Category Archives: Introduction

Lawyers need new skills and core competencies to succeed in today’s technology-driven legal practice. Document assembly and automation tools are crucial to providing quality, economical legal services in this environment. Legal educators must ensure that new attorneys are familiar with the tools and professional techniques that are becoming standard in the modern law offices. These same law office automation tools can produce self-guided instructions and forms to help low income, self-represented people achieve access to justice.

The Access to Justice Clinical Course Project (A2J Clinic) is a coordinated effort between the Center for Computer-Assisted Legal Instruction (CALI®), the Center for Access to Justice & Technology (CAJT®) at IIT Chicago-Kent College of Law, and Idaho Legal Aid Services. The Course Library you are reading was produced through the collaboration of the A2J Clinic Project participants and presents a broad base of readings suggested to help law students learn core legal skills while developing A2J Guided Interviews for use by self-represented litigants.

Thinking Like a Lawyer, Designing Like an Architect: Preparing Students for the 21st Century Practice, by Tanina Rostain et al

Building systems has become a critical skill among legal practitioners. While courses like the one they teach at Georgetown University Law Center also teach legal analysis, empathy and plain language communications, Tanina Rostain, Roger Skalbeck and Kevin Mulcahey argue that law … Continue reading

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Lives of Lawyers Revisited, by Michael J. Kelly

This piece focuses upon how the practice of lawyering has changed over the past 2 decades. Kelly particularly emphasizes how practice management and organizational structures have changed, and the effects of those changes upon the lawyers experiencing them. Further, Kelly … Continue reading

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Two Questions for Law Schools about the Future Boundaries of the Legal Profession, by Elizabeth Chambliss

Law schools face two critical strategic problems. This essay suggests that critical theory and research can resolve both of these problems. The first problem is the increasing segmentation of the profession, both between corporate and personal legal services, and also … Continue reading

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If Only We Knew What We Know, by Conrad Johnson and Brian Donnelly

The Lawyering in the Digital Age Clinic has taught law students how to use law practice and technology tools in a professional setting for the better part of a decade. Conrad Johnson and Brian Donnelly, who teach the course at … Continue reading

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The Last Days of the American Lawyer, by Thomas D. Morgan

Thomas Morgan envisions a future where there is a demand for more people trained in the law, but that training may not require a three-year graduate degree like it does today. Continue reading

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Educating Lawyers: Preparation for the Profession of Law (“Carnegie Report”)

The Carnegie Report presents a rich image of how law schools transform students into professionals and rethinks the goal of “thinking like a lawyer.” Continue reading

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Apps 4 Justice: Law Schools, Technology and Access to Justice, by Ronald W. Staudt

The civil justice system is failing the poor and law schools are failing their students by not providing practical lessons for the modern law environment. An Apps 4 Justice Clinic can deliver essential, pragmatic education while simultaneously improving our legal services delivery system for the poor. Continue reading

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Access to Justice: Meeting the Needs of Self-Represented Litigants, by Charles L. Owen et al

A two-year study of state court systems throughout the country identifies barriers to justice and redesigns court processes to provide self-represented litigants with efficient and effective access. Continue reading

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Apps for Justice: Code to the Rescue, by Marc Lauritsen

“The profession is endangered.” But could coding be the solution? Continue reading

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Access to Justice and Technology Clinics: A 4% Solution, by Ronald W. Staudt and Andrew P. Medeiros

Ron Staudt and Andrew Medeiros argue that the law school curriculum should include a new type of course that simultaneously lowers barriersto justice for low income people while significantly improving the practice readiness of law school graduates. The Access to … Continue reading

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