February | 2014 | The Australian Dispute Resolution Research Network

Many of us advocate the inclusion of ADR as a mandatory course in the legal curriculum both in Australia and internationally.

The current crisis in the United States legal education context makes me reflect on the fact that as students ask more of legal educators and their programs it is more important than ever that theory/skills course such as ADR are included in the curriculum.

ADR can prepare students for legal practice but also for careers that are not in the law but in associated areas. ADR is a course that opens up possibilities.

For a discussion of the crisis in United States legal education see

The current crisis in American legal education

Self-Represented Litigants – a Canadian study, needed in Australia too

Professor Julie Macfarlane from Windsor University in Canada is running a very interesting project on self-represented litigants. Her blog post yesterday (2 February) brings to my attention a phenomenon I had simply never considered before – the ’roundabout’ nature of many clients engaging with legal advisors – they come and go when (if) they have funds available to pursue their case, and at other times may be self-represented. The phenomenon of course is very wide spread – Macfarlane found that 53% of self-represented litigants commenced their actions with a lawyer. It would be very worthwhile undertaking similar research in Australia – I suspect the percentage might be even higher here.