 Linda H. Morton Professor of Law
J.D. Northeastern University
A.B. Princeton University [political science]
Courses Taught: Internship,
Internship Seminar, Advanced Mediation, Problem Solving & Prevention in Health Care
Professor Linda Morton's academic focus has been on interdisciplinary problem solving, particularly in healthcare. At California Western School of Law she co-teaches the class, Problem Solving and Prevention in Healthcare, with two physicians, Dr. Vivian Reznik and Dr. Howard Taras, from the University of California, San Diego, School of Medicine. In the course, students from the law and healthcare fields team up with medical professionals and agency supervisors to solve actual public healthcare issues in San Diego County. At California Western, Professor Morton serves on the board of the law school's Institute of Health Law Studies, where she has worked on the design and implementation of California Western's joint Masters in Law and Medicine program with the University of California, San Diego. In her local community, Professor Morton has instituted the Community Law Project, an interdisciplinary pro bono clinic in which law students work side by side with medical students, dental students, and social work interns to help the homeless.
Her prior experience includes years of practice as a litigator in Boston, arbitration of juvenile cases while teaching at the University of Florida College of Law, and mediation of appellate, superior court, and community cases. Professor Morton also teaches the advanced meditation clinic and supervises students in their academic internships at California Western. Her publications focus on the fields of interdisciplinary collaboration, legal education and creative problem solving.
Professor Morton, a member of California Western's Clinical Internship faculty, was among the first classes of women to graduate from Princeton. After law school, where she had extensive internship experience, including clerking for a Massachusetts Superior Court judge and performing legal services for Navajo Indians in Window Rock, Arizona, she opened her own office in Boston, specializing in criminal defense, personal injury, and appellate work.
Morton taught trial advocacy and appellate writing to inmates at Norfolk Prison in Massachusetts, conducted trial seminars for attorneys recently admitted to the bar, and supervised students at Harvard Law School in their trial practice course -- all while practicing law for several years. She later taught Legal Drafting at the University of Florida College of Law while working as an arbitrator in juvenile cases and serving as the anti-death penalty coordinator for Amnesty International.
Morton, who came to California Western School of Law in 1989, helps coordinate California Western's Pro Bono Honors Program, of which she is a co-founder, and volunteers as a mediator and mediation trainer in the San Diego community.
Selected Publications
- Encouraging Physician-Attorney Collaboration Through More Explicit Professional Standards, 29 Hamline J Public Pol'y 317 (2008).
- "A New Approach to Healthcare ADR: Training Law Students to be Problem Solvers in the Healthcare Context," Georgia State University Law Review (2005).
- "Teaching Creative Problem Solving," in Teaching the Law School Curriculum (Steve Friedland, Stephen Sepinuck & Gerald Hess, eds., 2004).
- with Floralynn Einesman, "Training a New Breed of Lawyer: California Western's Advanced Mediation Program in Juvenile Hall," 39 California Western Law Review 53 (2003).
- with Janet Weinstein, "Stuck in a Rut: The Role of Creative Thinking in Problem Solving and Legal Education," 9 Clinical Law Review 835 (2003)
- with Floralynn Einesman, "The Effects of Mediation in A Juvenile Incarceration Facility: Reduction of Violence Through Transformation," 49 Cleveland State Law Review 255 (2001).
- with Janet Weinstein & Mark Weinstein, "Not Quite Grown Up: The Difficulty of Applying an Adult Education Model to Legal Externs," 5 Clinical Law Review 469 (1999).
Class Webpages
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lmorton@cwsl.edu
619-525-1464
225 Cedar Street
San Diego, CA 92101
Publications
Class Webpages
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