A Next-Generation Framework: Using Critical Legal Research Pedagogy to Prepare Law Students for the NextGen Bar Exam

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Notes

1 Implementing the Next Generation of the Bar Exam, 2022–2026, Nat’l Conf. of Bar Exam’rs, https://nextgenbarexam.ncbex.org/about/implementation-timeline/ (last visited Apr 25, 2023); see also Karen Sloan, Old Bar Exam or New One? States Will Have a Choice in 2026, Reuters (January 19, 2023, 4:26 pm), https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/old-bar-exam-or-new-one-states-will-have-choice-2026-2023-01-19/ (last visited Apr. 25, 2023) (reporting that for a limited time states will have the choice of whether to administer the current format of the bar exam or the NextGen Bar Exam, after which all states will be required to administer the NextGen Bar Exam).

2 About the NextGen Bar Exam, Nat’l Conf. of Bar Exam’rs, https://nextgenbarexam.ncbex.org/ (last visited Oct. 11, 2022).

3 Nicholas F. Stump, Following New Lights: Critical Legal Research Strategies as a Spark for Law Reform in Appalachia, 23 Am. U. J. Gender Soc. Pol’y & L. 573, 575 (2015).

4 Nicholas Mignanelli, Critical Legal Research: Who Needs It? 112 Law Libr. J. 327, 327–28 (2020).

5 Yasmin Sokkar Harker, Critical Information Literacy: Legal Information as a Social Construct, in Information Literacy and Social Justice: Radical Professional Praxis 205, 209 (Shana Higgins & Lua Gregory, eds, 2013).

6 Julie Krishnaswami, Critical Information Theory: A New Foundation for Teaching Regulatory Research, in The Boulder Statements on Legal Research Education: The Intersection of Intellectual and Practical Skills 175 (Susan Nevelow Mart, ed, 2014).

7 Final Report of the Testing Task Force, Nat’l Conf. of Bar Exam’rs (2021), https://nextgenbarexam.ncbex.org/wp-content/uploads/TTF-Final-Report-April-2021.pdf.

8 Implementing supra note 1.

9 About the NextGen supra note 2.

10 Final Report supra note 7.

11 Id. at 2.

12 Id.

13 Id.

14 Id.

15 Id.

16 See Final Report of the Testing Task Force, Nat’l Conf. of Bar Exam’rs (2021), https://nextgenbarexam.ncbex.org/wp-content/uploads/TTF-Final-Report-April-2021.pdf. The foundational concepts and principles recommended to be tested are: civil procedure, contract law, evidence, torts, business associations, constitutional law, criminal law, and real property.

17 Id. The foundational skills recommended to be tested are legal research, legal writing, issue spotting and analysis, investigation and evaluation, client counseling and advising, negotiation and dispute resolution, and client relationship and management.

18 Id.

19 Id at 16.

20 See Content Scope Outlines for Public Comment, Nat’l Conf. of Bar Exam’rs (2022), https://nextgenbarexam.ncbex.org/wp-content/uploads/NextGen-Content-Scope-Outlines-Report.pdf.

21 Id. at 5.

22 Id.

23 Jon Lee and Beth Donahue, Webcast on Content of the NextGen Bar Exam, Nat’l Conf. of Bar Exam’rs (2022), https://nextgenbarexam.ncbex.org/wp-content/uploads/NCBE-NextGen-Webcast-093022.pdf.

24 Stump supra note 3 at 600.

25 Id. at 574.

26 See Nicholas Mignanelli, Legal Research and Its Discontents: A Bibliographic Essay on Critical Approaches to Legal Research, 113 Law Libr. J. 101, 102.

27 See Virginia Wise, Of Lizards, Intersubjective Zap, and Trashing: Critical Legal Studies and the Librarian, 8 Legal Reference Services Q. 7 (1988). In this article, Wise details the challenges faced by law librarians supporting scholars of CLS and proffers methods for assisting with the new field, including reading and developing better bibliographies, familiarizing themselves with non-legal sources used by CLS scholars, and opening themselves up to being part of a nontraditional legal movement.

28 See Richard Delgado & Jean Stefancic, Why Do We Tell the Same Stories: Law Reform, Critical Librarianship, and the Triple Helix Dilemma, 42 Stan. L. Rev. 208 (1989). In this article, the authors explicate the role commercially prepared indexes and research systems contribute to the sameness in legal research.

29 Mignanelli supra note 26 at 102.

30 Id.

31 Id.

32 Nicholas F. Stump, "Non-Reformist Reforms” in Radical Social Change: A Critical Legal Research Exploration, 101 B.U. L. Rev. Online 6, 8 (2021).

33 Id.

34 Id.

35 Id. at 9.

36 Id.

37 Id. at 10.

38 Id.

39 Id. at 11.

40 Id.

41 See Mignanelli supra note 4 at 327.

42 See id. at 336–39.

43 Id. at 341.

44 Id. at 342.

45 Id. at 343.

46 See Richard Delgado & Jean Stefancic, Why Do We Ask the Same Questions—The Triple Helix Dilemma Revisited, 99 Law Libr. J. 307, 328 (2007).

47 Id.

48 Mignanelli supra note 4, at 343.

49 Katrina June Lee, Susan Azyndar, & Ingrid A. B. Mattson, A New Era: Integrating Today’s Next Gen Research Tools Ravel and Casetext in the Law School Classroom, 41 Rutgers Computer & Tech. L.J. 31, 42 (2015).

50 Mignanelli supra note 4, at 207.

51 Id. at 209.

52 Krishnaswami, supra note 6, at 175.

53 Latia Ward, A Librarian’s Experience Teaching Critical Information Literacy 41 Legal Reference Services Q. 52, 53 (2022).

