International Conference on the Future of Legal Education

R. Lisle Baker

Professor Lisle Baker has been teaching at Suffolk University Law School in Boston since 1973. He has taught land use and property, as well a seminar in mediation. His seminar in law practice management has an emphasis on helping students determine a preferred future path in the law, which he will describe at this conference on Saturday afternoon and an excerpt from its syllabus is part of these conference materials. Before joining the Suffolk School faculty, Prof. Baker practiced with the Boston firm of Hill & Barlow and argued public issues on the Peabody Award winning public television show, The Advocates. He has also served as an elected member of the Newton, Massachusetts Board of Aldermen for almost twenty-five years, and currently is serving his third term as president of the Board. He wrote the winning essay in 1988 for an American Bar Association competition on why teaching law practice management contributes to legal excellence, a version of which was published in the Journal of Legal Education and is part of the conference materials. He has also written on such subjects as the ethical obligations of attorneys in local land use proceedings, the use of special assessments as a tool for smart growth, taxing speculative land gains, and using the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator as an aid to mediation, including a comparison of a sample of lawyers, judges and mediators. He is a cum laude graduate of Williams College (1964) and Harvard Law School (1968).