Resources:
  • STUDENTS
  • ALUMNI
  • FACULTY
  • STAFF
  • LIBRARY
Cooley Law School
MENU
  • ABOUT
      • Mission, Values, and Vision
      • Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
      • Home of the National Legal Mentoring Consortium
      • Commitment to Social Justice and Access
      • Leadership & Administration
      • Blog
      • Campus Locations
      • Title IX and Campus Safety
      • Media Requests
      • Consumer Information
      • Jobs
  • J.D.
      • J.D. Program
      • Prospective Students
      • Apply Now
      • Tuition & Financial Aid
      • Scholarships
      • FAQ
      • Contact Admissions
      • Campus Locations
      • Course Catalog
      • Schedule Options
      • Study Abroad
      • Our Student Body
      • Academic Calendar
      • U.S. Legal Studies for Foreign Attorneys
  • EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING
      • Social Justice Clinics
      • Community Service Clinics
      • Externships
      • Simulation Courses
      • Competitions
  • MAKE A GIFT
      • Giving Tuesday 2021
      • Annual Fund
      • DEI Champions
      • Merit Scholarship Fund
      • Planned Giving
      • Cooley Society Membership
      • Donor Honor Roll
  • LIBRARY

Search

Law School Changes May "Virtually" be the Future of Legal Education

During this age of the Coronavirus, numerous industries have been taking the necessary steps to adapt to the current realities, which has caused nearly everyone to do things differently within their working environments. And while many of these activities were already being done before the pandemic, years of change were packed into a very short amount of time. Yet these very changes may actually stick going forward, especially in the realm of legal education and the law.

Consider these:

  • 5 (Unforeseeable, Predicable, And Surprising) Legal Tech Trends In 2020 — from deweybstrategic.com by Jean O’Grady 
  • Meet the 27 startups pioneering the Justice Tech market — from medium.com by Felicity Conrad
  • Law Firms May Be at a “Tipping Point”: 2021 Report on the State of the Legal Market — from Georgetown Law and Thomson Reuters Institute
  • See the #LegalTech, #JusticeTech, and #A2J hashtags on Twitter
  • The Future of Justice: Is Court a Service or a Place? — from law.com by Mark Dubois as well as Online Courts and the Future of Justice — by Richard Susskind
  • Longtime Competitors Fastcase and Casemaker Merge, Reshaping the Legal Research Landscape — from lawsitesblog.com by Bob Ambrogi
  • AI For Lawyers: How Artificial Intelligence is Adding Value, Amplifying Expertise, and Transforming Careers — by Noah Waisberg and Alexander Hudek 

VIRTUAL SKILLS TRAINING

It would not be unusual for WMU-Cooley Law School to host a skills training competition for students, but this year the ABA Client Counseling Competition was entirely conducted online. There were many new and moving parts to this competition, including a suite of technologies that were coordinated, prepared, and delivered for the event. As Judge John (Jack) Gilbreath said, "This was very good practice for the students to do this kind of exercise and competition, all done virtually."

Room-9-snapshot-judges-teamA-3

During WMU-Cooley's virtual ABA Client Counseling Competition, law students got to experience what life as a lawyer is like. They learned how to think quickly on their feet, while balancing the need to get at the truths behind their potential clients' situations. They also learned how to tactfully communicate, support and empathize with potential clients — all online. 

Law students were also able to get immediate feedback on how they did from experienced judges, lawyers and professors. These mentors provided encouragement and direction, constructively offering up beneficial strategies and identifying some lost opportunities.

Not only did the competition give students essential lawyering skills, they learned best practices of doing business online, which is likely an essential ingredient to how the legal system will operate in the future, making those practice skills an imperative for students to learn while in law school.

For nearly 50 years, WMU-Cooley's legal education curriculum and program has prepared its students for the practice of law through experienced-based teaching of the law and lawyering skills. Using a modern legal education approach to teaching means being able to apply legal theory to situations law students may encounter as practicing attorneys. Today, and tomorrow, that includes knowing how adapt to a virtual business model.

Experience a Live Online Class

Tags: online learning
Back to Blog
  • Tweet

Related Articles

WMU-Cooley graduate Brandon Moultrie: Forging lasting memories and lifelong friendships

This blog was originally published on May 17, 2017 WMU-Cooley Law School graduate Brandon...
Read More

LeDura Watkins; One Year Later – Living Life Simply

On June 15, 2017, the WMU-Cooley Law School Innocence Project made history with the release of...
Read More

WMU-Cooley librarian creates podcast that traces history of american law

WMU-Cooley’s Head of Public Services at its Auburn Hills campus library, Tim Innes, recently...
Read More

Subscribe to Email Updates

Recent Posts

Posts by Topic

  • WMU-Cooley Faculty (122)
  • WMU-Cooley Alumni (118)
  • Legal Education (77)
  • WMU-Cooley Students (58)
  • Faculty Experts (53)
  • Tampa Bay Campus (25)
  • Diversity (21)
  • From Where I Stand (18)
  • Awards (13)
  • Military Students (11)
  • Study Abroad (11)
  • Innocence Project (10)
  • Plain language (9)
  • Multicultural Lawyering (7)
  • Weekend Program (6)
  • Lansing Campus (5)
  • Library Blog Series (5)
  • Cooley Law School History (4)
  • Legal Ethics (4)
  • Bar Exam Advice (3)
  • Equal Access to Justice (3)
  • Externships (3)
  • International Law Faculty Experts (3)
  • Resiliency (3)
  • Continuous Improvement (2)
  • Kimberly O'Leary (2)
  • Service & Integrity (2)
  • online learning (2)
  • Homeland & National Security Law Review (1)
  • LL.M. (1)
  • LSAT Prep (1)
  • WMU-Cooley Career Office (1)
  • WMU-Cooley Mission (1)
see all
Western Michigan University Cooley Law School

CONTACT
WMU-Cooley Law School
300 South Capitol Avenue
Lansing, Michigan 48933 
(517) 371-5140

Contact Us

Contact Admissions

Read Our Blog

Full Sitemap

Get Adobe Acrobat Reader

Consumer Information

In corde hominum est anima legis.

Western Michigan University Thomas M. Cooley Law School is an independent, private, non-profit educational institution affiliated with Western Michigan University. The affiliation between WMU and WMU-Cooley, which are legally and financially independent institutions, will end on or before November 5, 2023. As an independent institution, the Law School is solely responsible for its academic program. Accredited by the American Bar Association and the Higher Learning Commission. 

Read non-discrimination policy

If you encounter accessibility barriers while on our website, please notify our Accessibility Office using the Inaccessible Content Notification Form.

© 2023 Cooley Law School
Designed By InVerve Marketing