About the Center
The Center for Professional Values and Practice (CPVP) focuses on the future of the legal profession and law-related services in the U.S. and abroad. Based on case studies, legal press coverage, and cutting-edge empirical research, students learn about the conditions of practice in a variety of traditional and non-traditional practice settings—from the court room to the board room to emerging virtual networks and legal process outsourcing firms. The goal of the Center is to provide students with a sophisticated understanding about the conditions of modern law practice and to equip students for successful careers in the next generation of practice organizations.
Center Activities
Future Ed: New Business Models for US and Global Legal Education – Last year, CPVP sponsored a year-long contest of ideas about the future of legal education. Co-hosted with the NYLS Institute for Information Law and Policy and the Harvard Law School Program on the Legal Profession, the goal of Future Ed was to produce concrete, feasible ideas for improving US legal education and to implement at least one aspect of each project within a calendar year. Future Ed began with a kickoff meeting at NYLS in April, 2010, in which participants identified various challenges facing US and global legal education and surveyed the field of existing innovations and ideas for reform. Participants then formed working groups to develop proposals for a second meeting, held at Harvard in October, 2010. This approach—a kind of decentralized think tank—resulted in thirty concrete proposals on a wide range of topics, including curricular innovation (such as capstone programs, problem solving courses, and models for experiential learning); leveraging technology (through distance learning, law practice simulation, and the involvement of students in legal software design); and rethinking the educational sequence (through accelerated BA-JD programs and executive education). Final proposals were presented at NYLS in April, 2011. To view the web casts and proposals, please visit the Future Ed website at www.nyls.edu/futureed. For press coverage, please click on the “Publications and News” tab to the left.
Law Without Walls – In Spring, 2011, NYLS participated in the inaugural semester of Law Without Walls, an international, mostly online seminar involving six law schools: Fordham Law School, Harvard Law School, University of Miami School of Law, NYLS, Peking Transnational School of Law, and University College London Faculty of Laws. Four CPVP affiliates were selected to participate in the project, which received significant academic and press attention. The seminar kicked off with a face-to-face meeting in London in January, 2011, and continued with virtual meetings throughout the semester. Student teams presented their final projects in Miami in April, 2011. This year, four additional schools will be participating: Stanford Law School, Indiana University Law School, University of Sydney, and University of St. Gallen (Switzerland). For more information about Law Without Walls and plans for the coming year, see www.lawwithoutwalls.org. For press coverage (including an online feature in Time Magazine), please click on the “Publications and News” tab to the left.
