Academic planning town hall highlights 1Ls, AI, and other law schools
On October 26, the Faculty of Law invited law students to an academic planning town hall, where they could provide feedback related to the Faculty’s Academic Plan. Dean Jutta Brunnée facilitated and was largely responsible for answering student questions, with some assistance from Associate Dean Christopher Essert and Assistant Dean Sara Faherty. The meeting was well-attended, especially by 1Ls, and fostered discussion of many important issues relating to the Faculty’s academic future.
At the outset of the meeting, Dean Brunée introduced the three main components of the Faculty’s Academic Plan: legal education, research and scholarship, and impact. She also outlined the Faculty’s priorities in executing its Plan, which includes retaining top faculty, attracting and supporting excellent students, and providing transformative classroom experiences along with cutting-edge clinical and experiential education.
Dean Brunée appeared particularly proud of the Faculty’s commitment to making legal education more accessible through a robust financial aid program, noting that this support is now one of the top five reasons stated by the incoming JD class for choosing U of T Law. This data point coincides with the Dean’s statement that the Faculty’s main goal over the next five years is to continue to attract and support quality students. After introducing the Academic Plan and the Faculty perspective, Dean Brunée opened the floor for student questions and concerns, of which there was certainly no shortage.
A significant amount of the meeting’s discussion centered around 1L academic issues, such as small group allocation, inconsistencies between professors’ teaching styles, and the potential need for more programming teaching incoming students how to do law school. Attending 1L and upper-year students also voiced anxieties about the rise of artificial intelligence and whether their legal education will adequately prepare them to utilize these new technologies. Dean Brunée appeared to be receptive to all of these points and expressed confidence that the Faculty’s contextual academic approach ensures graduates will be “just fine in the AI world.”
There was also discussion about the Faculty’s academics in comparison to those of other Canadian law schools. For example, one 3L brought up the integrated practice curriculum (IPC) at Toronto Metropolitan University’s Lincoln Alexander School of Law. This program enables graduates to become licensed without articling, as hands-on experiences and assignments are integrated throughout the school’s three-year curriculum. The student suggested that other schools having an IPC may reduce U of T Law’s competitiveness, and asked whether the Faculty has considered it as an option. Dean Brunée responded in the negative but noted that this is an area to think about.
About how the school could better support 1Ls academically, an upper-year transfer student referenced the University of British Columbia’s Peter A. Allard School of Law (Allard), where first semester grades in 1L are less of a be-all-end-all than at U of T. At Allard, four 1L courses are full-year; for those classes, students take December practice exams and April final exams. If a student’s mark on the practice exam is less than their mark on the final exam, it does not count; if it is higher, their final mark will be comprised of 25% of the December exam mark and 75% of the April exam mark.
Other topics students highlighted included the potential utility of teaching assistants, a lack of French integration, the Legal Process course being moved from 1L to 2L, and the slim pickings for upper-year courses. Overall, the meeting was extremely generative for analyzing the future of the Faculty’s academics and involving students in the Plan development process. Dean Brunée expressed gratitude to everyone who provided feedback and was sure to emphasize that this event was not the end of the discussion—it was the first of a series of consultations that will engage with students, faculty, staff, and alumni.
