The theme for this year’s conference is…

AGENTS OF INNOVATION

Great ideas, new technology, and innovative teaching methods are all part and parcel of the 30th Annual CALI Conference for Law School Computing, but nothing is easy and making it work in our home institutions is up to us.  We must be our own Agents of Innovation. “Agency” is a particularly appropriate word.  We must give agency to our students so that they can construct their own educational journeys, we must give agency to our faculty through tools, websites, content, and support so they can teach at the top of their talent and we must be agents of change in legal education to build a better justice system.  CALIcon is the community of legal education agents – staff, faculty and law librarians – sharing experiences, discussing projects, demoing tech.  Come join us.

For 30 years, CALIcon has organized its schedule at nearly the last minute in order to bring the most relevant and up-to-date presentations to attendees. This year is no different and we are looking for law school faculty, librarians, and technologists with strong opinions, great ideas, interesting projects, and useful advice. Come and share and be challenged. If you are willing and able to speak, your conference registration fee is just $95!

All sessions are 1 hour long with 30 minute breaks between sessions. Almost everything will be recorded and posted online.

To propose a session, just visit http://2020.calicon.org/propose-a-session/ , log in (remember to create an account), and fill out the form. Sessions need to be submitted by Friday March 6, 2020. All sessions need to be submitted through the #CALIcon2020 website.

We are going to use community voting to help with selecting sessions this year. Your votes let us know which sessions you would like to see on the conference agenda. Starting on Friday March 6, 2020 voting will be opened and will remain open until Friday March 20, 2020. The number of votes for a session will be taken into consideration as part of the session acceptance process and to help with scheduling. To vote you will just need to visit the conference website and vote for the sessions you would like to see on the agenda. You do not need to be registered for the conference to vote.

We will notify speakers via email by March 27, 2020 if their session is accepted. The listing of accepted sessions will be posted on the conference website on March 27, 2020.

Conference hotel and registration information is available at http://2020.calicon.org/ now

CONFERENCE FEES

• $295 for attendees from CALI member law schools
• $695 for attendees from non-CALI member institutions
• $95 for speakers from CALI member schools
• $495 for speakers from non-CALI member schools
• $Free for CALI Authors and CEB members

CONTACT

• 2020 Conference hashtag is #CALIcon2020
• Follow CALI on Twitter at www.twitter.com/CALIorg
• Subscribe to the CALI Blog at spotlight.cali.org for updates.
• Questions, problems, ideas, suggestions, contact Elmer Masters – emasters@cali.org.

The Center for Computer-Assisted Legal Instruction (CALI) announces the appointment of three new board directors in addition to the slate of directors re-elected. All CALI Board members are unpaid volunteers for a three-year term effective January 1, 2020. 

"We are very excited to have this incredible group of individuals joining CALI's Board of Directors. They bring with them a diverse experience that will enhance our mission and help CALI strengthen our position in the legal education/technology industry," said Kristina Niedringhaus, President, CALI Board of Directors.

Rory Bahadur (Professor of Law) Washburn University School of Law, Browne Lewis (Professor of Law) Cleveland State University Cleveland-Marshall School of Law, and Corinne St. Claire (Assistant Director of Instructional Design & Technology) Loyola Law School - Los Angeles are the three newly elected directors.

Departing the CALI board is Scott Burnham (Professor of Law) Gonzaga University School of Law, Michael Robak (Director of the Schoenecker Law Library, Associate Dean and Clinical Professor of Law) University of St. Thomas (MN) School of Law, and Jame Smith (John Byrd Martin Chair of Law Emeritus) University of Georgia School of Law. "It has been a real pleasure working with these amazing individuals.  Thanks to their dedication and leadership, CALI has accomplished several projects to help how law faculty teach and law students learn," said John Mayer, Executive Director, CALI.

A listing of the new Board and Committee members can be found on our website at https://www.cali.org/content/cali-board-directors. 

This lesson explores one of the fundamental lawyering skills, which is to think like a lawyer or analyze. Students will go through basic analysis exercises, so they can master this technique prior to writing exams.

This lesson will cover the basic structure of written legal analysis: IRAC. IRAC stands for Issue, Rule, Application/Analysis, Conclusion. There are slightly different versions of IRAC which may be used for different legal documents. This lesson will focus on IRAC for essay exam writing. Some faculty may prefer CRAC, or CIRAC, where the conclusion is placed first. You may also learn CRREAC for writing legal memos and briefs, which stands for Conclusion, Rule, Rule Explanation, Application, Conclusion. Make sure you know your professor’s structural preferences regarding exams and other assignments. Whether you have the conclusion upfront or not, all of the legal analysis follows the same basic IRAC framework. It takes some getting used to, but once you understand how to properly work with the IRAC structure, you will be able to analyze any legal question.