MUSINGS: When the Internet died during Hurricane Laura Without the Internet—surprise!—much that one takes for granted in everyday life goes swoosh. The major things are obvious, but it’s the small, niggling things that come as a shock. Like…I wanted to write this on my computer where I have the choice of Word, Pages, and Google docs. But I can’t! All of these programs are online, and I am not! To the rescue? Text Edit, that long forgotten remnant of a prior age, but (thank you, Apple) still available and perfectly functional. Why did I want to write? Well, I am tired of the hesitant, stuttering connectivity of weak cellular networks delivering (or not) tweets and texts and maybe email. I want something that has flow! A few minutes ago, my eye fell on Elias Canetti’s, The Voices of Marrakesh ; I’d pulled it off the shelf to reread the opening story, Encounters with Camels , deeply and powerfully disturbing each and every time. But this time it put me in mind of somet...
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Avoiding the Abyss?
Given the primal necessity of survival, our current focus is on ordering our societies to cope with the critical health issues of Corvid-19. The jury is still out on whether we will manage to do this without being overwhelmed by agonizing, staggering costs in human lives and and suffering. We have seen what happens or looms in densely packed populations in epicenters ranging from Wuhan to Italy to Spain to New York. What threatens to emerge in countries shut by walls of silence, or refugee camps and prison populations, does not bear thinking about...too painful. But we are human. No matter what else is happening, we need water, food and shelter. And to the extent not struck down by personal disaster, we need to try to order as best we can the modalities of our everyday existence. In the world of law, that is those who administer justice, or deliver legal services, or educate those whose job it will be to do this in the future. All of these must--with great urgency--adapt. In part,...
Here's where I had been meant to be today...but that was pre-Coronavirus plan. I was going to Switzerland for Convo3, the third in a series of informal though deep conversations about the future of legal practice I've helped organize. The street is Zurich's Muenstergasse last Saturday afternoon; normally teeming with people, converted by the virus into a near post-apocalyptic scene. We will do a virtual version of Convo3, with folks from Europe to the United States to Australia participating. That part is ok. Working virtually across continents isn't a big deal--especially for those of us who have had the experience of working with Law Without Walls. What is a big deal, however, is the ongoing impact of the virus which has just in the last days shown a major impact on the global social systems and economy. And thus, I think, the likely thrust of our Convo3 will shift. Shift into a darker and more urgent direction: how does one mitigate disaster? Some good m...
Back in the Bottle?
When law school classes resumed this week after spring break, all of the 199 ABA accredited law schools were teaching their students online. There were surely hardships and hiccups, technical glitches, and perhaps some inept professors and students...but the screams of outrage have been muted. On the contrary: the feedback from blog posts, the twitter feeds and the like has had a tone of enthusiasm. At Miami Law, where I have a (virtual) front row seat, Dean Tony Varona has noted I have seen many silver linings over the last couple of weeks. Our community has come together in ways that make us very proud. Acts of kindness abound. Many of our colleagues are stretching themselves to do extraordinary work in support of the greater law school community. As just one example, the members of our IT team have been nothing short of heroic in their efforts. Our faculty colleagues have been putting into place innovative teaching approaches that leverage the advantages of distance learning and, ...
The Sound of One Hand Clapping? The Report of the ABA Commission on the Future of Legal Education is out! A press release, and the Report itself, are on the ABA website here: https://bit.ly/2QHJDJE. Two years of truly hard work lie behind the Report's (intentionally) short pages. I can attest to that, since I had the privilege of working with the Commission behind the scenes. The Commission found that legal education and licensing urgently need reform. The obstacles to attaining that are set forth with stark eloquence in the Report: And yet--the Report holds out hope, and lays out a road map for overcoming these hurdles. Has it landed at the wrong time, in the midst of the Corvid-19 crisis? Maybe, in the sense that it is difficult for it to compete for attention with genuine issues of life and death. But maybe not, because the existential crisis has -- literally overnight -- required changes of legal education and the licensing process that were unthinkable just one m...