Can Successful Lawyers Think in Different Languages?: Incorporating Critical Strategies that Support Learning Lawyering Skills for the Practice of Law in a Global Environment

In response to the globalization of the practice of law, law schools in the United States and other countries that have traditionally been defined as belonging to the common law legal system have opened their doors to international students from different legal systems for whom English is a second language (“ESL students” or “international students”). Many of these programs have evolved without real assessment of the students’ needs and how to meet those needs. After a number of resulting challenges, it became clear that in order to make such programs a success, law professors need to use special methodologies and strategies for teaching ESL students; they cannot use the approaches that have been successful with students from common law countries.