A first year law student told me that she didn’t want to attend her criminal law class today because they would be discussing rape and sexual assault. Last year, a Chicago law school faced an incident where students were upset because a professor used the N word while teaching about “fighting words.” A large number of the students marched out of class and confronted the dean. Now, legal educators are faced with issues that basically didn’t exist 30 years ago. Today, law professors must be mindful of what might be considered triggers for students. The practice of law requires lawyers to deal with some of life’s most intimate, offensive and volatile situations. How do we train new lawyers to deal with these circumstances without exposing law students to the realities of life’s unsavory problems requiring legal intervention? Lawyers face some of people’s worst conduct in criminal, juvenile and domestic relations cases. Probate cases can expose greed and the destruction of families over the division of assets. New lawyers will face old problems. Along with sensitivity and compassion, new lawyers will have to be tough. The challenge facing legal educators is how to prepare new lawyers to face today’s problems while being mindful of an evolving academic environment. To learn about “fighting words,” students have to learn what they are and the effect they have on the person that is the target of those words. They need to learn the legal ramifications of those words to both the person uttering them and the person to whom those words are directed. Maybe, a newly admitted lawyer shouldn’t be surprised by a judge denying their request for a continuance or more substantive motions. Maybe, they should learn in law school that they will not always get their way and that sometimes, they need to face adverse decisions, unpleasant facts and bad people. Life is tough, a lawyer needs to be tougher.
Vita in Lega