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Land Use Practitioner Essay

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I. INTRODUCTION Land use is a field of law (and policy) that is becoming increasingly diverse, complex, and interdisciplinary in the Twenty-First century. To become an effective land use practitioner, a new lawyer must develop broad knowledge and skills. Two leading scholars in the field declared recently that teaching students to become effective land use practitioners “is no longer possible using the traditional approach to legal education.”1 In the meantime, two recent reports have inspired a great deal of pedagogical discussion in the legal academy about developing students’ practical skills and promoting best practices in teaching.2 As Professors Patricia Salkin and John Nolon pointed out in their recent article, land use is perhaps an ideal field for the application of the best practices movement in legal education.3 …show more content…

There are a variety of ways, however, that law teachers can incorporate best practices into doctrinal as well as clinical legal studies. One of the most crucially important—and in some ways, least developed—professional skills for all lawyers is writing. Communicating by writing, whether for clients, bosses, judges, or for the zoning board or planning commission, is what lawyers do. What may be less intuitive is that some experience with scholarly writing can also help develop a new lawyer’s practical skill set, in land use as well as other fields of practice. Teaching academic research and writing in a doctrinal land use course will develop this critical lawyer’s skill, and can advance law student outcomes as conceived within the best practices

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