Roy Stuckey's Advice for Erwin Chemerinsky: Put Students First

Continuing our series of responses from various legal luminaries to the question:  What is the single best idea for reforming legal education you would offer to Erwin Chemerinsky as he builds the law school at UC-Irvine?

Roy T. Stuckey (Webster Professor of Clinical Legal Education, University of South Carolina School of Law; Principal Author, Best Practices for Legal Education (2007)):

I have a radical suggestion for Dean Chemerinsky. Put students first. Involve them in meaningful ways in making curricular and other important decisions at the law school. Create and maintain effective and healthy teaching and learning environments. Encourage and reward members of your faculty who use best practices for delivering instruction and assessing student learning and who spend time with students outside of class. Expect students to behave professionally from their first day in law school, and expect faculty and staff to model professional behavior. If you put students first, the law school will be a better place immediately and the legal profession will be a better place eventually.

For all the posts in the series, see here.