AccessLex
Spring into first-rate professional development training with AccessLex!
Join us on Wednesday, May 17 for our Spring Sync Workshop ― a full day of all new informational sessions and in-depth panels designed specifically for law school administrators and pre-law advisors.
Sync with your colleagues during this free virtual event featuring a wide range of topics, including law student well-being, law school rankings, skills knowledge for the NextGen Bar, a Washington update, and more. And of course, we’re bringing back our popular “Together Time” for questions, quizzes, drawings, and some of your favorite friendly faces!
Agenda and Session Descriptions
Presenter: Nancy Conneely
Reauthorization of the Higher Education Act is long overdue and seems unlikely to happen in the near future. However, there will continue to be meaningful changes to higher education policy through smaller bills, regulations, executive action, and judicial rulings. During this session, learn how policy decisions by Congress, the Biden-Harris Administration, and the U.S. Supreme Court are impacting students, borrowers, and institutions.
Presenters: Tiffane Cochran, Paige Wilson
Several law schools declined to submit information to U.S. News & World Report for the 2024 “Best Law Schools” ranking list, citing concern with the methodological flaws of the rankings and misalignment between the rankings and law schools’ institutional values. In response, U.S. News changed the methodology for this year’s rankings but argued that law schools declining to participate are withholding information from prospective law students, limiting data transparency. This session will examine both perspectives with pre-law students in mind, describing how the boycott impacts their selection process and discussing tools pre-law advisors can use to help students navigate these effects.
Presenters: Rachel Baker, Jennifer Espinola, Abigail Gaunt
Orientation is an important part of the 1L experience and helps to set your students up for success in their first year of law school. But what about your 2Ls? Over the past few years, many law schools have begun developing re-orientation programs for their 2Ls (and sometimes for their 3Ls, too!) Join a panel of administrators as they discuss their institutions’ approach to re-orientation programs.
Presenters: Shailini George, David Jaffe, Janet Stearns
A recent Bloomberg Law survey found that 77% of respondents reported anxiety because of law school-related issues and 50% reported experiencing depression. That’s concerning. So, what can you do? Join a panel of administrators as they discuss how they’re tackling student wellness issues and walk away with programming ideas that you can put into place on your campus.
Presenters: Maya Russell, Teria Thornton
AccessLex has been busy creating tools and resources that aspiring law students need to make informed decisions as they begin their pre-law path. But we know that their support begins with you! Join us as we take you on a tour of a few of our free resources, and chat with a trusted pre-law advisor to learn how she leverages them in her work with aspiring law students. After this session, you’ll be ready to spring into action with AccessLex resources.
Presenters: Tiffane Cochran, Morgan Cutright, Leah Young
At AccessLex, our mission is to improve access, increase affordability, and enhance the value of legal education. Join us as we walkthrough some of the tools that serve our mission – the AccessLex Resource Collections (the ARC), Legal Education Data Deck, and Analytix by AccessLex®! We will share how you can make these tools work for you and provide a few Excel tips and tricks to help you get even more value from Analytix.
Presenter: Meghan Short
Available for Summer 2023, JDEdge is a fully online, 20-hour program that demystifies the law school learning process. With JDEdge, incoming students acquire critical skills such as reading and briefing cases, engaging in class, note-taking, effective post-class strategies, strategic studying, and so much more. The course also focuses on global skills such as critical reflection, the value of a growth mindset, and where to seek help in law school. Take this time to hear more about JDEdge, ask questions, and learn how your school and your students can take part in this new free offering from AccessLex.
Presenter: Kelsey Risman
Our goal is for graduating law school classes to reflect the diversity of the nation. This session will include a general discussion of pathway programming for pre-law students before taking a deep dive into promoting the success of historically underrepresented students in the law school application cycle. We will discuss specific barriers to law school admission for underrepresented students and best practices for pathway program design. Using data collected over the first three years of LexPreLaw — AccessLex Institute’s diversity pathway program for pre-law students — we will provide our interpretation of what “works” for applicants from underrepresented racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic backgrounds in pursuit of law school admission.
Presenters: Amy Meyers, Rachel Jay Smith
In addition to testing candidates’ knowledge of traditional areas of law, the NextGen bar exam will assess candidates’ skills in applying the law. The National Conference of Bar Examiners’ Content Scope Outline lists both the areas of law and the types of tasks that will be employed in assessing candidates’ knowledge and skills. But between these defined lists exist two areas of skills knowledge — namely Alternative Dispute Resolution and Legal Ethics. Join this session for a review of the dispute resolution concepts and legal ethics rules that candidates will need to know to successfully demonstrate their skills on the NextGen bar exam. Presenters will also share their practices for assessing students’ skills knowledge in these areas.
Presenters: Eboni Nelson, Mario Ernesto Lopez, Jason Scott, Aaron Taylor
With the Supreme Court poised to limit or prohibit the use of race-conscious affirmative action in higher education, colleges and universities must identify race-neutral approaches to ensure that their entering classes are diverse. Join our panelists for a discussion of ways in which law schools and pre-law advisors can help foster the enrollment of law students from underrepresented backgrounds, even when race and ethnicity can no longer be considered.