AJS President Larry Hammond, Vice-President Jack Tunheim and AJS Director Allan Sobel met with four members of the Drake faculty to engage in joint strategic planning discussions: Associate Dean David McCord; Hunter Clark; Russ Lovell; and Bob Rigg. During that discussion nine different opportunities for collaboration were identified and the group concluded that there are undoubtedly many others which would be identified in further discussion.
AJS and the Drake Law School have the capacity to pursue the following opportunities and as part of their strategic planning process the merits of each should be considered:
1. Development and implementation of a pre-judicial education curriculum. Professors McCord and Lovell, and AJS Director Marc Amy, have long been interested in the idea of pre-judicial education. An ABA task force is now studying pre-judicial education. Judge Amy is a member of the task force. AJS will secure the names of the task force members, obtain information about the task force’s findings and conclusions when available, and possibly consult with the judicial nominating commissions to determine their view of the concept before making any recommendations. At this time, it is unclear whether the subject might form the basis for an LLM program or a summer institute. If an LLM program, it may take advantage of on-line distance learning opportunities for some or all lectures.
2. Development and implementation of a law school course on methods of improving the truth-finding function. Other work in this subject area may take the shape of regional one- or two-day seminars, and utilization of condensed versions of the trial practicum videotapes to address justice system issues in middle school and high school classes.
3. Development and implementation of a law school course on current issues impacting the administration of justice. For example, the apparent attempt to intimidate judges faced with sentencing decisions and the budgetary crisis facing most state judicial systems.
4. Publication of a magazine three times per academic year to be distributed at no charge to all law students in the country, which would report on current issues impacting the administration of justice. Drake law students would help author and edit the publication. Some revenue may be raised through advertising. The publication would also provide an opportunity for AJS and Drake Law School to promote its programs and projects, and give AJS a way of securing new members.
5. Produce and co-host a program on Iowa Public Television exposing citizens to discussions involving local, state and national justice system figures on a variety of topics. Videotapes of these programs could be made available for many different educational and promotional uses.
6. Build on the international work of AJS and the law school. Both AJS and Drake Law School have an opportunity and commitment to help other nations fully understand and embrace the rule of law and judicial independence, and develop methods of assuring judicial accountability.
7. Expand the Drake Law School summer judicial internship program by opening up internship opportunities throughout the country. AJS could reach out to its vast number of judge-members to aid in this expansion effort, and AJS could work with Drake to identify funding sources to help students meet their summer living expenses.
8. AJS and the Drake faculty should specifically define acceptable projects anticipated to require 100 hours of student time that would be pre-approved for internships at AJS leading to academic credit as an independent study. While the list of pre-approved projects would not be exclusive, it would help generate interest in AJS by students who were attracted to any of the projects on the list.
9. AJS and the Drake Constitutional Law Center might work together to bring outstanding programs and projects to the Center. Obvious areas of mutual interest include judicial selection, judicial independence, and criminal justice system reform.
AJS and Drake CollaborationsAJS Strategic Planning Concepts
