Paul L. Caron
Dean
Pepperdine Caruso
School of Law
Teaching
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Exam Bluebooks as Love Letters
Ruthann Robson (CUNY), The Zen of Grading, 36 Akron L. Rev. 303, 317 (2003): “Love” may seem like a strange emotion to consider in the context of bluebooks, but each exam can present itself as a love letter of sorts. It’s a personal communication from the student to me (only in rare cases will someone else read…
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Crawford: Estate, Gift & GST Charts
Bridget J. Crawford (Pace) has posted Overview of Statutory Framework for Federal Wealth Transfer Taxation on SSRN. Here is the abstract: These three charts provide a visual overview of the statutory frameworks for the gift, estate and generation-skipping transfers taxes. These charts are designed for students, professionals and experienced scholars alike — anyone who needs…
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Newton: How Law Profs’ Preoccupation with ‘Impractical Scholarship’ Obstructs Legal Education Reform
Brent E. Newton (Adjunct Professor, Georgetown; Deputy Staff Director, U.S. Sentencing Commission) has published Preaching What They Don’t Practice: Why Law Faculties’ Preoccupation with Impractical Scholarship and Devaluation of Practical Competencies Obstruct Reform in the Legal Academy, 62 S.C. L. Rev. 105 (2010). Here is the abstract: In response to decades of complaints that American law schools have…
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The First Open-Source Tax eCasebook: The Ethics of Tax Lawyering
I previously blogged eLangdell, the open-access casebook project developed by CALI (the Center for Computer-Assisted Legal Instruction). The first tax (and first ethics) entry is The Ethics of Tax Lawyering, by Michael Hatfield (Texas Tech): This chapter’s objective is to raise interesting tax ethics issues in practical contexts. There are 43 notes and questions to prompt and guide discussions, and…
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Samford, Northwestern Win 2010 ABA Law Student Tax Challenge
The ABA Tax Section has released the list of winners of the 2010 Law Student Tax Challenge: The contest features J.D. and LL.M. divisions, both of which compete in two person teams that research the tax issues involved, and then submit technical memoranda and client letters with their solutions. The teams’ written submissions are judged by tax…
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2011 Tannenwald Tax Writing Competition
For students writing tax seminar papers this semester (or having completed a tax paper last semester): the Theodore Tannenwald, Jr. Foundation for Excellence in Tax Scholarship and American College of Tax Counsel are sponsoring the 2011 Tannenwald Writing Competition: Named for the late Tax Court Judge Theodore Tannenwald, Jr., and designed to perpetuate his dedication to…
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American College of Employee Benefits Counsel Student Writing Competition
The American College of Employee Benefits Counsel is sponsoring its seventh annual Employee Benefits Writing Competition on any topic in the field of employee benefits law. The competition is open to any J.D. and graduate (L.L.M. or S.J.D) law students enrolled at any time between August 15, 2010 and August 15, 2011. Two $1,500 prizes will…
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Assessment in Tax Teaching
Audrey Sharp (University of Auckland) & Kalmen H. Datt (University of New South Wales) have posted Proposals for Assessment in Tax Teaching on SSRN. Here is the abstract: This article compares the assessment methods used by Atax, a school in the Faculty of Law, UNSW (Atax), and the Commercial Law Department in the Faculty of Business…
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The 2011 Albert R. Mugel National Tax Moot Court Competition sponsored by SUNY-Buffalo: Registration Deadline: Dec. 30, 2010 Problem Released: Jan. 7, 2011 Briefs Due: Feb. 11, 2011 Oral Arguments: Mar. 3-5, 2011 The Mugel Competition is the oldest national tax moot court competition in the United States. Each year, the competition gives law…
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Should Profs Walk Out If Students Text or Use Facebook in Class?
