Back at the Coal Face: Selby on Returning to Practice from Academia

When Behan, Rose and Selby set up this blog we were all practitioners turned academics.  Taking practice into the Academy seemed like a good idea.  It is that, though funding problems for schools and their students, on line teaching and learning, and the ever present cry to 'do more with less', thwart the ambitions to adequately prepare today's students for tomorrow's practice.

Some 18 months ago Selby quit his tenured position and headed back to practice, about a quarter century after he'd left it.  Much has changed but the fundamentals of being persuasive, though brightened by the micro chip and touch screens, are as important and as overlooked as always.

The order of what follows reflects the significance of the issue to Selby's practice rebirthing.  Readers should impose their own order upon the material, reflecting upon their experiences.

ADVOCACY TEACHING IDEAS FROM THE NEW YORKER?

Judge Robert McGahey of Denver submitted the following guest post:

I've subscribed to The New Yorker for years and read it cover-to-cover when I get it. The articles that are directly about the law and the legal process are frequently insightful and thought-provoking, especially those by Jeffrey Toobin.  But every now and then there's an article that's not directly related to the law that has application to advocacy or advocacy teaching.  I'd like to call your attention to two such recent articles.

In the March 9, 2015 issue there's an article titled "Frame of Reference", written by the inimitable John McPhee, one of my favorite authors.  McPhee writes on a myriad of subjects and his economical but stylish writing is always a treat.  This article discuss the fact that different people understand – or don't understand -- what someone is talking  or writing about depending on the listener's  or reader's frame of reference.