Teacher’s Guide for Revitalizing the Lawyer-Poet: What Lawyers Can Learn from Rock and Roll

Abstract

This text provides a lesson plan for a two to three hour class on ethics and professionalism based on the fifteen minute film essay, Revitalizing the Lawyer Poet: What Lawyers Can Learn From Rock and Roll. The teaching materials are appropriate for law school orientations and classes, as well as for continuing legal education programs for lawyers.The film essay and teaching materials use the music of Jimi Hendrix and news footage featuring Martin Luther King, Jr., Richard Nixon, and Bill and Hilary Clinton, to teach the basic elements of professionalism and to challenge to develop their own understanding of how they can fulfill their duty to the public good through their everyday work. The film also explores why commentators assert that the bar faces a “crisis of professionalism” and whether have a responsibility to promote access to justice for low and middle income Americans. The film argues that lawyers can make money, have fun, and do good, all at the same time. The Teacher’s Guide asks viewers whether they agree.Inspired by the scholarship of Russell Pearce, the Edward & Marilyn Bellet Professor for Legal Ethics, Morality, and Religion at Fordham Law School and a co-director of the Louis Stein Center for Law & Ethics at Fordham Law School, the film is directed by Brian Danitz, Sundance Film Festival featured Director and Cinematographer for Academy and Emmy Award–winning films.