Inside Higher Ed, Should Profs Leave Unruly Classes?: Professors routinely complain about students who spend class time on Facebook or texting their friends or otherwise making it clear that their attention is elsewhere. But is it acceptable for a faculty member to deal with these disruptions by walking out of class? Two years ago, a…
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Faherty Student Tax Writing Competition — $3,000 First Prize
The Center for Tax Law and Employee Benefits at The John Marshall Law School Chicago sponsors the Paul Faherty Tax Law Writing Competition: Scope: The scope of permissible topics for the writing competition is broad — any aspect of Tax Law is acceptable: … a paper on a public policy issue, a critique of a leading…
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NY Times Endorses Clickers in the Classroom
Long-time readers of this blog know that I am an enthusiastic advocate of the use of clickers (Taking Back the Law School Classroom: Using Technology to Foster Active Student Learning, 54 J. Legal Educ. 311 (2004)). The New York Times agrees: More Professors Give Out Hand-Held Devices to Monitor Students and Engage Them: [T]he greatest impact of…
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Using Twitter in the Classroom
Twitter Increases Student Engagement: Communicating in 140-character segments may seem to contradict the goals of generally long-winded academia, but a new study [The Effect of Twitter on College Student Engagement and Grades, 26 J. Comp. Assisted Learning ___ (2010)] has found that the two are less opposed than one might think. Students in the study…
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Scholarship, Teaching, and Theories of Play
Bryan L. Adamson, Marilyn Berger, Lisa Ellen Brodoff, Anne M. Enquist, Paula Lustbader & John Mitchell (all of Seattle) have posted Can the Professor Come Out and Play? — Scholarship, Teaching, and Theories of Play, 58 J. Legal Educ. 481 (2008), on SSRN. Here is the abstract: In January 2008, the authors presented an Open Source program at the National AALS…
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Submission of Law Student Articles for Publication
Nancy Levit, Lawrence Duncan MacLachlan & Allen Rostron (all of UMKC) have posted Submission of Law Student Articles for Publication on SSRN. Here is the abstract: Each year law students collectively write a large number of papers that could become law review articles but that are never published. Most law schools require students at some point during…
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How a Prof’s Race and Gender Affect the 1L Curriculum
Meera E. Deoa (Thomas Jefferson), Maria Woodruff (UCLA) & Rican Vuedd (UCLA) have published Paint by Number? How the Race and Gender of Law School Faculty Affect the First-Year Curriculum, 29 Chicana/o-Latina/o L. Rev. 1 (2010). Here is the abstract: While there is a relatively standard first-year curriculum at all ABA-accredited law schools in the U.S.,…
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Another Endorsement of Clickers in the Classroom
I previously have extolled the advantages of teaching with clickers (Taking Back the Law School Classroom: Using Technology to Foster Active Student Learning, 54 J. Legal Educ. 551 (2004)). The Philadelphia Inquirier agrees in High-Tech Gadget Transforming College Teaching — And Learning: The trendy, high-tech learning tool, used to take attendance, poll student opinion, and…
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UNH Hosts Intellectual Property Tax Challenge
The University of New Hampshire School of Law (formerly the Franklin Pierce Law Center) is hosting its first Intellectual Property Tax Challenge: The tax challenges associated with intellectual property have become increasingly complex as intellectual property has become more important to business worldwide. The University of New Hampshire School of Law’s Intellectual Property Tax Challenge…
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Garnett: ‘Preaching What They Don’t Practice’
Following up on Monday's post, Newton: How Law Profs' Preoccupation with 'Impractical Scholarship' Obstructs Legal Education Reform (Aug. 23, 2010): Rick Garnett (Notre Dame), "Preaching What They Don't Practice" (PrawfsBlawg): Critiques like this are nothing new, of course, and (just as "of course") have some bite. But, they can be (and I worry that Newton's might be)…
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ABA Releases Law Student Tax Challenge Problem
The ABA Tax Section has released the problem (J.D.; LL.M.) and updated rules (J.D.;LL.M.) for the 10th Annual Law Student Tax Challenge: An alternative to traditional moot court competitions, the Law Student Tax Challenge asks two-person teams of students to solve a cutting-edge and complex business problem that might arise in everyday tax practice. J.D.: This…
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Maule: Structuring the Introduction to Taxation of Business Entities Course
Jim Maule (Villanova) has a well-deserved reputation as the Yodaof tax teachers, as he generously shares his insights with both tax faculty (via email discussion groups, exam banks, and PowerPoint banks) and tax students (via CALI exercises). He previously shared on his wonderful tax blog: A 40-Step Guide to Structuring the Basic Tax Course (Sept. 3, 2007)…
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Newton: How Law Profs’ Preoccupation with ‘Impractical Scholarship’ Obstructs Legal Education Reform
Brent E. Newton (Adjunct Professor, Georgetown; Deputy Staff Director, U.S. Sentencing Commission) has posted Preaching What They Don't Practice: Why Law Faculties' Preoccupation with Impractical Scholarship and Devaluation of Practical Competencies Obstruct Reform in the Legal Academy, 62 S.C. L. Rev. ___ (2010), on SSRN. Here is the abstract: In response to decades of complaints that American…
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Moran: The MacCrate and Carnegie Reports Fail to Integrate Gender, Race, Ethnicity, and Class in Curriculum Reform
Tax Prof Beverly Moran (Vanderbilt) has posted Disappearing Act: The Lack of Values Training in Legal Education — A Case for Cultural Competency, 37 S.U. L. Rev. ___ (2010), on SSRN. Here is the abstract: A renewed movement of curriculum reform is growing within United States law schools. This new curriculum reform movement is based…
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Brown: Teaching Civil Rights through the Basic Tax Course
Dorothy A. Brown (Emory) has published Teaching Civil Rights through the Basic Tax Course, 54 St. Louis U. L.J. 809 (2010). Here is part of the Introduction: Writing about race and tax has also been difficult for one additional reason: tax academics, inevitably white men (because so many tax academics are white men), have either…
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NY Times Forum: The College Cheating ‘Epidemic’
Following up on last week’s post, NY Times: Colleges Deploy Tech Tools to Combat 61% of Students Who Cheat: the New York Times has a Room for Debate forum on When Did Cheating Become an Epidemic?: For as long as exams and term papers have existed, cheating has been a temptation. But with Web technology, it’s…