Boston University School of Law is seeking a part-time Lecturer to teach in its Legal English Certificate Program during the fall semester of the 2022-23 academic year. Appointments are for a four-month- period, from September to December. Applicants for the position must possess a J.D. degree from an ABA-accredited law school and at least two years practice experience. In addition, experience working with foreign lawyers or ESL teaching experience is preferred.
The Lecturer in the Legal English Certificate Program (LECP) will teach Academic Skills for U.S. Law Studies, a one semester, three-credit, graded course to our international students, who will be continuing on to their LL.M studies the following year. Classes are conducted using traditional dialogue, lecture, and tutorial methods of instruction. The Lecturer is responsible for holding weekly student office hours and for grading and commenting on student work.
Lecturers must commit themselves to devote approximately fifteen to twenty hours each week, including monthly LECP faculty meetings, held once a month to fulfill their teaching responsibilities. The most time consuming and most important parts of the work will be developing written exercises and critiquing and grading student work. While the expenditure of time in the Program is compatible with the requirements of law practice, there are peak periods of commitment in the semester for which the lecturer must be prepared. Before applying, a practicing attorney should assess carefully whether he or she can make such a time-consuming commitment.
The basic curriculum is prescribed by the Faculty Director of the Program and will cover the study of strategies needed to succeed in an English-language law program in the United States. Students will work on strategies that will help them to participate fully in academic life at the law school, including, but not limited to understanding the concepts of IRAC/CRAC, case briefing, outlining, and exam taking. The Faculty Director supplies many of the teaching materials. Lecturers do have an opportunity to prepare some of their own materials, however, and teachers will have the opportunity to contribute not only to the immediate education of their students, but to the improvement of the Program as well. In this way, acceptance of an appointment represents a serious commitment to the School of Law and reflects the confidence of the faculty in the candidate's potential for successful law teaching.
