Welcome to the Law School Cafe

January 3rd, 2013 / By Deborah J. Merritt

Law School Cafe is a resource for anyone interested in reshaping legal education. Here is the basic information you need to use the site:

Cafe Tables

The site’s main page includes a series of posts called “Cafe Tables.” Each table focuses on a particular proposal for change. Some innovations are small, others are large. We draw these proposals from many sources: published papers, other websites, formal comments submitted to the ABA’s Task Force on the Future of Legal Education, and personal conversations. If you have a proposal, please let Deborah Merritt (the cafe manager) know at merritt52@gmail.com. We will be starting new tables regularly.

Each table includes a brief description of the proposal, links to sources, and observations or questions to start the conversation. The comment threads are open: We invite you to offer your reactions, critiques, and ideas for improvement on each proposal (but please read the “Comment Policy” below). The tables offer a way to explore the pros and cons of each proposal, as well as to refine ideas.

If you have experience with a proposed change, or would like to offer an extended comment, please let the cafe manager know (again, that’s merritt52@gmail.com). You can create a “perspective” post for a table, which will appear on the main page together with the original post. The perspectives allow further development of ideas.

Book Club

The Book Club complements the Cafe Tables by offering brief summaries of recent papers or books related to legal education. These pieces don’t always propose specific changes, but they offer useful insights to the problems facing us. Comments are open here as well, so feel free to post your reactions.

Comment Policy

To facilitate discussion in both the Cafe and Book Club, comment threads are open; we do not moderate comments before posting. But we will delete comments in which obsessive whining, trolling, or name calling substantially outweighs probative value. Cf. Federal Rule of Evidence 403.

Cafe Manager and Contributors

Deborah J Merritt manages the Law School Cafe; she is the site’s primary moderator and contributor. DJM is also the John Deaver Drinko/Baker & Hostetler Chair in Law, at Ohio State University’s Moritz College of Law, but the Cafe is an independent project. Deborah has written about many facets of legal education, teaches in both doctrinal classrooms and clinics, and has developed a seminar on the Business of Law.

Kyle P McEntee, the Executive Director of Law School Transparency, is the Cafe’s co-moderator, frequent contributor, and website designer. The Law School Cafe is a partner site of Law School Transparency.