the advantages of dialogic argumentation but I think what we're looking at here is character flaws in human beings not fallacies of a method.)

Anyway, had I picked any other law school my loaded topic would have been a success, making them feel sheepish and inadequate . . . not so at CalWestern.

A LAW SCHOOL BY ANY OTHER NAME...

Their mission statement:

"California Western School of Law is committed to using the law to solve human and societal problems. Our mission is to train ethical, competent and compassionate lawyers, representative of our diverse society, who can use the law effectively and creatively.

We recognize that, in the 21st century, the rapid rate of change will accelerate and create further problems. We also recognize the pervasive perception, and partial reality, that the legal system and lawyers have helped to create, rather than solve, the problems our evolving society confronts"

OMG! An institution that actually recognizes and acknowledges the flaws in the system and it's members!? That sounds a little like accountability to me!

"While continuing to graduate lawyers well-equipped to practice law, we also seek to graduate creative problem solvers committed to the improvement of our legal system and society. Our graduates will not merely react to problems, but will anticipate them and be ready to devise innovative and responsible solutions to serve the needs of their clients and the broader community.

"Further, by contributing to legal scholarship, participating in public deliberations about legal matters and serving as a community legal education resource, California Western School of Law will make significant, measurable contributions to the solution of problems in our community, our society and our world."

Well, that's sweet and all, but this pragmatic isn't quite so easily swayed. Anyone can put that out in a mission statement but do you have the resources and the curriculum to back it up?

CURRICULUM

It appears they can back it up with their classes. While lacking some of the hard core specialized law courses you can expect from some schools (think international cybersecurity law or air & space law), CalWestern stays true to their mission statement with courses such as:

• Negotiation and Advanced Negotiation

• Alternative Dispute Resolution

• Mediation, Mediation Advocacy, and Mediation for Lawyers (Advanced Mediation)

• Problem Solving & Prevention Law

• Problem Solving Skills and Theory

I was familiar with all but the last two courses...the course descriptions state:

Problem Solving & Prevention Law: "This scholarly writing seminar intends to explore the sources, conceptions, and procedures for solving human problems. Using readings drawn from social science and philosophy as well as from law review articles, legal procedures and reasoning will be compared against other forms of problem-solving. The goals of the course are to explore the limitations as well as the strengths of law; to uncover the spontaneous or deliberative social processes (sometimes useful, sometimes harmful or violent) that thrive in the absence of law; and to help students face the hard moral and practical choices that are presented by social problems and interpersonal conflict.

Problem Solving Skills and Theory: "This course introduces several skills that then are practiced by students inside and outside of class: Listening and Communicating; Understanding Conflict through Understanding Interests; Collaborating and Finding Solutions of Mutual Gain; Developing Insight, Creativity, and Judgment; and Designing Systems to Prevent Problems."

Different alterative theories are used to guide the use of these skills including: Problem-Solving as a Process; Selection and Perception of “Problems” as Reflecting Values, Identity, and Beliefs; and Understanding Problem-Solving as a Product of Social Structure.

CLINICS & PROGRAMS

As impressive as the curriculum was their available clinics and programs were astounding...

Center For Creative Problem Solving

This program is almost like a mini school within the school. A place where like minded legal advocates as well as students can gather, share their ideas, participate in legal issues, etc. They understand the "consequences of confronting . . . problems in solely adversarial ways." They promote additional training in skills found outside the typical law school classroom parallel to the course offerings listed above.

The Center's dogma is that legal issues are becoming more and more human due to the fact that the law is reaching further into our everyday lives. As these issues become more human, so too, like humans, does their overall complexity. Legal procedures need to adapt to this increasingly human arena and lawyers need to be fluent in a variety of methods to resolve legal issues. Not only will they will use the right procedure for the right problem, they will devise interventions to prevent problems before they arise.

Personally, I can't think of anything that sounds more like dialogic communication to me. Delving even further I found:

Mediation Clinic. The students take a hands on approach and mediate Small Clams Court cases using methods taught to them in their Mediation classes;

The National Center for Preventive Law. The NCPL's goal is to make not only adversarial but also dialogical argumentation disappear with the use of Preventative Law. I had never heard of Preventative Law before, but it is pretty much what it sounds like. Using the law to foresee potential issues and dealing with them before they happen. This may seem rather counter-productive when it comes to the "business of law" but it is what ethically sound attorneys should be doing.

The STEPPS course (Skills Training for Ethical and Preventive Practice and career Satisfaction) integrates the study of Professional Responsibility, Advanced Legal Research and Writing, Lawyering Skills, and Problem Solving/Preventive Law. As the title of the course suggests, it also examines issues of career satisfaction. This is a requirement for all 2nd year law students and so the school's mission statement is not left only to elective classes. In this program the students role play the law firm environment and work on various cases and utilize different legal procedures and theories.

WHAT ABOUT THE OTHERS?

After uncovering this information, I grew hopeful. Maybe the legal profession isn't doomed, after all. Maybe after hundreds of years of virtual stagnation the stuffy boys' club is willing to rethink its methodology. How many young minds out there are being challenged by bringing to light new ideas of dispute? How many other institutes of learning were out there, with their progressive minded socio-legal professors chomping at the bit, waiting for their turn to unleash their preventative law and deliberations upon the world?

