This presentation explores the types of low cost tech and social media tools that can be used to enrich globalization and legal education in general and the reasons why legal educations should use these tools.

1. Enriching Globalization Studies
With Low Cost Tech & Social Media:
Serving More Than 1 Goal at a Time
Michele DeStefano
Professor, University of Miami School of Law
Founder, LawWithoutWalls
AALS 2014

2. Road Map

3. U.S. Law Market

4. U.S. Legal Education

5. “Certain things. They should stay the way they
are. You ought to be able to stick them in one
of those big glass cases and just leave them
alone.”
- JD Salinger, Catcher in the Rye
36 Year Old Twinkie

6. Rising Costs

7. Enrollment Plummets
2010-2013: From 50,000 to
38,000

8. But not at Harvard Law School .
..
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•
•
•
Seton Hall Down 43%
Hamline Down 55%
Applications down 38% 2010-2013
AND even Harvard Law School has fewer
applications
– Harvard accepted 16% of applicants for 2015
vs. 11% year prior

9. Predicting Law School Closings

10. Law School Market
+
Globalization

11. Everyone is Affected by
Globalization

12. Law School Market
+
Globalization
+
Innovation

13. Multi-Disciplinary
Open Collaboration is
the Key to Innovation

14. So Many Reasons To Use
Technology
“The sign of a good decision is the
multiplicity of reasons for it. If more than
one goal is served, then a decision is more
likely to be wise.”
- Russel, Children of God

15. Good & Bad Uses of Tech
Time, Space, Place

16. So Many Options (Not All Good)

17. Asynchronous

18. On-Line Education: MOOCs

19. 2012 “Year of MOOC”
For Profit
• Coursera:
–
–
–
–
More than 2 Million Registrants
Some classes more than 100,000 students
Over 370 courses
Partnerships with over 30 institutions including
Brown, Princeton, and Columbia
• Udacity 25 courses
NonProfit
– Harvard and MIT EdX Non-profit $30 million and
35courses

20. Free of Charge but not for Long
Sell Names to Employers, Credit,
Certificates

21. Mostly Computer Science &
Math

22. But Also Legal Education
Non-Credit
• Case Western Professor Michael Scharf
MOOC international criminal law
(Coursera)
• UCL Dame Hazel MOOC English
common law, (Coursera)
• Harvard„s Professor William Fisher MOOC
copyright law EdX)
• Yale„s Professor Akhil Amar MOOC
constitutional law (Coursera 2014)

23. But Also Legal Education
For Credit
• University of Akron School of Law MOOC
Commercial Paper for course
• On Line LLM Degrees e.g., Washington
University

24. And Around the World

25. Some Upsides & Downsides

26. Potential Upsides
•
•
•
•
•
•
Cost/Efficiency
Size
Fast & peer feedback
Global
Talent
Convenience

27. Potential Downsides
•
•
•
•
Testing/Grading (peer assessment)
Cheating
Quality
ABA Rules
– 12 credits max for distance learning courses
– 4 credits max of distance learning in any
semester
– No distance learning course for credit during
first year of law school

28. Pressure on the ABA

29. Synchronous

30. Ain‟t Nothing Like the Real
Thing

31. Depends on the Real Thing

32. Synchronous May Be More
Up Close & Personal

33. Synchronous: Your Class
Blackboard, Google Drive, Twitter,
Facebook, Linked In, One on-line

34. Synchronous: Multi-University

35. LWOW X

36. Adobe Connect

37. The Future: Blended

38. INNOVATING LEGAL EDUCA TION AND PRACTICE
MICHELE DESTEFANO
FOUNDER, LAWWITHOUTWALLS
PROFESSOR OF LAW

39. INNOVATING LEGAL EDUCATION AND PRACTICE
Part-virtual collaboratory
Develops 21st century lawyering skills
Law + Business + Technology + Innovation

40. 26 Law & Business Schools
45+ Students
Bifröst University (Iceland)
Stanford Law School
Fordham Law School
Tel Aviv University (Israel)
Harvard Law School
University College London (UK)
IE Business School (Spain)
University of Miami Law
IE Law School (Spain)
University of Montreal Law
Indiana University Law
University of São Paulo (Brazil)
National Law School of India
University of St. Gallen (Switzerland)
New York Law School
University of Sydney Law (Australia)
Peking University STL (China)
Wharton School of Business
Pontifical Catholic U (Chile)
York University School of Business
Sciences Po Business (France)
York University School of Law
Sciences Po Law (France)
Witwatersrand Law (South Africa)

41. Three Parts to LawWithoutWalls
1. KickOff in person
2. Virtual Dynamic Teaming
& weekly Virtual Sessions
3. ConPosium in person

42. DOCCs

43. DOCCs – Central Video

44. DOCCs - No Single Best Way

45. DOCCs- More than 1 Talking Head

46. Professor Michele DeStefano:
Innovation Tech & the Law Course
• In Person Component:
• One hour in-person class sessions that
include a mix of teaming and skills-based
exercises along with explorative sessions on
entrepreneurial ventures and innovations in
the law
• On-Line Component:
• Assigned, pre-recorded 2-hour Virtual
Thought Leader Session (VTLS) from
LawWithoutWalls.
• Assigned relevant reading materials on the
weekly topics addressed by these sessions.

47. Professor Michele DeStefano:
Innovation Tech & the Law Course
Semester Work: Students write weekly response
papers that package their learnings from the
readings, the research they conducted, and the
VTLS into a provoking 1-2 page thought-piece.
Final Projects: Student teams develop a 6-7 minute
ignite-style presentation on any topic, idea, or
business solution that is a technological innovation
in the law involving
Class Cloud: All course materials, WRPs, and
assignments will be ]in a folders on Google Drive

48. The Future . . . Can‟t Be Just on
Cost

49. Tech: A Tool to Add Value

50. A Path: Not An End in Itself