
LMU Loyola Law School (LLS) faculty provided key remarks and contributions during the Association of American Law Schools Annual Meeting held Jan. 3-7, 2023 in San Diego. The meeting provided an avenue for law school faculty and administrators from around the country to explore important topics and trends in legal education, to share best practices, and to further the development of the legal profession. Attendees also sought to understand what law schools can do to make a difference in the disparities of access to justice and the deeply embedded racial inequities in the United States.
“The Association of American Law Schools Annual Meeting is the one place faculty from every specialty within legal scholarship, every corner of the curriculum, and every accredited law school in the country come together to discuss their work, debate major legal issues, and consider how law schools can best serve our students and society at large,” said Associate Dean for Research and William M. Rains Fellow Lauren Willis. “The breadth and depth of LLS faculty expertise was again on display at this year’s conference. Our faculty engaged in presentations of their own scholarship, provided feedback to junior clinical and research-track faculty from other institutions, introduced innovative casebooks and pedagogy developed at LLS to faculty from other schools, and were recognized for their leadership within the profession.”
LLS faculty taking part in the annual meeting presented on several topics, beginning with “Consumer Debt in the Post Pandemic Era.” This session, featuring Professor Ariel Jurow Kleiman, offered insights on how law and policy can intervene in the harsh debt collection practices, predatory lending, and unfair credit reporting that low-income consumers face in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
LLS professors anchored a slate of other important panels:
- Professor Jonathan Harris contributed to the “Roundtable on New Scholarship in Contract Law & Theory” and “Challenging Forced Employee Arbitration”
- Professors Sande Buhai and Chris Hawthorne moderated the Professional Responsibilities Section’s “New Voices Program”
- Professor Michael Guttentag, John T. Gurash Fellow in Corporate Law & Business, shared commentary during “Emerging Voices in Securities Litigation”
- Leo J. O’Brien Fellow Eric Miller presented on “Teaching Criminal Justice with Open Educational Resources and Other Innovative Materials”
- Dean Michael Waterstone provided comments for “Junior Faculty Works-in-Progress”
- Professor Patricia Winograd and LLS student Andre Enriquez spoke about “The Transformative Power of Humanistic and Holistic Legal Knowledge”
LLS faculty contributions during the conference underlined the importance of taking a holistic approach to legal education, as well as the role of technology, alternative pathways, and innovative forms of legal education in preparing students to succeed in a rapidly changing environment. In addition to catching up with friends and colleagues throughout academia, these faculty also took the opportunity to connect with former LLS students living in the San Diego area at an alumni reception hosted Thursday evening by Dean Waterstone. The AALS is a nonprofit association of 176 member and 19 fee-paid law schools. Its members enroll most of the nation’s law students and produce the majority of the country’s lawyers and judges, as well as many of its lawmakers. Founded in 1900, the mission of AALS is to uphold and advance excellence in legal education. In support of this mission, AALS promotes the core values of excellence in teaching and scholarship, academic freedom, and diversity, including diversity of backgrounds and viewpoints, while seeking to improve the legal profession, to foster justice, and to serve its many communities–local, national and international.