The course, led by Professor , is built on the concept of the Brandeis Brief, a style of brief that incorporates social science research into legal arguments. 

In the course — which was limited to three students during this initial offering — students worked with local attorneys and Brandeis Law alumni Dan Canon (’07) and Joe Dunman (’12) to write an amicus brief submitted to the U.S. Supreme Court.

“The students were dedicated and willing to learn,” Marcosson says. “They put in a tremendous amount of work, and I’m very proud of them.

“It was exactly what I hoped for — and more.”

The brief was written on behalf of the National Association for Public Defense and the Kentucky Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers and petitions the U.S. Supreme Court to review a decision by the Kentucky Supreme Court. The brief argues that the Kentucky Supreme Court limited the ability of defense counsel to make its case in its opening statement, Marcosson says. 

The students researched the value of opening statements and the impact they have on juries while experiencing first-hand the rigors of writing a brief for the Supreme Court. 

“How often does a law student get an opportunity to submit a brief to the United States Supreme Court? Not only was this experience exciting, it compelled me to do my absolute best work,” says 3L Abby Braune, one of the students in the class. “So much of law school is theory; it was a nice change to take on a challenge that has a real-world impact.”

Marcosson credits Dean with advocating for this new course. 

“Without her, it never would have happened,” he says.

There’s stiff competition among UofL medical students to be selected for Kasdan’s “Suture Sunday” classes, which feature a breakfast, a discussion about the medical field and hands-on training in suturing and stitches.

“It really speaks to his generosity and dedication to teaching to do it for groups of students month after month every year, just out of his own desire to share” said UofL medical school student Jordan Jones. “That’s pretty incredible.”

Kasdan calls his “Suture Sunday” time with students a blessing.

“I just really enjoy it and I wouldn’t do it if I didn’t like it” he said.

Check out the video below from a recent Suture Sunday.

It’s not the typical class. Kevyn Merten is an assistant VP of Research and Innovation who is teaching the class which features 10 weeks of speakers discussing their jobs. Sessions include industry research, law/policy/regulatory, science communications and a resume workshop.

“Because of cuts in federal grant awards, the number of jobs in faculty research are pretty limited,” Merten said. “This class is designed to tell students about other options.”

According to Chris States, director of pharmacology and toxicology graduate education, the class offers students “a chance to do some networking while preparing them for non-academic jobs.”

Andrew Gibb is pursuing his PhD in physiology and is a student in Merten’s class. He hopes to find a job in academic medicine but says he’s glad he heard from speakers that “there are other opportunities out there.”

Julie Gosney expected to become an academic researcher but after hearing a medical writer from Humana talk about her profession, Gosney thinks she might pursue a similar career. “I’m surprised at what I learned” she said.

States says the classes have been a success and he’s planning to continue and expand them into other fields.

The shelving graphics, called endcaps, highlight call numbers for Bridwell’s collection, displayed over multilayered, fragmented images from within the library’s art books. Not only is the design of high quality, it showcases the talent of UofL graphic design sophomore Jenna White.

Bridwell Director Sarah Carter was first introduced to White in Fall 2015, when UofL Graphic Design faculty member and Power Creative designer-in-residence Leslie Friesen approached Carter with the idea of allowing Friesen’s graphic design class to use the library as a blank canvas of sorts, for environmental graphics within the space. Carter would be under no obligation to implement a design, but if one emerged, the library had the option to see the project to completion. The class gave students real-world experience, but also allowed them to explore the limits of their creativity without feeling too constrained by the client-artist relationship.

Eager to upgrade the library’s interior, and loathe to turn down an opportunity to work with student designers, Carter agreed.

“I was happy to offer our space as their laboratory,” said Carter. “I knew we really needed something to display the call numbers at the end of the stacks shelves, something functional but with aesthetic parameters. So I agreed.”

