The University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law, located in Baltimore, seeks applicants for a full-time, non-tenure-track position to teach in our innovative first-year Lawyering Program. An attorney selected for the fellowship will jointly hold the titles of Donald Gaines Murray Fellow and Visiting Assistant Professor for an initial one-year appointment, beginning July 1, 2025, with the expectation of reappointment for a second year based on satisfactory performance and the possibility of reappointment for a third year.
The Murray Teaching Fellowship is designed to provide teaching experience and scholarly mentorship for accomplished law school graduates with legal practice experience who are interested in entering legal academia. The program is named for Donald Gaines Murray, a 1938 graduate of the University of Maryland School of Law. Mr. Murray was the law school's third Black graduate, the first in the wake of a longstanding policy of racial segregation that the law school adopted in 1889. In a case argued by Thurgood Marshall and Charles Hamilton Houston, first general counsel of the NAACP, Mr. Murray successfully sued to abolish racial segregation at the school in the case of Pearson v. Murray, 182 A. 590, 169 Md. 478 (1936). His lawsuit put an end to the almost 50-year discriminatory policy. Mr. Murray went on to be a successful appellate lawyer, arguing many civil rights cases for the NAACP.
The Lawyering Curriculum
The Lawyering program forms an integral part of the first-year JD curriculum and gives students a strong foundation in the lawyering skills essential to practicing in today's legal profession. In the Lawyering program, students act in the role of attorneys engaged in simulated cases that incorporate topics drawn from other foundational law school courses. They review case files, develop a factual record, interact with simulated clients, opposing counsel, lawyers, and judges. Students present effective legal analyses in a variety of formats, including privileged internal documents, professional communications, formal court submissions, and oral arguments. By participating in this simulation-based program, students not only learn critical lawyering skills but develop their understanding of legal doctrines, principles, and theories underlying the practice of law, consistent with Maryland Carey Law's tradition of integrating doctrine, theory, and practice.
All first-year students enroll in Lawyering I in the fall semester and Lawyering II in the spring semester, and all Lawyering sections use the same simulated case files. During the fall semester, students focus primarily on objective (predictive) analysis. Students prepare legal office memoranda that analyze key legal issues. In addition, they gain exposure to several corresponding lawyering skills that may include drafting client letters and professional emails, conducting a client interview, negotiating a settlement agreement, and drafting or revising contracts. In the spring semester, students shift focus from objective analysis to persuasive argumentation (advocacy). Students continue to develop their legal analytical skills but adapt their analysis for adversarial documents filed with a court, such as memoranda supporting trial court motions and appellate court briefs. The first-year program culminates with mock appellate oral arguments.
Visiting Assistant Professor Responsibilities: The successful applicant will teach two sections of Lawyering I (3 credits) in the Fall semester and two sections of Lawyering II (3 credits) in the Spring semester to approximately 30-34 students each semester (about 15 students per section). They will implement the simulated problem designed by the program director and will be responsible to create lesson plans, prepare for class, and teach. In addition, successful applicants will be expected to provide extensive written feedback on student drafts and final submissions throughout the semester, to hold individual conferences with students at least once during the semester, and to assess student performance and assign grades.
Teaching and Scholarship Mentorship: Lawyering Murray Fellows receive mentorship for their teaching and scholarship to prepare for potential careers in legal academia. Murray Fellows actively participate in Maryland Carey Law's junior faculty workshop, where they present and receive feedback on their scholarship and provide feedback to other fellows and early career legal scholars. In addition, Murray Fellows participate in the law school's vibrant academic community, including events and scholarly workshops.
Murray Fellows have access to the resources of the law school's Thurgood Marshall Law Library for teaching and scholarly support, may hire a student research assistant to assist with scholarship, and have support for conference registration and travel up to $2,000.
Law school campus: Maryland Carey Law is advantageously located in downtown Baltimore near multiple courthouses, government agencies, prominent law and financial firms, nonprofit organizations, major-league sports facilities, theaters and fine arts. The law school campus also is easily accessible within the greater Washington DC-Baltimore metropolitan region, close to I-95 and only 40 minutes from Washington by Amtrak or commuter rail.
