It's Time to Get It Right: Problem-Solving in the First-Year Curriculum

70 Pages Posted: 19 Mar 2013

See all articles by Barbara McAdoo

Barbara McAdoo

Hamline University School of Law

Sharon Press

Mitchell Hamline School of Law Dispute Resolution Institute

Chelsea Griffin

Independent

Date Written: 2012

Abstract

In this article, a course entitled Practice, Problem-Solving, and Professionalism (P3), is used as a case study in legal education curricular reform. The authors contend that the problem-solving emphasis of the course and its placement in the first-year curriculum responds elegantly to the various calls for legal education reform over the last few decades. Moreover, the authors believe the course should replace separate Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) courses which have proliferated in law school curricula.

Part II of this article briefly reviews some reforms in legal practice and legal education as they relate to ADR and problem-solving. Part III details the institutional genesis of the P3 course at Hamline University School of Law. Part IV explains the actual design and implementation of the P3 course. In Part V, the authors critique the course and provide details for the revised spring 2012 iteration. Finally, in Part VI, the authors reiterate the support for a problem-solving course in the first-year legal curriculum.

Keywords: P3, problem-solving, Missouri model, Riskin, ADR, dispute resolution, adventure learning, legal curriculum, legal education, education reform, Langdellian, pound conference, mediation, Fisher, Menkel-Meadow, adversarial, negotiation, MacCrate Report, Carnegie Report, Hamline Law School, DRI

JEL Classification: I2, I21, K00, K41, J52

Suggested Citation

McAdoo, Barbara and Press, Sharon and Griffin, Chelsea, It's Time to Get It Right: Problem-Solving in the First-Year Curriculum (2012). Washington University Journal of Law and Policy, Vol. 39, p. 39 (2012), Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2234507

Barbara McAdoo (Contact Author)

Hamline University School of Law ( email )

1536 Hewitt Avenue
Saint Paul, MN 55104-1237
United States

Sharon Press

Mitchell Hamline School of Law Dispute Resolution Institute ( email )

875 Summit Ave
St. Paul, MN 55105-3076
United States
651-290-6436 (Phone)

Chelsea Griffin

Independent

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