Guest Lecture
This week, I was invited to participate in a class on Investigation at the DePaul Legal Clinic at DePaul University College of Law. John Conroy, Senior Lecturer and Director of Investigations at the Clinic, asked me to develop curriculum materials and speak to his class.
What a great experience this was for me, and, I certainly hope, for the students as well.
I tried to present several fact scenarios based upon actual cases that I have handled, allowing the students to split into groups, research the answers to the questions posed on their laptops, and then present their findings to the class. We tried to focus not just on what information they would need to find, and how they would find it, but also on the practical aspects of investigation, such as cost, time, verification, identification of witnesses, preservation of documents, and efficiency.
The students did a fantastic job of weighing all the realities and even surprised me with some of their very savvy observations and suggestions on how to get information and, even more interestingly, their evaluations of the value and provability of each of the "cases."
After this great experience, I am certain that our legal future is in very capable hands, as is the state of legal education.
Thanks to all who made this possible!