Elon Law Professor Steve Friedland, who was featured as one of the nation’s 26 best law teachers in a recent book, shares insights about effective teaching in the December 4 edition of North Carolina Lawyers Weekly.
North Carolina Lawyers Weekly notes that Friedland was one of 26 law professors featured in the book, “What the Best Law Teachers Do,” published by Harvard University Press in 2013. In his interview with North Carolina Lawyers Weekly, Friedland deflects focus on his personal recognition and highlights the broad strength of innovative teaching at Elon Law.
“I think the main currency often is scholarship but I think many, many people take [teaching] seriously and I think at Elon there are a bunch of teachers who could have been in this book instead of me,” Friedland says.
The article notes that Friedland learns the names of every student in his classes before the first day of class. It also features Friedland’s insights about integrating experiential learning into legal education.
“If I’m teaching evidence, I can have [students] stand up and do an examination and have them object and learn the evidentiary rules in that context instead of just going over what the rules are,” Freidland says. “Students learn differently, so I’m not going to just do these experiential techniques. But my goal is to mix it up and reach the different kinds of learners.”
Friedland also comments on the importance of developing practical skills in law students.
“What we really need to do is teach students good habits and how they should behave in situations so it’s really about solutions, it’s really about problem solving and how they can get good outcomes,” Friedland says. “So our job is to take the students to the litigation arena or the transactional arena and say ‘OK, here’s how you would operate.’”
More information about Elon Law Professor Steve Friedland is available here.