One.

Just one other.

I went through the Mission Statements of the 204 ABA-accredited law schools in the country and from those found several good looking potential candidates. But then I dug a little deeper and realized when looking over their curriculum they didn't have the courses to back it up. There was one other, one other remaining school that proved worthwhile...

INTRODUCING...WILLIAM AND MARY'S SCHOOL FOR GIFTED YOUNGSTERS!

Fans of X-Men will get that one.

So, in reading about the history of William & Mary's School of Law, you think "Jesus, I didn't think a law school could get any more bougey." Oh, but it can.

"In 1779, with the American Revolution at its height, Thomas Jefferson instituted America’s first program for the academic study of law at The College of William & Mary. To guide this new experiment, Jefferson chose George Wythe, a leader of the Virginia bar and Jefferson’s mentor. Considered the most scholarly lawyer in Virginia, Wythe incorporated ... blah, blah, blah"

I can just hear the conversation...

It goes on to say...

"Our devotion to the academic study of law, for the sake of preserving what is best in our legal regimes, reforming what can be improved, and, above all, contributing to the world’s understanding of this fundamental human institution; and Our dedication to educating citizen lawyers who will serve with distinction in their communities, the nation, and the world."

WM Law, as it turns out, is like the East Coast version of CalWestern, except with a shit-ton more money, and a lot more prestige. But what do you expect from the East Coast? The professors tailor their classes to emphasize the human element of the practice of law. But most impressive, is something I have never heard of...

THE HONOR SYSTEM

At the core of their institution is their Honor System, a community of trust and a set of instilled values that default to the assumption that until proven otherwise, students and faculty are honest people that conduct themselves at all times with a sense of honor. To show this, exams are not proctored at WM Law, they can be taken anywhere and are self scheduled. Laptops can be used during exams and students are trusted that they will use them according to the rules governing their usage..

HOLY FU#*ING SH!T

One can only imagine what kinds of good, honestly GOOD people must come out of that place.

CURRICULUM

The course offerings include many of what is seen at CalWestern: Mediation, Negotiation and Alternative Disputes Resolution, for sure. It was their Specialty Courses which made my jaw drop. Courses like:

Citizen Lawyering. This class broaches the topic of how does one's training in law crossover into citizen leadership roles? The focus is on how lawyer-leaders performed in advising policy-makers and what lessons can be learned for all citizen lawyers.

Community Association Law. Another branch of law I had never heard of concerns the legal structures of covenants and servitudes of the modern communtiy organization. These include local government and zoning officials, land planners, developers, investors, lenders, homeowners, boards of directors, property managers, homeowners committees and citizens groups and the interactions between the organizations and government. (To me, this sounds exactly like what we learned in Chapter 10 about "deliberative partnership.")

Comparative Law. This course compares the various sources of law and examines its underlying values and goals, and also teaches other major legal traditions in the world.

Philosophy of Law: This course makes the student place a big mirror in front of themselves and in front of everything they've been learning and all the money they've spent to ask the questions: .Is the law even reducible to social facts? To morality? To neither of these things?

Selected Problems in Criminal Law: Exactly what it sounds like

Post-Conflict Justice and the Rule of Law: "This course will cover two aspects of post-conflict justice: retributive and restorative justice with respect to human depredations that occur during violent conflicts and mechanisms for restoring and enhancing justice systems that have failed or become weakened as a result of such conflicts. Areas of study will include policy issues relating to accountability, mechanisms for assessing accountability, post-conflict peacekeeping and justice, and (re-)establishing the rule of law in post-conflict environments."

SO WHAT DOES IT ALL MEAN?

I don't know how I feel about this tour of Law Schools... on one hand, the information that is being taught is SO in-depth and so right on the money, it makes our textbook look like a "Dick and Jane" book. On the other hand, it's only SERIOUSLY offered and integrated in only 2 law schools in the U.S. And from all accounts, it's been that way for some time.

However, for my own personal journey, I have to wonder...is it just happenstance that I:

• Register for Argumentation, an elective outside of my major, that I was under the assumption was going to be much more like adversarial argumentation, the type that would prepare me for litigation, but was WAY off the mark in that regard?

• Would be accepted into the A.I.M. for Law program. Something that I nearly missed the deadline to apply to as the email regarding it was sent to my spam folder?

• Happen to notice that my Argumentation was the only class I took that was eligible for an Honors course?

• Discover that the school hosting A.I.M. For Law is only one of two law schools in the country that fully integrate this dialogic argumentation not only into the coursework but into the very essence of their institution?

Like I mentioned earlier, I'm a bit of a pragmatic. But, I'm not oblivious to signs when the universe wants to steer you in a certain direction. One can argue that the human brain looks for patterns and signs and I wholeheartedly believe this is true. But the question still remains: why is it locking on to THESE patterns, picking out THESE signs? These signposts have never let me down before - and so I think I will be shifting directions in the wind a bit to see where my sails take me.... to be continued.