The Courtroom Goes to the Movies - with Author and UCLA Law Professor Paul Bergman

About this episode

Professor Paul Bergman discusses his innovative approach to law education and the use of films in teaching courtroom practices.

Podcast Guest Professor Paul Bergman easily expresses a kind of joy and delight he has enjoyed in his over 40 years as a Professor at the UCLA School of Law. As retired and now with the status of Emeritus, he continues to allow his students at the Law School to contemplate their upcoming profession in a special light. Listen and you will hear from a pioneering educator who chartered new directions in how to teach law with great creativity. He added also a most crucial element; a determination to have his students see the practice of law as helping people at a most difficult time in their life. Bergman insists that his students understand their role as advocates for their clients so that they may have a better life. In general his contribution to the UCLA School of Law, which was transformative, was the idea of developing clinical education where real cases are used as teaching tools, dissected and analyzed, with role playing. An evolution from this idea came his next innovation based on his enthusiasm for films to present famous courtroom scenes in movies in his classes. Bergman discovered that using these movie scenes had a certain power in preparing future Lawyers for courtroom…

People in this episode

Host: Keren Goldberg

Guest: Paul Bergman

Topics covered

• law education
• clinical education
• courtroom scenes
• advocacy
• film in law

Keywords

• law
• education
• courtroom
• films
• advocacy
• UCLA
• clinical education

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: UCLA School of Law

Books & works: THE COURTROOM GOES TO THE MOVIES

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