54 Id at 54.

55 Andrea Baer, Critical Information Literacy in the College Classroom: Exploring Scholarly Knowledge Production through the Digital Humanities, in Information Literacy and Social Justice: Radical Professional Praxis 99, 102 (Shana Higgins & Lua Gregory eds, 2013).

56 Id.

57 Sokkar Harker supra note 5, at 209.

58 Yasmin Sokkar Harker, Legal Information for Social Justice: The New ACRL Framework and Critical Information Literacy, 2 Legal Info. Rev. 19 at 22 (2016–2017).

59 See Ward supra note 53, at 54.

60 Sokkar Harker supra note 5, at 209.

61 Id. at 210.

62 See id.

63 Id. at 212.

64 Id. at 214.

65 Ward supra note 53, at 65.

66 Krishnaswami, supra note 6, at 178.

67 Ward supra note 53, at 65.

68 See Sokkar Harker, supra note 58, at 47.

69 Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education, Ass’n Coll. & Rsch Librs. 1 (2016), https://www.ala.org/acrl/sites/ala.org.acrl/files/content/issues/infolit/framework1.pdf.

70 Id. at 7.

71 Id.

72 Id. at 8.

73 Ward, supra note 53, at 59.

74 See Sokkar Harker, supra note 58, at 26.

75 Id.

76 Id. at 40.

77 See id. at 35.

78 Framework, supra note 69, at 12.

79 Sokkar Harker, supra note 58, at 49.

80 Steven M. Barkan, Deconstructing Legal Research: A Law Librarian’s Commentary on Critical Legal Studies, 79 LAW. LIBR. J. 617, 624 (1987).

81 Sokkar Harker, supra. note 58, at 49.

82 Id.

83 See id.

84 Id.

85 Id. at 50.

86 Id. at 51.

87 Ward, supra note 53, at 61.

88 See id. at 63–64.

89 Id. at 64.

90 See Sokkar Harker, supra note 58, at 53.

91 Framework, supra note 69, at 16.

92 Id.

93 Sokkar Harker supra note 58, at 54.

94 Framework, supra note 69, at 16.

95 Id.

96 Id.

97 Sokkar Harker supra note 58, at 54.

98 See Sokkar Harker, supra. note 58, at 55 (discussing White v. West Pub. Corp., 29 F. 3d 396 (S.D.N.Y. 2013)).

99 Id. at 57.

100 Id. at 47.

101 Krishnaswami supra note 6, at 178.

102 Sokkar Harker supra. note 58, at 22.

103 Mignanelli supra note 4, at 343.

104 Final Report supra note 7.

105 See generally Stump supra note 3, Mignanelli supra note 4, Delgado & Stefancic supra note 28.

106 See Barkan, supra note 80, at 626 (citing Girardo A. Spann, Deconstructing the Legislative Veto, 68 Minn. L. Rev. 473, 529 (1984)).

107 Id. at 628.

108 Content Scope Outlines, supra note 20, at 5.

109 Sokkar Harker, supra note 5, at 209.

110 Framework, supra note 69, at 16.

111 Id. at 12. See also Sokkar Harker, supra note 58, at 48 (explaining the notion of “informed skepticism” as the “awareness of the system that privileges authorities over each other and allows for open-mindedness when confronted with divergent or changing voices of authority.”).

112 Content Scope Outlines, supra note 20, at 5.

113 Framework, supra note 69, at 12.

114 Sokkar Harker, supra note 58, at 49.

115 Ward, supra note 53, at 65.

116 Content Scope Outlines, supra note 20, at 5.

117 Sokkar Harker, supra note 5, at 212.

118 Id. at 213.

119 Mignanelli supra note 4, at 338.

120 Id. at 342–43. Mignanelli suggests law librarians further this cause by creating bibliographies that approach a specific legal issue and “juxtapose a wide range of cases, statutes, regulations, and legislative history materials.”

121 Stump, supra note 3, at 620.

122 Delgado & Stefancic supra note 46, at 328.

123 See e.g., Content Outlines, supra note 20, at 5. (The second research principle explicitly states students will be “[g]iven a collection of legal resources and excerpts from a client file.”).

124 Delgado & Stefancic supra note 46, at 328.

125 Stump, supra note 3, at 621.

126 Mignanelli, supra note 4, at 343.

127 Krishnaswami supra note 6, at 178.

128 This prompt was designed as an assignment in a social justice research course.

129 See Debra Kamin, Home Appraised with a Black Owner: $472,000. With a White Owner: $750,000., N.Y. Times (Aug. 18, 2022), https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/18/realestate/housing-discrimination-maryland.html; Tracy Jan, Home Values Soared During the Pandemic, Except for These Black Families, Wash. Post (Mar 23, 2022, 6:00 am), https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2022/03/23/home-appraisal-racial-bias/; Joe Johns et al, A Black Couple Had a White Friend Show Their Home and Its Appraisal Rose by Nearly Half a Million Dollars (Dec 19, 2021, 9:22 pm), https://www.cnn.com/2021/12/09/business/black-homeowners-appraisal-discrimination-lawsuit/index.html.

130 Complaint, Austin v. Miller, No. 3:21-CV-09319 (N.D. Cal. Dec. 2, 2021).

131 Statement of Int., Austin v. Miller, No. 21-CV-09319-MMC (N.D. Cal. Aug. 22, 2022).

132 Complaint, supra note 130.

133 Id. at 4.

134 Id. at 6.

135 Id. at 15.