Linda H. MortonProfessor of Law
J.D. Northeastern University
A.B. Princeton University [History]
Courses Taught: Internship,
Internship Seminar, Advanced Mediation, Problem Solving & Prevention in Health Care
Professor Linda Morton’s academic focus in her teaching, service, and publications has been on interdisciplinary problem solving. At California Western, she co-teaches the class, Problem Solving in Healthcare, with Dr. Howard Taras from the University of San Diego School of Medicine. In the course, students from the law and healthcare fields team up with community agencies to help solve actual public healthcare issues in San Diego. Prof. Morton also teaches the Mediation Clinic, which she started with Prof. Floralynn Einesman. Students enrolled in the Clinic, after a weekend advanced mediation training, mediate actual cases in Small Claims Court and Juvenile Hall. Prof. Morton’s years of practice enable her to supervise students in their academic internships, which she has done since coming to California Western in 1989. Her publications are primarily in the fields of interdisciplinary collaboration, legal education, and creative problem solving.
During her early years at California Western, Prof. Morton, with help from students, staff, and members of the San Diego community, created the law school’s Pro Bono Honors program, which provides resources and support for students interested in doing pro bono work. More recently, with the law school’s support, she founded the California Western Community Law Project, part of an interdisciplinary clinic in which law students work side-by-side with medical, dental, and social work students to help the underserved in San Diego. In her spare time, Prof. Morton volunteers as a mediator and mediator trainer in San Diego. She has mediated cases from the community, as well as from Small Claims Court, Superior Court, and the Court of Appeals.
Prior to teaching at California Western, Professor Morton’s law practice included civil and criminal litigation, as well as appellate brief-writing. While practicing law, she also taught trial skills to new attorneys, to inmates in a state prison, and to students at Harvard law school. Just before coming to California Western, Prof. Morton taught Legal Drafting to students at the Univ. of Florida College of Law. She also volunteered as an arbitrator in juvenile cases.
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).
lmorton@cwsl.edu
619-525-1464
225 Cedar Street
San Diego, CA 92101
Publications