Professors Mable Martin-Scott & Kimberly OLeary Reflect on the Lessons They’ve Learned from Teaching Multicultural Lawyering

Professors Mable Martin-Scott and Kimberly OLeary have taught the course, Multicultural Lawyering, at Cooley Law since 2020, helping students navigate issues of culture in their own professional lives, the legal system, and when assisting clients. They have recently reflected on the lessons they have learned from their students in two forums.

In a recently published law review essay, When the Students Teach the Professors: Lessons Learned from Teaching an Elective Seminar in Multicultural Lawyering, 73 Washington Journal of Law & Policy 163 (2024), Martin-Scott & O'Leary discuss the enriching experience of teaching the course to Cooley students. Designed as an online, upper-level seminar, diverse groups of Cooley students have willingly engaged in complex and difficult, yet respectful, conversations. The professors especially enjoy teaching the course to Cooley students, because they come from such diverse backgrounds. The professors describe seven lessons they have learned from their students. The lessons they have learned include:

• Lesson No. 1: Our students want more opportunities to talk to each other meaningfully and more exposure to successful lawyers who look like them.
• Lesson No. 2: You do not have to convince our students the world is interconnected—they already live in many different worlds.
• Lesson No. 3: If we give our students a reason to trust us and each other, they will open up, even about difficult topics.
• Lesson No. 4: Students have no trouble engaging in respectful conversation if they feel respected.
• Lesson No. 5: Our students can show us a lot more about how cultural context affects people’s experiences of the law, if you ask them to.
• Lesson No. 6: There are some other topics our students want to talk about that are not in the book.
• Lesson No. 7: Our students want to know: Why isn’t everyone taking this course? Why aren’t all our teachers discussing these issues?

Of course, not every student experiences the course as their favorite class, but a remarkably high percentage of them say that they do. Professors Martin-Scott & OLeary have learned a lot about their own cultural experiences by teaching the course. 

You can learn more about these lessons by reading the article when it comes out this year, or by listening to a two-part podcast with Krystal Norton of Carolina Academic Press. Listen to Part 1 of the podcast.

The second part of the podcast will be published on April 2, 2024.

Cooley Law School Distinguished Professor Emeritus Kimberly E. O'Leary is now retired from full-time law teaching. She checks her e-mail, but may not be able to respond immediately. If you need a quicker response, please contact Cindy Hurst at hurstc@cooley.edu or (517) 371-5140, ext. 2618. You can visit her personal webpage at www.rocinanteroad.com