Analysis of judicial opinions–especially appellate opinions–has long been recognized as an excellent way to immerse law students into legal language, doctrine and analysis. Judicial opinions are the focus of most law school classes. Yet, despite their value, these opinions are inherently limited as teaching tools. For example, they discount lawyers’ roles in developing facts and theories of a case, ignore myriad strategic and ethical dilemmas lawyers face and fail to expose students directly to qualities and weaknesses of the lawyers’ advocacy. They also do not typically fill in the social, political and historical context that can be important to understanding the issues confronting the court or put a human face on the parties and events that led to the decision. In addition, many kinds of law practice, such as transactional work, have relatively little connection to appellate opinions compared to other sources of law or bodies of knowledge, such as accounting and finance.
Many law school teachers seek to retain the benefits of studying appellate opinions but to overcome limitations by replacing or supplementing opinions with different or additional materials that provide students with a deeper, more nuanced and multi-dimensional understanding of studied cases and lawyers’ roles in representing clients. Replacement or supplemental materials include hearing transcripts and case briefs; case studies more familiar in business than in law schools; transactional documents such as contracts and disclosure statements; analytical or historical narratives and stories about the background of a judicial opinion; video productions; and interviews or other direct interactions with parties, lawyers, judges or other officials.
In this session, law school teachers who use such materials in various courses will demonstrate their methods and discuss their experiences. The session will focus on the use of these materials in core law school courses, either required courses or electives which attract large numbers of students. Presenters will reflect on how using such materials can expose students to a more complete understanding of what lawyers do, and to a more robust understanding of the lawyering process and the law. They will also address challenges posed when moving beyond the appellate opinion.