Professor Alicia Alvarez, Associate Dean for Experiential Education at the University of Illinois Chicago School of Law (UIC Law), and co-author Paul R. Tremblay of Boston College Law School have published a long-awaited update to their respected Introduction to Transactional Lawyering Practice (West Academic). The coursebook was the first of its kind to provide comprehensive reading materials that support a transactional clinical course’s seminar component.
The second edition of Introduction to Transactional Lawyering Practice represents a substantial revision of the original with new content of critical utility to clinical faculty and students. Chapter updates address issues related to interviewing, counseling, negotiation, and drafting skills; ethics and professionalism; remote and virtual interactions with clients and others; economic development and representation of community groups; and substantive law topics that students typically encounter in transactional clinics. The 2022 edition also includes a new chapter on employment issues.
The release of the updated edition is particularly timely, according to Dean Alvarez, given the central role lawyers play in confronting issues of economic and racial justice. “The pandemic has highlighted the need to support small business and the essential role of lawyers working in local communities. Providing opportunities to address issues of diversity and equity is particularly critical given that the American Bar Association will require law schools to provide training on ‘bias, cross-cultural competence and racism’ before, concurrent with or as part of a student’s enrollment in a clinic.”
First released in 2013, the pioneering publication of Introduction to Transactional Lawyering Practice responded to the emergence of transactional clinics and preceded widespread adoption of experiential learning requirements at U.S. law schools. Experiential legal education was formally recognized in 2015 with the adoption of ABA Standards 303 and 304 and the adoption of related requirements by various state bars. In the years since, the coursebook’s importance, and the pedagogical contribution of its co-authors, has gained prominence.
About Associate Dean Alicia Alvarez
Associate Dean Alicia Alvarez joined UIC Law in 2019 after serving as Director of the Community & Economic Development Clinic at the University of Michigan Law School, where she also taught in the Civil Criminal Litigation Clinic. Dean Alvarez was also previously a member of the faculty at DePaul University College of Law, where she co-founded and directed the Community Development Clinic, co-founded the Asylum & Immigration Clinic, and taught in the Civil Litigation Clinic. She is active in the clinical legal education community, and in legal education more generally, serving on the Council of the Section of Legal Education & Admissions to the Bar of the American Bar Association and having previously served on the Executive Committee of the Association of American Law Schools.
About Professor Paul Tremblay
Professor Paul R. Tremblay, a Clinical Professor and Dean’s Distinguished Scholar at Boston College Law School, teaches clinical courses at the BC Legal Services LAB within the Center for Experiential Learning. He directs Boston College Law School’s Community Enterprise Clinic and served as Associate Dean for Experiential Learning from 2012 until 2015. In 2020, he received the AALS Section on Clinical Education’s William Pincus Award and received CLEA’s 2004 Outstanding Advocate for Clinical Teachers Award.