We are weeks into the start of another semester and we can already see the pain in the eyes of 1Ls. Asking, is this all the law is? Dissecting a series of holdings as if they are separate and distinct from the people impacted? How? Why? And what are we going to do about it?
Legal Education Needs to Change.
Of course, we are hardly the only or the first people to advocate for change. And while the Delta Model may provide the framework to guide that change, we aren’t interested in just waiting for it to happen. We are also interested in providing support to our students facing the daunting realization that law school is not what they thought it would be. Supporting them to know that lawyering is so much more than issue spotting.
And so we created a workshop to introduce the Delta Model and the Design Your Delta method to law students, recent graduates, lawyers, and other legal professionals and asked for their feedback. We believe the holistic nature of the Delta Model, and the focus on self-reflection and self-awareness of the Design Your Delta method will remind individuals of this: that in the face of hazing rituals and misguided pedagogical practices, the law is so much more.
Enter McKenna. McKenna graduated from law school a few years ago and felt dismissed by the narrowness of career choices presented to her. McKenna was unfamiliar with the Delta Model and when we first introduced it to her, she said it helped her feel like she “belonged” to the legal field. Without the Delta Model, she says she felt like “I am either a traditional lawyer or I need not be in this field.”
She said:
The Delta model … shows that there's more layers to the legal field than just the writing, and the issue spotting, and all of the exams. I think that not only would that help everyone in the legal field mentally to kind of take a deep breath and realize that they're more than whatever they just wrote, or whatever test they just submitted, that they still have value outside of that to bring.
Hear what else Mckenna has to say by watching the video below.
September 24, 2021