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C M Y CM MY CY CMY K FEATURE 8 www.canadianlawyermag.com CROSS EXAMINED Holloway then focused his energy on understanding the history of his new law school, which meant immersing himself "in the minutes of faculty council meetings, going back to the very beginning." He realized that since its founding, UCalgary saw itself as a rival to its sister law school in the province, Edmonton's University of Alberta. "U of A had a 60-year head start on us, and they'll always have a 60-year head start. So, if we try to … emulate what they're doing, [we] will always be second fiddle." So, Holloway decided his role would be to help UCalgary chart a different course. He and a team of fellow academics developed what they called the "Calgary curriculum." This curriculum represented a conscious renunciation of the standard philosophy underpinning Canadian legal education. "Our mission is to prepare students for the profession they're joining, not the one we joined," Holloway says. This approach explicitly set aside what most law schools were doing. "From 1957 up to the turn of the century was a period of homogenization in Canadian legal education. All the law schools were becoming more and more alike. The Calgary curriculum represents a conscious decision to disavow all of that philosophy. We believe that the dichotomy between theory and skills is a false dichotomy." While Holloway uses a historian's lens to critique legal education, he also sounds like a business leader when citing the experimentation, iteration, and empirical evidence underpinning the new approach. "One of the things that brain science teaches us, and it's unequivocal, is that adults learn best when they have the ability, metaphorically, to roll up their sleeves and get their hands dirty working with ideas." Holloway admits his law school has made many mistakes along the way but notes that other law schools are now moving in the same direction. He also admits that the true evidence that this approach is effective will not emerge immediately. "If you were to ask me, Is it working?... The honest answer is, we will know in a generation." While Holloway enjoys citing shorter- term statistics about his law school's success, such as its popularity with applicants and placement rates, he is also self-effacing about his long tenure in legal academics. "There's a rule of thumb in the dean world… for every year you're a dean, you alienate 10 percent of the constituency. So, I'm on my second go-round for some of my colleagues in terms of alienation." Yet, jokes aside, Holloway is proud of what he and his colleagues in the legal academy have accomplished. "I believe every Canadian law school today is better than any Canadian law school was 30 years ago. And I really believe that." "One of the things that brain science teaches us, and it's unequivocal, is that adults learn best when they have the ability, metaphorically, to roll up their sleeves and get their hands dirty working with ideas" Ian Holloway, Faculty of Law, University of Calgary CALGARY CURRICULUM'S PRACTICAL APPROACH Students can participate in the following experiential learning courses in addition to their traditional classes: Student legal assistance Business venture clinic Public interest law clinic Criminal justice clinic Family law clinic Alberta Utilities Commission clinical Market surveillance administrator clinical