Each fall, a new group of students arrives at my law school, filled with excitement, ambition and intelligence. When I first became a law professor, I thought the challenge lay in ensuring students learned as much as possible across many areas of law. Indeed, much of teaching first-year law students is opening a proverbial window and shooing out “A Few Good Men,” “Legally Blonde” and “My Cousin Vinny” (even though I admit to loving all three). One of the hardest lessons for students to grasp is that good lawyers don’t succeed by fixating on what the opposing side is wrong about. These were students who had grown up in a world of highly partisan news, increasing political extremism and zero-sum political activism.
