What a great spring semester I just finished at Michigan State University College of Law! I taught a class called Delivering Legal Services that covered design thinking, process improvement, and much more, with a great group of creative and thoughtful students.

I’ve gotten the papers graded and the final grades turned in. I’m not a fan of the Excel spreadsheets used to curve grades, because I always want to give better grades than I’m allowed when students work hard.

I hope that some, perhaps many, of these students will get the chance at some point in their careers to develop and implement the ideas they put together in this class. thank them for making it a great semester. I learned a lot.

A couple of other things happened in connection with the class this semester. One was that I got to be a judge for the MSULaw social media contest. Lots of great results from the finalists from their use of social media. I was so impressed that I offered to give them some coaching in addition to their very nice monetary prizes.

The big story for me this semester was that I got to meet Chief Justice Bridget McCormack through a Twitter conversation about my feeling that maybe the Michigan requirement that lawyers be sworn in in person might be a place where videoconferencing could be considered. Her thoughtful comments about being open to that possibility and the value she places on the swearing-in ceremony got some attention, as did my invitation to her to speak to my class, which she accepted, to the delight of students.

That invitation got expanded a bit and the Chief Justice spoke to and did a long Q&A session with students on innovation, access to justice and other issues. Here’s a photo of the Chief Justice, Carla Reyes, the head of LegalRnD, and me at that event.

And, last week, I took the Chief Justice up on her invitation to be sworn in by her at the Michigan Supreme Court. It was impressive, fun, and a great family event as my wife, daughter, and Dad were all able to be there.

Here’s the photo my wife took fo three generations of Kennedys with the Chief Justice.

All in all, a great semester that will be hard to top next fall – but I have some ideas.

And, to all my friends who kept telling me that I’d love being a professor . . . I’m willing to admit that you might be on to something.

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[Originally posted on DennisKennedy.Blog (https://www.denniskennedy.com/blog/)]

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