In 2019, the University of New Mexico School of Law (“UNM”) inaugurated Lab, a new three-credit experiential course as part of the required first-semester curriculum. The course has many goals, but its over-arching purposes are to “enhanc[e] student readiness to practice,” to “create opportunities for ‘near transfer’ of clinic lawyering skills,” and to “address student concerns that they are prepared to work in the roles of lawyers, introduce students to the challenge of lawyering, and incorporate and inculcate students in lawyer professional roles early and often.” Lab has been successful in capitalizing on the opportunities experiential learning creates for teaching and learning these things; however, it has also confronted the challenges entailed in such a course—especially the challenges of such a course in the first semester.
From-Langdell-to-Lab_-The-Opportunities-and-Challenges-of-Experie-1From Langdell to Lab: The Opportunities and Challenges of Experiential Learning in the First Semester
