1. Limor Zer-Gutman Developing Ethical Insights

2. Limor Zer-Gutman The Way Things Happened

3. Limor Zer-Gutman The Way Things Happened  Our story begins 6 years ago when I first articulated the purpose of a legal ethics mandatory course - developing ethical Insight.  I first wrote about my concept in an article entitled "Teaching legal Ethics as Part of Legal Education in Israel"

4. Limor Zer-Gutman The Way Things Happened  More and more legal ethics' lecturers in Israel began to implement this approach.  Yet, I felt that my students were not developing "enough" ethical insight. First, I blamed the students "I'm working very hard to prepare the course and they are not investing in it; they don't read class materials…"

5. Limor Zer-Gutman The Way Things Happened  One day I thought "maybe I'm doing something wrong in my class; maybe I need a method to enhance the purpose of developing ethical insight.“  I realized that I/we need professional guidance as to teaching methods!!

6. Limor Zer-Gutman The Way Things Happened  In 2010 I co-founded the David Weiner Center for Lawyers Ethics and Professional Responsibility, Israel’s first Center for research and for the teaching of ethics and the professional responsibility of lawyers. It serves both the academic and professional communities, and aims to offer them knowledge, tools and added value in these fields. While it is located at the law school where I teach, the Center is unique in that it is a joint effort of all the 14 Law schools in Israel.David Weiner Center for Lawyers Ethics and Professional Responsibility

7. Limor Zer-Gutman The Way Things Happened  One of the Center ’ s main goals is to develop, enhance and expand the teaching of lawyers' ethics and professional responsibility within Israel ’ s law schools and the legal profession.

8. Limor Zer-Gutman The Way Things Happened  In 2011 the Center hired a private company that specializes in effective teaching in order to develop for us the needed method and class format. http://www.methodic.co.il/PublicUI/EnglishEssentials.aspx

9. Limor Zer-Gutman The Way Things Happened  The process took many, many hours of joint effort – legal ethics lecturers talking with the company's professionals (the head of the team had a law degree). The company had access to students' course evaluations, all my teachers' notes etc. Course drafts were continually reviewed until I was satisfied with the outcome.

10. Limor Zer-Gutman The Way Things Happened  The company then provided for us a methodical class format and a fully detailed class-plan on the theme of conflict of interest. All of Israel’s legal ethics' teachers were invited by the company to a full day of training in teaching the new format. Later, we wrote together, without the company, another fully detailed class-plan on the theme of confidentiality and privilege.

11. Limor Zer-Gutman The Purpose of the Course is Developing Ethical Insight  Ethical insight is the capacity to discern the true nature of a situation involving an ethical dilemma.  Ethical Discretion is built on two tiers:  The ability to identify ethical dilemmas.  The ability to approach and solve the dilemma.

12. Limor Zer-Gutman The Goal of the Course  A course graduate will have the ability to:  Identify an ethical dilemma in any given situation.  Have the ability to define the conflicting interests/values in the situation.  Have the ability to detect the applicable rule.  Be able to elaborate and explain ways of approaching the dilemma.

13. Limor Zer-Gutman Basic Principles of the Course  The main purpose of the course is to develop in its students the first stage of ethical insight  The key theme is – facing ethical dilemmas  Reducing black-letter law teaching  The course begins with preliminary lessons on such subjects as: what is a profession, the distinction between law and ethics, the purpose of legal ethics, the disciplinary system.  In order to foster the development of ethical insight all specifically relevant classes should have a similar format.

14. Limor Zer-Gutman Classes specifically relevant to Ethical Insight:  In all these classes the content should come from the students. "Reverse teaching" – rather than the teacher pouring content into the students, in order to create ethical insight it is the students who produce the contents.  The content from the students is produced through discussing stories/examples taken form case law, Bar Association's decisions, newspapers, or questions asked the lecturer by lawyers.  The stories are the anchor of learning; the ethical rules evolve from the stories not the other way around.

15. Limor Zer-Gutman Classes specifically relevant to Ethical Insight:  The lecture can be organized according to the order of the ethical rules. However, it is always the story and the class discussion of this story which precedes presentation of the rule.  After class –the class discussion continues with more examples presented in the course’s on-line forum.

16. Limor Zer-Gutman Class Format: Conflict of Interest The class opens with an integrative story containing multiple conflicts of interest. The story can be taken from previous course exams or from the Bar Association's ethics committee decisions. Opening Story, 5 minutes Answers are collected from the students – what type of problems they see in the story regarding representation First tier of ethical insight, 10 minutes maximum The theory behind the conflict of interest in general is explained. Examples are given from other occupations/professions – public officials, judges. Conceptualization, 10 minutes For example, Lawyers' freedom of occupation, client's autonomy to chose her own lawyer v. The ethical duty of loyalty to the client, confidentiality, the image of the legal profession. What are the conflicting interests in this issue regarding lawyers, 10 minutes

17. Limor Zer-Gutman Class Format 1) Starting with example/ story 2) First tier: Collecting answers from the students –what does your instinct tells you, what will you do? 3) Conceptualization 4) Second tier: Explain the applicable law via the relevant rule/case law/ Bar's ethics committee decision. Explain the difficulties, if there are, with the relevant rule etc. Screen on power-point the rule/ the relevant part of the case law/ the Bar's decision. Allow students to fill-in the template that was provided by the teacher. Group no. I of conflict of Interest In Israel we divide the groups according to the ethical rules and then move to groups that are not included in the written rules. We have around 11 groups which take two classes of 90 minutes each to cover. Use the same steps listed aboveGroup no. 2 of conflict of Interest etc Last part of the two classes: The essence of the topic + general criticism. 10 minutes