In This Episode...
Professor Michael Hunter Schwartz, Dean of McGeorge School of Law shares his ideas on promoting equity in the classroom. He explains initiatives that the administration and professors can take to make students feel comfortable in their learning experience—which translates into a better learning environment. Dean Schwartz offers specific advice to law students who don't feel seen. It is an important episode for law students, professors, administrators and lawyers.
About Our Guest...
Dean Michael Hunter Schwartz is the 10th Dean of the University of Pacific’s McGeorge School of Law. He started July 1, 2017.
Dean Schwartz is the author of seven books (three of which come with lengthy teacher’s manuals), seven law review papers, three book chapters, and eight shorter works addressing a wide variety of teaching, learning and curriculum design topics. Schwartz's books include What the Best Law Teachers Do (Harvard University Press 2013) and a contracts textbook, Contracts: A Context and Practice Casebook (3d ed. 2020), which was the first book in a textbook series he designed to modernize law school casebooks (which he now edits).
Dean Schwartz is a national leader in law school teaching and learning. Dean Schwartz has delivered more than 230 professional presentations about teaching and learning in law school. Dean Schwartz is a Consultant to the Institute for Law Teaching and Learning, and he is a member of the board of advisors for a national legal publisher and two peer-reviewed law reviews. In January 2024, National Jurist Magazine named Dean Schwartz the 9th Most Influential Person in Legal Education. He was also ranked on the list in 2014, 2015, and 2016. The Institute for the Advancement of the American Legal System selected Dean Schwartz's Contracts course as “an innovative course that reflects exemplary, innovative teaching.” In 2019, Schwartz was one of 30 CLEO Edge Award Honorees in the Education category, underscoring his transformative contributions to the field.
Dean Schwartz invites you to follow his blog on innovation in legal education, What Great Law Schools Do.