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Back to School: Guided Meditation for Law Students

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As I noted in an earlier posting , we welcomed our incoming 1L students to the school on Friday.  They are really quite wonderful people. I taught two sessions of the Introduction to Law course.  I ended both of the sessions with a guided meditation.  I want to acknowledge that my business coach, Christine Kane, introduced me to this meditation.  I'll post the second one tomorrow. Getting Vertical Meditation By Christine Kane (as modified by Paula Marie Young) Close your eyes Take a deep breath in your own rhythm Take another breath This time see if you can inhale on the count of 4 and slowly exhale on the count of 6, using this Yoga breathing technique to calm the parasympathetic nervous system Continue to breath in this way, and Slowly bring your attention to your tailbone Imagine a cord running from it through the floor to the center of the Earth Imagine it as a gold cord It’s beautiful and radiant And, at the end of it hangs a gold bric

Back to School: Welcoming our Bright and Ambitious 1L Students

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I can't even remember my first day of law school. I hope that we made the first day far more memorable for our incoming 1Ls.  Our lovely and wonderful new Dean Lucy McGough  greeted them and introduced the faculty and staff. Then Virginia Supreme Court Justice Donald W.  Lemmons , having made the long drive from Richmond, gave a story-filled speech on professionalism that inspired the new students.   Then, students -- dressed in professional attire --stood to take the Oath of Professionalism.  Yes, we quickly begin to admit them to our "tribe." Students "acknowledge[d] the privileges granted by society to the legal profession" and "promise[d] to uphold the highest standards of academic honesty and ethical practice."  They also promised to "embrace civility and professionalism."   They promised to conduct themselves with dignity and respect the dignity of others in both their private and professional lives.  They agreed t

Back to School: ASL's Unique Dispute Resolution Curricular Program

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The Appalachian School of Law is the first, and so far, the only law school founded with a focus on Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR). ASL’s dispute resolution curriculum is unique in several ways. Students get advanced training in negotiation mediation, arbitration, early neutral evaluation, group facilitation, consensus building, and dispute resolution system design. 2L Dispute Resolution  Survey Course First, only nineteen law schools, including ASL, require all their students to take an ADR survey class. The curriculum reflects the realities of lawyering in an era of the so-called  “ Vanishing Trial ."     The course provides students with basic interest-based negotiation skills. It also introduces them to the role of advocate in several ADR processes, especially mediation.    Research shows that ASL students who take only the required survey course have more training in ADR than most practicing attorneys. This training creates more employment oppo

Back to School: Practice-Ready Legal Curriculum

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Over 340 Years of  Private Practice Experience  Among ASL's Faculty It frustrated me to no end when highly-ranked Washington and Lee University School of Law -- to much fanfare -- announced in 2008 their practice-ready curriculum for 3Ls students.  The press release from the school's Dean said: [We] are embarking on a dramatic revision of [the] law school curriculum, entirely reinventing the third year to make it a year of professional development through simulated and actual practice experiences.   This is one of the boldest reforms in American legal education since Dean Christopher Columbus Langdell pioneered the new curriculum at Harvard Law School in the late 19th century. What?  WTF?  Appalachian School of Law had created -- from its inception in the mid-1990s -- a practice-ready, experiential curriculum for all students (not just 3Ls) long before Washington and Lee announced its program!  But for us, the pedagogical approach was so embedded in our instit

Back to School: Award-Winning Community Service Program

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My bragging marathon about the Appalachian School of Law continues. Award-Winning Community Service Program ASL has twice won the President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll. In 2007, it was one of six recipients to win it. The sponsors of the Honor Roll include the President’s Council on Service and Civic Participation, the Department of Education, the Department of Housing and Urban Development, USA Freedom Corps., and the Corporation for National and Community Service. Selection factors include the scope and innovative nature of the program, percentage of student participation in service activities, incentives for service, and the extent to which the school offers academic service-learning courses. Emphasis on Serving the Community Since the founding of the Appalachian School of Law, students have provided over 100,000 hours of community service.   The founders of ASL made community service one of the three focuses of the school.  ASL seeks to d

Back to School: ASL's Award Winning Moot Court, Mock Trial, and ADR Teams

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As noted in prior posts, I am using this week to brag about the Appalachian School of Law.  Today, I want to focus on our championship competition teams. Moot Court Program Students from the Appalachian School of Law routinely excel in nationally-known moot court competitions. These appellate advocacy competitions pit ASL students against teams from the top 50 schools.   At the Wechsler National Criminal Law Competition , ASL has won more awards than any other school in the history of the competition -- including two national championships, two final-round appearances, five Best Advocate awards, four semi-final round appearances, and two brief writing awards.    In the spring 2013 National Environmental Law Moot Court Competition (NELMCC), the ASL team advanced all the way to the final round -- out of 76 teams.  After three preliminary rounds, ASL was one of 27 teams that advanced to the quarterfinals.  One team member was honored as a Top Oralist for the preliminary ro

Back To School: Nicest People I've Ever Met Live in Grundy

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Here's another thing I want to remind faculty, students, alumni, and potential students about.  The nicest people you will ever meet live here. Yesterday, Matt Hardin, a student at Appalachian School of Law, posted this unsolicited comment to my morning blog: "My personal experience is that all of the world's nicest people live in Grundy." The people in southwest Virginia combine Southern hospitality with a heapin' dose of mountain hospitality to create a very open-hearted and supportive community.  They welcome students into their churches, civic organizations, charitable enterprises, and homes. This place and the people who live here embrace you with their beauty, calm determination, work ethic, generous spirits, and loving kindness.  Many have so little and yet they share so much.