The University of Colorado Law School was well represented at the 112th Association of American Law Schools (AALS) Annual Meeting, themed Access to Justice. Professors Ming Chen, Peter Huang, and Susan Nevelow Mart served as moderators and panelists during the four-day conference, which took place Jan. 3-6, 2018, in San Diego, California, and brought together thousands of law faculty, deans, administrators, and scholars to connect on emerging legal issues and new perspectives on legal education.
Chen was a panelist at the session “The Never-Ending Assault on the Administrative State?”, which looked at recent efforts to reform the administrative state. Moderated by Linda D. Jellum of Mercer University School of Law, other panelists included Jack Michael Beermann of Boston University School of Law, Rebecca M. Bratspies of the City University of New York School of Law, Cary Coglianese of the University of Pennsylvania Law School, and Richard W. Parker of the University of Connecticut School of Law. Chen presented her recent research to inform a discussion about whether efforts to reform the administrative state are detrimental or beneficial for administrative law, and what an appropriate responses might be.
Huang moderated “Strengths-Based Access to Justice, Lawyering, and Legal Education,” where attendees heard from Anne Brafford, founding member of the consulting firm Aspire; Randall Kiser, principal analyst of DecisionSet; Nathalie D. Martin of the University of New Mexico School of Law; and Barry Schwartz of Swarthmore College. Panelists discussed ways to use insightful lawyering and positive legal education to improve access to justice. Participants gave teaching suggestions and techniques to allow for idea exchange supporting the development of strengths-based approaches to inclusive access to justice. Huang’s specialties include business law; law and emotions; law, happiness, and subjective well-being; and law and psychology.
Mart moderated “Effective Assessment: Measuring Your Law Library’s Impact,” featuring panelists Pauline M. Aranas of the University of Southern California Gould School of Law, Teresa Miguel-Stearns of Yale Law School, and Scott B. Pagel of The George Washington University Law School. Panelists deliberated over the implementation and interpretation of American Bar Association (ABA) standard 601 (a)(3). Mart, who directs the William A. Wise Law Library at Colorado Law, serves as chair of the American Association of Law Libraries Government Relationship and chair of the Association's Academic Law Libraries Task Force on Identifying Skills & Knowledge for Legal Practice.
The AALS is a national association of 179 law schools and more than 9,000 law faculty. For more information, visit www.aals.org.