New AALS Section: Empirical Study of Legal Education & the Legal Profession

January 2nd, 2018 / By Deborah J. Merritt

If you’re at the AALS meeting, don’t miss the inaugural session of the new Section on Empirical Study of Legal Education & the Legal Profession. Spearheaded by Judith Wegner, this Section welcomes colleagues who are interested in conducting or using empirical research relating to legal education and the legal profession. You don’t need to be a numbers person to benefit from this Section–just someone who is interested in studying what we do in law schools and the legal profession.

The inaugural panel discussion, which kicks off at 3:30 p.m. tomorrow (Wednesday, January 3) shows the breadth of this Section:

• Raul Ruiz (Florida International University): Predicting Student Outcomes: Data Mining for Law Schools
• Victor Quintinilla (Mauer School of Law, IU-Bloomington): Productive Mind-Set, the Power of Belonging, and Bar Passage
• Bryant Garth (UC Irvine and formerly American Bar Foundation): Understanding the Changing Legal Profession
• Kellye Testy (LSAC and formerly University of Washington): The LSAC’s Emerging Research Priorities
• Aaron Taylor (Access Lex and St. Louis University): AccessLex’s Emerging Research Priorities

If that’s not enough to pique your interest, there will also be break-out groups discussing:

• Conducting and Consuming Research: What tools, resources, or professional development do you need to conduct or use empirical studies?
• Institutional Excellence and Assessment: How can law schools best assess programmatic and student learning outcomes? What methods and data management strategies apply?
• Admissions and Academic Success: What are best practices in admissions and academic success programs for students with mixed indicators? How do we know?
• Bar Exam Preparation & Licensing: What interventions work in preparing students to succeed on the bar exam? How can professional licensing strategies be improved?
• Professional Identity and Satisfaction: What can be done to enhance students’ sense of professional identity? What factors affect lawyer satisfaction, success, and happiness?

This is the place to be at AALS on Wednesday afternoon. If you can’t make the session but want to connect with the Section, email Judith Wegner at Judith_wegner@unc.edu.