I'll be teaching US law in Latvia

Prologue

A clever idea, that Center for International Legal Studies got, of recruiting American lawyers to present seminars on US legal practice to law students in the various countries of the former Soviet bloc.  Somewhere between missionary work and adventure travel, practicing attorneys get an "adventure" vacation along with the sense of accomplishing something charitable, or maybe just interesting.  No slouch in the marketing field, CILS gets us to stump up the plane fare and develop our own courses, complete with exam-- even shell out for an orientation week in Salzburg, Austria, CILS headquarters.  (Supposedly part of that is tax-deductible.)  That week was a pleasant way to spend more time in Salzburg than necessary.  Don't misunderstand; it's a charming town, but its charms are quickly exhausted.  Staying with 50+ lawyers, all attending class together and dining together in a formerly-elegant archbishop's palace, comparing notes on each other's assignments ... perhaps this was what training for Foreign Service might have been like (without the Austrian setting).  With some imagination, I could satisfy a dream of what-might-have-been.

So... back to reality: concocting a seminar.  We have to present it in PowerPoint, which has some logic to it.  If you're going to teach a foreign class, in a foreign (to the students) language, best use a lot of "visual aids" and keep it simple.  Happily some veteran CILS "professors" put their presentations up on the CILS Website.  Why reinvent the wheel?  But I am determined to go further than solid blue backgrounds, to apply my smattering of graphical and publishing experience to produce something distinctive.  "What to Do When Your Client Is Sued in the U.S." is the title.  Give 'em something they might find useful in their career, rather than just another "gut" two-point seminar about law in the U.S.  Made an outline, started up PowerPoint for the first time in my life (pre-loaded, of course, on my outdated computer, version 2005?), quickly did things wrong (for example, creating one slide and thinking that was the whole file, so opening up a whole new file for another slide).  Experienced the great satisfaction of learning the ropes all by myself.

More Prologue

CILS assigned me to Latvia.  All the ex-Soviet bloc countries that have ties with the organization are listed on their application.  You can’t ask to be sent to a particular country, but you’re allowed to indicate up to three countries that you would not go to.  Any surprise that Moldova and Belarus are the ones most often excluded?  I was no exception.  This is supposed to be an adventure, not a survival test.  Although you can’t pick your country, CILS does ask you to list countries where you have family or other ties.  I listed Romania since my mother's family is from there, and Latvia, since I have a friend there, Yaroslav Boiko.  In 1977, when I was leading tour groups to the USSR and working on US-Soviet exchange programs for Citizens Exchange Council (now CEC ArtsLink), my parents and I hosted Slava and a companion for dinner at our house.  They were part of a Komsomol delegation on a group tour of the US.  CEC arranged for them to be our guests during their New York stay.  Afterward, we corresponded as regularly as Soviet censors permitted, and when I was with tour groups in Leningrad or Tallinn, he would meet me in those cities for a couple of hours of uncensored chat.

Consequently, it was no surprise that when my letter of appointment came, it was for the Faculty of Economics and Management, Institute of International Economic Relations at the University of Riga.  I exchanged emails with Aiga Cikste, assistant to Professor Baiba Savrina on the details of the course and the timing.  CILS lists the topics that the institutions are interested in; applicants advise them of which areas they have practice experience in, and then CILS makes the match.  CILS accepts only practicing attorneys, not retired attorneys or law school professors, and they want a minimum of 20 years experience in the field that the lawyer expects to teach.  The list of desired topics varies from year to year.  My topic is civil litigation.  I intend to present it in a practice-oriented way, rather than just drone on about the common law and the U.S. court system.  There'll be plenty of that, but I want to focus on the practical aspects of litigation, which a Latvian lawyer might find useful if one of his clients is involved in a U.S. lawsuit.

I love putting together this presentation.  I love searching the Internet for graphics; I love formatting paragraphs, selecting typefaces, arranging photos on a page-- all the bits and pieces I did when working in publishing.  I even love, although a little less than the former, researching (sometimes re-learning) legal arcana.  My law school notes on Erie v. Tompkins won't be included in the lecture notes, for which my students ought to be thankful, but there will be long-arm jurisdiction, stream of commerce and strict liability.  Brave students, willing to take a course taught solely in English.  I hope the light touch I bring to this presentation will be understood and that the humor as well as the concepts will survive translation.

Still More Prologue (August 27, 2011)

I’m going over my presentation with Lois, my down-the-hall neighbor, who, before she retired, had her own company that developed after-school educational programs.  She’s a great help with organizing the slides and suggesting what might be cut or what needs expansion.  I’m alternately convinced it’s going to be super or going to be a flop.

And there’s more to do besides polishing the slide show.  Each segment (there are 8 in all) needs a narrative, material for me to expound on while the slides are on the screen.  I’m also drafting an exam for the final session.  We were told to make it a “true/false” or multiple-choice exam, since the students are going to be taking it in English.  I’m sympathizing with professors who are the butt of jokes for trotting out the same exam, year after year.  Creating a test from scratch is a chore-and-a-half.  Hats off to you, Mom and Dad, for all those years of designing, not to mention grading, high-school exams!