Faculty Learning Circles

Reasons it is important for lawyers to have cross-cultural competency:

• "Law shapes social practices and social practices give rise to law" (Tully, p. 215).
  • In order to understand and interpret the law and explain the law to clients, lawyers should be aware of the cultural practices that led to creation of the law and how the law influences cultural practices.
• Lawyers often need to understand the cultural context of their clients and other parties in order to provide competent, diligent, and communicative legal services that conform to rules of professional responsibility.
  • "A competent lawyer should have the ability to interact respectfully and knowledgeably with prospective and current clients, as well as other lawyers and participants interacting with the legal system" (Taite and Boothe, p. 818).
  • Cultural differences can cause individuals to assign different meanings or relevance to information, which can lead to miscommunication between lawyers and clients.

• UC Berkeley
  • Beginning in August 2023, all Berkeley Law students are required to take at least one course on race and the law in order to graduate.
    • Students will need to take at least two units from a menu of classes that focus on how laws and legal institutions shape and are shaped by racism and other forms of systemic inequality. The faculty also committed to consistently offering enough courses so all students can meet the requirement.
• University of Buffalo
  • All clinic students are required to take an asynchronous online course on Antiracism, Cultural Humility, and Belonging
    • Starting the second week of classes, students begin a set of learning modules across all clinics. Together, they asynchronously read, watch, listen to, and interact with materials that inform, inspire, expand, and encourage them to evaluate their role as an antiracist, culturally humble, inclusive attorney in the modern era.  
• UC Davis
  • Requires implicit bias training for first-year students
  • Annually offers a social justice-minded community “book read” and a “Critical Perspectives” lecture series organized around the first-year curriculum presented by the Aoki Center for Critical Race and Nation Studies.  
• University of Memphis
  • Teaching Cultural Competence workshops included topics such as the development of learning objectives, institutional implications, how to incorporate topic lessons in legal writing, clinical, and doctrinal courses, understanding critical race theory, and creating flagship programs.
  • Memphis faculty received incentives if they opted to create implementation plans to address DEI topics in courses during the upcoming 2022-2023 academic year. 
• Seattle University
  • Faculty required to create racial justice learning modules for their classes
  • Anti-Racism & Beyond: Skills for Equitable Lawyering Clinic
  • Orientation- Richard Rothstein’s The Color of Law 
• University of Delaware 
  • Delaware Law Engages - a book or other medium is selected as required reading or watching for Orientation and the 1L curriculum.