Course essentials

Course Ethos ☮️

In this course, we interact as colleagues engaging in a professional endeavor. We seek to create a realistic work environment that requires teamwork, collaboration, intentional feedback, empathy, and professional courtesy. We embrace #HumbleCuriosity: we live in the open-mindedness of not knowing enough about anything.

The following designer's mindsets guide our work together:

➡ Humble curiosity

➡ Empathy

➡ Embracing ambiguity

➡ Experimentation - learning from failure

➡ Radical collaboration aka creative collaboration

➡ Seek feedback to iterate

Learning Objectives 🎯

ONE: You will explore and learn how to creatively solve legal problems as well as complex and relevant legal services delivery problems.

TWO: You will learn and hone collaboration and communication skills, specifically the skill of delivering and receiving feedback — critical skills for lawyers.

THREE: You will become comfortable in experimenting with and using the kinds of technology serving the 21st-century law practice. You will integrate agile project management skills into your workflow.

FOUR: You will understand and be able to apply human-centered design and related tools to THINK with COGNITIVE EMPATHY and BE CURIOUS, and to creatively solve client's legal and service delivery challenges while simultaneously designing a personally rewarding legal career.

Technology 💻

Throughout the semester, we introduce additional technology tools relevant to your work in this course AND the practice of law, including mind-mapping applications, presentation applications, and workflow management tools. We use technologies including Slack (slack.com) for all class communication (in lieu of email/Brightspace) and tools like Trello (trello.com) to manage all collaborative projects. We use Google Drive for writing assignments.

Course content + structure 📄

Assignments 📚

Assignments. We will listen to podcasts, watch videos, and read various media in preparation for class sessions and the work we do together. All assigned content will be posted on the Class Schedule (via links) and/or in the course Slack team (where links and PDFs will be posted) and is accessible as open-source content (at no cost to you).

In-class activities. We do a lot of talking and interacting with each other in activities and design exercises, as a class and in small groups. Your active engagement and participation are part of the required coursework product.

Required writing. We will write, through individual discussion posts (in Slack) and blog posts (in the main LPS website), as well as writing projects related to the capstone project.

• Most weeks you will share a (brief) discussion entry in Slack based on a prompt inspired by that week’s class content. You also will respond to at least two entries shared by colleagues.

• You will create a long-form blog post over the course of the semester. Blog posts are accepted throughout the semester; you will sign up for a due date in the second class session. Blog posts are published on the course website, legalproblemsolving.org.

Presentations. We will explore other methods of communicating as part of the problem-solving process, through team presentations. Presentations may be delivered live in class or recorded for asynchronous viewing, depending on how the class schedule evolves.

Capstone Project + Team Collaboration. During the semester, we explore HCD tools through a series of in-class design exercises, which require collaboration. Throughout the course, you work in small teams on the capstone project around the challenge How might we design a civil justice system that enables everyone to get access to the information and effective assistance they need — when and where they need it — and in a format they can use?. This work product will encompass both your team collaboration as well as the final project delivered by your team. In other words, this course is as concerned with how you collaborate with others as it is with the project you design.

Class sessions: lectures, guest speakers, and small group discussion 📣

As part of the Program on Law and Innovation (PoLI) curriculum, this course is unique in its structure and execution. We aim to approach our work together as colleagues and “in-class” time will be as interactive as possible. Most class sessions will be divided into two segments: in the first half, we'll explore ideas related to the course themes and learning objectives through presentations, conversations with guests, and class-wide and small-group discussions. In the second half of class, we'll engage design tools in a workshop format. In other words, you'll learn how to do human-centered design by doing human-centered design. In at least one class session, we'll go through an entire design sprint from start to finish.

Assessment 💯

There is no grading rubric for this course. In the first class session, we'll discuss grading in the context of a course designed to teach professional interaction, collaboration, and creative problem-solving.

Final assessments (e.g. your grade) will take into consideration the following: class attendance, engagement and participation in class, your ability to synthesize and share via writing and class projects what you learn through assignments and class activities, and your overall contribution to team projects including the capstone design project presentation and embodiment of your team’s project design. Grades are not curved.

You will engage in self-retrospectives over the course of the semester, and group members will share feedback on each other's contributions to collaborative design challenges. Your engagement in these opportunities factor into overall course assessment, as well.

Attendance ✅

This is an experiential credit course. Attendance and participation in class and team work time are critical to the work in this course and will factor into your grade.

Absences: If you know you're going to miss a regular class for any reason, please contact me in advance via direct message in Slack. I respect your privacy and autonomy and request only that you alert me if you will be absent; you have no obligation to provide a reason. I ask for advance notice primarily because we often do group work in class and advance notice assists me in making any necessary adjustments. If you're going miss any teamwork scheduled outside of class time, please communicate in advance with your team as a matter of professional courtesy.

I'll work with you to complete any work missed during class sessions to the extent possible. Because most sessions are interactive, simply watching a recording of the session can't replicate the experience. With this said, I intend to record class sessions via Zoom as appropriate and will make any recordings available to anyone who misses a session. Essentially, I'm taking the perspective shared by my colleague, fellow law prof Cassie Christopher in this Twitter thread.

Learning in the time of COVID 😷

We may be in-person, AND the pandemic continues to impact our "normal" routines in class. We will observe safe distancing, masking, and other necessary and appropriate personal choices to maintain a safe classroom for everyone. If you have any concerns about safety in class, please let me know or contact the Office of Student Affairs if you wish to remain anonymous.

My primary concern is for your safety because you must be physically and mentally safe in order to learn effectively.

And, as we continue to face pandemic-related challenges, we will commit to treating each other with kindness, compassion, and grace throughout the course of our work together.