Welcome back to Ahead of the Curve. I'm Karen Sloan, legal education editor at Law.com, and I'll be your host for this weekly look at innovation and notable developments in legal education. This week, law professors reach two different conclusions about whether extra student outreach and feedback helps boost grades in law school. Next up I'm chatting with DLA Piper partner Jay Finkelstein about his international negotiations class, where students travel abroad for simulated deal making with international law students. And last, I'm eating a big slice of humble pie on my predictions about how Big Law would react to the pushback against mandatory arbitration agreements for summer associates.p call to students that they may need to step up and make some changes. Not signed up yet to get Ahead of the Curve sent to your inbox each week? Go here Please share your thoughts and feedback with me at [email protected] or on Twitter: @KarenSloanNLJ

The Word on Feedback

upcoming edition University of Detroit Mercy Law Review the authors of two articles reach different conclusions about the ability of professor interaction and feedback to improve student performance. an article by a quintet of professors Ohio State University Michael E. Moritz College of Law Ruth Colker recall recorded a podcast with me The students who opted for the practice exam—which was not counted toward their actual grades—did perform better in Constitutional Law than those who skipped the it. Perhaps even more interesting, the practice exam takers performed better than non-takers in their four other courses the same semester, which included contracts and property. second article David Siegel, a professor at the New England Law Boston . But in the end, there was no statistical difference between the final grades of the two groups, leading Seigel to conclude that the early interventions didn't boost grades. My take:

An American (Law Student) In Paris (Or Vienna)

DLA Piper partner Jay Finkelstein international negotiation class before taking U.S. law students overseas to negotiate deals in person Northwestern and Berkele Tel Aviv University Stanford law students to Austria to the University of Vienna My thoughts:

Little Migration on Mandatory Arbitration

when I predicted Big Law firms would quickly drop their mandatory arbitration and non-disclosure agreements for summer associates didn't respond Cooley; Drinker Biddle & Reath; Knobbe, Martens, Olson & Bear; Paul Hastings; Stoel Rives; and Varnum The takeaway: The lackluster survey results are a good reminder that the legal profession, and Big Law in particular, is fairly entrenched and that meaningful change comes slowly…if at all.

Extra Credit Reading

➤➤ Western Michigan University Cooley Law School and the American Bar Association has set a settlement conference ➤➤ University of Southern California Gould School of Law boarding the GRE train ➤➤ Brown Rudnick launched a scholarship ➤➤ by Senators Elizabeth Warren and Marco Rubio would ban states ➤➤ Skadden Fellow Tarra Simmons sworn into the bar
I'll be back next week with more news and updates on the future of legal education. Until then, keep in touch at [email protected]