The students first met with Carter to hash out details and learn about the library’s collection, color palette, furniture, lighting and environment. They then immersed themselves in the library’s interior space for several weeks, poring over stacks of art books, taking notes and pictures and “learning about us,” said Carter.  After a design charrette where Carter offered a critique of students’ work, they refined their designs.

“It was really gratifying to see, as a client, how they listened and met my needs,” Carter said. “The trickiest part of the design was that the call numbers were variable, ranging from short to long, depending on how the books are catalogued, so the design had to be flexible for future updates and additions to the collection. Many of the students had innovative ideas, but they were not flexible or modifiable.”

Carter said the chosen design “accomplished the functional goals we had, enhanced wayfinding, but was aesthetically pleasing and visually exciting  ̶  and most of all, it was flexible.”

“I felt so honored to have my design selected,” said White, a UPS-sponsored sophomore and graphic design intern with the Alumni Association. “It was just a class project; we had no idea it would be implemented, but when it was, it was such a great opportunity.”

Finding the balance between aesthetically appealing graphic design and practicality was the main challenge, she said. “I was good at coming up with the creative side of things, but I had to work with Sarah quite a bit to make sure it fulfilled all the needs she had, like wayfinding. That was all new to me and more of a challenge.”

Carter says the process of working with a designer as a client helped her understand the patrons she serves much better. “It was really important to me, because I need to learn what they need so I can help them do their research,” she said. “I really wanted to invigorate the space and the endcaps really have done that. They help visitors conceptualize what we have on the shelves, and who we are.”

White entered UofL as an art major and was involved in studio art, eager to grow as a painter. “But after I took my first graphic design course, I thought, ‘this is it.’ I just felt pure enjoyment and I was so successful, and then all these opportunities came my way.”

Carter was so impressed with White that she hired her as a student assistant for the library after the project was completed. White is also a graphic design intern with the Alumni Association. Beyond those two commitments and her full class load, White works the night shift at UPS from 6 p.m. to 8 a.m. three days a week.

Even though she stays busy, she has welcomed new requests for design work. “I try to say yes as often as possible,” she said. “I love UofL. It’s a wonderful place. I feel like I’m leaving a mark.”

From that moment on, Abrams’ students are immersed in a semester-long simulation of divorce proceedings.

“It’s messy. It’s emotional. We’re unsure what we’re going to do about it — but that’s how an actual client intake would go,” Abrams says.

Thanks to a Wyatt Faculty Development Award promoting innovation in teaching, Abrams was able to style her family law class as a “flipped classroom” three years ago. Unlike traditional law school classes, which emphasize readings and discussion, a flipped classroom focuses on hands-on skills building. The goal is to produce graduates who are practice-ready and is in line with the American Bar Association’s requirement of six hours of experiential learning.

The class is divided into two sections, each representing a spouse in the case. They discuss seven different issues throughout the semester, including child custody and child support.

Collaboration and analysis are major parts of the course, and those skills take time to build. Abrams has found she must strip the course down to the essentials of family lawyering.

“I do more with less content,” she says. “But they move to a higher level of mastery of those concepts.”

And Abrams has had to reframe the classroom experience in other ways — it’s very hard for students to multitask in this class, and it’s difficult to make up for missed sessions. But because the lessons are so intensive, students can view them as study sessions as well as lessons.

The flipped classroom has gotten positive feedback from students, who report feeling more prepared to take the bar exam because of their hands-on experience.

Students get feedback on the performance three times a semester, giving them opportunities to grow throughout the class. In the final exam, they must cover the seven topics for a new client using the skills they’ve built in the previous months.

And the final exam results?

“Stellar,” Abrams says. “They’re not spewing out abstract concepts — they’re lawyering.”

Without the flipped classroom, it’s entirely possible that family law students could leave law school having exclusively read appellate opinions with no idea of the human elements at play in a case.

“Students might know what the law says, but not what the client wants,” Abrams says. “It gives them a chance to see what family law is like on a daily basis.”

This article originally ran in the July 2016 issue of Bar Briefs.

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